# Disappearing Eggs



## Fever

Something strange has happened to the pigeons I watch - their eggs have vanished. They had two to start, which were laid maybe two weeks ago. I noticed one had vanished a couple of days ago, and yesterday the other one had some black spots. It might have been dirt, it has been raining a lot lately and things have been a bit messy out there.

This morning, a pigeon was sitting on the egg, but now the nest is empty. No shells, no baby birds, nothing. Do they move nesting locations? I have been out there cleaning and feeding them, but maybe it upset them. I know eggs don't just disappear, there's an abandoned egg that's been out there for months and hasn't biodegraded or anything. I've never seen any predators either.

I did find a dead baby bird, but it was at an old nest site. Maybe my pigeons are bad parents.


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## Charis

Fever, 
The first thing that comes to mind are rodents. Either mice or rats are getting to your birds, most probably at night and eating the eggs. That being said, what kind of enclosure do you keep your birds?


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## Fever

They are wild, they just live on my disused covered balcony. I'm on the second floor and have never seen any rodents or any sign of them ever, but I won't rule mice out though. My downstairs neighbours are... less than hygienic. I really hope it's something else. I enjoy my pigeon infestation, but not if it gets out of hand and starts leading to a total creature takeover of my home.  

There's still the month-old egg, too. I'm sure if there were predators of some kind, they would have taken that egg. But it's still there, still intact.


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## Lovebirds

I have seen birds get into a fight, break the egg, it sticks to the belly of whoever is sitting at the time, they fly from the nest, the egg drops into the floor.........in your case, I guess it would be dropped into the street. If there are any sqabbles going on amongst the parents and other pigeons, this could explain it.


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## Charis

I suppose they could also be eating the eggs if they need the calcium.


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## Florencevegan

I find empty shells and I feel sure it is the magpies who attack the eggs and eat the unborn squabs. :_(
Florencevegan


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## warriec

I say that the when the new born babies are out the smell and noice attract rodents which in turn attack the babies leaving the shell.


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## Charis

There you go, Fever. A cornucopia of explanations.  
Let us know if you figure it out.


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## Fever

I still don't think it's rodents. We're just too far from the ground for them to get up here, and me and my downstairs neighbours own three cats. So dirty as they are, I just don't see rodents being successful (I used to have centipedes). I never hear them scratching in the walls, either. I don't think there are magpies in Quebec, where I live.

I did spot the eggs today in the back of the 'roost', where it's very dark. They were broken, but still partly intact. I've noticed a few of the pigeon cliques beginning to fight. The blue-grey plain ones live on the floor, the enormous checkered winged and white mottled ones live in the rafters, and the black and dark grey ones live in the back where there's no light (I like to think that's because they're evil). 

I've noticed some scuffles when the young dark birds that are two young to fly try to walk past the grey birds' nest to the seeds, and the greys get very territorial and attack. They've never built their nest in such a high-traffic area before, so this could be the reason. It's rainy today so I might not go out, but when I do, I'll try to get some pictures of the eggshell, see if this theory works. From the look of it, the eggs are mostly intact.


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## Fever

I'll try to find something with calcium in it, too. I assume this means those poor things are going to lay another batch. Anyone have a suggestion as to what might make a good supplement?


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## jdjd

grit maybe?


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## Florencevegan

So that's why my friends eat grit, when I have laid wonderful expensive wild bird seeds/grains?! Off they go to a little mound (dug out of the concrete by soil testers) and peck at (what I think is) nothing. Just getting their mineral supplements, as we vegans do! LOL. They are so smart.
Florence.


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## Charis

Fever said:


> I'll try to find something with calcium in it, too. I assume this means those poor things are going to lay another batch. Anyone have a suggestion as to what might make a good supplement?


They like oyster shell and it's available in large supply at feed /farm stores or smaller amount at a pet shop.


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## Fever

Alright, I'll make a trip out to a petstore to see if I can find anything you've suggested. I think it will still help. But just to update again, when I went back further into the roost and looked around, I found four or five eggs, some shells and two intact. I may never know what's going on, if they were kicked out of the nest, or if they were crushed. I can only conclude that they just built their nest in a bad location:











I took this picture a couple of weeks ago when they had just built the nest. Maybe there was just two much traffic of pigeons walking through that space, and the eggs got caught in a fight for territory. I feel terrible for the parent pigeons. I will get rid of the table that's blocking up the balcony, and set them up some milk crates to nest and climb on.


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## Charis

Fever, That would be a really nice thing to do.


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## Pixy

Does the enormous one have a leg band?


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