My pigeon chose me as a mate!

zomg fishies wrote:

im not letting her fly loose any longer, there are so many hawks around here 2 years ago my flock consisted of about 40-50 pigeons then last year 20 and now there are only 4 pigeons left :( right now she is laying on fake eggs i gave her in her nest and she looks very cuddly and happy. when i stick my hand in to pet her she preens my fingers and twitches her wing while oo-ing. i think she'll do fine as a pigeon pet. safety, food, shelter, and a warm bed during the coldest nights.

That's a lovely image you described!
I'm so glad you decided to keep her, and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time together!

She's so cute!!!!!!!!! That's interesting.

I have a question. What are you going to do if she finds that the eggs aren't hatching?

CookieDove wrote:

I have a question. What are you going to do if she finds that the eggs aren't hatching?

If the eggs are a reasonably good imitation of the real thing, the hen won't realise there's been a switch. She'll sit on the eggs for the usual amount of time (sometimes longer, if they're very determined) and, when nothing happens, they reject them, either by abandoning them and building a new nest somewhere else, or else by pushing them out of the nest.

Are you going to put new fake eggs in it every time she abandons it?

CookieDove wrote:

Are you going to put new fake eggs in it every time she abandons it?

No need, what I do is remove the rejected fake eggs and wait until she's laid two more -- then switch them again. The length of time between one and the other depends on the hen.

What do you do with the real eggs? Another question, won't she get depressed when everytime she lays eggs it doesn't hatch?

I throw the eggs away when I replace them.
I don't know if the hens get depressed, but I'm sure they're not indifferent to that, as the males can get impatient and more aggressive when the eggs fail to hatch. Raising youngsters is also an important bonding experience for a mated pair.
However, when you simply don't have the room or the means to keep any but the unreleasable pigeons, this is all that can be done. The alternative would be overcrowded conditions and poor care, and it would constitute animal abuse. Replacing the eggs is the lesser of the two evils.