Mount Airy Lofts
577 posts
Mar 21, 2008
3:55 PM
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It is all about timing. If the eggs are under a very good relaxed foster pair. The turn out is usually really good. If not, it is a crap shot and you need to find better fosters.
I have no clue what you are asking. What is meant by they barely are sitting on the eggs. The only times I have seen this is when only one egg has been laid (good parents will wait until both eggs have been laid before committing themselves) or if the eggs are past due. The later is the worst case scenario.
Thor
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It's all about the friends we make :)
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flo
21 posts
Mar 22, 2008
12:28 AM
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This was my situation and I hope it relates to your question. Last year I had a pair of rollers that was sitting on their eggs and it had roughly 1 week left before hatching.
I was only trying this out to see what happens. before, I would swap eggs to foster that are almost exact timing but this time I was testing.
Well, i week prior to hatching, 1 pair of homers laid some fresh eggs, and I gave them 2-3 days to sit on them, then the 4th day, i swapped them with my rollers' eggs. 1 week later, they hatched but the problem was, the homers didn't take care of them and they died the next day. This pair of homers was my most successful foster parents (some 10+ fosters under their resume). After they let that pair of foster babies died, they successfully foster the next batches with close egg laid timings of the rollers.
Must have been a fluke or either they are smarter thinking that they had just laid some eggs for 1 1/2 weeks and their eggs shouldn't have hatched yet so they didn't take care of the babies.
just my experience.
flo
www.blacked-out-loft.webs.com
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George R.
419 posts
Mar 22, 2008
12:41 AM
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flo
pigeons produce pigeon milk on a cycle .. they do not carry pigeon Milk in there crop all year around . the reason they let the hatchlings die is because they had no milk available to give them..
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flo
22 posts
Mar 22, 2008
1:37 AM
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George,
I did not know that before and now I do. Thanks for the info and it all makes sense now. Learning every inch everyday.
thanks.
flo
www.blacked-out-loft.webs.com
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rollerpigeon1963
230 posts
Mar 22, 2008
6:26 AM
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Fostering:
This is how I foster all of my breeders babies. It takes a good amount of birds and plenty of paper work. For every pair of breeders I have 3 pairs of fosters. I put all birds together at the same time so they will share the same cycle. I use individual breeder cages and open loft for the fosters. Now since I put them all together they will be close on there cycle. Once the breeders lays there first egg I pull the egg and make a note which foster pair laided the same day. Now once the breeders laided there second egg I take along with the other and place it under a foster pair. Now that round one is under way. I bust all the other egg in the foster loft. This will keep the other two pairs of fosters on with the breeders. Now when the breeders lay back I do the same process again. Now on the third round I let the breeders raise there own babies. They will keep them from leaving the nest if they are burned out on nothing but laying and not hatching. This will also allow you to test a few foster pairs. That is why I keep my holdovers as fosters. Now when the first pair finishing raising there babies I go ahead and bust all the eggs until they again are on the same cycle.With a little practice it gets a little easier. And you can triple your breeding season when you use fosters. Just how I do it and it works well it also allows you to finish breeding sooner and takes the stress off of the breeders sooner.
Hope this helps you in your thoughts
Brian Middaugh
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