Breeding birds

[Amber]

Hey Guys...How are yall? Been a while since i have visited. I have a bit of a dilemma. Not sure what to do. I have my birds seperated into 3 groups...flyers, non-flyers(babies from last year that are in training), and my breeders. To refresh your memory I work for a show and my flyers and non-flyers are on display for the public to view when they come and see the show. The flyers and non-flyers are kept in a brick house with concrete floors and walls with wooden perches. That way it can be scraped and power washed everyday (to be kept clean for the public view) As you can imagine this allows no opportunity for breeding, they are never left alone, always working, except at night, and nowhere to nest. Then my breeders are kept in optimal breeding conditions tomaximize breeding. Well, apparently nature as it will has prevailed and my babies from last year, the non-flyers are now breeding. Laying eggs in their grit bowl and in odd places. They havent worked as much as the flyers in the past, but next week starts some busy times for them. What can I do? I have to clean out the house daily, which means distubing the nests. I will constantly be taking all the pigons out (not sure who is nesting yet) so even the mating male and females and training them, and then one by one adding them to the flyers in a seperate house. So possibly temporary splitting up a mated pair (Temporarily). And it is stressing me out. Can I take the egg to the breeder house and add it to a nest that has only one egg? What can I do? I could figure out who has mated and put them in the breeder house, but I know that once the young is out of the nest they will begin to make another, and i still cant remove them because the first baby will still need them for a few weeks even though it isnt in a nest any more, and i need them to be flyers, not breeders . I could just let it go in the house they are in now, but with scraping and POWERWASHING, the floors, which is a must, it is very dangerous for the young/egg. I imagine I could move the egg to a nest box in a corner on the wall up off of the floor, but will they find the nest. These are pigeons that are all less than 10 months old so they are definately new parents, and im worried about inbreeding....all these pigeons come from 5 mated pairs. Im worried that they may have bred with a younger brother/sister. Please give me some advice...Im happt that my pigeons are that happy, just not the best enviroment.

[pigeonpal]

Hi Amber,

Sure sounds like your busy for sure. I will attempt answer a few of your questions but I'm confused as to whether you want them to have young or not?

You can swap the real eggs with dummy eggs if you don't need the extra pigeons and this will slow down the egg production. As for the cleaning you must do I think the birds will probably sit tight on the nest and allow you to clean as required by you. They trust you and are probably use to your routine so you won't scare them off or if you do they'll promptly scurry back to the nest as soon as you're through.

Your chances of adding another egg to a single egg nest are good but the egg must be in the same stage of incubation as the other or you take a chance of one hatching before the other and the second egg to hatch may be at a disadvantage and won't get the proper food it needs to survive. They must hatch within one day of each other idealy. I have had success within two days, but even then had to swap the smaller one so it would be in the front so the parents could visually see the baby and feed it. This must continue 'till the smaller squab catches up in size. At three days it's pretty much over for the smaller one unless you hand feed it. The first squab is twice the size as the second one to hatch and will over power it. This is with racing pigeons anyway.

As far as the in-breeding goes, I have practice this for many years with no physical flaws. The only flaw would be that if a pigeon has falts such as being a bully or getting to large the undesirable type, the offspring of this pairing can and do have the same traits. Or even birds that don't bounce back after a strenuos race very quickly or are proun to diseases are undesirable characteristics that you have to consider when you allow this type of breeding. If you have none of these traits then they will continue as such for a time. They (the experts) say after the fourth generation they should be crossed out with new blood, if you will. I have never gone this far so I don't know first hand at the complications that occure at that point. I always cross after the fourth.

You say that you have five different families combining your loft. That is quite a verity of different families and shouldn't be any problem for quite a few years of breeding.

The birds will take a neat wherever you put it that's up to you. The only way to keep the population down is to separate the males and females. The hens will still lay but they won't be fertile, hence dummy eggs.

Steve




[This message has been edited by pigeonpal (edited March 30, 2003).]

[Amber]

Can anyone offer me any advice on incubating eggs?...I thought that this might be an option to my problem, I know that I am no substitute for their parents but not sure what else to do?

[pigeonpal]

Hello Amber, www.foyspigeonsupplies.com has incubators for sale in the miscellaneous loft supplies section of the site. I'm certain it comes with instructions on the subject if you're looking for an incubator.

All I know about incubating pigeon eggs is that once they hatch it'll be a lot of work feeding at least 2 times a day. Probably more in the beginning of their young lives.

Good luck with your project.

Steve


[This message has been edited by pigeonpal (edited April 02, 2003).]