Using Pigeons for Quail Eggs

[nayeli]

Anyone ever tried using pigeons to incubate quail eggs?

 

[pigeons in ak]

I have,
I put 3 to 4 eggs under a pair of homing pigeons and in 17-18 days they hatch i leave the quail chicks under the pigeons until the chicks dry. then i take them out and put them in to a brooder, because once they dry off they are going to explore and then they might fall out of the nest and most likely get kill from the drop.
pigeons incubate quail eggs much better then a broody hen .

hope this helps

 

[nayeli]

That does help. I heard hens can give the quail disease etc so I was hoping that pigeons would be safer as far as disease and weight =)

 

[nayeli]

Will your pigeon still lay when incubating the quail eggs?

 

[210175]

yes, she will, as long as she has mated with a male nothing will stop her from laying, but nothing bad would happen and she would sit and cover all the eggs, At the moment my pigeon is covering 4 eggs due to some difficulties from another pair.

 

[nayeli]

That is awesome thank you!

 

[pigeons in ak]

Will your pigeon still lay when incubating the quail eggs?

I keep putting quail and bantam chicken eggs under my pair so they won't lay their own eggs

 

[jak2002003]

Anyone ever tried using pigeons to incubate quail eggs?

Yes.. It can work, but some eggs will get crushed... and also some chicks will get trampled to death if you don't get them out quick enough.

I have used pigeons to hatch out quail and bantam chicken eggs.

Once the chicks are hatched you need to get them out of there and into a brooder ASAP.

 

[nayeli]

Thank you all. I think I will give it a try and hopefully it works well enough otherwise I will just incubate like everyone else but I am hoping to avoid that.. but I might need to anyway since the pigeons can only incubate around 3 at a time.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Try it? Any update?