Racing Pigeon Pair - reproducing question

chics in the sun

Songster
9 Years
Apr 1, 2010
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St.Petersburg
I 'accidentally' ended up with a pair of racing pigeons this weekend. One is a juvinile male, who is already romancing and cooing the year-old female. I know they only lay two eggs per clutch, but how long do they take to hatch, and how long do they raise the babies before laying another clutch. I really didn't want a pair, but that is what we ended up with. In otherwords, how many offspring will they produce in a year? And is there an easy way to sex them so I can sell them as pairs if I need to?
 
They will lay a clutch of 2 eggs, and incubate them for 18 days. The babies grow sooo fast! In the first few days, they double their weight everyday! If I remember correctly they start their second clutch 2 weeks after the last has hatched. They will continue hatching clutchs year round if you let ( leave the nest boxs) but it's not good for them and burns them out really fast.
 
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Two Weeks!! So how do I keep them from continuing to keep making babies? Take the nest away - is that what you mean? There is no way I want them to be hatching pigeon babies every four and a half weeks! I read somewhere about taking the real eggs and putting in fake ones so she doesn't keep laying and laying. Which is best? Take out the nest thing or put in fake eggs?
 
Replace the eggs with artificial eggs. If you take out the nest box, they will pick another site and lay there. If you use artificial eggs, they will frequently incubate beyond the 18 day period. If you simply remove the eggs, the hen will recycle in about ten days. This process can be quite debilitating if you continue to take the eggs. Breeding activity will generally taper off during the winter months. You can also remove one egg from each round thereby halving your squab production. Sexing young birds can be quite a challenge. Some birds just look more masculine or feminine; however, some males appear more feminine (common in competition Birmingham rollers) and somehens appear more masculine. Sometimes even the pigeons get confused and two hens will mate or two c*cks will mate.
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Sometimes they will lay another clutch and start incubating while the first set are still in the nest. The babies are in the nest for a month and are then weaned.
If you don't want a bunch of babies, then replace their eggs with chicken, quail, guinea, or fake eggs. They will hatch the real eggs if they sit on them long enough.
 
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Other than pigeon supply places, I'm not sure. I put standard sized eggs under mine. That's why I have so many big sex-link looking things running around
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They pay no attention to the size difference.

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I've got his number, maybe I'll call and ask. Read the story on my thread about the swap - BF and his daughter even went to his place on Sunday!

That pigeon with the chick is TOO CUTE. But I have no roosters, so I would have to get just one or two fertilized eggs, which would be difficult here. I drove two hours for the ones my broody hatched out last month.

ilovepultry - maybe I'll order a set of fake pigeon eggs and we could share them, since we only need two each?
 
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