HELP!!!!!-My "Jack" just laid an egg.

Thank you all for your responses. I know this egg laying process is a perfectly normal condition for my pigeon.......but........I can't help feeling so sorry for my Jackie. Her life now has changed so dramatically. She has gone from the fun loving......out and about of the cage all day, flying around the house and enjoying herself.....to......this dutyful little hen who just sits on this egg all day that will never hatch. I did take her out of her nest and she did eat and drink a bit and then dropped the mother load aka da bomb.

I miss my Jack following me around the house all day and riding around on my head and shoulder. This may be a real crazy question.......but is there a medical procedure that can be performed.......like you would spay a cat or dog to prevent this egg laying?????

My Jack was such a happy little house pij.,,,,,I hate to think that the rest of her life she will be destined to just sit on a nest with maybe only a two week resting period between the incubation and egg laying periods.

Am I nuts?????????? Is it normal for me to feel this way???? Am I the only one who feels this way.?????

I just feel so very, very sad for my little baby Jack/Jackie.

Louise

Louise.........Jack is not miserable. She's doing what lady pigeons do. Do like Ston3d said, put her bowl of food by the bowl. Try giving her a break. The last thing you want to do is take the egg away. She'll just lay more in about 10 days and you'll be feeling sorry for her again. Let her sit on that egg as long as she possibly will. It's all for the best. She doesn't know that the egg isn't going to hatch. Try not to put so many "human" emotions into this. She's sitting on that egg because that's what nature dictates that she do. She's not sitting there counting the day until her "baby" arrives. She's only doing what she's programmed to do instinctively. After 18 or so days, hopefully longer, she will just get up and walk away and start all over again. There's no mourning the fact that her baby didn't arrive. Pigeons all over the world do this every single day. I know that this isn't all the other pigeons, it's YOUR pigeon, but there's no sense in making yourself crazy and getting down in the dumps over something that is perfectly natural for her. The only "un-natural" part is the fact that she doesn't have a REAL mate. No one can do anything about that but you. I'm not saying rush out and get her a mate either, I'm just saying..........this is the life that you have chosen for her and you and she have to deal with it the best you can. Instead of her following you around, you'll just have to make it part of your routine to visit with her.
In a loft situation OR in the wild feral population.......when the hen sits on the nest, she doesn't have "company"........the birds sit on their nest all alone for hours and hours.........that's just the way it works. I'll see some of my cock birds go in the box maybe a few times a day, but that's mostly because that's where their food is. Otherwise, just about the only time they "see" each other is during shift changes.
You've got a hen. Nothing is going to change that fact. You've just got to make the most of it. As long as she's getting everything she needs nutrition wise, everything should be just fine.

Hi Louise,

Great to hear about Jack (err, Jackie?) and her egg. I had the same situation with my pigeon Sophie, whom I thought was a male until about 8 months after I got her and I found an egg! You can read my frantic post on here at the time and the good advice I got and continue to get also.

Renee (Lovebirds), Ed, Dezirrae are all correct and giving you very helpful information. The only experience I can speak from is my one house-pigeon Sophie. She is on a schedule of laying and sitting for 21 days, and then being off the eggs and quite rambunctuous and the laying and sitting again. She is not upset or unhappy while sitting, in fact, she seems very peaceful and happy--a zen pigeon!

She does view me as her "mate" and as such, I am expected to take my turn with the eggs so she can eat, have a bath, stretch her wings....and POOP. She is usually gone off the eggs just long enough to do those things and then comes back to sit on the eggs.

The only other suggestion I might have is that when I was at the same place you were, I thought I would possibly be saddened at missing out on company from my little conmpanion.

Since I work from home, I had an easy solution--I simply put her "nest" (a converted cat bed), on my desk. So, we now sit together all day! I don't know what your particulat circumstances are or allow, but you might want to consider moving her nesting spot to a place where you can be near or with her the most frequently. However, you should also know that she will imprint that spot, and after awhile, that is where she will go, thinking that is where her nest is supposed to be, and be resistant to a new place for the nest, at least at first.

You should be proud and happy for Jack(ie)! She sounds like she is gonna be a great momma, and already like she is a great PIGEON.

Bill B.

Im not sure why you need help when the birds do all the work , all you have to do is provide them with the nest and they pretty much do the rest its so much easier then people make it out to be especially when pigeons make such good parents


I think it is important to understand that some of the terrific benefit of a forum like this is it is a place where people of ALL levels of knowledge of, experience with and familarity with pigeons can come to find helpful information--be they an individual who found an injured pigeon in a park, a person who keeps one or a few pigeons as "house pets" or someone who has a number of pigeons in a loft.

I am sure the the number of times someone--usually someone new to the forum--posts a frantic question that has been doubtless answered a million times before in this same space causes numerous veterans' eyes to roll. Yet, for that person posting the frantic question, it is not a question that has been asked and answered a million times, but instead a very real concern about a bird they love and care for that need to be answered NOW.

In March of 2007, I knew less than nothing about pigeons. They were essentially moving wallpaper as a backdrop to my life in the city. From time to time I tossed them a bit of food, but otherwise I never even spared them a moment's thought. Then, in one moment of rescuing a helpless bird from a box in the park, I became thrust into the world of pigeons. If not for forums like this one, I don't know what I would have done. I am certain that my (often frantic) questions posted to this very board were greeted by plenty of eye-rolling among long-time members. But, my only reason in posting those questions was to try and do the best I could by this bird which I was now responsible for caring for and trying to do the best I could.

Even now, after spending two years in constant contact with this pigeon every single day, she remains mysterious to me. I have experienced her changes in behavior (frantic post), first laying of an egg (exceptionally frantic post), and serious illness (very, very frantic post). If I did not feel comfortable in this space, asking even the "dumbest" of questions, I do not know where else I would turn.

So, please, everyone, never hesitate to ask any question about any worry regarding your pigeon(s). I know I will continue to pester everyone here with my questions and observations.

Bill B.

I guess this is why I dont get eggcited as I once did ,these are just some from the last month