# No time off the eggs?



## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

Hey guys, 

My two gorgeous pigeons after a long time have finally paired up, which is great...I'm so happy because it means they're not as lonely etc as before it was really unrequited love between the two but it's also brought about a couple problems.

My pigeon Bubba is obsessed with laying eggs, before she paired up with the other pigeon..it was just her and she would sit on her eggs up to 4 weeks at a time, sometimes more but once she abandoned them she would have a few days rest before laying some more eggs. It would worry me even then because she hated being taken away from them, she wouldn't exercise, or eat as much etc

But now that she's paired up, I thought it might help with Caramel being able to take some shifts with the eggs but no Bubba won't let her (they're both females) and now that she actually has a mate Bubba will lay eggs the day after she abandones them...that gives her no rest time :S

is this bad? I imagine they don't do this in the wild or even as racers since they'd actually have fertile babies. is there anything I can do to encourage breaks? I'm worried because she literally sits in that nest 24/7 and when I take her out she doesn't like it at all. 

And she is 9 years old as well, do pigeons stop being able to lay eggs at some point?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

how do you know who eggs are who's ?..do they lay in the same nest ? I would seperate the pair about two weeks into sitting and keep them apart for two weeks and see if that gives them a break.. you may have to do it every month. when you put them back together they will start again with the laying.


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## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

Thank you...if I need to do that in future I will. It seems they're okay now though, Caramel has now started to sit on the eggs for Bubba too so they share time, I feel much better about it now


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I'm glad things are better.


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## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

I try to intefere as little as possible, it sounds like you may be able to leave them be anyway, If she lays too much and becomes deficient she will stop laying but there is no particular age on when it happens.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If a hen lays too much, she can became calcium deficient. This can lead to egg binding and other problems.


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## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

She is already 9, I wander if pigeons become to old to lay like other animals?


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## pigeon-lover0 (Apr 1, 2012)

When hen pigeons reach a certain age, she will lay only 1 egg. Or sometimes none at all.

Lucas


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

msmely said:


> She is already 9, I wander if pigeons become to old to lay like other animals?


Yes they do, but that could take a few more years.


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## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

well they're both doing well but they seem to be having disagreements over who sits on the egg...I'm guessing because they're both female. 

I heard a male will sit on them from dawn to the afternoon and a female the rest of the time? Well they're not going by those times at all...they kind of did on the first day but now it just seems they're kicking each other off the egg. Bubba will get it for 2 days and Caramel has to fight to just sit on them for a few hours until Bubba will sit right next to her on the nest to get her off. 

This afternoon Bubba kicked Caramel off and after an hour Caramel managed to kick Bubba off and now Bubba isn't happy at all :S drama in the pigeon paradise.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

msmely said:


> well they're both doing well but they seem to be having disagreements over who sits on the egg...I'm guessing because they're both female.
> 
> I heard a male will sit on them from dawn to the afternoon and a female the rest of the time? Well they're not going by those times at all...they kind of did on the first day but now it just seems they're kicking each other off the egg. Bubba will get it for 2 days and Caramel has to fight to just sit on them for a few hours until Bubba will sit right next to her on the nest to get her off.
> 
> This afternoon Bubba kicked Caramel off and after an hour Caramel managed to kick Bubba off and now Bubba isn't happy at all :S drama in the pigeon paradise.


have you thought of introducing cock birds for these two girls to pair up with and then there would be more normalcy. otheriwse they can worked it out best they can.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Fighting over who sits the eggs even happens with he/she pairs. I have cocks like that, that just hate giving the hen her turn. Kinda cute though. Better than some cocks who don't want to sit. They'll work it out.


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## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

well things seem to be going smoothly today...Bubba let Caramel sit on the eggs and she relaxed and had a bath. Luxuries she didn't allow herself before 

Just one last question...now I've been assuming that they're both hens because Bubba has laid eggs on her own for a while and Caramel is quite smaller than Bubba, doesn't show any signs of being a male at all and well, I've never seen them mate. They'd just court eachother and if anything Bubba would assume a male role but they only laid two eggs? I've seen that two hens will usually lay four? If they only laid two is there any chance it's actually a male/female pair and they might be babies there?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

msmely said:


> well things seem to be going smoothly today...Bubba let Caramel sit on the eggs and she relaxed and had a bath. Luxuries she didn't allow herself before
> 
> Just one last question...now I've been assuming that they're both hens because Bubba has laid eggs on her own for a while and Caramel is quite smaller than Bubba, doesn't show any signs of being a male at all and well, I've never seen them mate. They'd just court eachother and if anything Bubba would assume a male role but they only laid two eggs? I've seen that two hens will usually lay four? If they only laid two is there any chance it's actually a male/female pair and they might be babies there?


why did you say "they're both females".? If Carmel has not layed eggs before then yes of course that could be a possibility., could of told you that from the beginning...lol..


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## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

because I've always been very certain Caramel was a female. She has never shown any signs of being a male. During the courting, Bubba was the one who would feed Caramel and Caramel would present herself like a female would waiting for Bubba to do something and Bubba would even occasionally try and mate with her like a boy but then they only laid two eggs. So I expected four eggs but I felt in their nest and there were only two.
I'd be surprised if Caramel was a boy, I hope she isn't but I guess time will tell.


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