Embarking A Breeding Project

[farmergal27]

Awesome, be sure to keep us updated.

 

[cochinGurl]

Update:

Dale and Ginger (which is what I named the new hen) are officially a pair! It took him 12 weeks and three days to get over his previous mates death enough to move on but they are now in the same cage and are doing lots of beak kissing and sitting in their nest, hooray!! I'm so happy for them!

Now that their paired it's time for the second stumbling block: getting fertilized eggs from them. This is likely to be difficult due to Dales disabilities. One of his wings is pretty much non functional which makes successfully mounting his partner virtually impossible. He survived a hawk strike almost two years ago, but his injuries have left him completely flightless ever since. His left wing works fine but his right one doesn't fully extend when he tried to flap and hangs a bit lower than the other wing when resting. When he tries to mount, he hops on but then when he starts trying to flap to keep his balance he always fall off without making cloacal contact.

He had one baby in his previous pairing, but I'm fairly sure that was due to the hen mounting him, which she did often. They would have had more offspring but she stopped laying for most of their relationship.

The new hen hasn't mounted him at all that I have seen, though he has been "presenting" to her. Do some hens do this while others don't? Do you think she will figure it out given some time? I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this, any input welcome.


Ps a little more info: they are housed in a sectioned off part of my loft. Dale can't live with other pigeons because they throw him off of the perches and he could get seriously injured from the fall. Also he would be very vulnerable to being attacked by the other birds since he can't fly or move as fast. Also, having them separated from the rest of the flock keeps the other cocks from mating with ginger. They can see and hear the other birds through the fencing though so they can maintain some sense of community with the flock.

 

[laughingdog]

Ive heard of harnesses being made for rare breed fowl and heavy breeds, pigeons like those old box hardess chairs when elephants ridden, and etc same and different for disabled raptors/BOPs.. hope this helps at all as has been long time since seen or heard of done outside of "pigeon talk" .com
good luck n let us know as goes.

 

[cochinGurl]

Good news!!! They sat two eggs, one hatched and is 11 days old today! Hoorah!! So far it Looks like baby is going to be pure white I'll post more pictures as his feathers come in. Can't wait to see that little crest!

 

[laughingdog]

Congrats! Crest should be seen in feather quills as soon as they start coming out, bn before feathers open (always had on my cresteds had and sadly have not anymore)?

 

[BoTime]

This is heartwarming. I bet he would be proud of your efforts. Thank you for sharing, & good luck with your endeavors.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Wonderful story, keep at it.

 

[cochinGurl]

Update: Baby is five weeks old today and doing awesome! Pure white and so pretty!

 

[Khephuza]

wonderful story and nice bird hope you achieve your goal

 

[cochinGurl]

Hey guys, just thought I'd post an update: they had a second clutch, one was runty and didn't make it, but the other is five weeks now and beautiful!