How to make a pigeon nest properly? Building methods and key points
Pigeons are a general term for hundreds of bird species in the order Columbiformes, family Columbidae. Under natural conditions, male and female pigeons build nests, incubate eggs and raise chicks together. After mating, they go out to look for nesting materials to build a nest. Male pigeons with good production performance also show "mate chasing" behavior; if the female pigeon leaves the nest, the male pigeon will chase the female pigeon back to the nest to lay eggs. Now let us take a look at how to make a pigeon nest!
How to make a pigeon nest properly?
For a simple pigeon nest, use a cardboard box and cut a round hole the size of a bowl rim at the lower right side, then place it under a balcony or eaves. At the bottom of the cardboard box, extend a wooden board as a springboard for pigeons to land and take off. If the pigeons are going to lay eggs, put some straw or cotton wool inside the cardboard box. You can also first use a knife to cut out a large oval shape on the cardboard box, digging it out bit by bit, which requires some patience, then stuff straw in layer by layer. Be sure to fill the sides too, but do not stuff it too full. Finally, press it down with bricks prepared in advance. For a more complex pigeon nest, straw can be woven like a bamboo basket.
What food do pigeons eat?
Pigeon feed is mainly based on coarse grains. The more commonly used ones include wheat, buckwheat, sorghum, corn, peas, mung beans, hemp seeds and peanuts. When feeding, at least two kinds of feed should be selected and mixed. For example, normally use 3 parts wheat, corn and sorghum in total, and 1 part peas. During training, change it to 3 parts wheat, corn and sorghum in total, 1 part peas and 1 part hemp seeds. In addition to coarse grains, green feed such as green vegetables, cabbage and wheat seedlings, as well as mineral feed, can also be provided. For the mineral feed ratio, use 3 parts yellow mud and 3 parts yellow sand, 2 parts slaked lime, 1 part salt, 0.5 part shell powder or eggshell powder, and 0.5 part charcoal. After crushing, add water, mix and rub into balls, then dry them in the sun. When feeding, break the balls and place them inside the pigeon loft.
How are pigeon eggs incubated?
1. Collecting eggs: after 8 p.m. every night, all pigeon eggs laid by all breeding pigeons should be taken out. It should not be too early or too late. When collecting eggs, the egg nest must also be taken out together, so as to prevent the breeding pigeons from clinging to the nest and brooding, which would affect the next round of egg laying. When collecting eggs, keep records of the laying time of breeding pigeons and mark the pigeon eggs, and establish files. After the pigeon eggs are taken out, they can be directly put into an incubator for incubation, or temporarily stored. The storage temperature for pigeon eggs must not be higher than 10O degrees Celsius, nor lower than 5O degrees Celsius, and the air must be fresh and circulating.
2. Incubation: use a small incubator, and replace the egg rack for incubating chicken eggs with an egg rack for incubating pigeon eggs. For convenient management, after collecting eggs continuously for 4 days, put all breeding eggs into the incubator at one time for incubation, and thereafter use every 4 days as an egg-setting incubation cycle. The incubation temperature is controlled at 38.3-38.8O°C throughout the whole period, slightly higher than for incubating chicken eggs by 0.5-1.O degrees Celsius. The relative air humidity is 50-55%, and the eggs are turned 4-6 times a day. When pigeon eggs have been incubated to the 12th day, take out the egg tray once a day and cool the eggs outside the incubator, so that the temperature drops to 30 degrees Celsius before putting them back into the incubator.
3. Candling: after each batch of pigeon eggs has been incubated for 5 days, the first candling should be carried out. Its purpose is to promptly remove infertile eggs and eggs with dead embryos. When pigeon eggs have been incubated for 10 days, carry out the 2nd candling. When incubated for 16 days, carry out the 3rd candling, promptly removing eggs with dead embryos, so as to prevent rotten eggs from affecting the incubation effect. When incubated for 17-18 days, the squabs begin to hatch.