The pigeons won't sit!

[NatJ]

Also, in the future, please don't take out the eggs to feed to you lizard. If you do this they will keep laying and the hen will become sick and maybe die from the stain of all that calcium going out of her body to make the egg shells. It's better to replace the eggs with fake, and let them sit on them until they get bored.

Replacing the eggs with fakes makes sense, but why not feed the real eggs to the lizard after the switch?

 

[jak2002003]

Replacing the eggs with fakes makes sense, but why not feed the real eggs to the lizard after the switch?

Yes, you can feed the eggs to the lizard if you replace the real eggs with fake for the pigeon pair. I thought you meant you were just going to keep taking eggs as the pigeon laid them... which would make her keep laying eggs and make her ill.

You can even eat the eggs yourself. I used to boil them and mix them with a salad like quails eggs (when I had too many birds).

 

[tacothechicken]

@jak2002003 luckily I do understand pigeon laying patterns somewhat so no I haven't just been removing the eggs, I have quite a few fakes laying around now that I no longer have homers, I've also given them a little dish with calcium and such so Soup (hen) can get herl fill, in case she does become a constant layer. Luckily she seems to take a good 30 days between laying eggs at the minimum so I don't think it'll become an issue. Thanks for the concern though, I definitely don't want my feathery friends getting sick

 

[tacothechicken]

On another note my other pair Cannoli and Crumpet, like their fake eggs and have been sitting regularly so hopefully I can use them as possible fosters in the future should Wallace and Soup fail to follow through on whenever the next parenting attempt may be.
Here's Crumpet my hen sitting on a "egg"

 

[tacothechicken]

@trahana one of my pair is a 2019 show girl and my boy is a 5yr old breeder. It's the hen who gets off the nest and then Wallace gives up about 3-4 days later because duh being a single dad is hard and there's no one to 'cover shifts' as they say. They are right by a window so they get light but it's pretty dark in winter so maybe she's just getting thrown off. Wallace has it down but Soup less so. My other pair is much more diligent, they just aren't laying so everyone has fakes right now and any babies will likely be fostered by the 2nd pair until summer at earliest, to prevent the chances of mishaps.

 

[tacothechicken]

Baby hatched this afternoon and Crumpet and Cannoli love it they're having a civil dispute over who gets to do night shift....