Pigeon Talk

[cavemanrich]

I could pull a baby after a few days and hand raise him. I was hoping to get a friendly one anyway. I definitely don't want to lose any, so if that happens I'll try to help the little ones.

I think there is another route.. Doing things in revere for a period. Let me explain;
When you remove the significantly larger squab, to your warm home,,,, feed him the substitute feed. This way Lil Guy gets the premium stuff from mom and dad. Big Junior will be less demanding of parents to gobble up all the feed available.
I have never supplemented feed to my growing squabs. There are some peeps here that have. @Pyxis May have advice on stuff to purchase, and best way to do it

 

[MGG]

This is just my thinking. In the first days,, the development action is slow. When the warmth is removed, action stops,,,, but egg does not die. The mortality is more pronounced during later development,, when egg gets cold then

Ah, ok!
If that happens would it be better to just incubate the eggs myself?
I feel like I could probably successfully raise them, but I'd rather not try if I don't have to, haha.

Isn’t it exciting!

I can't believe how excited I am over this, lol!
I'm really surprised by how much I like the little birds. Never thought I'd be so smitten by them.
Waterfowl have always been more my thing, hehe.

 

[MGG]

I think there is another route.. Doing things in revere for a period. Let me explain;
When you remove the significantly larger squab, to your warm home,,,, feed him the substitute feed. This way Lil Guy gets the premium stuff from mom and dad. Big Junior will be less demanding of parents to gobble up all the feed available.
I have never supplemented feed to my growing squabs. There are some peeps here that have. @Pyxis May have advice on stuff to purchase, and best way to do it

Ohhh I get it.
That makes sense, I just read it wrong the first time.

I'm so excited to learn along the way! This will be a fun new experience I think.

 

[cavemanrich]

If that happens would it be better to just incubate the eggs myself?

No No No,,,,,, You want the eggs to hatch under pigeon. When they hatch,, the lil ones get the SUPER PREMIUM CROP MILK. They grow so fast on that stuff,,,, if you sit still enough,,,, you can observe the growth.
They double in size in first days almost daily.
Incubating, and raising pigeons from incubator is a laboratory grade project... Yes it can be done,,,, but usually performed by peeps much more skilled than the average pigeon fancier.

 

[sourland]

Ok, so I'll just be patient, haha. If she's incubating the first egg already though, won't it hatch first? Isn't that not good?
The male also isn't really sitting on them at all, just the female.

Generally the hen just hovers over the first egg. In extremely cold weather this sometimes results in the first egg being non viable. One method of preserving viability and combatting the size difference in squabs is to remove the first egg, replace with a fake egg, and reintroduce when the second egg is laid. Rarely had size differences in my Birmingham Rollers as the cocks were the best feeders I have ever encountered. Once fully feathered I would put all squabs on the loft floor. When birds were fed, all the cocks would go to the floor and feed any/all squabs begging for food. Lord knows I miss those birds.

 

[MGG]

No No No,,,,,, You want the eggs to hatch under pigeon. When they hatch,, the lil ones get the SUPER PREMIUM CROP MILK. They grow so fast on that stuff,,,, if you sit still enough,,,, you can observe the growth.
They double in size in first days almost daily.
Incubating, and raising pigeons from incubator is a laboratory grade project... Yes it can be done,,,, but usually performed by peeps much more skilled than the average pigeon fancier.

Ok, sounds good!
I did raise a pigeon from day one a while back, until he was about two weeks old. Then I put him in another pigeons nest, she had the same age babies so it worked well. It was a long time ago though.

 

[MGG]

Generally the hen just hovers over the first egg. In extremely cold weather this sometimes results in the first egg being non viable. One method of preserving viability and combatting the size difference in squabs is to remove the first egg, replace with a fake egg, and reintroduce when the second egg is laid. Rarely had size differences in my Birmingham Rollers as the cocks were the best feeders I have ever encountered. Once fully feathered I would put all squabs on the loft floor. When birds were fed, all the cocks would go to the floor and feed any/all squabs begging for food. Lord knows I miss those birds.

Ok! I'm not sure what I could use as a fake egg. I have some old Bobwhite eggs, maybe I could use one of those.
She's been sitting on the egg well all day, and the male is actually on it right now so fingers crossed. I still haven't see him mount her at all, so we'll see if it's fertile.
Neither one of them sat on the egg at all overnight. (I have a camera on them)
So that's kind of worrisome to me.

That's so cute! They sound like they were great parents.

 

[sourland]

Ok! I'm not sure what I could use as a fake egg. I have some old Bobwhite eggs, maybe I could use one of those.
She's been sitting on the egg well all day, and the male is actually on it right now so fingers crossed.

It's too late to remove the egg now as it may have started developing. The time to remove is immediately after it is laid.

 

[MGG]

Here are a few pics of her from today. She's so cute. She came out and ate out of my hand, then flew right back in.

And here's daddy.

 

[MGG]

It's too late to remove the egg now as it may have started developing. The time to remove is immediately after it is laid.

Yeah I figured, I'll just leave it for now.
They take about two weeks to hatch, right?