A no good husband...

Pigeon Power

Chirping
6 Years
Mar 28, 2013
130
20
83
Indiana!
I have a male show homer that sucks at being a mate. He never or rarely takes his turn sitting on his eggs and when the babies hatch he is very inconsistent with feedings and sitting on the young. Half the time it seems he forgets where his nest box and bullies other birds out of there nests. What makes even less sense is when I had him alone he would sit on a "pretend nest" for days on end, without a mate and with no eggs. He also eats a lot and is very fat and cute. Thoughts? Maybe from inbreeding or just a breed thing, he is the only show homer I've ever had.
 
Some birds have individual personality quirks.

With your cock, I would maybe put him in a separate coop and if he goes back to this nest sitting, I would put a clutch of eggs under him and see how it goes.
 
with many show breeds parental abilities have been lost using feeders to raise young out of certain pairs have caused this you have a choice put up with the bird or cull i would try a pen out of site of other birds with his mate if weight is a problem feed him only what he will clean up in 15 or 20 minutes I would not breed this late to hot wait for fall is this young bird show homer, American show racer there is a difference do you have pic
 
I've got two new pairs of giant homers. One pair have been excellent parents, exceptional actually. The other pair broke one of the eggs shortly after both had been laid and subsequently contaminated the shell of the other. It did ot hatch.. The male appears to hover over the eggs rather than actually cover them completely. I've notice a new egg laid today and we will see how the second try goes. If they fail again I will begin fostering the eggs to other birds. All of this to say, it seems some of them "get it" and some of them don't. Perhaps it was their first time, I don't know their history. I had some young rollers that failed on the first clutch, ignoring the babies after hatch and allowing them to die, but have since become good parents.
 
I have a male show homer that sucks at being a mate. He never or rarely takes his turn sitting on his eggs and when the babies hatch he is very inconsistent with feedings and sitting on the young. Half the time it seems he forgets where his nest box and bullies other birds out of there nests. What makes even less sense is when I had him alone he would sit on a "pretend nest" for days on end, without a mate and with no eggs. He also eats a lot and is very fat and cute. Thoughts? Maybe from inbreeding or just a breed thing, he is the only show homer I've ever had.
It seems he is getting stressed out by the other breeding pairs near him.

Next time it will be better to pen him and his mate on their own for breeding and raising their squabs.
 
Originally I had taken this bird on as a pet, because I thought him very cute and had a good mellow personality. He was given to me at a show by his original owner because he was thought to be infertile. I believe he is around 5 or 6 years of age. I had him alone for a long period of time but when he started nesting on his own I felt very bad for him and thought he was lonely so I got him a roller hen for a mate...she is around a year or so. Well low and behold he is Not infertile and he hatched out two babies...more like she did. One was eaten by a snake when I had my snake problem and that's when I switched the whole family to a snake prof old pen I had....So the family has been by themselves and separated for one or two months now....She laid a second clutch of eggs I threw them not wanted more mix breeds....Then very very quickly laid another.....during finals week at my college, thus my husband was feeding the birds that week. So be the time I found that she had laid more eggs they were too far along and I won't throw them... To me the babies are too far developed. During this time I noticed the same behavior of not being such a good parent. I wrote the post because today I'm planning to pick up new mates for them both so I won't have any more mix breeds and wanted to hear what people had to say about his behavior. Thanks everyone for your input! It's much appreciated I'm hoping maybe the new mate will guide him better, seeing how it seems to be just a personality thing with him after reading the different ideas. However the old chick (now grown) is still in there with them...maybe I should take him out as well? Could that be stressing him?
 
Oh and here are some pics by request :)



Fattness looking handsome and sitting on empty nest with no mate


My super adorable son holding proof of Fatness's manhood being enacted, ack baby fat. lol.
 
yes take youngster out now you need to keep young and unmated birds separate from pairs with the hot weather the male may not set tight on eggs due to being hot weather try to get them in nest off the ground you cannt move now but maybe later nesting use them for feeders of some of the birds you want to raise from if you do this eggs need to be layed within three days of each other
 
Thank you loft keeper! I never thought the heat for sure might be getting to him! The babies both hatched today and I am looking forward to seeing the little suckers grow. I will certainly take your advice and see if it helps. I also got them both new mates of the same breed today and will switch them all around when they are done with these babies!
 
There is a natural inclination for the birds to slow down once the moult hits. Most people stop breeding and split their pairs up.

If you want them to keep going through the moult, a light coating of safflower oil on small grains (millet, canary seed, etc) as a treat BEFORE YOU FEED the main meal each day will help them out some.

I'm normally done by now, but I still have mine together in the hope of getting two more rounds.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom