Squashed by parents?

[jak2002003]

My king pigeon pair are 2 females. They always lay eggs and incubate them...but or course they never hatch.

I had 2 eggs from another pair of pigeons who made their nest of the coop floor and did not start incubating the eggs. I put these eggs under the king pigeon pair to hatch.

Today was the hatch date for the eggs. I went to inspect the nest. One egg was missing.....the other had a half hatched out chick which had died.

The egg and the chick seemed to have been 'squashed'. Do you think the heavy king pigeons may have stepped on it by accident?

I think the other egg must have been tossed out of the nest and eaten by my Japanese Bantams when it fell on the floor. I could find no trace of it.

I am disappointed as I was excited to get 2 new chicks today. Do you think I could give it another try with an egg from another nest? Or could I use them to hatch out a couple of bantam chicken eggs?

It just seems a shame they keep wanting to raise some chicks, and i want to increase the number of pigeons I have. (and chickens).

Thanks for any advise.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I also have a lesbian pair of white homers in my case. They have fostered many eggs for me with no incident. They may get the hang of things if you try them again. A lot of strange and weird things happen on the first clutch of eggs.

I would not loose hope. I would try the bantam chick sounds like a plan to me.

 

[larrylofts]

a few things could have happened first bantam got in the nest and eggs stepped on and other thrown out another thing nest matrial or nest not big enough or first time hatching i go with the first happening it is hard to keep chickens and pigeons togather

 

[jak2002003]

a few things could have happened first bantam got in the nest and eggs stepped on and other thrown out another thing nest matrial or nest not big enough or first time hatching i go with the first happening it is hard to keep chickens and pigeons togather

The chickens can not get up into the pigeon nests. My bantams have their wing clipped. They roost on the lower perches which have a ladder up to them.

The pigeon nest are in large boxes secured under the coop roof.

I recon that the king pigeons did not really know what to do as it was their first clutch. I am going to try them one more time next time they go broody. If they fail again I will not try again.