# Two females with one male



## Csilla75

I´m thinking about getting another female to ad to my couple. Why? Because the male is absolutely gorgeous, a good father, kind and takes care of both his kids and the female. U think it will work? The breed is indian fantail..


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## Csilla75

one of the offsprings. the male is almond, the female red. Thinking of getting a black female...


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## Jay3

Not really a good idea. He will be mated to one, and may mate with the other, but very likely will not help with the eggs or babies. Better to have pairs.


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## LisaNewTumbler

Some people use one cock to cover many hens

but as far as i understand it depends on the temperament of the cock, as some are not suited.

And all the hens are paired with another male to raise the young. The hens cannot raise the young on their own, and one cock cannot support many hens.

Not sure how they manage to juggle everything, but I read it on this site so it should be somewhere in the archives


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## beatlemike

Not a good idea!


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## sev3ns0uls

Not in the wild but yes its been know and done before that a single hen can rear 2 babies by herself but its gonna be hard and stressful. You will need to step in and help out as the back up the cock will feed its true hen's chick only. So definitely not a good idea. Unless you want to help out the hen raise the babies.


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## Csilla75

ok, I was thinking of leaving only one egg in the single females nest så she doesn´t have too much to do.  If I know the male right he would take care of all the babies, he´s very nurturing and a really good father. But is it a good idea to have 2+1 for practical reason? Will they be chasing each other, beating on the single female and so on.... Of course I´ll buy her a male if it doesn´t work out...


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## sev3ns0uls

Im not so sure about the male will take care of the other hen's chick. Have he done in the past? And if he has his own babies, i pretty sure he will ignore any other babies. But there are some people who claimed that they have a few birds that will feed any babies regardless if its their own or not. 

**a side note. All male birds take care of their babies and their mate. Just because he treated his family nicely does not mean that he will treat any another birds the same way. 

one question. 
How are you going to make the new hen court with the male? You know courting just dont happen, it takes time. She may not even like the male. Then of course, you can save the new hen to mate with one of the male's offspring.


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## Jay3

I don't think it would be fair to the new hen. She would also want a mate and someone to help her build the nest and feed the babies. He won't be a mate to her. You are thinking about what you want, and not the needs of your birds. They want their own mate. Pigeons normally mate for life you know. They usually stay together.


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## Woodnative

Why not save one of thier male offspring to pair with a new hen?? I don't think it is a good idea either. It can sometimes work but a good chance of it not working too. When we bought our first pair of frillbacks the female turned out to be barren (unable to produce eggs). After we were sure of that (many months later) the breeder kindly sent us a second female. We were hoping to do like you. In this case the pair was very tightly bonded and, on top of that, the female was VERY VERY jealous! You could see it in her eyse and she did not want this new hen anywhere remotely near her guy.


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## Doig

It has been quite a while. But it does really depend on the cock. You can try and see but most likely its either the older hen primarily bred with the cock that will be having problems at times with the new hen. 

Had this happen to me and out of many many tries 2/4 eggs hatched every single time. never did all 4 hatch. Cock did very well keeping both hens but hens at times got aggressive with each other -usually dominant hen dominating the nest box and everything else-... I eventually had to move one away to a buddies loft.

Oh did I mention they shared a nest box.


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