nesting pigeons

[ImTheRealElly]

we have a large pen 12 feet tall with quail, and were wanting some birds that would like the upper area,so we bought a 1year old pair of lovely rollers. they were a romantic pair,with lots of cooing and cuddling. we put the box they were in sideways on a platform until we could make a proper nest, but within 2 days they were taking turns staying in the box. we put a bowl of shavings in and now one is sitting on it all night and the other all day. i dont know which is the female and which is the male. anyway the other day i climbed up and looked and they have 2 eggs. they arent tame, and it ticked off the one on the nest when i looked at it. they are very devoted to those baby eggs.its very cute.
anyway,i see from reading here people let them out to fly. are we supposed to let them out?or does it matter if they stay in the pen? we've had them almost a week.

 

[sourland]

Generally the hen will set on the eggs during the night, and the cock will brood during the day. I would not fly them until they have raised their young. Every time you fly breeders, you risk the chance of loss due to predators, overflies, strong winds, poor homing instinct, etc. Good luck in raising this set of young birds. They will raise this round, and then the cock will start driving the hen around the two week old stage providing a second round of eggs within a month of the first. Rollers are extremely prolific.