# Two paired hens



## CooCooBird (Dec 1, 2016)

I have a bonded pair, and I recently concluded they are both hens. Eve is a Turkish Tumbler, Claudia is a Jacobin.

I originally thought Claudia was a male. When the two of them were introduced they bonded very quickly and were exhibiting courting behaviour. They then laid two pairs of eggs (my first clue but I also thought Eve had laid extra eggs). I candled the eggs and they were all duds. I removed the eggs and replaced them with two fakes, and they faithfully incubated the eggs for three weeks until they started showing signs of loss of interest. At that point I removed the plastic eggs. 

Now I'm pretty sure Claudia is female, because poor Eve has been desperately trying to get Claudia to mate with her, and Claudia is NOT cooperating. She coos, flattens herself down in front of Claudia, sits in the nest basket and coos, and even tries to climb between Claudia's legs and underneath her. She also reaches up and tugs or preens at Claudia's hood. Sometimes Claudia flattens down and coos, and of course Eve doesn't know what to make of that and tries to climb under Claudia again. 

They are still bonded, and spend time together with no fighting. I don't mind that they can't breed, though I expect they'll lay eggs again soon. They'll be getting extra calcium for egg laying. 

My only question is, if I ever acquire a Jacobin male for breeding with Claudia, will it be just as traumatic for her to be separated from her partner as it would be if her partner was the opposite sex?


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## FredaH (Apr 5, 2016)

To be honest I wouldn't really know myself but I would have thought the distress could be just the same as if a pair of different sex were separated. They have still bonded haven't they so I can't see any difference. One thing I would say is some males can be quite aggressive to their hens and very domineering - I wish my six had all been hens, what a peaceful life the girls would have had. 
My girls get on so well with each other when the boys are doing their stint of egg sitting but vice versa is not such a pleasure AND the boys make much more noise too, lol. Of course if you want to breed them then you'll have to decide what to do and perhaps best to separate then now before they become more closely bonded. 
It's a tough one for you but only you can decide and I'm sorry you're having all these hiccups while trying to do your best with your birds.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

We have two bonded females and two male-female pairs. As long as everybody has someone to be with things seem ok.


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## CooCooBird (Dec 1, 2016)

FredaH said:


> It's a tough one for you but only you can decide and I'm sorry you're having all these hiccups while trying to do your best with your birds.


I've actually become used to the unexpected when it comes to my pigeons. At first I planned on keeping one bird as a pet, then I saw two Jacobins for sale and couldn't resist the idea of breeding them. Unfortunately they weren't compatible. To this day I'm not sure why, since one has turned out to be a hen. But they were definitely fighting all the time and one had to go. Then I felt bad because Claudia was left here on her own, and I bought Eve the Turkish Tumbler hen. I'm just glad the two of them get along. I'm not in any hurry to break them up. Jacobins don't come up for sale very often anyway.

And, as a bonus, I ended up trading the other jac for a very nice kite Indian Fantail hen, I call her Ganache. I had wanted an Indian Fantail since before I got the Jacobins, but there weren't any available at the time. Now this week I bought a beautiful cock to hopefully breed with her. His name is Torrone. And Ganache actually makes a better pet right now because she's not obsessed with breeding. They have the run of my bedroom, I just put them in their cages at night. Ganache knows to fly to her cage when I tell her to go. She knows the other option is to be carried to the cage, which she hates. Here they are in their favourite spot, on top of the button quail cages.


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## CooCooBird (Dec 1, 2016)

cwebster said:


> We have two bonded females and two male-female pairs. As long as everybody has someone to be with things seem ok.


Yup. I'm happy if they're happy!  
I was a bit concerned about "frustration" because poor Eve isn't getting the full male treatment, and is trying to climb underneath Claudia all the time. But they seem fine together anyway.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Our paired females, Lucy and Tracy, sit happily on nonfertile or fake eggs together, groom each other, climb under each other, snuggle, carry nesting materials to each other, and seem to really get along. So i would never re-pair them.


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## FredaH (Apr 5, 2016)

The Fantails are beautiful aren't they and I'm glad you're not going to separate the girls, they must get along so well.


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## HeavyDlofts (May 23, 2012)

Better then 2 bonded males !!


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