We Have Pigeon Eggs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1963

Thursday morning. Teddy and Lydia are 15 and 14 days old, respectively. No signs whatsoever of any external pustules, which we take as encouraging. Lydia seems perfectly healthy, but Teddy breathes very heavily. Doesn’t seem sick in the least, but breathes heavily than normal and even wheezes when excited such as when I pick him up. We’re wondering if there may be something like a pustule internally blocking his air pipe. So we’ve decided to start dosing him today since he’s still easy to catch and we have to throw out the medicine in another couple of weeks anyway. But again, apart from the heavy breathing, he seems fine. Looks alert and moves around okay. Gets fed by his parents okay. Just breathes heavily. They’re both white. New pictures soon.

Meanwhile, the parents are having lots of sex again and have started preparing the tree pot for their new nest. Patrick’s pustules have completely disappeared, so he’s out of danger for sure.

1964

I’m happy to hear the current batch doesn’t have the ickies.

1965

I had no idea that pigeons could be so devoted to each other. Or that they lived so long. Keep up the good work, Sam!

1966

Thanks, all. The new squabs have no apparent ickies, but I’ve started dosing Teddy in case his heavy breathing is being caused by an internal pustule blocking his air pipe. Admittedly, it’s hotter than hell outside right now, Thailabnd’s hottest time of the year is March and April, and evn though we’re into May now, it just seems to be getting worse. It’s like a blast furnace outside, and that’s just at night. But Lydia breathes normally, so we’re dosing Teddy just to make sure.

And … we have a new egg! :smiley: Laid yesterday evening (Friday evening). I thought we might get one yesterday, as Ladyboy acted listless and stayed inside the tree pot with The Bully standing guard on the floor. That always signals an imminent egg. Plus the new eggs always come when the previous squabs are about two weeks old, and Teddy and Lydia turned 16 and 15 days old yesterday. We expect the second egg tomorrow (Sunday).

The new batch will be Gary and Kaye. Hope they don’t bake. This time of year, the sun hits head on for a couple of hours in the morning. I’ve been moving the squabs and eggs into the shade the past month, but now there’s no shade in the morning.

1967

And we have the second egg! :smiley: Laid today (Sunday), right on schedule. ETA for hatchings to begin is May 25. Gary and Kaye.

Teddy and Lydia are 18 and 17 days old today. They’ve started falling out of the flower box in their excitement to be fed, but they’re not big enough yet to get back in. I have to give them a little boost. Still dosing Teddy, he’s still breathing heavily but otherwise seems well.

1968

It’s Thursday, and Teddy’s been getting medicine for a week. We can stop now or continue for another week. His breathing is still heavy, so just to be sure, we’re going to dose him for another week. He is growing and seems healthy otherwise but keeps panting like a little puppy. He won’t be flying for about another 10 days, so it sill still be easy to catch him. Plus we’ll have to get rid of the medicine soon anyway, it’s not like we have t try and save it.

Teddy and Lydia are both growing big. They’re 22 and 21 days old now, three full weeks for both. And I think we got the genders reversed this time. Teddy hatched first and started out bigger than Lydia. But Lydia has long surpassed Teddy in size, becoming really big. But they’re stuck with their names. :smiley:

1969

Thursday morning and Teddy and Lydia are a full four weeks old now. 29 and 28 days old, respectively. Finished Teddy’s two-week course of medicine last night. He still seems to breathe a little heavy, but by now we’ve just accepted it. We think he’s going to be okay. They both should be flying by the weekend.

New hatchings about next Monday. Pictures soon.

1970

I’ve never read this thread, but at seven years and 1969 posts without ever being a zombie (AFAIK), if we ever have an award for “The Little Thread That Could,” this guy is a shoo-in.

1971

Tuesday morning and little Gary started trying to peck his way out of the egg yesterday. He finally made it out this morning. Waiting now for sister Kaye.

As for the previous batch, you know we gave Teddy two weeks of medicine but didn’t Lydia since she seemed so healthy. Then suddenly last Wednesday a pustule appeared underneath her right eye! No warning, just Bam! There it was. She was almost four weeks old, so we gave her medicine for a few days until she started flying and could get away from me. Hopefully that was enough. No other pustules have formed, and this one has stopped growing.

We’re about out of medicine now, and what we have left is probably too old to be completely effective. Mali was the last squab to be completely disease-free (or so we think, as we weren’t completely sure about Teddy) – she’s 4-1/2 months old now and still stays here at night (we suspect by now she’s really a male too) – so the next time we have to take a squab to see the vet, we’re going to ask about the possibility of neutering the parents.

While Lydia is flying, Teddy hasn’t gone beyond the top rail. Doesn’t seem to want to explore the world just yet. He’s 34 days old today, Lydia 33 days.

The family will be in for another rude surprise come July, as we’ll be spending a good part of that month traveling around northern Thailand and leaving them to fend for themselves. Builds character.

1972

And little Kaye is chipping away now too. There’s a small hole in her egg, and movement can be detected.

1973

Glad to hear the news of the latest batch of squabs. Just last evening I was thinking of looking for this thread, as it seemed a while since the last posting.

1974

And we have the second squab, Kaye! :smiley: Hatched this morning (Wednesday morning). So now Gary and Kaye have both entered the world. We’re going to keep a close watch on these two, and if one seems to need medicine, we’ll dose them both. Unfortunately, we’re about out now, and getting more will entail another trip to the vet’s.

Hot outside. No shade at all for about a two-hour window in the morning now. But some of the pigeons will sun themselves on the window frames, wings outstretched, so hopefully it’s not that much of a bother. We still move the nest into some shade as soon as it appears though.

Teddy and Lydia from the previous batch both seem to be doing well. They’re 35 and 34 days old today. Hopefully Lydia got enough of the medicine. She runs now whenever she sees us looking at her.

1975

New photos! We left off last time in the photos with Patrick, who is still doing well. Now comes Teddy and Lydia, hatched on April 22 and 23, respectively.

Here they are at one day old and just hatched that day, April 23. And with father The Bully.

That same day, April 23, Henry and Geri stopped by for a meal. This may be the last time we saw Henry, and Geri still stops by almost every day, so we’re getting a little worried about whether something may have happened to Henry. :frowning: It’s been more than a month now since that picture, and I don’t remember seeing him again since then. He’s about six years old now, and I believe that’s rather old for a pigeon in the wild. Hope he shows up again soon.

Mom and Dad eating on May 1. You can see now that Teddy and Lydia, ages nine and eight days, are going to be white. At 13 and 12 days old on May 5.

Sleepy at 18 and 17 days old on May 10. Mama Ladyboy is sitting on her two new eggs now, laid that day and two days before. Never mind Texas – Don’t mess with Mama! And you can see the new eggs while the parents are having dinner. You can also see the beginning construction on the new nest, which will turn out really nice this time. They’re improving.

Two days later on May 12, and you can see the progress on the nest. That’s Ladyboy there, of course.

Teddy and Lydia are really getting bigger at 21 and 20 days on May 13. And a week later on May 20, they’re looking like real little pidgees at ages 28 and 27 days, almost a month old. That’s Lydia on the right, and you can just see the beginnings of a pustule immediately below the eye. It just appeared that day, and we gave her medicine for a few days until she was able to fly and get away from us. We think (hope) we gave her enough. At least, the condition seems to have stabilized.

By last Sunday, the nest really turned out nice. Pity the eggs have gotten so dirty. I believe that’s dad there.

Peek-a-boo! One-day-old Kaye tests the air on Thursday. With Dad, and you can just make out Gary’s Butt in the shadows underneath The Bully. And here are two-day-old Gary and one-day-old Kaye.

And again, all photos can be seen on one page here.

Now at night, we have the two parents of course and new squabs Gary and Kaye, ages five and four days old today (Sunday), respectively. (They should have their eyes open by now, but we were away all day yesterday, and Mama’s been on the nest all morning today, so we haven’t been able to check yet.) Besides them we have Timmy, who turned seven months old last Sunday. Mickey, who was gone for two whole months, is still here, and he turned six months old on Thursday. Mali at age 4-1/2 months. Patrick, whom we’re sure we saved and who is about 2-1/2 months now. And Teddy and Lydia, now 39 and 38 days and out exploring the world in the daytime. So that’s nine pidgees counting the new squabs. Getting a little crowded again.

The parents will switch to the flower box again for the next clutch of eggs. I’ll have to put in fresh dirt for them.

And let’s think good thoughts for Henry. Hopefully, he’ll show up again.

1976

And a quick update: Henry just showed back up! All is well. :slight_smile:

1977

Henry’s showing up more again now. We think maybe he was stuck with nest duty since he’s had a couple of very Henry-looking pidgees following him.

Forgot earlier, but just to mention, this past weekend made two full years that Ladyboy and The Bully have lived out there full-time. Still wonder what happened to their previous nest that prompted them to move here. But to think that some people keep their birds in cages. This is a much more satisfactory arrangement.

1978

Sunday morning, Gary and Kaye are 12 and 11 days old and we woke up this morning to find they’d both tumbled out of the tree pot! Must have done so while clambering for a feeding. That’s a fair drop for the little guys too, but they seemed none the worse for wear. Put them back in. Both look like they’ll be white. We are steadily populating the neighborhood with white pidgess.

Speaking of white pidgees, seven-month-old Timmy finally left. Seen him a couple times in the daytime since he disappeared at night, so we know he’s okay. Maybe he’s starting his own family.

The parents are feeling frisky again. New eggs will be coming in a matter of days perhaps, certainly by next weekend. I’d best lay down new dirt on the flower box. Little do they know we’ll be up North for a while a month from now, and late-night snackies will come to a screeching halt for the duration.

1979

Saturday afternoon. Gary and Kaye are 18 and 17 days old, respectively. Seem healthy, but then Lydia seemed healthy until 27 days, as I recall. Then she got socked with that pustule under her eye. She’s doing okay now though. We’ll keep monitoring the new squabs. Two more white ones.

It’s so hot outside in the mornings now that we routinely move them onto the floor in the shade of the flower box until the sun gets up higher. The sun will keep shining in at this angle a few more weeks until it shifts on the horizon with the seasons. We’re expecting new eggs anytime now, and Ladyboy seems to want to hang out in the tree pot while the squabs are on the floor, like she’s wanting to lay her eggs there. So we may have to move the little guys to the flower box after all and let Ladyboy continue using the tree pot. It does have a nice nest still in there, but I need to clean it out some.

We’ll be traveling around northern Thailand for much of July, but I’ll try to load some more photos before we take off.

1980

Since you hadn’t posted in the thread in a week I thought maybe you were already on your trip. When you leave will the new batch of young ones be safe in the sun? Will the sun have shifted enough?

1981

What we’ll do is put any new ones in the flower box and put that behind the taller tree pot. That will give them some relief. We won’t be leaving until a little ways into July though.

1982

There’s been a new development. I was closing up tonight (Saturday night), saying goodnight to the guys and closing the curtains to the balcony when I noticed … an egg! Ladyboy went and laid an egg in the tree pot while Gary and Kaye were still in the nest. For some reason, she changed her mind about the flower box. They’d been switching back and forth. So I removed the squabs and put them in the flower box to give Ladyboy some room. That egg was definitely not there this afternoon when I was out there cleaning.

I’d like to clean out the nest a little, but when I tried it was obvious I couldn’t do much without breaking up the twigs. So I’ll just leave it be.

Gary and Kaye should be hopping out of the flower box on their own accord around next weekend. The second egg should come on Monday – she always lays them two days apart – and ETA on new hatchings is June 30 or July 1. Then when we go upcountry early next month, we really will have to move the new squabs into the flower box and position it behind the tree pot.