Raising Pigeons

[chilling in muscadine]

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Now Now Sara, don't be too hard on the man, I mean, you should know you can't let us men go shopping without directions or a specific list!

I think maybe he was trying to do something to help cheer you up over the one pair being duds for the fourth time!

How is little sweet Petunia doing by the way?

I really am happy to have more pigeons but it would of been nice to at least see what we are getting. We have some major coop building that needs to happen real quick. My chickens have a place to live but the eggs want be pure until I get them seperated which is my plan.

As far as Pitunia, silkies stealing your soul has nothing on her. She is not crated anymore and has the run of the house. I had to work with my dogs to make sure they didn't hurt her. She is 13 weeks old now and I can't beleive how smart she is. I have also gotton myself another PBP. Her name is Stormy and she is just 9 days old. I'm having to bottle feed her. It's real funny because Pitunia always trys to take the bottle for herself. Stormy is crated for her safety. I don't think the dogs would hurt her but they might step on her. I do have a 80lb pitt bull living in the house. I'm having so much fun with these pigs. Pitunia is becoming quite famous in the area b/c I take here with me everywhere I go.

 

[FrChuckW]

Glad to hear that she is okay and now has a little sister. Watch their diet though as they can put on weight like nobody's business and become overweight.

As to the pigeons, when you get them, you can take pics and let us know what they are. One of the neighbors had one of those many years ago, unfortunately they didn't know how to care for it, and we had to call animal control to step in, they never cleaned it's pen and the poor thing was always out of water.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

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As soon as I get the pigeons I will get some pics for you to identify. Snakeman said they didn't look anything like the common homers we already have. Hey maybe we will have some nice birds after all.

I do know about the feeding problem with pigs so I'm staying on top of it. When Pitunia screams to eat and its not time yet I give her carrot sticks and stuff like that. She seems O.K. with it. I also have her on Mini Pig which is food especially for PBPs.

 

[chilling in muscadine]

We have our new pigeons now and we have them in seperate coop areas away from our original two. As it turned out we only got 10 new pigeons which brings our total to 12. The man we got them from had something break into his pen and killed 7 of the pigeons along with some of his chickens.

This is a sad note for the birds.

We got the pigeons awhile back but I have not posted about them yet. At the present time, we have two that are setting on eggs.

I don't want to jinx anything since my first pair sat many times with no results.

Just keep your fingers crossed guys and I really hope it will work out this time.

 

[Feathered Wings]

Congratulations on the eggs and Good Luck!!

Let us know how it go's

 

[LilPeeps]

Hope the eggs hatch for you!! Do you have any pics of the new birds?

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

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Have you been getting infertile eggs or are they just not hatching?
Do you know how old that pair is?

 

[chilling in muscadine]

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Have you been getting infertile eggs or are they just not hatching?
Do you know how old that pair is?

I really don't know. The first pair tried three times with no luck but the last batch of 10 I got the man said they did hatch some out. Im just hoping for some babies.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

Well there are 4 main things that cause infertile eggs.

1. Young birds that are first time parents (probably not your case as they've laid three clutches with no results)
2. Old birds who have gone infertile
3. Disease such as Paratyphoid, which can sometimes only effect the sex organs, making them infertile and not otherwise sickly
4. The feathers around the vent are too thick (common in fancy breeds like Fantails, but can also come up in just about any others)

If the eggs were fertile, but the embryo/squab died in the egg before hatching, either the parents let the eggs get too cold OR it could be a disease as well, like paratyphoid.

Chances are your pair are just old or were possibly born sterile. Try trimming the feathers around the vent on both birds, make sure they get plenty of sunlight and grit. Also don't leave food in the cage/loft all day. Feed them twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening. You can either A. feed 2 tablespoons of food per bird each feeding, OR B. put plenty of food in the cage/loft and let them get their fill for 10 (or 20, if there's more than just one pair in the cage) minutes, then take the food out until the next feeding. By having a feeding schedule like that, the birds are less likely to get fat. Fat birds make poor breeders, which could also contribute to problems with fertilizing the eggs. Sounds like a lot of trouble, but really it isn't.

I'd rather not jump to the disease conclusion, since having it isolate itself in just that area with no other signs, isn't all that common. But I will tell you that you can prevent paratyphoid/salmonella by putting a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the water everyday

ACV is really good for the birds and acts like a natural antibiotic. The more organic it is, the better.

 

[bock]

dude, GET A GRIP!!!