Can I keep a lost pigeon?

[Cinnamon11]

Your pigeons are super cute!

 

[DotTheHen]

You do live in the South, so survival should be good. I, living in colder climate, (zone 5) avoided hatching during winter. I would place plastic eggs into nest as replacements, so pigeons would still try to incubate. After a long period of no go, pigeons would give up. Then they would lay another set of eggs. If it was still too cold in my opinion, I redid the same thing with the plastic eggs.
Simply just removing the eggs , is not the correct choice. Pigeons will try to lay another set in about 2 weeks. Pigeons are not equal to chickens, that can produce abundant number of eggs. It takes a lot out of a pigeon to produce an egg.

That makes sense, thanks for telling me. Aviary building starts next weekend, which is exciting. I’m hoping to possibly raise one set of twins with the pigeon couple. Probably in springtime.

 

[biophiliac]

Thank you everyone! Another odd behavior I’ve seen that I assume to be a mating behavior is the the male squats down and coos loudly and the female walks around him and preens his neck and rubs her beak on his. Is this the infamous “pigeon kiss”?
Also, for squabs, do I just let the couple do what they want when it comes to eggs? Like do I wait until it gets warmer for them to hatch babies or let them do their thing?

The behavior you describe I take as flirting, whereas the kiss is most like feeding with one beak inside the other and some pumping going on. It will remind you of a passionate 'French kiss'! Haha