How Long Does Pigeon Eggs Hatch

Pigeon eggs hatch

Pigeons spend most of their time searching for food, and when they are raised, they have more time for marriage, reproduction and egg production, and it is possible to eat pigeon eggs or benefit from them commercially after hatching or before that, and here comes some information related to the period of incubation and hatching of eggs:

The duration of incubation of eggs

Pigeons closely monitor their eggs day and night, and this incubation ends after 17-19 days have passed, but the incubation period for some species extends for more than that, including Victoria coronary pigeons, whose eggs take 30 days to hatch, with regard to the incubation of eggs . :

The female pigeon begins laying eggs at the age of 6 months when she is usually sexually mature, and she may lay the first egg at the age of 5-9 months, and this depends on the type of pigeon and its diet, and reproduction does not occur immediately after laying the eggs, but after the female reaches the stage of physical maturity and mates with the male pigeon .
Although the process of laying eggs by the female does not require the presence of a partner, his maturity and completion need that.
The pigeon lays two small eggs, and in some rare cases it lays 3 eggs, at the rate of one egg per day, and the process occurs once a month, and the pigeon lays an average of 12 eggs per year, and the number can be less or more, and the male and female take turns incubating the eggs.
If there are 4 eggs in the nest at a time; It is likely that the mating process will fail, as this often means that the pigeon pair is female, so it is preferable to change it.

The duration of the eggs hatching

The stage of hatching of eggs begins after the end of the incubation period, and the two eggs begin to hatch at the same time, by clicking the small chicks on the egg to make a crack in its shell, and this process is rather slow and may take an hour, a few hours, or a whole day (24 hours).

After the egg shell is broken, the mother removes the sharp edges with her beak, so that the whole chick comes out of the egg.

Reasons why pigeon eggs do not hatch

Verifying the fertility of the eggs is necessary 5-7 days after laying them, and if one or all of the eggs appear to be fertilized, there is a very high probability that they will hatch without any problem, but if the incubation period lasts for 20-25 days, and the eggs do not hatch, it is possible that there is a problem. The following that hinder the hatching of eggs:

The eggs were not incubated properly by the parents.
The mother is sick and cannot incubate the eggs.
The pigeon pair is not perfect and needs to be replaced.
The food served to the pigeons is of low quality.
Egg damage due to water being poured on it.
The dove abandons her eggs.
The chicks are weak in structure, and do not have enough strength to get out of the egg.

Checking the fertility of pigeon eggs

The infertility of the eggs is one of the most important reasons for their non-hatching. To check the fertility rate, the egg is taken from the nest to a dark place after the fifth or sixth day of its laying, and the eggs are examined with a lamp.

This process is called waxing, and the examination is inexpensive and does not require much effort, and does not require a lot of materials. What the examiner needs is a powerful detector only.

There are many companies that sell special types of scouts to check the fertility of eggs, and to apply the waxing test, the following steps must be followed:

Catching eggs

By holding the egg steady and turning on the lamp behind the egg, or placing the egg on the searchlight.

Fertility detection

If the egg is fertilized, you will see inside it blood-red lines and zigzags like the roots of trees, while the unfertilized egg appears yellow without any red veins