How to Replace Real Eggs with Fakes to Prevent Breeding

There are so many domestic (unreleasable) pigeons & doves literally dying for lack of homes that it is essential to prevent breeding. (Please rescue & adopt if you have room for more birds.) And, it’s really important to understand how to use fake eggs to prevent hatching! (Just putting them in the nest isn’t enough.)

Pigeons & Doves multiply very fast and many die for lack of homes. Make sure two birds don’t turn into twenty!

Note: If you let your pigeons or doves raise babies “just once”, the parents will banish them at fledging & the youngsters will need their own space. (They can’t just all live in one cage together.)

Use fake eggs (“feggs”) to prevent hatching. Every time the hen lays two real eggs, replace her real eggs with feggs & freeze or break the real eggs to stop development to make sure they can’t hatch).

Pigeons & Doves reach sexually maturity between 3 & 6 months of age & can multiply VERY quickly. Domestic Pigeons lay two eggs about every four weeks & doves every three weeks. They will reproduce ALL YEAR LONG & one pair can raise 8 babies in just a year!

Mated hens will lay one egg & then another within 24 to 48 hours (2 eggs per clutch). (They usually don’t start sitting on the eggs until both have been laid.) The birds take turns sitting on them until they hatch (18 days for pigeons, 14 days for doves). The adults will usually quit sitting on the feggs after that much time has passed, moving on to a romance/honeymoon phase & laying more eggs again in another week or two. The cycle continues year-round. Don’t remove the fake eggs until the birds abandon them.

Pro Tip: ALWAYS know what your birds are sitting on. Check daily. They can & do lay more real eggs right next to the feggs sometimes.

FAKE EGGS DON’T PREVENT EGG-LAYING. THEY ONLY SLOW DOWN LAYING. It’s most humane to take the real eggs away within the first couple of days before the embryo develops.

DON’T USE SHAKEN (“ADDLED”) OR REFRIGERATED/FROZEN EGGS- THEY WILL SOMETIMES HATCH & ARE EASY TO CONFUSE WITH NEW EGGS! Only fakes won’t hatch.

PRO TIP: The birds know their real eggs & they don’t like the fakes as much but they really want to nest-sit & so having fake eggs helps keep them happy while also reducing the rapid re-laying of eggs (which hurts hens’ health).

Real pigeon eggs, plastic feggs, wooden feggs

CHECK EGGS EVERY DAY! Hens will sometimes lay a third egg after the two real eggs are replaced with fake (wooden or plastic) eggs or quit the fake eggs and start a new clutch! Check their nest and eggs every day. It’s easy to switch the eggs. First, warm the eggs in your hand, reach under the bird and grab the real eggs while leaving the fake eggs. The pigeons don’t like it & will grunt & wing-slap you but they can’t hurt you. With so many homeless pigeons & doves dying unadopted in animal shelters, it is important not to breed! Birds can’t be easily neutered like dogs and cats but they are being killed for lack of homes. Please don’t breed!

Please read Pigeon Family Values

Download our hatch prevention handout.

You can find fake pigeon & dove eggs at feed stores or buy online.

For More Information, Please Visit Palomacy’s Help Group at www.Facebook.com/groups/Palomacy

Pro Tip: ALWAYS know what your birds are sitting on. Check daily. They can & do lay more real eggs right next to the feggs sometimes.

PRO TIP: The birds know their real eggs & they don’t like the fakes as much but they really want to nest-sit & so having fake eggs helps keep them happy while also reducing the rapid re-laying of eggs (which hurts hens’ health).

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