too many hens

[George and Morgan]

this happens when you have too many hens

[Andy]

Lol. I’ve got a pair of hens that pair3d together while split during the winter. When I put the hens in the racing section with they cocks they still staid paired together. They have just come off a pair of pot eggs and I think one has paired to one of the spare cocks.

[George and Morgan]

think it's 2 hens one cock

[Trev]

I've had a bit of that this year, two cocks one hen and one cock two hens
I had a baby killed today my fault really. I have two hens that laid in the same bowl and have been swapping sitting duties, during the day the cock bird sits fine but in the evening the hens keep chopping and changing. Their pot eggs were due hatch today so I had the stupid idea of moving a youngster from one of my stock pairs under them as I like my race team to rear a youngster before racing starts, this seemed to go well initially as the hen sitting seemed to readily accept the baby. I left the baby there while I did a couple of other jobs, when I went back to check (not much more than 5 minutes later) the other hen had taken the baby from the nest and was viciously pecking the poor baby to death the hen was covered in blood and the poor baby was just taking its last breaths nature really is quite cruel. I really need to stop interfering and just leave the birds alone when they are breeding.

[Andy]

That is such a shame Trev. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. I had a youngster 9 days old that wasn’t doing that well. I then realised that the hen was missing and as I had had the ETS running realised that she hadn’t registered so probably had been there for a few days so the cock had been looking after it on his own and although he was feeding it he wasn’t sitting on it at night and it was getting cold. I moved the youngster into a pair that were single rearing a youngster of about the same size and they are looking after it fine.

[Trev]

That is such a shame Trev. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. I had a youngster 9 days old that wasn’t doing that well. I then realised that the hen was missing and as I had had the ETS running realised that she hadn’t registered so probably had been there for a few days so the cock had been looking after it on his own and although he was feeding it he wasn’t sitting on it at night and it was getting cold. I moved the youngster into a pair that were single rearing a youngster of about the same size and they are looking after it fine.

Good to hear your baby is doing well now Andy
I'm really quite gutted about my poor little thing as it was quite happy where it was
I am certainly guilty of messing around too much, I should just leave them as they are and not worry if they all rear babies or not. I knew this could end badly but didn't expect it to happen so quick, pigeons can be nasty creatures

[Murray]

That's shame, Trev, but you were trying to do the right thing.
I had a similar thing this morning. I took a bowl with one squeaker out and put it in the box below while I took out some dirty paper. A few moments later the owner of that box had leaped up and was trying to kill the squeaker. Quick as that.
They are certainly heartless at times.
The strange thing is, often you will see 6 or 8 babies all piled in together in one nest box, and the pigeons take no notice. I think it's because they have their own pecking order, so to speak, and will allow certain things. When we but in, it upsets the natural order of things.

[George and Morgan]

Trev what i was told and found to be true in order for a pigeon to provide soft food in the first days it has to feel the egg chipping it may try and feed water or reject the yb

[Andy]

Trev what i was told and found to be true in order for a pigeon to provide soft food in the first days it has to feel the egg chipping it may try and feed water or reject the yb

I must agree with that George. I wouldn’t move a youngster until off of soft food under a pigeon that hadn’t chipped eggs. If moving eggs I like to do it well in advance of hatching.

[Murray]

Trev what i was told and found to be true in order for a pigeon to provide soft food in the first days it has to feel the egg chipping it may try and feed water or reject the yb

That's true, George.