# Can I move the babies out now mum is sitting on new eggs



## nannyshoo (Jun 19, 2011)

I am very new to doves. We have a dovecote and mum and dad have raised two babies which are about 3 weeks old. She has now laid new eggs. Can I move the babies to another section of the dovecote as there is very little room in there?

Also two wild collared doves have become frequent visitors, will they breed with my white doves?


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

nannyshoo said:


> I am very new to doves. We have a dovecote and mum and dad have raised two babies which are about 3 weeks old. She has now laid new eggs. Can I move the babies to another section of the dovecote as there is very little room in there?
> 
> Also two wild collared doves have become frequent visitors, will they breed with my white doves?


You might want to pull the eggs for this clutch to let the parents rest on some fake eggs. 

I wound up pulling my babies out of the parent cage at 3.5 weeks, but 4 or 5 weeks would be better to be sure that they're weaned. Earlier can be scary.

There's a chance they would interbreed, but my best guess for you is that the pairs would likely remain faithful to their mates. Not saying a bird has never cheated before though.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

nannyshoo said:


> I am very new to doves. We have a dovecote and mum and dad have raised two babies which are about 3 weeks old. She has now laid new eggs. Can I move the babies to another section of the dovecote as there is very little room in there?
> 
> Also two wild collared doves have become frequent visitors, will they breed with my white doves?


If you have a dovecote you will have to think how involved your willing to get.. as pretty much a dovecote is just like keeping a feral flock.. if you want to have more control easily, build a loft where you can. It is normal for the hen to lay three weeks into her brood.. but usually in a loft they do all of it in the same nest box and the babies are still in there.. at that point the cock takes over the feeding of the almost weaned babies.. so he should still feed his babies while she is sitting new eggs.. but for the health of birds... you should get some fake eggs to replace the real ones..as hatching back to back..will get stressful on the parent birds and bring them down to open up sickness..basically ..they need a break.. after they have three rounds for the year is usually enough.. and fake eggs for the rest of the year..so really you should treat these like you have a loft even though they have free range... for their wellbeing, it just may not be as convenient for the keeper.


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

rpalmer can/will give an answer


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## nannyshoo (Jun 19, 2011)

Thank you everyone. We have some fake eggs so we could exchange them for the real eggs. One of the babies came out today but the other one still looks very young. I think my husband wants to have another set of babies and then use the fake eggs.
I have asked him if I could have a loft but he wants to see how we do with these first.

If they are in a loft can I still let them fly free, would they come back?


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

nannyshoo said:


> Thank you everyone. We have some fake eggs so we could exchange them for the real eggs. One of the babies came out today but the other one still looks very young. I think my husband wants to have another set of babies and then use the fake eggs.
> I have asked him if I could have a loft but he wants to see how we do with these first.
> 
> If they are in a loft can I still let them fly free, would they come back?


It's better to give them a break in between sets of babies of at least sitting on fakes once between each batch. You don't want your hen especially using up too much calcium and nutrients all of the time.
How long have they been on these new eggs? By now there could be babies developing inside anyway and that makes it a useless point. 

Yeah, people fly birds from a loft all of the time. That's how most people in the US do it, b/c it's easier to guard the birds from predators. (lots and lots of them here, it seems.)


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

nannyshoo said:


> Thank you everyone. We have some fake eggs so we could exchange them for the real eggs. One of the babies came out today but the other one still looks very young. I think my husband wants to have another set of babies and then use the fake eggs.
> I have asked him if I could have a loft but he wants to see how we do with these first.
> 
> If they are in a loft can I still let them fly free, would they come back?


yes they can still fly free and they would come back to their loft at dusk to roost..and go in and out during the day to eat.. think of a loft as just a big dovecote you can walk in.. the plus to the loft is you can lock it up if need be at night..from predators.. or if you had a hawk hanging around you could keep them up untill it moved on.


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## Henk69 (Feb 25, 2010)

Wait a minute!
Can doves be roaming free too? Like a pigeon.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Henk69 said:


> Wait a minute!
> Can doves be roaming free too? Like a pigeon.


Not ringneck doves--they have no homing instinct, and very few other instincts to keep them out of trouble. They get lost and starve of get eaten.

I have heard of people keeping Eurasian collared doves outside, but you'd have to be really sure that it was a Eurasian and not a ringneck, and you'd have to make sure you didn't have much for predators.

In the first post they call their birds in the dovecote "doves." What kind do you mean? 
I know some people call fantail pigeons "fantail doves" and garden pigeons "garden doves." Are they this kind, or are they Eurasians?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

She is in England..they call them doves over there.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> She is in England..they call them doves over there.


I know. That's why I asked in curiosity which kind. 

Plus, Henk69 seemed confused about the difference--wanted to be sure the lines between the different kinds were drawn out a bit.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Libis said:


> I know. That's why I asked in curiosity which kind.
> 
> Plus, Henk69 seemed confused about the difference--wanted to be sure the lines between the different kinds were drawn out a bit.


what do you mean which kind?... breed of pigeon?.. they call the ones they keep in dovecotes garden doves.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> what do you mean which kind?... breed of pigeon?.. they call the ones they keep in dovecotes garden doves.


Breed of pigeon or type of dove. One of the ladies from the UK on here told me that sometimes they fly Eurasians from the dovecotes. 

Why are you so upset about that? *shrugs* I already said that many of them were called garden doves and that people keep regular pigeons and fantails.


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## nannyshoo (Jun 19, 2011)

I have white garden doves, not fantails. They are not pigeons although some garden doves are crossed with white racing pigeons to improve their homing instinct.
The collared doves are the Eurasian type which have been breeding wild in UK since about the 1950's I now know they will not use the dovecote although they eat from the doves feeding stations.. Apparently they build flimsy nests, we have a lot of trees and the collared doves have basically lived in our garden for several years.
The pigeons we have are wood pigeons, bigger, heavier and not so pretty. They are wild pigeons and have made no attempt to mix with any of the doves.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

nannyshoo said:


> I have white garden doves, not fantails. They are not pigeons although some garden doves are crossed with white racing pigeons to improve their homing instinct.
> The collared doves are the Eurasian type which have been breeding wild in UK since about the 1950's I now know they will not use the dovecote although they eat from the doves feeding stations.. Apparently they build flimsy nests, we have a lot of trees and the collared doves have basically lived in our garden for several years.
> The pigeons we have are wood pigeons, bigger, heavier and not so pretty. They are wild pigeons and have made no attempt to mix with any of the doves.


true pigeonxdove is sterile. 

The wall we're hitting her is just that we call them differently between the US and the UK. They would be sold in the UK as doves and in the US as pigeons. 

They sound like gorgeous birds no matter what we call them. Do you have pictures?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Libis said:


> Breed of pigeon or type of dove. One of the ladies from the UK on here told me that sometimes they fly Eurasians from the dovecotes.
> 
> Why are you so upset about that? *shrugs* I already said that many of them were called garden doves and that people keep regular pigeons and fantails.


why would you think I was "upset"... I so was not...lol.. sorry you read the text different than the tone in which is really meant.,.. 


garden doves are just lovely!


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## indigobob (Nov 12, 2008)

nannyshoo said:


> I have white garden doves, not fantails. They are not pigeons although some garden doves are crossed with white racing pigeons to improve their homing instinct.
> The collared doves are the Eurasian type which have been breeding wild in UK since about the 1950's I now know they will not use the dovecote although they eat from the doves feeding stations.. Apparently they build flimsy nests, we have a lot of trees and the collared doves have basically lived in our garden for several years.
> The pigeons we have are wood pigeons, bigger, heavier and not so pretty. They are wild pigeons and have made no attempt to mix with any of the doves.


"White Garden Doves" and "Garden Fantails" are the same breed, i.e. they are both white domestic pigeons with varying degrees of scooped fan-tails, some don't even have that. 
The pigeon/dove naming is an image issue, "dove" has a much better public image than "pigeon".


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