pigeon eggs

Pigeon Eggs

Normally the first of the two eggs laid appears about ten days after pairing and at 4.00-5.00pm. There may be the odd exception to this rule, but only on rare occasions have I heard of hens laying their first egg in the morning. The other egg islaid approximately 42 hours later - a little before noon on the second day after the first egg is laid. Incubation is about eighteen days from the laying of the second egg. Sitting on the eggs is shared by both sexes with the hen taking the largest part; normally she will sit from 4.00 or 5.00pm throughout the night until about 10.00-11.00am in the morning, when the cock bird will take over. While the latter is on the nest, thelien will have her exercise, and for this reason most fanciers tryto coax their hens outside around this time in the morning. If a fancier has to go to work this can present problems, but usually there is someone in the family who will release the hens for exercise.

When the eggs have hatched, both male and female birds take their turn in feeding. During the period of sitting on the eggs, a cream-like substance commonly known as 'pigeonmilk' forms in and adheres to the wall of the crop of both parent birds. Composed mainly of protein and fat, this softfood feeds the youngsters for the first three or four days.Newly hatched birds are devoid of feathers, but are covered with a small amount of yellow down. They grow quickly,doubling their size at about 5 days old, and they soon begin to grow their feathers.

It is during this time that a young bird's identity ring should be placed on its leg - when it is 7-8 days old. Some strainshave much bigger feet than others, and so need ringing a day or two earlier. Check the next day that the ring has stayed on the leg, for it is a tragedy if a good young bird loses its ring as this will prevent it ever being raced. The ring is quite easily slipped round the three toes and pushed along the leg towards the body over the back claw which, being rather like a piece of soft gristle, can be eased out from the ring with no harm to the bird. This ring will now be on the bird's leg for life, because a few days later it will not be possible to remove it without extensive damage to the bird's foot.

Around the sixth or seventh day, the young birds start to take different food, again with both parent birds taking part inthe feeding. The latter fill their crops with corn, and after a short while regurgitate that food and literally pump it into the young birds. At about 14 days old the young birds will be almost fully feathered, and from around the age of 20 or 21days you will see them beginning to move around in the nest-box and find them chasing the older birds in the hope of food. Shortly after this you may even see them, if there is corn available, picking up the grain for themselves.
Between the age of 24-28 days, the young birds are ready tobe weaned from their parents. In some cases this weaning process can be adopted considerably earlier. I have been able to wean birds at 18-21 days old because they were forward in trying to pick up corn for themselves and were thus ready tobe taken into the weaning pen to progress to the next stage in their development.

The earlier weaning can be done the better it is for your old birds, because the pumping of food into their youngsters requires a great deal of energy and can drain them consider-ably. For this reason young birds should not be allowed to stay with their parents after about 26 days. Early weaning also protects the youngsters from attack by older birds: cocks inparticular will badly injure or even kill a young bird that strays into the wrong nest-box. In addition, young birds make better progress if they can be weaned quite early. On the other hand,do not rush things at this point. Just keep your eyes open sothat you notice exactly when the young birds are attempting to feed from the pots of food which you have in the nest-boxes.

When the young birds are approximately 14-16 days old,the hen will normally lay the first egg of her second clutch and this is again followed at the 42-hour interval by the second egg. Some fanciers prefer to replace these eggs with chalk,china or plastic ones on which the birds will sit in the norma lway. This is an obvious advantage because the old birds will not be subjected to the strain of rearing the young birds hatched from this second round of eggs. We cannot expect pigeons to be continually rearing youngsters. The eggs can be discarded, or passed to 'feeder' pigeons to hatch and rear.Naturally, if they are stock birds, they can be allowed to sit and rear the second clutch. Some birds will try to take over a second nest-box for this purpose, so watch out for fighting at this time.