# How did the pigeon's egg disappear? Can they carry them out from the nest?



## Rashu712

We have 4 balconies in our apartment. One attached to my bedroom, one attached to my parents' bedroom, another attached to the living room and the other, attached to the kitchen.
About 4 days back, a pigeon nested in the balcony attached to the Living Room, which we don't really use in the summer, as we live on the 13th Floor and it gets very hot.

So this pigeon, nested in a plant pot and had laid 2 eggs initially.










2 days later, another pigeon laid 2 eggs in the balcony attached to our kitchen. My mom always throws the eggs away from the kitchen's balcony because she keeps her potted plants there and needs to go there every day, and the pigeons make a mess.
So she would have thrown those 2 eggs away. Therefore I picked those eggs up, and placed them in the nest of the pigeon in the living room's balcony. So there were 4 eggs, and the pigeon came back and sat on all 4 of them.

But today I went to check up on the mom to feed her. When she left her nest, I saw that there were only 3 eggs. One of them is gone.










The egg in the middle belongs to the egg from the other pigeon. So the other egg laid by the other pigeon is missing. I know that because those 2 eggs had these dropping marks on them, while this pigeon's eggs have been clean.

We do NOT have Hawks in our area, and certainly no raccoons or opossums in this country.
And I don't think anyone else would have thrown an egg away from my family.

There was no broken shell or any trace of it being destroyed in the nest. 

What could have happened? 

Oh, and what kind of pigeon is this? 

I would like to tame one of the babies and I have heard that I can interact with the babies after they are a week old?

And how should I tame one of them? I'd like for one of the baby pigeons to stay with me.


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## Jaysen

That is a feral pigeon. Likely descended from a domesticated species. 

A snake would take an egg and leave no evidence. Although on the 13th floor that would be impressive. At least here it would be.


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## Rashu712

Jaysen said:


> That is a feral pigeon. Likely descended from a domesticated species.
> 
> A snake would take an egg and leave no evidence. Although on the 13th floor that would be impressive. At least here it would be.


Hahaha yes, that would be very impressive, but scary too. *_*

There aren't any snakes in the city either.


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## Jaysen

You might be surprised. Snakes are very versatile and can hide quite well. A pigeon egg is small enough for just about any mature snake to get down.

Domesticating one of those birds won't be too hard. You can handle it after about a week. How to go about it is something that I am not sure I should discuss as I would apply what we do for racing to this bird. One of the feral rescue folks would be better at advising you.

One thing that you want to keep in mind is that you only feed these guys grains. No processed foods like bread. Start them off healthy and you will enjoy it more.


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## Feefo

We had the mystery of the disappearing egg with two of our nesting pigeons: no snakes or predators, they were in a cage indoors...very puzzling, specially when the egg turned up again broken! Then another egg disappeared and we found the answer: it had stuck to the hen's body when she was brooding it and either broken before it stuck or afterwards. I have seen feral pigeons in the city flying around with an egg stuck to them, I think this is what could have caused your egg to disappear.

Are you going to let the three remaining ones hatch? The parents might find it difficult to feed three.


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## Rashu712

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure we don't have snakes here...so I'm still not sure where the other egg disappeared to.


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## Dobato

Rashu, please have a look at Feefo's post, as I agree with what she has said, as this has happened to me. I found a hen with an egg stuck to her caused by a small crack, where the egg albumin leaked out, dried to the hen's feathers and acted as a glue attaching the egg to the hen's rear.

Karyn


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## swagg

I agree it stuck to the hen. Have seen it before myself


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## Rashu712

I tried to get close to the mother, but she flew off twice, and from what I could see of her, there was no egg attached to her...so it probably fell of elsewhere.


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## Skyeking

Do you have any squirrels or other rodent type animals around?


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## Jaysen

Not sure where you are, but see if you can pick up a deep foil baking pan from the grocery store. You want the 9x9 that is 4" deep. Fill it with tepid water from the faucet and leave it where the bird can find it. She will use it to bathe in. Let her do that every couple of days. That should help with egg issues as well as with any feather parasites. You may want to consider adding some additives as well, but again, I am not 100% on what is best for ferals.


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## Rashu712

Trees Gray said:


> Do you have any squirrels or other rodent type animals around?


No, we don't.

I do own 2 mice, but they're locked in my room.

I live in the Middle East.


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## jeff houghton

ive seen my birds ejecting eggs from their nesting bowls for one reason or another, could it of rolled off your balcony.?


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## Rashu712

jeff houghton said:


> ive seen my birds ejecting eggs from their nesting bowls for one reason or another, could it of rolled off your balcony.?


No, that' not possible.

For that to happen, it would have to roll off the nest...if that happened, it would have broken on the floor as the nest is on a plant pot.

If it still survived the fall, it would have had to travel about a metre distance, climb up a ledge and then suicide.


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## jeff houghton

Rashu712 said:


> No, that' not possible.
> 
> For that to happen, it would have to roll off the nest...if that happened, it would have broken on the floor as the nest is on a plant pot.
> 
> If it still survived the fall, it would have had to travel about a metre distance, climb up a ledge and then suicide.


well my guess is a bird of some type has had it away ,would have to be a reasonably large bird the size of a magpie and upwards.


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## Quazar

or a Crow, they are opportunists so may have spotted unattended nest & just grabbed & flew.


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## Rashu712

*Whoa! New Baby! :s*

Oh well I guess something went wrong and one of the eggs hatched today. It hatched from the egg that I stole from the other pigeon. But I'm pretty sure that egg wasn't in the balcony a week ago. :S










And I'm sure the foster mom laid her eggs about 4 days back too. So now what happens?


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## Rashu712

Now the baby pigeon is gone too!  :S


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## Jaysen

That's a predator. A rodent type thing, a snake thing, an omnivorous bird. Something is getting to them.


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## whytwings

I tend to agree with some others that the egg may have cracked and stuck to her and she finally got rid of it during flight .

In all honesty I think it was a good thing it vanished......I'm not sure placing 4 eggs under one bird is a choice idea ........especially if one egg or 2 eggs hatch after the crop milk is depleted


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## Rashu712

Jaysen said:


> That's a predator. A rodent type thing, a snake thing, an omnivorous bird. Something is getting to them.


Then how can I protect the nest?


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## Jaysen

Depends on the predator and the tolerance of the feral to being moved. I don't do much with feral birds so I think I should defer this to someone with experience working with them.


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## whytwings

I tend to agree with Jasen ........depending on what you are up against predator wise .......you could try moving a pot plant or something in front of the nest . keep a look out and see what might be lurking around the balcony maybe a raven/crow or worse a hawk .

Don't place any eggs like last time tho , especially 4 days behind 1 or possibly 2 would have most likely starved to death


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## spirit wings

sounds like a not very good place for them to have a family.. just let them move on and find a safer place.. I would take the planter away to deter them at this point.. no use in feeding something baby pigeons.. which I think if I had to make one guess is a crow.. they wake up before dawn when all is quiet...it could of taken an egg or squab in a second and gone.


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## Jessluss

Rashu712 said:


> We have 4 balconies in our apartment. One attached to my bedroom, one attached to my parents' bedroom, another attached to the living room and the other, attached to the kitchen.
> About 4 days back, a pigeon nested in the balcony attached to the Living Room, which we don't really use in the summer, as we live on the 13th Floor and it gets very hot.
> 
> So this pigeon, nested in a plant pot and had laid 2 eggs initially.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 2 days later, another pigeon laid 2 eggs in the balcony attached to our kitchen. My mom always throws the eggs away from the kitchen's balcony because she keeps her potted plants there and needs to go there every day, and the pigeons make a mess.
> So she would have thrown those 2 eggs away. Therefore I picked those eggs up, and placed them in the nest of the pigeon in the living room's balcony. So there were 4 eggs, and the pigeon came back and sat on all 4 of them.
> 
> But today I went to check up on the mom to feed her. When she left her nest, I saw that there were only 3 eggs. One of them is gone.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The egg in the middle belongs to the egg from the other pigeon. So the other egg laid by the other pigeon is missing. I know that because those 2 eggs had these dropping marks on them, while this pigeon's eggs have been clean.
> 
> We do NOT have Hawks in our area, and certainly no raccoons or opossums in this country.
> And I don't think anyone else would have thrown an egg away from my family.
> 
> There was no broken shell or any trace of it being destroyed in the nest.
> 
> What could have happened?
> 
> Oh, and what kind of pigeon is this?
> 
> I would like to tame one of the babies and I have heard that I can interact with the babies after they are a week old?
> 
> And how should I tame one of them? I'd like for one of the baby pigeons to stay with me.


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## Jessluss

whytwings said:


> I tend to agree with some others that the egg may have cracked and stuck to her and she finally got rid of it during flight .
> 
> In all honesty I think it was a good thing it vanished......I'm not sure placing 4 eggs under one bird is a choice idea ........especially if one egg or 2 eggs hatch after the crop milk is depleted


Crows eat pigeon eggs too.Did u ever see a crow nearby at that time?


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