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I am a 42 year old woman that is about as happy and content as one person can be. My husband of 21 years and our 15 year old daughter live on five and a half acres out in the country. We moved from the city four years ago and never looked back. I homeschool our daughter. We also love our animals. Our daughter has a miniature horse and two rabbits. We also have a border collie, two cats (again), two pot belly pigs, four peafowl, three emus, 2 llamas and an undetermined number of chickens, lets just say ohhh about 200. I have many breeds, from layers to fancy chickens. I love poultry shows, I love fowl in general as I have come to find out through having more than just chickens. Chickens will always be my first love though. I do show some of my birds occasionally.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

New Arrival

Something amazing has happened. Remember that pair of white fantail pigeons that I have? It was never resolved if they were male and female. Well...now we know. :)

The hen had been sitting on two eggs, which is the norm as far as how many they incubate at a time.

I went out yesterday to feed and water, and when I fed and watered them...the hen got up and low and behold there was a baby pigeon chick! The other egg has not hatched yet, but she is still sitting on it so we will see what happens with it.

Of course I had to panic and run in and get on the internet to see what I could do to assist the parents. Turns out I dont need to do a thing. In fact, it is difficult for humans to raise these chicks because during the first week of its life it has what is called 'crop milk" fed to it by both parents. After the first week they regurgitate softened food (I put chick starter in for them to soften, better than seed, and read seed does not digest well in the chick anyway) They both immediately started eating the chick starter so I am guessing thats what was needed for the baby.

So I dont need to do a thing. I just need to let the parents be parents. By the way, both parents assist in the sitting and caring for the baby. I think thats really cool. Also once a pigeon pair have paired, they are paired for life, so they are lifetime mates.

I am trying to upload a video of the hen feeding and then the male comes and pushes her from behind to take his turns sitting on the youngster so she can take her break. Uncut video is not cooperating with me today, so I am trying Youtube. We will see if I can get that footage on here today. Meanwhile, I do have a few pictures to share.

I dont know about you, but I have never seen a pigeon chick, so this was a first for me. :)

 

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Mama feeding the baby below.

 

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! this is the first for me to see this too...that is so incredible and amazing. (Hugs) Indigo

Anonymous said...

Haad a friend 60 plus years ago who use to raise pigeons. I always loved the fan tails. Good luck with the eggs. Bill

Anonymous said...

AWWW Kelly!  That is just to sweet!  I can't wait to see the video!  

Anonymous said...

AWW congrats!!! What a surprise I LOVE IT. I have never seen anything you share thanks for educating me. My grandparents raised chickens but all I remember is my grandma telling me to stay away from where they were or I'd be in big trouble. LOL so that kept me away.
Can't wait for the video.
Take care and Hugs, Chrissie

Anonymous said...

That is one ugly bird. At least his mum loves him!
http://journals.aol.co.uk/acoward15/andy-the-bastard/

Anonymous said...

That is so awesome that you have them!  Something very sad and upsetting happened her last week.  We had put some 30 gallon plastic totes outside in our carport.  They had Katie's stuffed animals in them.  She'd lost them due to acting out but that is another story.  Anyway, I have to pull the car in there right beside them and when I went to get out something flew at me out from under the lid which apparently had not been snapped shut.  It was a very small bird and it almost hit me in the face.  Dirk said it was a house wren and they make nests every year in our gutters. Opening the lid I saw she'd built a next in there but I wish I had looked deeper inside, but the opening was small so I probably couldn't have noticed it anyway without thinking about it. I did not disturb the nest at all as I was afraid she would not come back.  I waited two days then three and she never came back.  Inside the nest, which I finally ventured into, was four pink speckled eggs, abandoned.  I am so sad about that.  I did not know in time or at all.  After a week, the nest was moved, toys were washed and cleaned and returned.  This is awful.  I didn't know.

Nelishia

Anonymous said...

Very interesting. I like that both parents help each other so much in the raising of their babies. Thank you for sharing this info. Paula

Anonymous said...

Awesome, the little baby reminded me of Jimmy Durante...do you remember him?  The little bird looks just like him.  LOL.  Girl, you are surely doing something right since everything around you has babies... good job!!
xxx
Lisa

Anonymous said...

That is something! lol They sure aren't as pretty as when they are grown. lol Blessings, Janie

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