...A male driving the female AWAY from the nest? Lucy laid an egg today and she's trying to sit close to it but Eggbert won't allow her to, he keeps chasing her out of the nest box. At first I thought that maybe he was trying to sit on it himself because this was in the afternoon when, technically, it's the male's turn on the eggs. However, once he chases her out of the nest box, he doesn't stay in there himself.

My birds are weird.

Brad wrote:...A male driving the female AWAY from the nest? Lucy laid an egg today and she's trying to sit close to it but Eggbert won't allow her to, he keeps chasing her out of the nest box. At first I thought that maybe he was trying to sit on it himself because this was in the afternoon when, technically, it's the male's turn on the eggs. However, once he chases her out of the nest box, he doesn't stay in there himself.

My birds are weird.

I'd wait and see what happens with the second egg.
You know, some may think I'm crazy, however.......I DO believe that if pairs of birds are given dummy eggs continously their entire life and never allowed to raise a baby, that they CAN and WILL eventually give up on each other (or one give up on the other) and look for a new mate. We say that pigeons mate for life and that may well be true in a NATURAL setting, but passing out plastic eggs year in and year out is NOT natural, so how do we know what happens with the feral birds that lay infertile eggs time and time again?
Think about it.
I pass out dummy eggs all the time, BUT, my birds are allowed to raise babies certain times of the year. I've never had a pair of birds that I never allowed to raise one single baby, so maybe that's a problem?
Animals period, do not "fall in love" in the sense that we think about love. Their whole reason to be on this earth is to pass their genes on to the next generation. That's all they know to do.
I don't know. Just thinking out loud.

Thanks Renee,

This thought never entered my mind and that perhaps Eggbert has become frustrated or "tired" of Lucy. When you think about it, he's been with two hens over nearly 8 years and had no success. He's a terrible father pigeon too, but maybe you are onto something in your theory!

I feel bad for Lucy though, as she's only trying to do what her instincts tell her and Eggbert isn't allowing her to do so.

I hope things work out for the better with the second egg.
I have never seen that happen but I do have a weird story of my own.
I have a pair of YB that are sitting on dummy eggs.
In the last week I have noticed that the cock has switched hens.
They one that laid the eggs is not the one that is sitting on them now.
Crazy pigeons LOL

Hey Ed,

It's no worries because I'm not trying to breed my pigeons, and the eggs are always replaced unfortunately. Hopefully though and like you say things will work out better after the 2nd egg is laid and Eggbert will leave Lucy alone.

Yeah, that's a weird one for you too! LOL. So, this hen will be step mom to any babies that hatch.

Interesting, Brad and Ed.

I thought the males sat early in the day and the females later in the day and night. That's what Peter did at ASU.

Dom and Gimie NEVER have fertile eggs, so what then? AND, I have to give wooden dummies because Gimie has broken the eggs due to her bad leg. Gimie RARELY seems interested in sitting but will, at times, later in the day. Woe is much more protective of their home than Gimie. I'm STILL trying to figure out if Gimie is really the hen! If so, she's very aggressive. The last set they laid, I watched and watched for the second egg which was due on a Sunday (first was laid Friday). What did she do? Laid the second one on MONDAY. Guess they didn't like me watching!

Gee, Brad, maybe you should just break down and let them raise at least ONE baby??

And, Ed, we will be waiting to see who the real momma is gonna be!!

Love and Hugs
Shi

Brad wrote:
My birds are weird.

Ya think?

Serously though, hope they settle down and get back to normal. I know how worrisome it is when pets start exhibiting unusual behavior and you can't figure out why.

Linda

Gladys Chardon wrote:Hi Brad, Selfishly I'm glad that I am not the only one to be taken aback by the unexpected behaviour of our feathered tormentors.

I bet you are Gladys and that's ok. I don't have all the answers about pigeon behaviour that's for sure and there are times my birds do things I just don't understand. No second egg yet and they are both sitting in the nest box this morning....so maybe he's calmed down.

Thanks Linda and Shi for the moral support but Shi I just cannot allow them to raise even one chick. I know I've mentioned a couple of times here before that Eggbert is a lousy parent. He doesn't sit on the eggs properly, usually they are not even underneath him when it's his turn to incubate. He doesn't even attempt to collect them under himself. And most importantly, I'm sure he was responsible for killing several sets of chicks that he and Henny did hatch back in 2002 and 2003. All those chicks ended up dead in the nest within a day or two after hatching. It wasn't until I intervened, took a set of fertile eggs away from them just before their hatch date, took them over to Mary's house for her birds to continue sitting on and raise themselves. Those two birds of course are Lucy and Ricky.

*sigh* Well, I guess it's too much to hope that Eggbert might have changed his evil ways? Too bad Lucy couldn't raise one baby alone without worrying about Eggbert...

Sounds like things may be settling down...hope so.

Meanwhile, we will send LOVE, HUGS and extra SCRITCHES!

Shi and the gang

I do sympathise with you with the whole constant egg-laying thing, no babies and behavioural issues. My two are obviously never going to raise a clutch either but they keep churning out the eggs all the same. This evening when I was locking the birds up for the night. I noticed a smashed egg on the floor well away from the nest. I still don't know how it got there as an egg can't roll out of the nest box they are in. They have both recently laid 2 eggs each as I counted just the other day...so how did this smashed egg come to be where it was??? It was underneath a shelf that would be perfectly explained if one of them had just pushed their vent over the edge of the shelf and laid one to drop to the floor..but they don't lay anymore than 2 at a time do they? I didn't want to disturb Jax who was sitting on the eggs in the nest so it will be interesting to find out if there is now only 3 eggs left tomorrow. They can't surely pick up an egg and toss it can they?

Jax&Paddy wrote:I do sympathise with you with the whole constant egg-laying thing, no babies and behavioural issues. My two are obviously never going to raise a clutch either but they keep churning out the eggs all the same. This evening when I was locking the birds up for the night. I noticed a smashed egg on the floor well away from the nest. I still don't know how it got there as an egg can't roll out of the nest box they are in. They have both recently laid 2 eggs each as I counted just the other day...so how did this smashed egg come to be where it was??? It was underneath a shelf that would be perfectly explained if one of them had just pushed their vent over the edge of the shelf and laid one to drop to the floor..but they don't lay anymore than 2 at a time do they? I didn't want to disturb Jax who was sitting on the eggs in the nest so it will be interesting to find out if there is now only 3 eggs left tomorrow. They can't surely pick up an egg and toss it can they?

No, they can't pick up an egg and toss it. People "say" that their birds THROW eggs out of a nest, but I've never seen such a thing. An egg wind up in the floor over a fight? Sure. But for a pigeon to purposely throw an egg out.......well,, it just don't happen IMO.
Most likely scenario is that the egg may have gotten stuck to the bottom of one of the birds with poop and the egg dropped when they left the nest. I've seen THAT happen a few times. Laying 3 eggs isn't common, but it does happen sometimes. I had a hen who laid three eggs two different times in her life. She and her mate were in a pen all alone, so I KNOW for sure that she laid all three. All three hatched too, however, I fostered one egg both times. She didn't raise all three babies.

I think some males, sometimes, get into the 'driving' mode so much, they forget what they are 'driving' at...or about...

I have seen Pigeons flying and landing and so on, with an Egg 'glued' to their underside...where, for having cracked in the Nest and they were sitting on it, the Albumen leaking out, glued it onto them.

Never seen anyone here lay 'three' Eggs...but, I have had many situaions where parents of two infants or even juveniles, gladly adopted another, to be raising three.

Had a situaion in here recently, where one Nest had four Eggs, all lain within a few days...one male had two Wives/Hens, and they all got along fine, often sitting together all-three at once, or sitting in twos of one combination or another.

I pulled and subbed the Eggs though...wish I had not felt the need to do so, but, I need to keep the 'Ooooops!' Babys from happening but for a rare treat...so...oh, sigh, would have been quite a scene, four Babys in one Nest, and three parents.

Phil

pdpbison wrote:I think some males, sometimes, get into the 'driving' mode so much, they forget what they are 'driving' at...or about...

Hi Phil...this is a good theory too! Yes, I suppose Eggbert could be in total driving mode and got himself all worked up so that he was doing the wrong thing! He's a bad bird though, you'd have to know him.

pdpbison wrote:I have seen Pigeons flying and landing and so on, with an Egg 'glued' to their underside...where, for having cracked in the Nest and they were sitting on it, the Albumen leaking out, glued it onto them.

Yes, I've had this too unfortunately, with Ricky. Since she's a single bird laying eggs on her own, I don't often replace them with dummies and a few times she's broken them and had them "glued" to her underbelly. Quite a tricky operation to get those cemented eggs off her feathers and chest I'll tell you! I've learned my lesson though and it's fake eggs for her from now on!

pdpbison wrote:Never seen anyone here lay 'three' Eggs...but, I have had many situaions where parents of two infants or even juveniles, gladly adopted another, to be raising three.

I've had my Lucy lay three eggs twice, but the third was mishapen, deformed and soft shelled both times. I have a problem with my hens and calcium uptake but it's getting better now that I've got them on a strict regiment of vitamins, minerals, calcium and grit.

pdpbison wrote:Had a situaion in here recently, where one Nest had four Eggs, all lain within a few days...one male had two Wives/Hens, and they all got along fine, often sitting together all-three at once, or sitting in twos of one combination or another.

LMAO Phil, that must have been a riot to see....what a neat observation you had. I've seen my two pigeons sitting on the nest at the same time and it always make me smile and laugh

Thank you Renee and Phil for your answers in reply to my questions about the smashed egg. From what I could see this morning there appeared to be 3 eggs left in the nest underneath Paddy who was sitting them at the time. I suspect Jax 'dropped' the egg yesterday as she was sitting on them during the time the egg was broken. I must check to see if she has sticky eggy feathers!

I guess your male bird pigeon tries to act out as a father too. Maybe he wants to help out the mother bird of the eggs? No exact answer but be sure o always check out on the eggs to avoid broken eggs.