[auroraborealis]

Hello to all !

Our male and female have been separated for a while now and today the female layed an egg without any male intervention ?! I thought only doves did this. Will there be a second egg ? What should we do ? We are planning to reunite both male and female only this summer.

Thank you.

Susan

 

[Charis]

Yes there should be a 2nd egg. If they can hear each other or see each often the hen will lay an egg. Let the hen incubate the egg as usual and go through the cycle if she wants.
Why have you separated them?

 

[auroraborealis]

Egg issue help

Hello Charis and thank you for your reply !

We separated them after a terrible fight. The male is quite a bully and the female is younger and not always ready to be confined to her nest. We wanted to wait a little longer before trying again.

As of now there is no nest in the female's cage. Should we provide some nesting material to make her more comfortable? How long should we leave the eggs?

Thank you !

 

[Charis]

Yes. I would make her a nest and put her egg in it. She probably will lay the next one in the nest. Let her stay on the eggs as long as she wants. She will know when it's time to abandon them.

 

[KIPPY]

female layed an egg without any male intervention ?!

Mine do that all the time.

 

[jbangelfish]

Males are aggressive, not usually harmful

It is in the pigeon and the dove to chase the female quite aggressively to chase her to the nest when she is near to laying eggs. This is normally very harmless, even though it may look like bullying to you.

He will peck at the back of her head and her neck and chase her until she goes to the nest. It is all he can think of and will do so even she is trying to eat. Don't worry, this is normal behavior. If she is laying eggs, put them together and let nature take it's course.

I have raised thousands of pigeons over a nearly 50 year period and have never seen a male kill his mate. They may pluck a few feathers or even draw alittle blood but the intent is solely to drive her to the nest. It is called "driving the hen" and is perfectly normal.

The only time I've ever seen this behavior get out of control was when I was raising Gouldian Finches and I began supplementing with vitamin E. The males became so aggressive that they were injuring the hens and I've never used vitamin E since. They acted as if they had gone insane. The seed of a proper diet contains all the nutrients that they need.

In times of stress or illness, vitamins may help but 90% of the time they are not needed. The only reason that I mention this is I began to wonder if you were giving vitamins to your birds. It's the only thing I've ever observed that actually seemed to goof up their normal behavior.

Bill

 

[warriec]

This is normal pigeon behavior, you can re pair them if you like. if the seperation had been for few days you can bet the eggs are fertile, just add the male to do his part of the incubation. If its more than 10 days the eggs are not fertile. You can dispose them and reintroduce the male to get fertile eggs

 

[jbangelfish]

Breeding about 2 or 3 days from egg laying

Birds breed within a couple of days prior to laying the eggs. This is true of most species.

I have read that Turkeys only need to breed once in the spring and retain the sperm for the duration of the clutch or clutches of eggs that are laid. I can't substantiate this but I have read it. It seems that penguins and perhaps other birds do this as well but nearly every other bird that is typically raised by people, has to breed within a couple days of the egg being laid for it to be fertile.

If you breed birds of any kind, just watch them and you can observe this for yourself.

Bill

 

[eric98223]

if you take the eggs right away she will just lay more. and i give my birds straw or long pine needles to build nests out of.