Hatching eggs

[Lorigurl]

I need help. First time posting here, hope someone can help me. Hubby found two eggs in nest, mother had just fallen into machinery. I now have eggs in incubator. I raise chickens, so I have professional type incubator. First question, what do I feed the little ones when they hatch, and how long do I feed them? I know that they will be ready to fly in approx 4 weeks, but will they continue to come back to me? We live way out in the country, so I dont have to worry about city like dangers for them. I want to raise them to be in natural state, but am clueless as to where to begin. Any help will be appreciated Thanks!

[TAWhatley]

Hi Lori and welcome to pigeons.com. Thank you for taking in the eggs and being willing to incubate them and raise the babies. I think you will find rearing baby pigeons to be quite a wonderful experience.

For starters, click on the link to Resources at the top of the page here at pigeons.com. This link will give you some good basic information about the care and feeding of both adult and baby pigeons.

The incubation time for pigeon eggs is approximately 18 days, so depending upon how far along the eggs were, you could be having babies very soon.

In preparation for their arrival, you will need to get some baby bird formula from a pet store. The brands commonly available are Kaytee Exact, Lefebers, or L&M. You will also need syringes (without needles) in 1cc, 3cc, 5cc, and 10 or 20cc sizes as well as some aquarium tubing or other small diameter soft tubing to use as an attachment to the syringe once the babies are several days old. There are alternative feeding methods that can also be used, and I will round up links to that information in a bit and post it for you.

The babies will need to be kept very warm and dry and will need to be in a small container lined with a non-slick material such as an old washcloth or piece of T-shirt or sweatshirt. A margarine or small cottage cheese type container works well while the babies are quite small. You will need a heating pad or a lot wattage bulb to provide the heat for them unless you have an actual brooder.

The "nest" container needs to be wider at the top than at the bottom .. sort of cone shaped to assure that the legs and feet of the babies stay under them. Failure to see to this can result in splayed legs.

Having a probiotic to add to the formula will also be helpful as these babies will not have the benefit of being fed by their parents.

If you do a search here on pigeons.com for threads that contain "feedbaby", you will turn up lots of helpful posts about rearing baby pigeons.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

More info to follow, and I'm sure other members will be along shortly to help out.

Terry

[Lorigurl]

Thanks so much for the info, I will keep checking back. I do have a brooder, as I incubate and raise chickens. Right now I have 55 grown chickens, 68 in brooder house, and 32 eggs getting ready to hatch. My goal is to have 300 chickens, as I supply most of the rural area around me with fresh eggs! LOL I already have a syringe like you suggested, and also have some aquarium tubing. I guess it was just meant to be for me to hatch these little babies!! I will keep checking back for more info, and will also go to the links you suggested. Thanks again!!!!
Lori