CHAPTER VI. 
LAYING AND HATCHING. 
Laying an Egg is Under the Control of the Pigeon’s Mind—Fertile and 
Unfertiie Eggs—How the Cock Drives the Hen—One Day Between 
Eggs—Hatch After Seventeen Days—How Squabs are Fed by the 
Parent Birds—Mating Males and Females—Use of the Mating Coop 
—Determination of Sex—Color of Feathers Has No Effect on Color 
of Flesh—Pigeons Left to Themselves Will Not Inbreed—No In- 
breeding Necessary fven if You Start With a Small Flock. 
The hen pigeon builds the nest. When the nest is ‘built, the cock begins 
to “drive’’ the hen around the house and pen. In a flock of pigeons on 
the roof of the squab house, you always will see one or two cocks ‘‘driv- 
ing’ their mates, pecking at them and nagging them with the purpose of 
forcing them onto the nest to lay the eggs. The cock seems to take more 
interest in the coming family than the hen. 
The hen lays one egg in the nest, then skips a day and lays the second 
egg on the third day. Seventeen days after’ being laid the eggs hatch. 
The egg first laid hatchee a day befure the second, sometimes, ‘but usually 
the parents do not sit close on first egg, but stand over it, and do not in- 
cubate it. Sometimes one squab may get more than its share of food, and 
the younger one will weaken and die. This seldom happens but if you 
see one squab considerably larger than the other, the thing to do is to ex- 
change with a syuab from another nest that is nearer the size of the re- 
maining squab. ‘The old birds will not notice the change but will continue 
feeding the foster squab. 
The process of laying an egg is a mental operation. We mean by this 
that it is not a process which goes on regularly in spite of all conditions. 
The hen forms the egg in her body and lays it when she wants to, not 
when she is forced to. In other words, the hen lays when conditions are 
satisfactory to her. That she forms the egg at will is proven by many 
things, principaliy py the fact that she allows one day to come in between 
the first and the second eggs. No doubt, after she has laid the first egg, 
she hurries the other along and lays it as soon after the first as she can, 
and it takes 48 hours for the egg, complete in its wonderful construction, 
to form. Hen pigeons in a shipping crate or close coop do not lay eggs, 
hecause they know that there are no facilities there for raising young. 
Once in a while you will find an egg in a shipping crate when the birds 
are taken out, but it is a comparatively rare occurrence. 
Of course, in order to lay a fertile egg, the hen pigeon must have re- 
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