Need advice please- leaving eggs

[randymcone]

I currently have a pair of Chinese Owls that have been sitting on eggs for about 9 days. Hen at night, cock during the day.
All the birds are new to the loft and not used to my presence yet.
I chopped up some un-salted Spanish peanuts as a treat to get them used to me.
After several minutes the hen came down to the feeder perch with all my other birds and was eating the peanuts like she hadn’t eaten in a week. Yay , score one for me. Then all of a sudden the cock flew down, leaving the eggs and started on the peanuts as well. I picked him up and put him back on the nest twice before I just picked up all the peanuts and moved him back to the nest a 3rd time.
He has NEVER moved from the nest before. No matter what I do around him he just sits there. Today he totally “jones’d” for those peanuts.

Is this a sign that the eggs are bad? Or did I just accidently lure him away?
Anyone have any ideas? Will a breeding pair leave eggs for a few minutes and then return? I never see them switch off on the nest so I’m not sure if that’s a common thing or not.

Thanks,
Randy

[plamenh]

Not to worry. They can leave eggs for some time unattended and nothing wrong will happen. You just lured him out and some things are more attractive than sitting whole day on eggs.

[randymcone]

Phewwww, thanks.

[jmaxpsi]

My pair of rollers do that. When I whistle and time to feed them, whoever is in the nest comes out to feed too. Otherwise they won't get to feed until the next meal.

[LokotaLoft]

if you put a small bowl for food where they are nesting it helps to keep them from leaving the nest for long periods of time plus also helps at weaning time too as the chicks learn to eat faster by way of seeing the parents eat

[thao100801]

yep my homers does that too...they come down to eat with the rest of the crew and when they are done they fly right back to sit on the eggs

[sreeshs]

All pigeon pairs which I have do this, it is a common thing and does not indicate that the egg is bad. Its at that time I usually take a closer view of eggs.

[Snowy_pied_chic]

I'm not so sure if this is true but apparently pigeon eggs can last for about 30min before dying when abandoned, in a WARMISH environment. Not sure if it is winter, like here in Australia

[randymcone]

Thanks to you all.
I use a gravity feeder so they can eat whenever they want and up until yesterday they had never both left the nest together. They had been pretty good at swapping out quickly. If they left the eggs for any time at all, they never did it with me around.
I'm in the U.S., Georgia. It's still in the high eighties here during the day.