# Practice Incubation ?



## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

I had two of my pigeons pair up about 2 months ago, the male 5 months old and the female 8 months old now. 

When I started seeing them mating, I put a clay nest bowl in their box and nesting materials for some encouragement  The pair didn't lay a single egg but takes turn in sitting in the nest bowl just like incubating.

On the first round I thought they liked the clay pot pretty much and also since the male was young let them spend time like that without an overhead of having to raise the babies as there were no EGGS, also I didnt want any more pigeons soon. 

Interesting fact is both male and female take the turn in incubation, the bowl is seldom left unless there is some special feed put out. Two weeks after this cycle I saw them out of nest box and mating again. Also the male was driving the female into the nest. I cleaned the nest bowl, put some beach sand as base, made sure it didnt have any pebbles or other things which they confused for eggs to incubate....... 

Now the same old story  Taking turns in incubation and round the clock but there is nothing in the bowl to incubate, forget the eggs

I dont want to hatch them any babies because I have now a number beyond which I cannot manage, but this behaviour, how do we explain it ? "Practice Incubation" ? "Virtual Incubation" ?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

never heard of it before... it is interesting and possible I think because of their age. young ones usually do the opposite and ignore eggs sometimes...so you may have a nice breeding pair soon if you wanted more from them or use them as fosters.. I think they are showing good breeding and nesting habits, you can say they are super breeders as they even sit without eggs!!!!!LOL.....


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## rackerman (Jul 29, 2009)

*Have me baffled??*


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

spirit wings said:


> you can say they are super breeders as they even sit without eggs!!!!!LOL.....


ha ha ha.... well can't say about the breeding unless they lay eggs


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