grey spots/ sploges coming on eggs

[210175]

I ended up leaving my eggs a bit longer and today is day 24 and when i saw the pigeon eggs this morning i noticed that they started devoloping grey patches on the surface of the egg. What does this mean?

Also i am starting to notice they are not staying on the eggs all the time. when i went to cheack on them this morning no one was on them and then when they saw me taking a peak they came. what is happening?

thanks for any help

 

[Hokum Coco]

I think they are going to give up on those eggs 210175.

I do not know what is going on with those grey patches on the eggs.

Candle them and if they are clear toss them.

If they are dark I would let them be until they depart the nest entirely and start afresh.

They will be laying another clutch in about 10 days give or take a day or so.

In a perfect world the second batch is usually productive.

You could candle in about a week after the new eggs are laid to make certain.

I however think you are the type to just let nature take it's course. Nothing wrong with that either.

Speaking from experience if you try to rush nature it does not always work out for the best.

I take it neither egg has pipped yet. If the eggs are cold it is time to toss them.

When you break them open you will probably find they are clear and were not fertile from the get go.

Young birds sometime take awhile to get treading and copulation done right.

Wishing you better luck on your next clutch 210175.

 

[210175]

Hi Hokum,

i went to hold the eggs this afternoon and they were quite cold so i went and candled them. One of them was waterery inside and the other was a little. I decided to take a look inside because the parents had completly gave up on them. When we opened the first one it was like a normal cooking egg. When we opened the second we saw the yolk was more orange and there was no whites. we then saw a little black thing with littlle sacs attched. I soon reliezed it was a dead baby. i was so sad. it must have died at about 5 days old. Im not sure what could of caused its early death. Maybe the cold. Maybe because the parents are begginers.

If you might have any more idea's to why it died it would really help?

Anyway tonight i cleaned up the nest and made sure everything is pitch perfect. i was sitting down outside and then amazingly i saw my pigeons kissing then mating. I hope soon i will get eggs again. But i just wish even one will hatch.

thanks and if you do have idea's to why it died in the egg it would help.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have experienced the same thing in some of my best birds 210175. Even after raising consecutive batches of eggs.

Hence the saying " Do not count your chickens before they hatch".

Some eggs just stop development for who knows what reason. You see it often in incubators when you do a hatch for chickens as well. It is not always due to cold or lack of incubation like one might think. Some times a squab or chicken just comes from the lower end of the gene pool is my theory and lacks vigor.

I hope it never happens to you but some times parents will just abandon their squabs because they do not see vigor in them is what I think.

It is quite common like I have said before for the first eggs to be duds. Not all of the reproductive system is in sync when they begin to lay their first egg and begin to tread and copulate for the first time.

Your pairing showed good dedication on their first eggs and I will all but guarantee your second clutch will be success full.

My grand daughter and I hand raised an orphaned homer that failed to come home on a 20 mile toss. It was one of the few times she had not accompanied me on a release. I usually put a note on her birds leg enclosed in a tiny marble bag my wife fashioned. It some times starts a scavenger hunt or just tells her the time I released the bird If she stays with her grand mother.

I called later that day to tell her the news. She then asked me where I released the bird from Monteagle was the reply. Her crying retort was "Why did you not release them from "DEAD BIRD ROAD!" sarcastically.

Dusk was falling and I went out to shut up the loft. Low & behold what should come flying in but Piper (grand daughters bird).

I checked him over when he trapped and he had a gash from near his neck almost to his tail on his back. My first instinct was to put him out of his misery. However I brought him into the house to have a better look in the light.

My wife said "Yes it is a long gash but it is only deep in one spot. We flushed out the wound with Saline; I then glued the skin back together with a few drops of crazy glue; gave him a coat of polysporn; he flew out of my hands as I was bring him back to the loft. He was good to go in about 5 days.

This is him incubating 2 squabs hatched Dec 27 & 28th 2012.




These are the squabs Piper raised Jack (turned out to be Jackie) and Frost.




This is the enclosure I put them in once the squabs were getting too big for the parents to incubate. I live in Canada (the Indian name for cold) and my loft is not insulated.




My grand daughter has learned more from being around these homers than she could have learned out of any book. She was on the MOON when I called her to tell of Pipers return.

Grand daughter has experienced love, loss, heartache, worry, first aid, joy, responsibility, and most of all kinship with yours truly.

It has given her a good subject for presentations at school. We also are starting up a small enterprise with white dove releases (Pipers parents were both solid snow white just for the record).

Grand daughter did her first dove release at a wedding last fall also another releases for an anti bulling campaign and different events at her grade school.

She would rather hang out with "Hokum" (her name for me since she was one) then any of her friends or parents for that matter.
However she will be entering her teens next year (make-up and boys will probably soon shove me aside).

I know however that these birds have made her a better person regardless what comes in the future.

Just for the record I now have another grand daughter who is 3 years old and calls me Coco and she likes pigeons also.
.

 

[210175]

thanks, and thanks for telling me your story.

I love great pigeon storys.

I will tell you what happens to my pigeons in a future posts.

I myself is 15 years old and is really enjoying my life with pigeons in it. I love making my pigeons happy and i do wish i could enjoy squabs soon.

I will let you know on progress.

Thanks