HOMING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2823, 22 April 1908, Page 57

HOMING NOTES.

By Macsta Mealy.

"Squills," m the Racing Pigeon writes: — Birds with the pinion feather still to grow must not be kept too short of food. Direcdy, however, this feather is grown and the mouit quite terminated, the rations may be reduced, m fact, unless the birds are separated, eggs will be laid all over the place if food is too plentifully given. Up to tie present, my owiv birds have had a plentiful supply, but m the course of a week or two they will get this knocked off and be kept fairly hungry. I did not separate last year until February, and shall not do so this season. The fact of the matter ia that if I separate something goes wrong, when I am away for a day or two, either the birds get mixed or the hens get a fit and clear off. Having had several mishaps of this kind, and finding I can breed just as good youngsters and that the birds race just as well if allowed to remain together until the early part of the year, I mean to oontinue this plan m future. In the South we have had a week of mild, damp weather, and my own birds have been "roaring" a bit more than ' I like. An increase m the barley and a decrease m the peas has somewhat quieted them down. Some there are I know who use barley right though the moult, but I do not do so myself, using peas as the afternoon food until the moult is not quite finished. Let me once again remind young fanciers that success m 1908 depends on the closest attention being, paid to their birds at the present time. Take care to stop all fighting. If birds fight viciously when giowing their pinion feathers, these will often get chipped and damaged, and it must handicap them next year. Some fanciers, after the moult is "over, look bhe wing over, and if any feather has been badly grown pull it out. The«cars of a great battle, for nearly all birds that have been triers m a hard 500-mile race will carry a etained or scarred feather, is no disgrace. _ i ! I have had judges tell me that I did not know what I was doing, because I have given a bird with a fret-marked flight a ' prise. What rubbish • this is. I can positively state that I have had birds that homed ■ on the day m a hard race carrying the scars of the hard battle, and yet others that took weeks show no signs whatever on the wing. A young fancier wrote me the other day saying that one of his favourite birds had grown a thin weakly tail feather, should be pull it out? My advice to him is to leave it alone. There are twelve feathers m the tail, and one thin one is of little or no importance. It is almost impossible to say the cause of blood' quills, or of these impoverished feathers growing, but my own experience has been that if these are drawn before the moult is quite complete, the feather that follows may be even worse than the one that is pulled out. It is still necessary to let the bath be regularly filled. Even though birds may be given a fly m the rain, they literally revel m a splash m the bath. The other day I saw a , fancier had a large flat gutter near his loft ; m which the birds splashed. This, m my j opinion, is a serious mistake. All gutters or \ receptacles m which water can stand snouia be barred. Whilst many of the ills that pigeons are heir to are due to faulty food and overcrowding, many .others are due to drinking vile water found m gutters or picking up foul grit m the gutters. The other day I advised fanciers to get their . gutters cleaned out, as well as those of , their neighbours. I repeat this advice, as it may save a great deal of trouble. Knock off the linseed now, as it has a tendency to make birds feel flabby and soft. 1 use a little linseed at all seasons of the year more m. September and October than at other times, but less m November, December, and January. . - • In a book on the diseases of pigeons I was reading the other day, the writer at- j tributed feather rot, m his opinion, to the use of linseed and hempseed. I have not had a case of feather-rot m my own oft for many years, but I have freely used linseed without a break for over twenty years. In all cases of feather rot I have seen, the ; molicules m which the feathers sprout from : seemed parched and dry, the feathers that have not been cast have been brittle, without oil m them, and the birds have been abnormally fat and heavy. I have consulted _ more than one of our best Engliah veterinary surgeons on the subject of this disease, but wt „ofc y*t eo t % r«Jlv authentic diagnosis. If I ever do lam anxious to publish The faot that birds beoome so fat and : heavy when suffering from this disease seems to pie to indicate that it is more likely to bo a disease of the oil glands, the oil which ought to feed the feather molicules being direrted by some means into other channels, j In fact, I think there is a good deal m the suggestion that the trouble arises from earthiness of the system. j It is my duty to instruct and educate the novice, therefore I am bound, m view of the thousands joining the great army of racers, to frequently go over old ground. , Entering a young fancier's loft the other day I noticed one or two patches of dampness showing through the roof of his loft , Bad, very bad this, and steps should be ! taken immediately to put matters right. Once the roof springs a leak, there will soon

be dampness on the floor, and a little leal, very quickly grows into a big one. I don'fl) like corrugated iron roofs, unless lined witlj wood underneath, but sometimes the cheapest way to repair a roof is to put a completo new cover over it of corrugated iron. Several of our advertisers, I believe, supplythese sheets, as well as a first-rate vulcanite asphalte roofing. No matter what is used; all leaks, whether m the roof or down the beck or sides of the loft, should be at once stopped from spreading. The difference m the season must ba allowed for when adopting the time of tha various stages of the moult above mentioned to the New Zealand season. The difference it is well to mention, is not exactly six months. I tak it that our sea-sons are at least a fortnight or three weeks ahead. That' is to say instead of January 1 m England corresponding with July 1 m New Zealand, the season more nearly corresponds with June 10 to 16 m this Dominion.