# How long after the eggs hatch will the hen lay here next two eggs?



## zimmzimm3

How long after the babies hatch will the hen lay the next two eggs. I had some problems (i am pretty sure dealing with nutrition) and this is the first time that my pigeons have hatched eggs so i was wondering to the pairs always start sitting on the next 2 eggs right away or do they sometimes not sit on eggs right away. Thanks


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## Matt D.

They usually relay about the time the parents don't have to sit on the birds 24/7 or at least a week after the birds are big enought to sit in the nest for 2 or 3 hours by themselves and are ok.


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## MaryOfExeter

When the babies hatch from the eggs, the parents normally don't start laying another clutch until the first is out of the nest, or is old enough to get out (sometimes they're stubborn and don't want to leave). It takes about...eh....25 days for the young to get weaned off. If the parents have another nesting site, they may start their second clutch before the first young leave the nest. Personally, I think it's better to keep the pair in a cage with only one nest bowl so they aren't tempted to lay again. Having babies constantly can take a lot out of a poor little hen, so the short time between weaning and the next clutch is important to replenish her calcium and whatnot. I like to keep my pairs doing things slowly...one pair of babies at a time...so I get the best young I can. If you keep breeding the pair constantly sometimes the quality of the young starts to get lower....because the parents are just working themselves too hard.

That's just my opinion on things


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## Matt D.

I agree fully... to discourage hens from relaying after the birds get "quilly" Many pull the cock out and just leave the hen to feed for 2 or 3 weeks... and then when she has those babies out of the nest let her get back to normal and then through that male back in and repeat.


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## Lovebirds

Ok guys..........hate to disagree with you but..............MOST pairs will start another nest when the babies are approx. 2 weeks old. I had a bird with 11 day old babies that laid her second set of eggs. Most of my babies are between 14 and 17 days old and ALL of my hens are on their second set of eggs. They do not wait until their present babies are weaned. Once the hen lays again, Daddy takes over the biggest part of feeding the youngsters. If a hen wants to lay again, NOT having a bowl isn't going to stop her. She'll either lay "where ever" OR she'll lay her eggs in the bowl where the babies are now and that most likely will result in broken eggs. If you want to spread out the time between babies, then the best thing to do is replace the second eggs with plastic eggs and just let her sit on them. Actually, that is just fine to do IF your birds are there for your enjoyment only.
Raising racing pigeons is different. We like to get our babies as soon as we can. THAT'S why racing people separate their birds after breeding season is over. 
If you let your hens lay and raise babies constantly, then it isn't good for them. We for the most part raise two, maybe three rounds and we're done for the year. 
For what it's worth, this is what I do. When my babies are 10 days old, the parents get another nest bowl. That gives them plenty of time to build another nest before the eggs are laid.
Another note........Matt........what you described doing, IMO, isn't the answer. To make a hen raise TWO babies alone without the help of her mate to feed them is just as much of a strain on her as it would be to go ahead and lay another set of eggs. 
Again, IMO........pigeons are pretty darn good at knowing how they are supposed to go about raising their family. I feel it's best to keep them fed and healthy and let THEM decide how to do things. It's not normal for ONE parent to raise both babies.
Think about it this way. You take the cock and make the hen raise two babies for two weeks all alone. THEN after she's done the work that nature meant to be done by TWO birds, you put her mate back in to chase/drive her and she lays another set of eggs, only to do the same thing again.


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## zimmzimm3

Right now i have them in a cage and i don't have nest boxes built yet (i am building my loft this spring i am so excited lol) but i have about 4 nest bowls in the same area right now that is the only pair i have sitting so will the hen just chose another bowl? Also will the cock prepare the nest again? Thanks


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## Guest

i agree with Renee .. thats alot of work for a hen to take on when she has to take care of the majority of the work in the first place ,why place that kind of stress on her  how long has it been since your babies hatched and how small is this cage you have them all in and last but not least how many pairs do you have put together ? having babies in with lots of pairs in a small cage is trouble just waiting to happen because when babies get to close to another pairs territory they can be brutal on a baby in a very short time and scalping is just the tip of the iceburg of what a male and felmale can do to a squabbie that got to close to their nest bowl or corner of a cage


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## zimmzimm3

It is about 8' by 2' and it is my only pair in there. I have 4 other pigeons in there but no more pairs I am trying to pair them up lol but no luck so fair lol


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## Charis

LokotaLoft said:


> i agree with Renee .. thats alot of work for a hen to take on when she has to take care of the majority of the work in the first place ,why place that kind of stress on her  how long has it been since your babies hatched and how small is this cage you have them all in and last but not least how many pairs do you have put together ? having babies in with lots of pairs in a small cage is trouble just waiting to happen because when babies get to close to another pairs territory they can be brutal on a baby in a very short time and scalping is just the tip of the iceburg of what a male and felmale can do to a squabbie that got to close to their nest bowl or corner of a cage


I agree with Renee and LokotaLoft, for what it's worth.


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## zimmzimm3

The current squab is 23 days old and still no eggs?? Why could this be. Thanks


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## Matt D.

zimmzimm3 said:


> The current squab is 23 days old and still no eggs?? Why could this be. Thanks


Parents might not be ready to have another pair of eggs, give them time. Nothing is going to go wrong.


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## stach_n_flash

*"Ok guys..........hate to disagree with you but..............MOST pairs will start another nest when the babies are approx. 2 weeks old. I had a bird with 11 day old babies that laid her second set of eggs. Most of my babies are between 14 and 17 days old and ALL of my hens are on their second set of eggs. They do not wait until their present babies are weaned. Once the hen lays again, Daddy takes over the biggest part of feeding the youngsters. If a hen wants to lay again, NOT having a bowl isn't going to stop her."*

Have had quite the same experiences with my pigeons. So I agree with you.


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## learning

zimmzimm3 said:


> The current squab is 23 days old and still no eggs?? Why could this be. Thanks


Hey Zimmzimm,

For what it's worth I have a pair that layed an egg and two days later I found the egg on the floor crushed.  That was over a month ago and they just now layed another clutch. Sometimes they just refuse to read the textbook on these matters.  As long as they are getting good food, good grit, plenty of vitamins and minerals available to them, adequate nest material, etc., I would just give them time. They will probably come around soon. You just can't rush mother nature sometimes.

On a side note, when I first got my breeding stock in the fall they really didn't show much interest in each other. Once I started giving them weekly baths they seemed to relax and started showing more interest. I also started putting the nest material in the aviary so they had to "forage" for it similar to the way they would in the wild. I don't know if it had any direct influence or not but I think all of this helped create a more natural, comfortable environment for them. Once they felt safe and that their surroundings could provide what they needed, they seemed to get down to business and now it is like a little pigeon factory in there!  

You might want to try some of these things and see if they work for you.

Dan


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## k-will

the best way to put the least amount of stress on the hens in my opinion is...let them breed their 2 or 3 rounds and be done with it.then they have the rest of the year to build back up.as i say this,you must:keep plenty of feed in the room at all times....plenty of vitamins,minerals,good grit,healthy environment,etc.do not,i repeat,do not remove the cock and force the hen to overwork herself.your young will be small,not filled out as need be.let them lay as natural as possible.they know what they can do.make sure they have a second bowl to lay in.once i have a hen for awhile,i can usually put the straw,etc in the new bowl and she will lay in the new one with the babys in the other.


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## Lovebirds

You can't MAKE a hen lay an egg. That's for sure. She'll do what SHE wants to do WHEN she wants to do it and you can't change that. I've got 28 eggs in the widowhood loft that should hatch in the next few days. One hen (which would have made 30 eggs) just laid her FIRST egg last night.


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## k-will

there is always 1... 

i dont know how you start your system later in the process,but it shouldnt be a problem.


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## Lovebirds

k-will said:


> there is always 1...
> 
> i dont know how you start your system later in the process,but it shouldnt be a problem.


Well, I'll tell you what I did. I let 2 days go by after that 14th pair had laid their eggs. This one hen didn't lay, but she spent a lot of time in the bowl, so I gave her 2 dummy eggs. She took to them right away just like she had laid them herself. I plan on giving her one baby to raise from one of the pairs that laid close to her. That way, she'll be in sinc with the rest of the crew. I just threw her egg away and will take the second one too. 
I did this with a hen who stopped laying a couple of years ago. She sat on dummy eggs and when she had been on them for about 2 weeks, I gave her a set of babies to raise from another pair. She did just fine. Them incubating eggs is what causes the crop milk to produce so if a pair will sit on the dummy eggs long enough, they can raise a baby from day one.


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## eric98223

im a racer too and i would agree that the birds know what is best. i dont allow my birds to mate all year because it will interfere with my racing and i would have like 1000 birds very quickly but i do let them start about thanksgiving. after the first round of eggs were in process we got a very cold snap here. i found that all the eggs laid in that period were only one per nest was fertile. i cant help but think that mother nature has something to do with that in some way. for the most part i have been letting them do their thing by themselves. of course there are a lot of people on here who have forgotten more than i will ever know about birds. i am learning every day. and this is an awesome place to do it!


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## Lovebirds

eric98223 said:


> im a racer too and i would agree that the birds know what is best. i dont allow my birds to mate all year because it will interfere with my racing and i would have like 1000 birds very quickly but i do let them start about thanksgiving. after the first round of eggs were in process we got a very cold snap here. i found that all the eggs laid in that period were only one per nest was fertile. i cant help but think that mother nature has something to do with that in some way. for the most part i have been letting them do their thing by themselves. of course there are a lot of people on here who have forgotten more than i will ever know about birds. i am learning every day. and this is an awesome place to do it!


In order to raise babies in cold weather, which is NOT what mother nature intended, you have to sometimes "help" them out. 
I also raise early babies. Once my birds have been together for about 6 days, I got out to the loft every night and check for eggs. If someone laid an egg, I take the egg, give her a dummy egg, mark who's egg it is and bring it in the house. Two days later, after she has laid her second egg, I give the first one back to her. Give you a much better hatch ratio. You do have to keep very good records though, or you'll get eggs mixed up and will wind up with babies that you have no idea who the parents are.


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## pigeon adict

your hen must be a [super][super] breeder!!!!!


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## GrizzleMan

stach_n_flash said:


> *"Ok guys..........hate to disagree with you but..............MOST pairs will start another nest when the babies are approx. 2 weeks old. I had a bird with 11 day old babies that laid her second set of eggs. Most of my babies are between 14 and 17 days old and ALL of my hens are on their second set of eggs. They do not wait until their present babies are weaned. Once the hen lays again, Daddy takes over the biggest part of feeding the youngsters. If a hen wants to lay again, NOT having a bowl isn't going to stop her."*
> 
> Have had quite the same experiences with my pigeons. So I agree with you.



I also agree..................


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