3 New Ones Not Eating

[ZigZagMarquis]

ReLee, if you take their eggs after 10 days and toss them, won't they just start another set??

[Pigeonpal2002]

Re Lee,

I hope you don't break eggs after they've been set for 10 days! This is not good practise to do as the young pigeon would be very developed inside the shell at this time. Any eggs intended not to be hatched or raised should be removed from the nest and/or replaced with dummies right after they are layed. And yes ZIG, if removed at 10 days old, this will just cause the parents to set up house again with new eggs.


Brad

[Birdmom4ever]

Personally, I can't bring myself to toss an egg with a partially developed chick inside. I pull them as soon as possible after they are laid and replace with fakes. Fanciers have different opinions about this, but we keep our sexes together all year and replace eggs with dummies all the time so that we won't have more pigeons than we can properly care for. My pigeons sit for about 20 days, give up and start over. Some people feel this eventually leads to them getting depressed or hens ceasing to lay altogether, but I haven't seen that happen with mine. They seem pretty excited to start over when I remove the wooden eggs after they give up. It's "Hey, baby we get to mate again!"

I've talked to a couple different avian vets about this and both felt that replacing eggs with dummy eggs and letting the pigeons sit until they give up is fine. I try to let them raise a set of chicks at least once in awhile. I'm fortunate enough to know someone who needs foster parents for short-faced breeds, so my rollers get to be parents without me having too many pigeons, and everyone is happy.

I have one hen who has a history of prolapsing when she lays, so with her I definitely want to prolong the time between clutches. The less time in between, the more eggs they lay and the more it takes out of them.

[re lee]

Eggs hatch at 17 days after the second egg is layed. Around the 14 day the pair of birds start to work on producing pigeon milk. To not let the eggs hatch and continue letting them sit. Is not healthy for the birds. It is better to pull the eggs by the tenth day. Yes they will go down on more eggs IF kept together as pairs. If you do not want to toss developing eggs. shake the eggs well after laid And they wont develop. The more you let them lay its harder on the hen. And harder on the pair. closing nest fronts. floor or perch only avlaible. reduces nesting. seperating insures its over for the year. I have raised pigeons on and off for over 40 years about 45 years. I have no problem with controled breeding. And no problem with nesting. I raise What I want And some years what I can get off in rounds. Due to fertality decrease. But never over . Never have used dummy eggs. Though some people will and that is fine to do so. Its better not to over produce. crowding and general health decrease in the birds. Breeding should be done on an improvment bases.. To me. proper pairing not random or open. to aid in improving over all quality. Of the breed. Now ferals. Thats different. They are not a reconized breed. No standard. But would be considered a back yard bird. A pet pigeon I guess. And probably means just as much to the person who has one or several.

[Birdmom4ever]

I wouldn't mind separating the sexes at the end of the breeding season, but we're not set up to do that--no room. I suspect a lot of people are in a similar situation. If I had it to do over, I'd design our loft differently, but for now that's how it is.

[ZigZagMarquis]

Well... I suppose I could build a divider into my loft to seperate the sexes... umm... once I figure out which are "boys" and which are "girls"...

[re lee]

Just removing any nest holes. And any nest material. Slows down the breeding prosess. Having only perches for flying type and floor for ground birds. A portable divider can be made and put up then removed also.