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eggs and stuff (19-03-22)

Eggs and stuff

Without an egg no young pigeon and without a young pigeon no future champion. The problem for all of us (!) is that you have to breed many youngsters to get such a 'future champion' in your loft. Because let's face reality. Growing supers is like a lottery: The more tickets, the more chances.
Of course it is best to breed from pigeons that have proven something, so performance pigeons, although sometimes it is claimed otherwise. And it is best to change the couples regularly. Foster pigeons are useful for this. They can also serve to under sit eggs that you bought somewhere.  

WRITER'S PROBLEM
Lots of old stuff, I know. A problem that many 'pigeon writers' will identify with. Because every week something that is new to every reader? Barely doable. Also remember that readers are so diverse. What is 'old shit' for some, so self-evident, can be a revelation for others.
I am thinking of that novice.
Although he had heard about trichomoniasis, he had no idea what it was. Experienced fanciers sometimes have to take for granted what is 'old shit' for them.
"There are no champions without losers." And you can only stay 'champion' if the losers don't drop out.  

TIME DIFFERENCE
If you want to move eggs, a day difference in laying date is not a problem, two days is still possible, more will be delicate.  
Some dare to move eggs that hatch three days early. It seems far from ideal to me. The crop milk is insufficiently developed, the young are fed with a watery substance and I can hardly imagine that they do not suffer from that.
For, may it be known; the quality of the food is important for humans and animals, especially in the first days of life.
If youngsters hatch two days late, most parent pigeons will still breed (one pigeon is not the other), but then they will only get porridge for a limited number of days. Can't be good either.  
Incidentally, you may have doubts about the quality of pigeons that run off the eggs quickly. Rather see that they do not quickly abandon the nest if, for whatever reason, they have to do without a partner.

IMPORTANT
It is easiest when foster pigeons lay eggs later than the pigeons from which you want young. If you remove eggs immediately after laying, you can keep them for up to a week. This way you can ensure that they come out at the right time. Not when they are 17 days old, but after seventeen days of brooding.
'Pigeon porridge' contains a lot of fat, protein and other high-quality foods. After 17 days of incubation, that porridge has the highest quality. Guys who get too little porridge, or too little or poor quality, you are doing too short.  

SAVE
The best temperature to store removed fresh eggs would be 12 to 15 degrees Celsius. For some it will be in a hall, for others in the garage or kitchen. In any case, watch out for too hot. So also in hot summers. You wouldn't be the first to hear squeaks in the garbage can or dunghill days after you threw eggs in it.
Also do not lay the eggs 'upside down', but flat, as they are in the nest. You have to turn them regularly to prevent the germ from sticking to the scale.  

FAKE, 'MARKING' AND 'REPAIR'
Hollow plastic artificial eggs are much too light, which means that many pigeons cannot be fooled. They are useful if you fill them up with sand, for example.  
If you want to 'mark' eggs, it is best not to use a ballpoint or pencil. The best are those crayons that many small children have today. They write nice and thin and the ink does not fade.
Those thick writing stinky markers are no good. If you leave the tip on the egg for too long, the ink can penetrate the egg shell and poison the young as it were.
Eggs with damaged shells are often salvageable if the damage is limited to the shell. Candle wax and nail polish are used on cracked eggs, but it would be best to cover the damaged part with a piece of shell from another egg. Of course of the same shape and as small as possible. After all, the egg must remain porous.

'VIEW'
You can tell whether an egg is fertilized after four days by holding it up to bright light. If you see any kind of spider, you're in the right place.
You can even tell if eggs are fertilized a day earlier by using your mobile phone. Lay it flat and the egg on the 'lamp'. You will be surprised how clearly you will see the content.   

CLICK
Through experience I have become much easier in everything. I used to roll eggs in cotton wool or toilet paper so that they didn't get cold too quickly. Later I discovered that they can take a lot, no matter how old they are.
It is best to put them in grain, so that they do not touch each other so easily. The well-known egg cartons are also suitable. If it's not too cold, they will be okay for up to two hours without extra measures to keep them warm.
Klak had his nest pigeons trained for an hour twice a day, even in cold spring weather. He came into the loft with a stick, how he managed it I don't know, but tapping the bottom twice was enough to make them fly off the nests. Then they were kept outside for an hour with a flag. The eggs were cold when the pigeons sat back on them, but that never caused any problems.

TRANSPORT 
Eggs should be at least a week old to transport. Theory (!) because you really don't have to. Last year a Dane came here to get eggs. That was at an unfortunate time, he feared and I a little too. The eggs were very fresh, incubated for one to five days. Couldn't be worse. At least that's the theory. Almost all of them hatched in Denmark. However, they were transported in pigeon food that had been slightly heated in the microwave.

FINALLY
Sunny days and nights can cause significant temperature differences in March in Holland and Belgium. Pigeons sometimes no longer sit on youngsters of about six days old, with the result that they cool down to such an extent that they become cold and stiff and appear dead. Don't clear them up too quickly.
If the head does not hang all the way down, such young can often be saved by placing them under another couple.