Recent content by Donal2308

Busy lives sometimes get in the way. But, have an incubator with 12 white leghorn eggs. Due to hatch tomorrow(ish). Took them off the rocker on Saturday. Can't keep up with the demand for my white pigeons. The white 'dove' release business is booming here and all my youngsters are being snapped...

Yes, true, will do. I'll report back.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm still watching her to see how it goes. When she's standing over the eggs, rather than sitting, I've felt the egg surface and they are cold. I think I'll destroy the eggs that are under her and wait a couple of weeks, see how she goes. I generally use an incubator...

I've a new broody hen. She's a White Leghorn cross. I don't know what breed the cross is, but she looks like a WL, but never had the yellow legs. She's about 18 months old and has just gone broody. The other hens are coming into the nest box and laying as normal. I've left her with 8 eggs, but...

Thanks for the reply. 4 weeks is when I wean the young birds. He's also too small and still very weak to put in with the other youngsters, so he's not getting a chance to watch others feeding themselves. I'd be afraid to put him in with a brood pair to be adopted by them. I think they'd peck the...

I had a nest raided by a rat and the nest mate killed and part eaten. The one who survived was abandoned by the parents and is blind in one eye from the rat attack. I've been feeding it with thawed frozen peas but it isn't making any effort to start feeding itself. Is it that it can't focus on...

hi there, if you are looking to have the birds flying for you you'll need to start with either breeding stock or young birds about 5-6 weeks old. The breeding stock, you'll keep till you have enough flying for you, then sell them on. The breeders will never fly for you. If you go with the...

I have two hens, one I bred and one is bought in as a stock bird. The stock hen has 12 offspring and the homebred one is a year old and has infertile eggs last year. The stock cock got out and flew away leaving the stock hen alone and the homebred's mate was found dead on the floor of the loft...

No, never did. The eggs that I put under the foster pair hatched, but the new parents only looked after one squab, the second one died within a few days. They then lost interest in the first one and he died at 14 days.

Thanks for your replies. I tried taking the stronger one out for a couple of hours each day, but I think the runt was too far gone. It died. The parents aren't great, the second one isn't very well developed either. I'm keeping an eye on him and might remove him and feed him by hand. Thanks again.

I have a pair of youngsters about a week old. One has grown normally but the other is less than half its siblings size. For the last couple of days, I've been checking their croups and the bigger one always seems to have a full one, but the other is almost empty. The stronger one is now...

I had a stock bird (cock) for about 13 months. He was a year old when I got him. He got out of the stock aviary and left. His hen was on eggs for about a week and they had raised a total of 8 other youngsters. He never came back. I had another pair of pigeons on eggs for the same time, so I...

Superb quality pictures.

Every day is a learning day. Thanks for all the info. Much appreciated. I must take a photo of a mottled red/brown youngster so I have a before and after. The mottled one has white parents and grandparents.

Thanks for the answers. The picture I have here is a full sibling to the bird in question. This one has black tips on its wings too (6 weeks old in the picture). However, I've sold this one so I won't be able to see if it changes to pure white. I'd be interested to know if any other pigeon...