548 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
MANAGEMENT OF THE PIGEON LOFT IN SUMMER. 
It is not long since we commented on the fact that it seems a 
peculiarity of the present season that Pigeons are extremely tardy 
about laying, and even some fail to lay at all. We cannot account 
for it, save on the supposition that the very warm winter failed to 
brace them, and in many cases caused them while unpaired to lay 
frequently. It seems an appropriate time to say a little about the 
treatment of such hens, and about barren hens in general. In all 
our poultry experience we hardly remember to have met with hens 
totally unproductive save from accident or age. With Pigeons it is 
far different, and from some cause or other many hens either for a 
time or permanently fail to lay. That such is the case is evidenced 
hv the frequent appearance in adverti-ements of or for Pigeons of 
the word “ a breeder.” Many hen Pigeons undoubtedly are not 
breeders. The origin of their failure is, we have little doubt, to be 
traced to in-breeding and to the unnatural way in which Pigeons 
are often kept. We have bought many a barren bird, and have in 
many cases eventually had produce from them. We never remem¬ 
ber to have found a hen bred and kept in our own aviaries unpro¬ 
ductive, simply, as we think, because our Pigeons have much air 
and exercise, and live a natural life. We have, however, had com¬ 
plaints of birds reared by us, but sent to live mewed up in lofts and 
cages, proving barren. Because a Figeon fails to lay for months, 
or eveu through a whole season, there is no reason to despair of her 
ever laying again ; and even a bird which never does lay at all may 
be made useful as a foster-mother, or may win honours in the show 
pen. We will speak sepa'ately of those birds which there is hope 
of curing, and of those which we can only hope to make useful in 
other ways than as parents. 
1, When a pair of Pigeons have been mated at a proper season— 
i.e., late winter, spring, or early summer—have been put in a suit¬ 
able house or loft, are well fed, and not disturbed by other Pigeons, 
we may reasonably expect to see them making a nest within a fort¬ 
night, and in a few days to find that the hen has laid her first egg, 
which in less than forty-eight hours should be followed by a second. 
If, however, the cock seems ever carrying sticks and straws to no 
purpose, while the hen continually arranges them; if she sits day 
after day on the nest without looking at all drowsy or unwell; if 
she ever bustles frcm her food back to the nest, and guards it 
fiercely and jealously without depositing any eggs in it, there is 
some presumption that she is barren. Some hens will go on for 
months in this way. When the incubation of eggs is really going 
on it is the custom for the hen to sit from 4 or 5 o’clock p.m. till 
9 or 10 a.m., and for the cock then to take her place through the 
day; but these poor deluded make-believe mothers hardly ever quit 
the nest or make way for the cock, save to feed once or twice a day. 
The cock is usually very patient, though after a time he occasionally 
makes a second nest in hopes of better luck there, and tries to tempt 
his mate to change her position ; she sometimes complies, and goes 
on again with her imaginary incubation. Now and then, after 
months of hope deferred, he will take up with another bird, but not 
very often. When from such signs it is evident that a hen is not 
likely to lay, a pair of eggs, or even a single egg, should be taken 
from some other pair and given to her. She will seldom, if ever, 
fail to adopt them at once, and to prove an exemplary foster-mother. 
When the young birds are three or four weeks old the critical time 
will have come to see if the hen actually lays. Of course, if she is 
an absolutely barren bird she will only begin again the same sham 
incubation, but if she has only been weakly then she will probably 
lay now. We have sometimes had a second time to repeat the giving 
of suppositious eggs ; indeed, we have known hens fail to lay 
through a whole season, but breed well the next year. 
2, If after several such attempts at a cure a hen Pigeon prove in¬ 
corrigibly barren, the only thing is to make the best use of her we 
can. If she is an exhibition bird she will keep in the best show 
condition. Nothing spoils Pigeons so much for show as feeding 
their young. The food is constantly scattered on their breasts, 
which become soiled and dirty, and the short-beaked varieties ap¬ 
pear less good than they really are in that point; while those that 
should be gulletted seem altogether to lose their development of 
throat. Absence from all the ordinary maternal cares thus keeps a 
hen Pigeon in good condition. Even if she be useless for the show 
she may prove invaluable as a foster-mother, and should be syste¬ 
matically used for that purpose. In the first place pair her to a 
strong healthy cock, for none but perfectly healthy and vigorous 
birds should be allowed to feed nestlings. Then watch for the lay¬ 
ing of any hen that is weakly or that has proved an indifferent 
mother, and transfer one of her eggs to the barren bird. Some pairs 
will bring up one squeaker well, but always fail to rear two. One 
of their eggs should always be transferred. As a rule eggs can only 
be interchanged between pairs which have begun to sit at nearly the 
same time. The Pigeon ordinarily incubates about seventeen days ; 
will desert its eggs if they do not hatch by the twentieth to twenty- 
second day, and should eggs under her hatch before about the twelfth 
day will not yet have Nature’s provision of soft milk-like food in the 
crop for the newly-born nestlings. These barren birds are, however, 
much more accommodating ; they will sit longer, and will provide 
for young birds which appear long before the natural time. We 
have often given eggs to one within a week of hatching ; and quite 
lately in the case of a hen (an excellent layer and mother last year, 
which has thus far done nothing but build nests this season) we gave 
her straight off a squab two days old. We put an egg into the nest 
at the same time to tempt her towards the young bird. For some 
minutes she looked with suspicion at the little intruder, then her 
maternal instinct seemed to get the better, and she crept on to the 
egg and the little Pigeon. After some hours she seemed not to have 
fed it, but her warmth kept it alive. We removed the egg, and by 
the next morning the young bird was well fed, and has been so ever 
since bv both paren's. Thus an apparently useless bird, which one 
who had not closely watched the habits of the domestic Pigeon 
would not unnaturally be inclined to kill, may be made of the utmost 
use, and the unproductive may really bring up more young ones to 
maturity than the productive hen. A fancier who does not know 
how to utilise such would-be but disappointed mothers has still 
something to learn in Pigeon lore.—C. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Improving Grass Land ( G.M .).—You do not state the nature of the soil, 
nor whether the land has been properly seeded with permanent pasture grass 
seeds, nor how long it has been in grass. The field may require draining if the 
land is strong and wet; and if it is sour as well as poor, which is indicated by 
the twitch grass prevailing, it should have dressings of chalk or lime made very 
fine before being spread. We cannot, so far as we understand the case, recom¬ 
mend the expense and trouble of breaking up the pasture and cleaning and 
cropping the land, because if that were done and reseeded it would take five or 
six years before the best grasses indigenous to the soil would appear, and not 
then except it was liberally dressed every year; whereas if an earthy compost of 
soil and yard or town manure was laid on every autumn, and a dressing in 
the spring every year of about 4 cwt. of bone superphosphate mixed with 1 cwt. 
of nitrate of soda per acre, this would bring good crops of valuable grasses, and 
the twitch and other weeds would disappear. In other words, if the same 
money were laid out in manure as would be expended in breaking up and culti¬ 
vating, it would produce good pasture in the shortest possible time. If 10 lbs. _ 
per acre of White Dutch Clover seeds were sown after the earth compost was 
laid on in August, and harrowed in with the chain harrow, it would prove 
advantageous. 
Houdan Fowls (A Gardener ).—We have kept these birds in small space, 
and found them what they had been represented—namely, very hardy, easily 
acclimatised, of good constitution, and bearing confinement; prolific layers of 
large eggs, and very fertile. Choose birds with large frames, short legs, black 
and white plumage, free from any other colour; comb of cock not large, neat 
and even in appearance; in the hens very small; crest, beard, whiskers, and fifth 
toe well developed in both sexes. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
£ 
«5 
M 
1882. 
June. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 18 
29.736 
58.5 
51.2 
S. 
51.3 
65.1 
51.2 
108.4 
50.0 
0.157 
Mon. 19 
29.767 
68.2 
53.0 
W. 
55.8 
67.3 
46.7 
130.0 
44.3 
0.023 
Tnes. 20 
29.898 
62.1 
54.5 
s.w. 
56.0 
69.0 
49.3 
106.0 
47.0 
— 
Wed. 21 
29.927 
58.7 
56.6 
s.w. 
56.7 
66.9 
51.2 
95.2 
45.9 
0.0(9 
Thurs. 22 
29.804 
57.2 
56.2 
S.E. 
56.9 
64.4 
55.8 
76.4 
54.8 
0.043 
Friday 23 
29.886 
60.7 
53.3 
S.W. 
56.4 
67.4 
47.2 
115.6 
43.0 
— 
Satur. 24 
29.990 
62.2 
57.3 
s. 
56.3 
70.8 
49.8 
116.6 
45.9 
0.370 
29.863 
69.7 
54.6 
55.6 
67.3 
50.1 
106.9 
47.3 
0.642 
REMARKS. 
18th.—Cool and showery ; sunshine at intervals. 
19th.— Dull and showery. 
20th.—Very bright early; afterwards overcast but fair. 
21st.—Overcast; slight showers in forenoon. 
22nd.—Showery during day ; fine bright evening. 
23rd.—Fine throughout. 
24th.—Fine bright morning ; afterwards overcast; slight rain in evening ; 
heavy after 9 p.m. 
Variable with light showers, temperature higher than last week, but still 
below the average.—G. J. Symons. 
^ 6 
