hi frnds,

iam having 5 pigeons. how can we know a pigeon is ready to lay eggs? what all changes will happen to its behaviour? can anyone help me?

Hi Adarsh, and welcome to the forum!

One of the first signs is that they start collecting materials to make a nest, but some couples start doing this many days before.

Do your pigeons have access to grit and sunshine? This is very important for them to produce good eggs.

thanks for the reply..

only litlle sunlight.. and its also not direct..

i hav another problem. i had a lonely male, so i bought a female for his company. but they fight wen i put them together. is there any season for a pigeon to start mating? if not can u help me by sayin some tips of how can i make the male mate that female?

Hi Adash,

There isn't a season for kept pigeons to mate -- they get food and shelter all year round, so they mate all year round, but more frequently in the spring and summer.

However, there is a technique for introducing pigeons so that they get used to each other and don't fight:

1) First they must be placed so that they can hear, but not see, each other. This is usually done by putting them in cages, or other housing, next to each other but with a solid partition wall. This way they will hear each other's voices and become accustomed to that sound.

2) When they both spend a lot of the time next to the partition wall, like they want to walk through it, replace it by a pannel that allows them to see each other, made of metal bars or a wire mesh (but not chicken wire, that can cause nasty injuries to pigeons; the best is made up of plastic-covered wire forming small squares).

3) When they spend a lot of the time 'talking' to each other and wanting to be together, it's the right time to remove the last obstacle and let them be together.

Occasionally there can be cases of domestic violence, even when you've taken all the precautions. Some males are just quite aggressive. When that happens, I remove the male and put him in solitary for a couple of hours until he's cooled down. If he does it again, he gets solitary for a little longer. Eventually he'll act like he's sorry (even if it's only that the mating instinct is stronger than his bad mood) and bows to the female and coos to her. When she 'forgives' him by cooing softly, bowing back, or grooming his face, all is well again.

Having said that, it's not common for females to fight back against a male. Are you absolutely sure the new pigeon is a female? Has she ever laid eggs?
If that's the case, and she had another mate until recently, it can take her a long time to consider having another mate. Pigeons mate for life, and when one loses a partner they feel depressed, even aggressive sometimes.

PS. You can't make "the male mate the female" if she doesn't accept him. It's a two way thing.

thanks.

yeah i am sure its a female because i bought it from my friend where she had laid eggs and also she had a mate there. Her mate was sold i think. So how much it wil take her o accept a new partner??

I have another problem with the male i just said.

I started this with 2 pigeons 3 months ago(one which i said above and another one). At first i had 2 pigeons and i thought it were male and female since they spend the whole 3 months in a single cage. One day morning i found them fighting each other for the cage and at that day i found out that they were males. i also saw the male (which i said above) climbing top of the other pigeon and kissing him and all. what is the reason for this behaviour?

When your hen lost her mate she felt like a widow, and she needs time to recover from that. Birds can feel unhappy and depressed, just like people, and they are often a lot more loyal than humans.

It's a shame the person who sold you the hen separated the pair, because if you had been able to buy both of them, you would have had lots of eggs by now, and happy pigeons too.

As for the males' behaviour, that sort of thing can happen when you have two males together in a very small space and no females. The same often happens in prisons, I believe.

thanks for the reply.

so you are saying the behaviour of the male pigeon will not change??

how can i make the male pigeon change its behaviour??

also how can i make the female pigeon like the new male pigeon??

sorry. i didnt mean to be hard. thanks for giving me valuable advice. iam new to this field, maybe thats y i lack patience.

i hav good news. the male climbed over the female today morning. so is this the sign that the female liked the male?

And for a successful intercourse does the female also have to climb over the male pigeon?

Well, it seems that luck is on your side and they've decided they like each other!

yeah.. And now i have to buy another female pigeon for my lonely male one. He is very desperate and i feel sad when i see him.


Wen the female is about to lay eggs can we feel the eggs in her stomach??

ok thanks.. after successful mating how many days will the female pigeon take to lay eggs?

I think it's about 9 days, but I don't let mine raise babies, so perhaps someone else can confirm.

y u don't let them raise babies? u raise pigeons for pigeon racing?