32 THE PRACTICAL PIGEON KEEPER. 



have seen straw nests made as bee-hives are; but any such 

 receptacles would swarm with vermin, and are most objection- 

 able on that account. Two nest-pans should be provided for 

 each division of the shelf or nesting place. 



"With the exception of the very hardiest varieties, pigeons 

 should not be paired tiU March, early or late in the month, 

 depending on the weather; and they should be separated as 

 soon after the end of August as they have fairly done with 

 their then pair of eggs. Hardy flyers will take no harm if left 

 to themselves, but most fancy pigeons are much weakened by 

 being allowed to breed for more than the above period ; and 

 birds bred earlier or later rarely survive, or come to much 

 good if they do. It may of course be worth while for a fancier 

 to run risks for the sake of getting early birds forward for the 

 autumn shows; but if he does so he must be very careful 

 Some persons take away the pair of eggs and give them to 

 other birds to hatch, by which means the first hen will lay 

 again much sooner. We have known this plan carried through 

 a whole season. But it is a cruelty, and the hen is almost 

 invariably ruined by it ; in fact, she is generally sold after such 

 a process of " pumping,'' the seller knowing — what the buyer 

 does not — that the apparently fine-looking hen is past breeding 

 anything good again. 



Barren hens are very frequent among the more high-class 

 pigeons. We have just alluded to over-breeding as one 

 cause of this ; bxit it occurs in so many other cases, that there 

 can be little doubt the highly unnatural developments of the 

 fancier tend to check reproductive power. Such barren birds 

 can sometimes, if in good health generally, be brought into 

 breeding. They will go to nest like other pigeons, and by 

 giving them a couple of eggs from common hardy birds their 

 soft meat will come on, and they will feed as usual. If this is 

 continued a few times, especially if they can have a fair amount 

 of exercise, the result is very often a success. Even if not. 



