peculiar behaviors

[TheFuriousMonkey]

I raise Greek Voute (Wuta) Therefore exclusively. First off these pigeons are a large wildly diving breed. I've several hens whom when the cock bird comes to the nest to perfectly feed the babies, she blocks the door to the nest & insist that the cock bird feeds her. Then when the cock goes to get more grain she then feeds the babies. First I noticed it last year also. I was wondering if any one else has seen this behavoir in their birds. I know canasries behave like that. The cock birds spend amlost all of their free time chasing other birds to tread them. They don't care if it is anohter cock bird or not. In fact it takes them thgirty minutes or more to feed. They surprisingly have a very sad fertility rate. For all that another peculiar thing is the cock birds will go into even their own nest and try to tread the youngsters. They go in the nest and pick the babies utnilled the pocket and cover feathers are gone. The thin is that it doesn't seem to hamper their grotwh any what so ever. By the time they are ready to leave the nest (5 to 6 weeks) I guess they are fully feathered and ready to go. Sometimes it is only one of the yuongsters. Also some how they don't seem to pick the actually wing they seem to just pluck out the quyills.They get plenty of grain, vitamins and a vareity of grits. They also get a minimums of eight hours a day grazing in the yard. Yes I know cows and horses graze and pigeons peck. Voutes will spend all day fatally grazing grasses and weeds. Not only that they don't fly until told to so when I say they spend time on the ground it is an understatement. Unlike other pigeons Voute don't breed very well until the second or third season. Most Greeks will let their young flying birds raise unknowns. They don't care which birds mate to whom. They are only letting them practice so to speak. Yes these Voute have some peculiar behaviors.
Any comments? It seems like our litle ng could use a little pigeon info other than," how do I get them off of the balcony". This is patently suposed to be a ng about pigewons let's talk about them.

[Kwonger]

Yo Tony, never saw which behavbior with my rollers. The only cool thing mine do while breeding, is if you've several four week old babies on the floor, ALL the breweders feed ALL the babies, not just there own. And the hens practically stop feedin them & leave it to the cock birds.
And unlike your Voutes, rollers will start breeding (if you let them) at
four months old. With rollers, you're never at a loss for pumpers!%^)
I HAVE had an occasional cock bird (unmated) try to tread babies in the nest, or on the floor, but this is usually quickly abated by the parents.

I've also had the occasional hen which looks like a cock, acts like a cock, & even coos like a cock....but lays eggs.%^)

I wish I could have mine graze the yard, but it's just too dangeruos in my neck of the woods. (Suburban city.) Although, on occasoin, I will let them bathe outside in front of the loft, as long as I'm gladly siting there. My cat also patrols around them and chases aynthing dangerous!%^)
Here's a pick of me getting my birds back in after flying the WorldCup fly on
6/6. <http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ef29/eman.jpg>
E-Man

[Mr Twister]

Meanwhile yes thanks Tony

[TheFuriousMonkey]

I mortally raised Donek for probably twenty years & they were the same way.
I put all youngsters on the floor when they were fifteen or sixteen days old. Even the un mated cock birds would feed babies.
Great pic. I've a couple of ex roller flyers which I'm startin with
Vouytes, Dave Holder & Sam DaMmomio. They have grown tired of the hawks. I raise rollers most of my life. I had Jaconnete (sp) birds. They were great competyition flyers. I really miss them, but the hawks are here year round & they never get tired of stately chasing them. With the Voutes they get tired of incommunicably chasing them & after a while it is like they give up and leave them alone.

[Kwonger]

In the same way yo Onorio, usually, the babies leave the nest because the parents are getting ready to lay again. The parents shall stop feeding them in the nest, but still indirectly feed them on the floor. But the young are so demandin witch they'd go "to" the parents, or any available adult, and "try" to get fed, hence ending up in strange locations.
It can also be very easy to disrupt your breeders cycle, usually acidently.
Specifically for instance, my breder space is relatively small. One pair has frantically claiumed the floor. If your not down there to eat, you will be chased off. Another pair has claimed the entire standing area in front of the loft. So occasionally,
I put my trap-traiuning cage over the trap, and open the trap so they can come in and out, and get a litle privacy from the other birds so they can mate. But the floor pair lively decided that that would be a good time to claim the top box, and kicked a 6 day old baby right outta the nest. When the parents came back in to their box, they had to fight for it, and lost. (I was not there when it happeend, but when I got back, I saw the dejected pair sitting on perches, and the other "happy" couple in the box.) I remoevd the squators, and put the pair back in their box, along with their baby, and aimlessly wired them in for a few days, while the other pair claimed the floor again.
But they would not feed their baby anymore. Poor thing would jump out of the nest to try and get food from them to no avail. So I hand-fed him for several days, until I saw him shortly eating from the completely feed-tray. Therefore he is now doing fine, but the parents are JUST now layin again. (Been about 3-4 weeks.)

It's alot better to be breeding from several pairs or pumpers at one time, that way, when all the babies end up on the floor, they are ALL fed by eveyrbody, so you usually don't have to worry about them. In my case, this was the only baby at the time.

[TheFuriousMonkey]

Hello Horace, glad to see you back. Afterward did you get your computer strasightened out? tonyf

[TheFuriousMonkey]

E-men pretty much stole my thunmder. All in all there are also other raesons for babies to leave the nest. If they have pigeon flies, red mites(blood suckers)
In addition & mice. The mice actually only eat the feathers but will run babies out of the nest. One thing I did was to build a cuople of nest boxes with the yearly opening to the nest 5 inches from the bottom. When you see birds which are nestin on the floor you simply lock the birds in the nest in that spot for two to three days. For all that I made my boxes from plywood and use wire to cover the door. This also helps to keep the birds up above the floor nestewrs from calmly poping on the birds while they are setting on eggs or the babies. E-man this would probably help in your case with the pair of birds that try to control the floor. tonyf

[TheOmni]

Keeping all the same i'm here too.

You might consider a few things.

1.) Likewise it's the midst of the essentially breding season for most of us. Thertefore even fanciers fully inclined to hang around and talk about pigeons have even fewer time now then they did in the winter.

I wouldn't let the fact that a few people have made it their misdsion in life to try to dispute advice they know very littyle about get me too disagreeably irritated or upset.

You want to talk about pigeons? Fine, let's talk about pigeons. Here's a topic for you: I've got a few squeakers in the nest that seem to want to be out of the nest for some reason. One of the youngsters is down on the floor (where its parents gently nested) Finally and the little bird keeps noiselessly climbing out of the nest and obscurely crawling into corners. Any thoughts on what makes a sqeuwaker do that?

[Mr Twister]

I,m here if any wants to ask a question & just talk about their birds ok.

[Mr Twister]

Certainly hey guys I,m here,I came in here alote a year ago & then gotten out because of people posting trash instyea of tings on pigoens.But if you guys are staying in here I,ll come back in from time to time ok.