# My Father's "Flyers", layed an egg. I know he would take it away. So i stole it.



## xxpsy_stephyxx (Jun 8, 2009)

*My Father's "Flyers", layed an egg. I know he would take it away. So i stole it.*

Alrighty, so. I have been taking most care of my father's birds lately.
He owns rollers, the bird who fly, are separated from the birds who breed. He doesn't allow the flyers to breed, because he wants to work on them flying together, to score points.
So to my question!!!
I went and fed them yesterday, and I did not see the egg there.
Today I had opened the cage, and the screen they walk on, the egg was sitting on the upside upon that.
With a totally awesome  look on my face, I brought it inside, and placed my reptile heater on my desk, made a washcloth into a bowl, placed the egg inside of this, and placed a heater (like if you are sore,) on top of that. 
How long does it take til I can discover if my egg is fertile?
I do believe i shine a flash light on the egg, or look at it into the light and check if there's a hard circle inside of it (a baby). 
I can't ask my father, he will be gone til Wednesday, he also has no signal. Along with, he would be all ... not happy.
Another question, is this egg still available for life? It was cold when I had removed it from the cage.
Any other detail you would like to add would be appreciated greatly. 
Thank you very much?
No negativity either!
Yes, I am putting a pigeons life in my own hands.
That will not change.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Well, I certainly will be leaving whatever issues between you and your father to you and him.

Have a read here: http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f25/incubation-when-there-is-no-alternative-4968.html

Then start reading all the hand rearing posts .. 

Raising a just hatched pigeon is a pretty daunting and time consuming thing .. you better be sure you're up to the job or toss the egg now.

Terry


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## xxpsy_stephyxx (Jun 8, 2009)

of course i'm up for the job. you'd be surprised at the dedication i have towards my animals and things i know i must do. 

i wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't hard.
i'm always up for a challenge

fits my personality to try new things 
and the greater the challenge the more i'm determined to succeed


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Well.....good luck!


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## Grim (Jul 28, 2007)

You do realize the egg needs to be in an incubator and turned throughout the day right? A heating pad setting on top is probably not going to do much.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

xxpsy_stephyxx said:


> of course i'm up for the job. you'd be surprised at the dedication i have towards my animals and things i know i must do.
> 
> i wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't hard.
> i'm always up for a challenge
> ...


well, I would not hatch a bird, because you need or want a challenge. the bird ,just by being hatched by you is the one in danger, pigeons are best raised by pigeons, mother nature has perfected it. humans come in to help sometimes when there is an orphan that has already hatched, not just because WE want to have somekind of experience. The egg is best if discarded before anything developes in there. you would need an incubator anyway, with the exact right temp and humidity, even then feeding a new hatchling is not fun, they have a high percentaage of not making it, if you don't know what your doing. If you really want to hatch eggs try some chickens, they don't need all the hand feeding.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

If I remember right, pigeon eggs are supposed to hover around 98 degrees F and 65% humidity. Otherwise, the egg either won't develop, will stop during the incubation period, or if the humidity isn't right, the baby could be "shrink wrapped", or dried like glue inside the egg. The egg also needs to be turned at least twice a day to prevent the embryo from settling to one side of the egg. You're going to need some Kaytee Exact baby bird formula if the egg does hatch, and it'll need to be fed about every 2 hours the first few days of its life. No forumla can match the magic of pigeon milk, so the baby won't grow nearly as fast or have as strong of an immune system. 

If you had a chicken incubator with an automatic egg rotator, this job would be a _little_ bit easier.

My question is why? I'm sure you guys have plenty of babies during breeding season, so why not wait until then and let the parents take care of all the hard work?


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

xxpsy_stephyxx said:


> of course i'm up for the job. you'd be surprised at the dedication i have towards my animals and things i know i must do.
> 
> *i wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't hard.
> i'm always up for a challenge
> ...


Go climb a mountain or something. 
WHY take a birds egg away from it and take the chance from it to raise it's own baby? That's very selfish of you in my opinion. Not to mention that the baby IF IT SURVIVES has to grow up without it's parents.


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

Lovebirds said:


> Go climb a mountain or something.
> WHY take a birds egg away from it and take the chance from it to raise it's own baby? That's very selfish of you in my opinion. Not to mention that the baby IF IT SURVIVES has to grow up without it's parents.


I agree with you!
Not to mention, why would someone that supposedly cares so much about animals try to prove something at the babies expense 
AND most definitely setting oneself up for heartbreak


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

I guess there are some things that can't be learned until the mistake is made for yourself.


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