Pigeon Feathers

If you fan a pigeon's wing to its fullest extent, you will findten longer pointed feathers towards the outside of the wingknown as the primaries, and ten shorter feathers with more•ounded edges situated nearer the body known as the secon-daries. The latter grow from the forearm, whilst the primariesare attached to what John Kilpatrick called the hand andfingers - six attached to the hand and four to the fingers.These four can be used independently, and in a very hard fly;uch as a race it is these four outside feathers which have to take the strain. I have often seen pigeons that have returnedfrom a race with the quills of the outside four feathers bentconsiderably in towards the body, and with one even bentunder its neighbour.

During the season, pigeons will go through a moult inwhich they gradually shed their feathers and grow new ones.This follows a very orderly fashion, and birds basicallymaintain their complete wing in that until one new feather isabout three-quarters grown, the next feather will not drop.Formerly, fanciers used to regard the moult as being some-thing of a disease so that the birds had to be really mollycod-dled. This is not so; it is natural for a pigeon to moult,although during it one should keep an eye on the bird to makesure that shedding is progressing in order; that is, thesecondaries and primaries are being shed starting from thepart of the wing nearest to the body. If any bird appears to be alittle off colour, take it away from the others and give it extracare and attention. Especially when a bird is moulting its last IVs, is primary feathers (the two farthest from the body), do notIlt rce it to exercise or race. Particularly in young birds theowing of these two outside flights seems to be a somewhat I sing process.

The feathers are made of protein, just like muscle, and it iscrefore essential that during the moult some good qualityotein is included in the diet. This normally comes from thelc .tume family: beans, peas and tares. At the same timeco rbohydrate is required to provide the energy needed forra Ling. If food is in too short supply when the feathers aregr owing, especially in young birds, a line of fretmarks willpear in the quill of each primary and secondary feather, andof len in a stressful race the feathers will bend or snap at thistv ,ak point.

The tail of the pigeon contains twelve feathers and these areut isulted two by two, in an orderly fashion. The first two toth op together will be those immediately either side of thentre two tail feathers or the fifth in from the outside on bothtill Ics. When replacements for these two are about three-quarters grown, the centre two tail feathers drop. These willcrow again, and when they are about three-quarters long, thethird set - the two feathers two places away from the centrewo, or fourth in from each outer side - will fall. These willhe followed by those three places away from the tail centre andIlso from the extreme outside; then the first feathers in fromt he outside will come away, and finally the outside two. Thisorderly moulting ensures that there are no big gaps for the airto rush through whilst the bird is in flight. Sometimes,however, young birds will drop two sets of tail feathers10 gether, and rather ominous large gaps will appear. Onein 'portant point to note is that during the period of moult,rticularly when the smaller body feathers are growing, therds should not be handled too much.
But although birds should not be handled unnecessarily,re member at all times that it is observation of your pigeons,th e watching of each individual, that will give you thein formation. Pigeon keeping is a 365 days a year hobby. Your birds need yourattention at some time every day of every year.