Good afternoon,
I have a problem, in my aviary I have probably a dozen white homing pigeons, the pigeons only come into the coop attached to the aviary during the night and in the winter, otherwise they fly around all day. But anyway, they commonly breed, and when the babies are old enough to be out of the nest but can't fully fly they obviously live in the ground for a little while. When the baby pigeons are on the ground I have a problem though, my one brooder silkie hen in the aviary pecks them to death. She just pecks their heads until there is no skin in a line and, not too be too graphic, but the skin falls of and leaves their skulls exposed, which she continues to peck until they are dead. She doesn't do this with any of the ducks which are in the aviary, only the baby pigeons, why? She is for right now living in a separate pen which I usually use for meat quail in the summer. I have plans for her, but I like to have at least one silkie in the aviary to incubate and brood the duck eggs, but I can't have them in there if they are going to kill all the baby pigeons. Is this common, if I get more silkies will they do the same?
I have a problem, in my aviary I have probably a dozen white homing pigeons, the pigeons only come into the coop attached to the aviary during the night and in the winter, otherwise they fly around all day. But anyway, they commonly breed, and when the babies are old enough to be out of the nest but can't fully fly they obviously live in the ground for a little while. When the baby pigeons are on the ground I have a problem though, my one brooder silkie hen in the aviary pecks them to death. She just pecks their heads until there is no skin in a line and, not too be too graphic, but the skin falls of and leaves their skulls exposed, which she continues to peck until they are dead. She doesn't do this with any of the ducks which are in the aviary, only the baby pigeons, why? She is for right now living in a separate pen which I usually use for meat quail in the summer. I have plans for her, but I like to have at least one silkie in the aviary to incubate and brood the duck eggs, but I can't have them in there if they are going to kill all the baby pigeons. Is this common, if I get more silkies will they do the same?
