# Feral Pigeons



## [email protected] (Jul 20, 2020)

Hi all, 
Urgent advise needed. 
I had two lovely pigeons coming into my apartment end of May. I fed them and noticed they were more interested in finding a spot on top of my bookcase and made lots of noise. 
I gathered they wanted to nest so left a basket on top of the bookcase and off they went collecting twigs and built a nest in the basket. 
A day later an egg arrived and 2 days later another egg. I was delighted and couldn't believe the whole thing as i know little about them. 
They sat on the nest for over 20 days and no hatching took place. 
In the meantime, i did my homework and realised 18 days for hatching, 
unsure to discard the eggs. At this point i though they would flee the nest. 
Lots of noise again and more twigs brought in and another egg and literately the next day another egg. Not knowing what to do with the old two eggs thinking they may have moved the old ones to one side but to my surprise they grouped all four together and started on their shifts and at that point i couldn't tell the difference between the old/new eggs. Anyhow, it has now been 21 days since the second lot of eggs and no sighting of squabs:-( ...there remains four eggs and none of them look damaged or broken. What should I do. I think the female is pregnant again. I now feel terrible to remove all the eggs as i believe they are no good. Please help!!


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

You can just remove the eggs, obviously they are not fertile or the embrios has died.

Do you really want babies to hatch in your apartment? They will create quite a mess. If you don't mind this, it will be an awesome experience. Keep 2 of the eggs that didn't hatch. If you change your mind after the first lot of babies, you can in future swop the real eggs with the two that didn't hatch. It's all ok if you do it asap after eggs get laid.

When babies are about 2 weeks old, the parents mate again to create new eggs for the next lot of babies. So, if your apartment gets used for the second nest, it might be chaos.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Are you sure about the incubation period? Usually the parents loses interest when eggs don't hatch and stop incubating them. Then you can remove them.


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## [email protected] (Jul 20, 2020)

Marina B said:


> You can just remove the eggs, obviously they are not fertile or the embrios has died.
> 
> Do you really want babies to hatch in your apartment? They will create quite a mess. If you don't mind this, it will be an awesome experience. Keep 2 of the eggs that didn't hatch. If you change your mind after the first lot of babies, you can in future swop the real eggs with the two that didn't hatch. It's all ok if you do it asap after eggs get laid.
> 
> When babies are about 2 weeks old, the parents mate again to create new eggs for the next lot of babies. So, if your apartment gets used for the second nest, it might be chaos.


Thank you for your message. The spot they found on top of a bookcase is a corner by the window and they come and go as they please. Mind you they don't like us sitting around after 9.30pm, we get out of their way. It would be an experience to see them hatch. 

I was worried that the old eggs would rot and hinder the new ones to hatch?


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## [email protected] (Jul 20, 2020)

The second set was laid on 28th/29th June and I too thought that they abandon the nest if the eggs don't hatch but these two have been so dedicated with their shifts and have not left the nest. Thinking of waiting for it to lay another egg and we'll have to remove all the old ones. Unless there is a chance still for them to hatch?? Do they use the same nest to incubate again?


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

I doubt the eggs will hatch, but maybe give it another couple of days. My pigeons prefer a new spot to lay their eggs, but when I remove the fake eggs they usually go back to the old nest. At some point you will need to remove all the old eggs. If they lay another two, it will be impossible to incubate all of them and the new eggs will probably not hatch.


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