URGENT Moving Nest with young Squabs.

[jak2002003]

I have an urgent problem, so please can anyone help?

My fantail pigeons hatched out 2 squabs.... and I am sure my chickens are going to eat the baby pigeons!!!

I keep my non breeding pigeons with my bantam chickens. I did not notice this pair had a nest in one of the chickens nest boxes. Yesterday I was cleaning them out and saw the nest and the 2 squabs. They are only days old.

I need to move the nest!!!!

Last year another pair nested in the chicken coop and the squabs got eaten within days.

I don't want to loose these!!!

Can I move the nest into a cage with the squabs and parents? Or will the pigeons abandon the squabs?

I am busy with work at the moment and don't have the time to hand raise them.

Any one ever had experience moving a pigeon nest with young squabs in it?

 

[Hokum Coco]

My fantail pigeons hatched out 2 squabs.... and I am sure my chickens are going to eat the baby pigeons!!!

Tampering with a pigeon nest usually ends badly. If you could put a door on the nest box to isolate the pigeons from the chickens would be the safest bet.

If only for a week to give your squabs that required pigeon milk. You chances are greatly improved if hand rearing is your last resort.

It that is not possible you have no choice but to move the nest. Try to keep things in tact as much as possible with the original nesting material. That may increase your odds in my opinion.

You may be lucky and they may except the move. Odds are against you my friend speaking from my experience (every pair is different).

Fantails (no experience) I hear are excellent foster parents and more excepting than homers (which I raise).

Keep us posted hope things work out for you.

I like pictures HINT HINT.

 

[sourland]

I have only ever tried to move young squabs once, and the parents stopped brooding/feeding them. In my experience the older the squabs and the more experienced their parents are at raising, the greater the chance of success in moving squabs.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have lost squabs by just cleaning up a nesting site and not what I would consider tampering with the nest. Never again!

 

[jak2002003]

Well, I am not going to move the nest now after all the good advise.

This morning I got up really early just after sunrise to let the chickens out and shut them out of the coop. The 2 pigeon squabs are still there.

Today I am going to try to make a cage around the nest box. I will put food and water in there and the squabs parents. I still can not work out which one is the father / mother. All my fantials are pure white and look the same!!!!

I hope they won't abandon the nest because they get disturbed by the cage thing I am going to fix over it.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Well, I am not going to move the nest now after all the good advise. NO do not even try and clean it. Keep in mind they will be fledged in 30 days and basically on their own.

This morning I got up really early just after sunrise to let the chickens out and shut them out of the coop. The 2 pigeon squabs are still there. That is good NEWS! They grow exponetially at this stage and there chances for survival improve every single day.

Today I am going to try to make a cage around the nest box. I will put food and water in there and the squabs parents. I still can not work out which one is the father / mother. All my fantials are pure white and look the same!!!! Males (in some lofts have blue elastic leg bands) usually cover the nest for the greater portion of the day and females at night (in some lofts have pink elastic leg bands). In time you develope an instinct to gender of a pigeon (it is not always right however but more than not)

I hope they won't abandon the nest because they get disturbed by the cage thing I am going to fix over it. I think it is your best option even if it is only for a short duration. The parents will probably lay another clutch of eggs in about 2 more weeks or less in a perfect world (just a heads up) and the male will tend to the squabs while the female does most of the incubating. If things are going well with your first squabs you may consider taking the 2nd clutch of eggs away from the parents.

Quote:

Check out the link the pigeon bowing and circling is ♂male the bird walking is ♀female: