Pigeon Talk

[cavemanrich]

Sorry @cavemanrich I guess I totally missed your post.

You are forgiven
You were probably checking on this guy,,

Or searching ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, trying to find a small one of these.

Bugsy be needin a trim soon

 

[sourland]

This is my opinion on Raising,hatching, birds during cold winter.
In Nature,,,,,,,, most birds do not reproduce. When Spring arrives,,,, all are building nest and starting families. There are probably more than one reason for this occurrence. The main one is the availability of food in the wild,,,,,, during winter. The second may be the fact of COLD.
When we have birds in captivity,,,,, the food supply is of no concern. The cold is less severe inside a loft. Therefore,,,, birds do propagate. I discouraged winter hatching with plastics. The few that did manage to slip by,,, I provided minimal supplemental heat for them. Even then, the survival rate was slightly lower , despite my best efforts.

All of this and more is why I would separate pairs in August or Sept. and reunite them in Feb. Even then I would remove the first egg of the first clutch to keep it from being chilled. My rollers would be down on eggs generally within 10 days of being reunited, hatch young birds around mid March and start next round within 3 weeks or so. There was always a chance of the first round getting chilled during weaning, but most of my cockbirds would brood them at night while the hens sat on the eggs. In this 5 or 6 month breeding season most pairs would raise 4 or 5 sets of young. Far more than enough to fill my kit boxes.

 

[cavemanrich]

Some of my young cockbirds are looking for girlfiends*. This ashred bar claimed a nest box and courted first one, the then the other of my 'pair' of hens. He could not break them up but they both moved into his nest box..
View attachment 1621887
I put in 3 perches for them and added a nest bowl today. If they lay I'll swap out the eggs.

* Noticed the misspell but left it lol

I think your trio may have ties to UTAH

 

[biophiliac]

I think your trio may have ties to UTAH[/QUOT
Same here, I just didn't know how to put it in a 'politically correct'way!

 

[WVduckchick]

You are forgiven
You were probably checking on this guy,,

Or searching ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, trying to find a small one of these.

Bugsy be needin a trim soon

 

[backyard pigeons]

Alright thanks all for the suggestion. I thought about hokums idea but it be tough with the box theyre in. This pair is my newest and super flighty. Last clutch, i took the egg to avoid it being chilled and put a dummy in there, then they layed there next egg on the ground and would NOT sit. I snuck one egg under a roller pair but didnt succesfully hatch. So i think im going to try to put a dummy egg under and bring it in till second one is laid. I will then play by ear. Ill also be ready to handfeed incase of worst case scenario.

Also bringing them inside is not really an option. Due to them not like being messed with and other members of this family

Those of you who are looking to get fake eggs. Get them at a craft store. I got them for 1.99 for 6. At hobby lobby.

 

[WVduckchick]

We just got word that a hobby lobby is being put in not far from me.

 

[Pyxis]

So here's a question, can you take a squab from the parents after they've had it for the first week or so to finish raising it so that's super friendly? Or at that point is it pretty much just keyed in to its parents?

I'd love to take some squabs to finish raising, once I start getting babies, so that they're super friendly, but I don't necessarily want to raise them from the moment they hatch.

 

[biophiliac]

Alright thanks all for the suggestion. I thought about hokums idea but it be tough with the box theyre in. This pair is my newest and super flighty. Last clutch, i took the egg to avoid it being chilled and put a dummy in there, then they layed there next egg on the ground and would NOT sit. I snuck one egg under a roller pair but didnt succesfully hatch. So i think im going to try to put a dummy egg under and bring it in till second one is laid. I will then play by ear. Ill also be ready to handfeed incase of worst case scenario.

Also bringing them inside is not really an option. Due to them not like being messed with and other members of this family

Those of you who are looking to get fake eggs. Get them at a craft store. I got them for 1.99 for 6. At hobby lobby.

I think your plan is good. Skittish birds are hard to move and it really is a hassle to have them in the house.

 

[biophiliac]

So here's a question, can you take a squab from the parents after they've had it for the first week or so to finish raising it so that's super friendly? Or at that point is it pretty much just keyed in to its parents?

I'd love to take some squabs to finish raising, once I start getting babies, so that they're super friendly, but I don't necessarily want to raise them from the moment they hatch.

Yes, you most definitely can!! 10 o 12 days is best imo AFTER they get all the crop milk ane you can see some seeds in their crop. They will bond with you. I recently posted a Maney Loft video on Handraising. He handraises most of his to give the parents a rest and to make them super tame. I handraised one out of necessity and it was super fun to do.