Foster Parents

[TAWhatley]

Originally Posted by pouletchalet

Very interesting information. Would this work with feral rock doves, mourning doves etc?
We rehab orphaned wild doves and I would like to try fostering like this. I have some unreleasable rock doves and would like to know if they could be parents to baby rocks. Do they have to be "in the mood" to be parents? Any advice on how to do this?
Thanks!

It's not a matter of being in the mood or not. It's a matter of whether the foster parents have been on dummy eggs that should be about ready to "hatch" and how old or not the incoming baby bird is. There is a very short time frame where the fosters would be producing crop milk of the proper type for a real youngster .. if you miss that, the fostering probably won't work. You MIGHT have good luck in placing older youngsters with fosters for purposes of the fosters "teaching" them to self feed, but it's tricky and you have to keep a very close eye on things to make sure the youngsters aren't going to be brutalized by the foster parents or just totally ignored by them.

Terry

[pigeon_racer]

The only experience I have had with fosters was when I used to keep multiple breeds. I had a Gaint Runt hen that we called "Mama Runt". She was mated to a Modena named "Brown Bar" who was a feeding fool. Talk about a mix-matched pair. Anyhow whenever she laid we would slip a pair of Homer eggs under her. When she hatched those and they were old enough to band, we would go around to all of the other homer nests and check for any that were banded but were behind their nestmate by quite a bit. We would take these small homer babies and add them to "Mama Runt's" cluch of babies. She and "Brown Bar" could successfully foster up to 6 babies at a time all the way through weaning! This took the pressure off of 4 pairs of homers that were having trouble feeding 2 babies. They were usually first time parents/yearlings. We would take the "new" baby and rub its body all over "Mama Runts" belly and put the newest one in the middle of the batch of babies already there. It didn't seem to matter to her, they would feed those babies so much that after feeding the babies couldn't hold their heads up they were so full. The only problem was when "Brown Bar" would try to sit on all those babies, it was hilarious!! I've often though of getting about 3 or 4 Giant Runt hens and doing the same thing again. Then I could raise 24 babies with 4 pairs of fosters! I haven't found anybody locally with Giant Runts, but it was alot of fun while it lasted!!

Ralph

[NetRider]

First of all thanks a lot to WhiteWingsCa for this informative thread. When I first started using foster parents this post was very helpful for me. With time I have learned some stuff myself, and would like to share it with the other members hoping it might help them out as well.


Trick 1:
If you have a pair where the hen has stopped laying eggs due to any kind of reason, know that you can use this pair as foster parents. A pair which has been trying to get some babies of their own, and never managed to, would be extremely happy to find some eggs in their bowl. To be on the safe side, give the pair two plastic eggs, and soon enough both parents will be incubating, then after a day or two, replace the plastic eggs with real eggs. The parents will produce pigeon milk, and raise the youngs successfully. I have done this quite some times with two hens who stopped laying eggs.

Note: I have also successfully made these pairs foster babies. The way I did this was to give them plastic eggs for two days, then replace the eggs with 6 days old babies. These pairs accepted the babies and raised them successfully.
Pairs who are not able to have any babies of their own can be very useful in case of emergency. For example if a parent is lost, you can in most cases move the babies to the foster pair.

Trick 2:
If you would like to foster the babies of a super pair, but no foster parents have laid any eggs yet, you can try a different approach. Let the pair incubate their babies themselves, then move these babies to the foster parents when they are ready. The way its done is like this:

1. Pair A lays eggs, but pair B has still not laid.
2. Pair A has now 10 days old eggs, but pair B has still no eggs.
3. Pair A now has 12 days old eggs, and finally pair B lays too.
4. Now replace the eggs of pair B with plastic eggs.
5. Six days after pair B laid their eggs, Pair A has already hatched two babies.
6. Wait till the babies are 5-6 days old and the parents are no longer feeding them pigeon milk, but instead giving them normal grains.
7. Now replace the plastic eggs of pair B, with the babies, and watch carefully. (A good time to do this is about an hour before feeding time)
8. The pair will look confused for a while, but soon accept the babies as their own, they might even feed the babies right away.
9. Now feed your breeders, and the new parents (Pair B) will hopefully eat and go feed the babies just like all the other pairs are doing.

This way you can still save some time, as pair A will start on another round as soon as you move the babies. I have fostered babies to pairs who were sitting on only two days old eggs, as long as both foster parents have had at least one turn on the eggs, they will accept the babies.

Trick 3:
Experienced pairs, especially hens (Experienced - have fostered some rounds of babies in their life) can be given other eggs to foster even if they dont have any eggs of their own. Lets say we have an old pair, and we just paired them up again, two days later our super pair A lays two eggs, but pair B has still not laid. You can give your Pair A eggs to pair B, and the hen will accept them as her own. If she has still not started to produce her own eggs, she might not even lay eggs of her own, but to be on the safer side its better to mark the eggs from Pair A, so that even if the hen from pair B does lay, you can throw them away.


These tricks require you to be a bit careful, and know what you are doing. You have to be careful the first few days, to make sure the babies are being fed, and that the pairs are sitting on the eggs. Thats why its best to do this when you know that you are going to be around and will be watching the birds for a few hours. If a hen sits on the eggs for an hour or two without moving away, you can be pretty sure that she accepted them. You can also test by removing the hen from the nest, and let the cock sit for a while.
The same thing applies to babies, be sure you are there to see the parents feed the babies at least once before you consider things to be safe.

I have tested all these methods, and know that they work. Hope they are helpful to you.

[workingpigeon]

Hello all.

It is very interesting to read. I was told that you can pair 2 cocks put an egg and they will care for it as if they where areal pair, did any of you try it?

[jpsnapdy]

Very useful posts WhiteWings, TAWhatley and NetRider. I prefer single reared youngsters and therefore need foster parents.

But WhiteWings, why throw away ALL the eggs from the first round ?
It has also happened to me that one headstrong hen flew away after I removed her very first clutch of eggs from under her. She had refused to mate with the cocks I wanted her to and so I let her choose her mate herself. The day I 'stole' her eggs, the moment I opened the release window, she flew out like a dart and I never saw her again. 'Til today, I regret having lost her, she was a very tame hen from the very best breeders and a champion young bird flyer. Since that day, I let all my birds raise at least one young from the first clutch whether it's theirs or not.

An alternative to the bull system is to pair the hens with a cock each using nesting-boxes with the hen locked up and not allowing the cock in the same partition. Then when the hen of your bull is sitting on her eggs and locked up in her box, allow her cock (the bull) to mate in turn with the other hens once they are rank. Do this every day or twice a day when the bull is not on the nest. Once the hens have mated with the bull/stallion, put them back in their locked partition or the hens' aviary to be fed or whatever and only allow their cock to mate with them just before they lay their SECOND egg, i.e. around 11.00 or 12.00 HRS which is too late for him to fertilise his hen. Thereby fooling him into believing that the babies will be his, of course, he has never seen the bull but his hen has. Thereafter, leave the partition open and they will take turns sitting on the eggs normally. You can also float the eggs under foster parents.

[spirit wings]

Originally Posted by jpsnapdy

Very useful posts WhiteWings, TAWhatley and NetRider. I prefer single reared youngsters and therefore need foster parents.

But WhiteWings, why throw away ALL the eggs from the first round ?
It has also happened to me that one headstrong hen flew away after I removed her very first clutch of eggs from under her. She had refused to mate with the cocks I wanted her to and so I let her choose her mate herself. The day I 'stole' her eggs, the moment I opened the release window, she flew out like a dart and I never saw her again. 'Til today, I regret having lost her, she was a very tame hen from the very best breeders and a champion young bird flyer. Since that day, I let all my birds raise at least one young from the first clutch whether it's theirs or not.

An alternative to the bull system is to pair the hens with a cock each using nesting-boxes with the hen locked up and not allowing the cock in the same partition. Then when the hen of your bull is sitting on her eggs and locked up in her box, allow her cock (the bull) to mate in turn with the other hens once they are rank. Do this every day or twice a day when the bull is not on the nest. Once the hens have mated with the bull/stallion, put them back in their locked partition or the hens' aviary to be fed or whatever and only allow their cock to mate with them just before they lay their SECOND egg, i.e. around 11.00 or 12.00 HRS which is too late for him to fertilise his hen. Thereby fooling him into believing that the babies will be his, of course, he has never seen the bull but his hen has. Thereafter, leave the partition open and they will take turns sitting on the eggs normally. You can also float the eggs under foster parents.

I do not think Whitewings is in pigeons any longer, I think she had to move and sold all her pigeons the first post was from 2005, and the last activity from her was in feb 2010. interesting info.

[sreeshs]

I would like to know if anyone have observed the ability to feed pigeon milk in case of early hatchings during fostering.

Say Pair A lays eggs and Pair B lays eggs after 5 days; You switch Pair B's eggs with Pair A's eggs and they will hatch 5 days earlier than expected.

How early is this hatchings acceptable in case of this, say "reverse order fostering" so that the Pair B have sufficient pigeon milk to raise the squabs. Will the pigeon producing pigeon milk in the early days of incubation after hatching also ?

[spirit wings]

Originally Posted by sreeshs

I would like to know if anyone have observed the ability to feed pigeon milk in case of early hatchings during fostering.

Say Pair A lays eggs and Pair B lays eggs after 5 days; You switch Pair B's eggs with Pair A's eggs and they will hatch 5 days earlier than expected.

How early is this hatchings acceptable in case of this, say "reverse order fostering" so that the Pair B have sufficient pigeon milk to raise the squabs. Will the pigeon producing pigeon milk in the early days of incubation after hatching also ?

I have heard each pair need to have layed eggs within 4 days of each other..5 might be doable but getting tricky. but remember if you have eggs from a pair you want young from but can not use them as parents for some reason or want to give someone some eggs, you can keep the eggs in a cool place and turn them every day, for a week or so, while your waiting for the foster pair to lay as well.. or if the foster pair layed and the other pair has not then the pair you wanted the young from would have to lay within 5 days after the foster pair.

[PigeonElite]

Good article on holding and switching eggs under foster parents

http://www.worldpigeon.org/2009/11/h...witching-eggs/

[AllAroundAnimal]

Very Interesting and I am Going Thru this as we speak -- I got 2 Roller Eggs from a gentleman with very good rollers , so i placed them in the nest of a homing pair that just finished raising 2 young , well now she has laid a egg of her own and i am sure she will be laying another -- I have another pair that should be laying as well - so i intend on doing 3 per nest - but I also have another pair and if they don't lay i may then place the last 2 eggs laid by any of the pairs in their nest and hope they don't end up laying as well --- Only time will tell and 2 pair may end up have to raising 3 babies -- Do You think this may lead to problems , I feel its all i can try to give them all a chance ..... I will keep you's updated and see how it all works out --- the pair that sat on the roller eggs and laid their own egg had only been sitting for 4 Days on the Roller eggs -- so I am praying it all works ......... Peace !! Mike

[Jack Wooldridge]

Fostering has another good effect. I often switch banded babies among different parents. This is done daily; then when the young emerge into the loft they are fed by any parent bird. This works for small lofts without separate pens to shelter the young birds from adults.

[billy2boats]

I am new to the site that was definately awsome!I am happy I am catching up with the times for fogie memories this site rocks!!!thanks

[rpalmer]

Originally Posted by AllAroundAnimal

Very Interesting and I am Going Thru this as we speak -- I got 2 Roller Eggs from a gentleman with very good rollers , so i placed them in the nest of a homing pair that just finished raising 2 young , well now she has laid a egg of her own and i am sure she will be laying another -- I have another pair that should be laying as well - so i intend on doing 3 per nest - but I also have another pair and if they don't lay i may then place the last 2 eggs laid by any of the pairs in their nest and hope they don't end up laying as well --- Only time will tell and 2 pair may end up have to raising 3 babies -- Do You think this may lead to problems , I feel its all i can try to give them all a chance ..... I will keep you's updated and see how it all works out --- the pair that sat on the roller eggs and laid their own egg had only been sitting for 4 Days on the Roller eggs -- so I am praying it all works ......... Peace !! Mike

What I would do.... As soon as one pair has laid their second egg remove those and place the two roller eggs with that pair. But if you need everything laid to hatch, I don't know. It sort of depends on your priorities.

[pigeonmad eire]

ive decided to put a 4day old squab under another pair who also have two of there own,i have a lone hen who wasnt feeding or sitting on squab,the squab was cold to touch and barely moving at all,the foster parents seem ok wit this ,they are sitting on all three.do u think this was ok,i didnt want the little fella to die..its been only two hours since i switched him

[kobukot]

I need help on this subject. I get the impression that racing homers are good foster parents but where I live I have to keep my pigeons in a cage so I was thinking of Kings as foster parents for my Indian fantails. Could anyone help me?