Is it possible to relocate nest with babies?

[LamarshFish]

As long as the nest is not moved, I have never had a pair abandon squabs because of my handling them. I always checked on my squabs almost daily. I never supplemented the smaller squab (somehow they generally seem to catch up once they feather out), but doubt that removing, feeding and immediately returning to the nest would have any negative impact. Understand that my experience is primarily with Birmingham Rollers and racing Homers - two breeds with very strong parenting instincts.

Thanks! When going in to handle the squabs daily, what do you do when a parent is sitting on them? Would you nudge them over, or only remove the squabs when the parent is not sitting on them? I am wondering whether nudging over a parent to pick up a squab would disturb them too much.

I have racing homers.

 

[sourland]

I actually remove the parent from the nest - my birds all know me and are accustomed to being handled. Be prepared to get wing batted from protective parents. Make sure that they do not inadvertently hit the squab.

 

[Hokum Coco]

As long as the nest is not moved,

I agree 100% with your statement Sourland.

It has only happened to me once with squabs that were over a week old I cleaned the nest area and the parents abandon the nest and the squabs died of hypothermia.

I have done the same thing with other parings before with no problems.

I try to make it a habit of handling newly hatch squabs almost ever day.

NEVER HAD A PROBLEM SAME AS SOURLAND except I JUST have homers.

 

[jak2002003]

OP. Are you talking about wild birds, or your own domestic pigeons?

If they are wild birds the chance of them abandoning the nest is about 99 percent I would say.

If they are domesticated pigeons in your coop then, so long as the squabs are over a week old it probably will be OK. But you must move the complete nest and put it, the squabs and the parent birds in a cage together in a quiet place, covering the cage up with a blanket (only leaving the front uncovered) often helps calm the parents down.

Once they calm down and the squabs start begging they should feed them and brood them again after a few hours.

An easier thing for you might be to put a cover over the nest.. to stop rain getting on it (if that is the problem). Just put up some plastic or a wooden board a few feet above the nest to give it protection. Not too low down as to make the parents scared of the new thing though!

 

[jak2002003]

On the issues of handling squabs. They can be handles at any age without the risk of parents abandoning them.

However, I don't handle them until they are over a week old, because when they are first hatches they are so small and delicate it is easy to accidently injure them! Sometimes the parent bird will give you a hard slap with its wing to protect the nest.. and this may accidently hit the squab, or they might crush it by standing on it in their agitation.

The issue of feeding a weaker squab.. I find the easiest thing to do is take the bigger one out at feeding time for a while... that way the smaller one gets fed with no competition. Once its full, add the big one back. Then you don't have to do any feeding to squab yourself, which can be messy and take time to master.

 

[purslanegarden]

Thanks for all the info!

This was for domesticated pigeons. They were hatched and raised by someone else who used to handle them often, and she claims they were very docile. However, once I got them, I handle them less often, and as time goes, I can see they have become less accustomed to my intrusions into their loft area. They don't fly all willy-nilly around the loft trying to get away, but they definitely back up away from me or my hand as I approach them, which they didn't do when I first got them.

I did see that the squabs grew quite a bit in just one week. Hard to imagine they used to fit in that little pigeon egg just a few days ago.

 

[Hokum Coco]

they definitely back up away from me or my hand as I approach them,

Hand feeding shelled unsalted peanuts will reinforce the bond between you and your birds.

 

[stuckinthecity]

No question you put the squabs at risk. Sometimes it works for you sometimes it does not. As mentioned above night time transfers work the best.

My birds freak out just when I clean the nests! I don't think I could risk it. I usually wait until the squabs are a little older when mom and dad aren't constantly near them, but it still takes them a while to re enter the nest box to feed the babies when I change out bedding, etc. Crazy little things. Mine are good parents though.

 

[Hokum Coco]

wait until the squabs are a little older when mom and dad aren't constantly near them,

EXCELLENT ADVICE I lost a pair of squabs by not following this simple suggestion.