PIGEONS AND ALL ABOUT TIlEil. 61 



HATCHING. 



THE period of Incubation is eighteen days in nice warm 

 weather, and one or two days longer in cold weatln'i-. 

 The second egg is laid on the second day after the first. 

 It is always well to have dummy eggs in the loft. Sometime.; 

 a pair may be " located " with one. For instance, if they are 

 undecided as between several nests and you desire them to 

 use a certain one, it is often the case that when they see an 

 egg in one certain box they will at once adopt that box. 



But the great point in the dummy egg is that it produces 

 an equal time of hatching of both eggs. Some hens do not 

 stay regularly on the nest till the second egg is laid, while 

 othei's set closely from the laying of the first. The latter is 

 often the case with young hens with their first eggs. 



In this way the flr.=t egg starts on its incubation two days 

 prior to the other, and the y.)ung bird is therefore out and 

 wanting to be fed two dajs before its nest mate. 



It thus gets a good start, and is striving for food, before the 

 other has strength enough to lift its head. It gets the ma- 

 jority of the food, for the old ones are prone to feed what- 

 ever beak is raised first and it waxes strong and grows, while 

 the other is neglected, for as it grows weaker day by day, its 

 chances for food grow less. 



The dummy egg does away with all this, gives the eggs an 

 even start and thus produces even incubation. It is made by 

 bard-boiling an infertile egg, or in fact any egg for which the 

 owner may have no use. 



Sometimes young birds, especially the high bred ones, are 

 very weak in spite of an equal time of incubation. Some- 

 times by ?ome chance, one youngster thrives and the other 

 docs not, and in this case I always shift the stronger young 

 bird under another pair, The reason for this is obvious. 



