BREEDING HABITS
The breeding habits of pigeons are peculiar. When a male has selected the female he desires for his mate, there follows a course of true love-making in which the male struts around his favorite, coos to her and evidently tries to show her what a grand bird he is. The female, if attracted by her wooer, becomes friendly with him and the two "bill" each other very much as if they were exchanging kisses.
The two then select a nesting place and build a nest therein and the cock bird becomes very anxious for the hen to begin laying. If she does not promptly attend to her duties, he will drive her about the loft, talking angrily to her and striking her with his wings.
Finally the hen takes to her nest and deposits an egg. Then she misses a day and deposits a second egg, this usually being all that are laid at one time.
As soon as the first egg is laid, brooding begins. The hen occupies the nest from about four in the afternoon until ten the next forenoon. The cock then sits while his mate eats and rests. In this order the brooding goes on and at the end of about seventeen days the first laid egg hatches, and in due course the last one hatches if no accidents have happened to it.
In this way it happens that one of the young birds is two days older than the other and almost invariably the first hatched is a male, the latter one being a female.
The old birds now begin to feed the young, and they grow marvelously. They are kept stuffed full of "pigeon milk" and on this they seem to grow while one watches them.
In a few days the hen is ready to lay again, and if there is a spare nest box the pair makes another nest and the hen lays two eggs, after which the couple are kept very busy brooding one pair of eggs and at the same time feeding a pair of rapidly growing squabs.
When the squabs are about four weeks old they are heavier than they ever will be again in their lives, as they have reached full size and are very fat. It is at this time that they are taken from the nest and sent to the market.
If not taken from the nest about this time, the old birds, desiring to start with another pair of eggs, turn the squabs out and they fall on the floor of the loft so fat they can hardly get about. Here they become lean while learning to eat for themselves, and soon become sleek and trim, instead of being unwieldy with fat.
This doubling up with families shows the necessity of providing at least two nest boxes for each pair of pigeons in a loft. It is even better to have more than two nests for each pair, as this gives them some liberty of choice and often saves quarreling between two couples.
As pigeons mate for life, it is very important that only mated and married pairs are kept together. If an odd cock or an odd hen is left in a loft, there are family troubles without end; and the quarrels which arise from this cause result in broken eggs and squabs killed in the fights.
It sometimes happens that a pair will not produce young. This is usually because the hen is barren. In such a case the hen should be disposed of and a new mate for the cock furnished. It is best to shut the two in a box with a wire partition between the two until they become acquainted with each other, after which they will usually mate, although they do not invariably do so.