Will Tink and Pan be my last babies?

 Thursday 6th August 2015 - Below Tink and Pan today - for new readers Tink is the little one

 Their parents, Cissie (left) and Sultan enjoy time in the garden

I had a look at Lottie's new egg - it was bloody, as you can see - I have never seen that before but the people from the poultry farm told me later that this sometimes happens. The second egg laid was also like this - and within days Lottie had abandoned the nest, so no new babies there then.......The first egg was laid 9 days after Selfie's death. And now Lucky and Lottie seem to have no interest in the cote or each other.

7.8.15 - Sultan goes in to feed his babies who rush towards him. He wouldnt feed them when I was looking though, so I had to shut the door so he could get on with it.

9.8.15 - Below are Cissie and Sultan in the open hutch, with Cissie's 'ladder' in place, with Cloud sitting below - and you can just see Chino on the lower left, peeking out.

 

 The babies ear holes are very obvious at this age - about 12/13 days

 Below, Chino avails herself of the ladder and goes up to visit the babies - no Chino! they're not yours.....

 And when I went out, she thought better of it and here she is preparing to jump down

Mon 10th Aug 15 - A rainy day - here's my darling Solo, putting his wing up on the flower pot as he has a nice shower! Solo, partially hand reared by me, is very tame and comes to the crook of my arm when I am feeding the flock so he can eat out of the pot! - and get extra peanuts!

11th Aug 15 - With the babies about 14 days today, Sultan and Cissie canoodle..... I hope they don't start nesting again! It's too awkward for me.

Thurs 13^th all went as normal, though it was a murky rainy day. I brought the babies in for some photos, and you can see the difference in their sizes - Pan's the big one.

My blog reader, Fennie, said they look like dodos and I think they do! 

Miniature dodos or tiny little vultures - ha ha!

Friday 14th August 15 -  Sultan wasn’t on the roof in the morning and hadn’t turned up by his usual time to feed the babies. As always in these situations I stressed about it, but gave the babies a little feed and hoped he would arrive soon to take over. Cissie doesn’t seem to have much interest in the babies now and either can’t or won’t feed them herself. I was giving her three feeds a day so she could share with the babies, instead of her usual two, but I think it is pointless. Sultan didn’t come and I had to go out at 10.30am so, reluctantly, I left the hutch open as I didn’t want him to not be able to get in if he did come back. Cissie was in charge as she is quite good at repelling intruders! When I returned at 11.15 there was no evidence that Sultan had been and gone, so again I waited. 12 noon, no Sultan so at half past I gave the babies another little feed. They can scream for England, and seem to do so all the time!  Time went on, with me keeping an eye on the garden. Although it rained sometimes it wasn’t as bad as the day before, and I didn’t keep Cissie in the hutch – she has the usual run of the garden when I am at home, the same as Cloud and Chino. They are only shut up if I am out for their own safety. I feared that something must have happened to Sultan as he still didn’t come..... it seems unlikely he has met with a hawk, as he is a bigger than average strong male and not a potential target but it’s possible he has met with an accident, has been involved in a cull......or remembered where he came from and has gone back to his owner’s loft. If he did that, the owner may have kept him in for some reason......for all I know he may have been going back every night and the owner let him out every morning and now has decided not to. Or maybe Sultan has just got fed up with the babies.... but surely not? I decided to give them another small feed...... and planned to give them a good supper at about 5.30pm which is the time Sultan normally last feeds them before the night.

There have been one or two times in the past, I remember, where parent birds have missed a whole day’s feeding and then come back and carried on as if nothing had happened.

This morning I  went to move a big box that we had left on the patio – we had meant to burn it but didn’t get round to it and now it was soaked by the rain.

It felt odd as I tried to grab it and I looked inside to see a pigeon looking up at me! Special Delivery – One Pigeon!

It had obviously been there a while as there was quite a lot of poop – maybe it had been there all night. I got it out but it couldn’t fly and had an injured foot and was limping, so because the day was forecast very rainy, I shut it up in the new hutch with food, water and a folded towel to sit on. I left it there all day, checking it occasionally, and in the late afternoon, brought it into the conservatory for the night – hubby is away so no smuggling was necessary! I do not want a new homie, especially an ordinary unremarkable unknown grey pigeon but I am incapable of leaving it to its fate, so I will give it a bit of a chance.

Saturday 15.8.15 – Sultan hadn’t turned up by 10am and by that time I had given the babies a small feed before I put them in the hutch – just in case he did come to feed them – and then just before 10 a normal feed, as he was in the habit of feeding them about 9.15/20 am. He may never come back so I have worked out and written down a feeding schedule for them, and will tick off each feed as I do it. I am not cross with him as it may not be his fault and I am grateful for the gift of Tink and Pan who may be my last babies. They are incredibly lively and noisy but seem different in some way to the previous dove babies I have had, though I can’t put my finger on the what that difference is! I have never had pigeon babies before – all my babies have had more or less white parents, and though some babies have been dark or speckled they have not had the pure pigeon blood of Tink and Pan – who also are half racer/half feral. I still hope Sultan comes back as though I don’t mind at all feeding the babies, I do feel ‘orphans’ do less well than babies whose parents take an interest, and it’s a shame for them.  They may as well be orphans for all the interest Cissie takes.

I weighed them both before the first feed – Tink 142g and Pan 238g – but they both move about so much on the scales it is probably not very accurate. Next time I will have to weigh them in a  box.

So why is Tink so much smaller than Pan?  I don’t think Pan is exceptionally big so it is Tink that is small.  Pan may be male which would make him larger, and the first hatched, so at least a day older. Also stronger, and able to get more food, elbowing Tink out of the way, when Sultan was feeding them. I don’t think there is anything wrong with Tink, she is just the little one!

The new poorly one, as yet unnamed,  was fine except for its injuries (no wound or anything) so after the flock had been fed, dispersed and calmed down a bit, I put it out on the low roof to enjoy the sun and the company of others. If it comes down to the ground later, I will pick it up and house and feed it. It may be ok in a few days, but if not, I will have to rethink as I definitely won’t keep another pigeon – I can’t!

Above, poorly one on the roof- not looking too jolly, but

later she sat down and was fine, as you can see

 Though keeping herself away from the others

 Tink and Pan in my old hood

 I tried having them in the main part of the hutch

 But Pan struggled back to the nestbox leaving Tink alone

 So I put them both in there together

I am at the moment trying to reduce the flock. I am not in a position to be able to keep up the amount of feeding I am doing due to the cost and as I really am cutting down, I felt it best to do it now, in the summer, when there is potential other food out there to be found. This week I have cut down by one bag (20kg) of grain. This is my plan: I stick to strict set feeding times – first thing in the morning, then not again til 2pm earliest, then about 5pm. I have written a list of the only birds I really want to feed and it seems ridiculous to keep feeding these hungry hordes of others. And even if I took ten ton of food out every day, there would never be enough as more and more pigeons would arrive, until I was feeding the five thousand and the garden sunk into the river with the weight of all the pigeons!!!  So – the only birds I really want to feed are –The homies (Cloud, Cissie and Chino),Sultan if he ever comes back, Tink and Pan, my darling babies, of course! – and Lucky and Lottie, and any babies they may have in the future, Solo, my much adored baby now coming up 5 months old, Autumn, Grace and Dolly, 3 females, all hatched in my cote and now between 2-3 years old,  Mr. Strong and his new mate, Blackie, Silver Shadow, the magnificent huge grey pigeon, Seagle, the unusual bright grey pigeon,  and a few others like Snowdon, Charity and Sausage – plus any returning birds that were hatched in my cote.

Pandora and Tufty would always get fed too, but both have now been missing for a while. Bianca too, who must’ve perished as she had PMV.

I never really felt the same after the cull in January, that destroyed so many of my favourites I had had for so long, and Snow White that beautiful white daddy dove, and Charm, Lucky’s first wife. Another reason for trying to reduce the number of birds in the garden is the MESS and the work! Recently I have had to be slooshing down the patio up to three times a day - then there are feathers everywhere (not all suitable for my shop, just messy!), and I hate the water baths being dirty so I am tipping out the dirty water and refilling 3, 4 even 5 times a day! I don't begrudge any of the work for the homies and cote birds but it has been getting ridiculous with the others.

Hubby has told me that scaffolding is going up at the beginning of Sept and work starting on the cottage chimney a week later, as it is in need of repair. At one time the thought of that would’ve filled me with despair as I would’ve been worried that it would affect my birds – now I don’t care. I will always like pigeons, but the whole thing has got too much for me, and far too expensive, so I am hoping that by next spring the flock will be much reduced and I will try to keep it that way.  I now feed far less generously and try to target the special birds so they still get enough.

Another plan is not to ring any more birds – unless hatched in the cote/hutch – so therefore I won’t have any more favourites.... like Sausage for example! I also plan that when Lucky goes (dies or doesn’t return) the cote goes – unless of course there was another breeding pair in there with eggs/babies.

Sultan didn’t turn up all day. I’d put the injured one on the roof, and by the end of the day couldn’t see it anymore, but just before I was due to go out for the evening, I heard a funny rustling and went to investigate. She had scrambled onto the light above the porch – obviously the chosen roost for the night. I got the steps and the net, and she didn’t resist so I captured her easily and brought her in for the night to the conservatory, with food and water. Better think of a name, I can’t keep saying the injured one.

Monday 17.8.15 – Sultan has not returned, and I am beginning to think that there is something wrong with the babies. Although they scramble about, squeak for food and seem happy enough, I don’t think they can stand very well. My strategy with so many things is to wait and see, so that is what I am doing.

Because the injured one favoured the light as a roost, and I remembered Pharos, named by hubby who did the same some years ago – my train of thought went like this – Light – Lamp – Lady with the Lamp – Florence Nightingale – Flo – so that’s what the injured one is now called. Hubby came home from his weekend away, and I hurried him in to the shower,saying dinner was nearly ready, but it was really so I could catch Flo and bring her into the conservatory for the night, and food and water. I am not going to get fond of him or her as I really won’t be having another homie, but if I can bring her in at nights, I will do.

Below, Silver Shadow, the huge and magnificent pigeon, eats peanuts from my hand but gets bombarded by interlopers trying to do the same!

Flo came down during the day for water, and I made sure she ate some food too. She sat with the homies for a while, then I put her back on the roof. By the evening, she was nowhere around, though I checked the back of the offices just in case – so ......I just don’t know what happened to her. Maybe she has Flo-wn away!.....joking apart, she probably won’t have made it, poor thing.

Tuesday 18^th Aug 15 – As far as standing goes, Tink, the little one, can stand better than Pan. Pan now doesn’t seem to be able to stand at all but gets around a bit but wiggling, or scooting along using his wings instead of feet, like a baby bum-shuffling. Despite this he has a definite interest in life, and wants to be out of the dark nest into the main part of the hutch. When I consider the weather is warm enough, I open up the nest door and put a grille up, so they can see out and can have light and air – or put them in the main part of the hutch – but if I do that, then Pan tries to get back to the nest cos he doesn’t know what he wants! Ultimately I don’t see him surviving, and maybe Tink won’t either, but I am enjoying having them and as they are only 3 weeks old today, then we will see if things improve. I think there is little chance now of Sultan returning, and if he does then he might well reject them if he thinks they are in any way ‘different’.

Later – I have been reading up on why a young pigeon wouldn’t be able to stand – and there are so many reasons and possibilities; most of which would be very expensive to correct. I did kind of wonder if he might be suffering from a form of rickets, due to lack of sunlight, as the nestbox is so dark, and that is another reason I am making sure they get fresh air and day light now. I could make him a sort of contraption that supported his body and left his legs dangling out but touching the ground. I wonder if that would help make them stronger. I would be really loathe to have to euthanize him......I have messaged one of my blog readers who keeps racers for advice.

 Above, Tink's feet - and Pan's, below

Wed 19.8.15 - 

 Below, Tink manages to scramble to the top of the bricks

 

Thurs. 20.8. 15 - Cissie takes no interest in the hutch or the babies, but today she seemed to be listening to their peeping and looking up, so I put her up in there with them.

 She ignored them, as usual, and made her way to the dish of grains - so I removed her soon

 Now, I wouldnt leave her alone with them, in case she pecked at or tried to harm them.

A few days ago, I grabbed a pigeon with one eye that was all gunked up or sealed over, and using a soft non-fluffy cloth and tepid water, I just kept going over it til I got the stuff off. I didnt even know if there would be an eye underneath, but there was - very swollen surrounding it though. I didnt ring the bird, but I think this is it below - and as you can see at least now it has the use of that eye.

 Cloud wouldn't come out of the run when I wanted her to, so I left her there with the top up - and later found her on top of the new hutch.....

 Wow Cloud - how did you manage that?

Friday 20.8.15 - More than a week since we last saw Sultan, but Cissie and the other homies don't appear to miss him, and the babies have adapted perfectly well to me feeding them.

Tink and Pan have actually been picking up small grains and feeding themselves for quite a few days now, and I give them the opportunity at most feeds, if I have time. I feed them roughly at 7.30am, 11.30am, 2.30pm and 5.30pm - and they go to bed at 6pm. I am now bringing then into the conservatory when I bring the other homies in - depending on what sort of day it is, light and weather wise, but about 5pm or so - and they go on the conservatory floor on a rug, to sit and peck grains and make a mess! - before supper and bed! 

 Little Tink on the right is so much smaller than Pan - who is probably normal sized for their age. They currently weigh, roughly, Pan - 257g and Tink - 159g

Friday 21st August 2015 - I am wondering whether to take the babies to the vet. He's a lovely man and he'd see them and do his best, but any visit starts at about £30 and could easily go up to £100+ which I couldnt really afford.....but I am thinking about it. They have a lively interest in what goes on around them, they preen as normal, are starting to feed themselves..... it's such a shame they can't stand and I can't imagine why not.....but with a recovered PMV sufferer as a mother and a runaway racer as a father maybe it wasnt the best start in life for them. Now they only have me.

Below, Tink and Pan looking tiny on the rug at the afternoon feed

 This is 'watch and learn' time too - so I throw some grains - enough to encourage a few pigeons near, but not bring down the madding crowd of them!

 Both babies drink well from the little glass - and sometimes from a little dish if I put it near them

 Later, when I put them back in the nestbox, Pan scrambled up to the top of the bricks on his own! The bricks were in that arrangement for when the parents were on the nest, to partially block off the doorway - they don't need to be like that now, so I rearranged them to make it more comfortable for Pan, but of course then he didnt like it and went and sat with Tink again!

To be cont....

Cissie and Sultan are proud to announce......

Cissie with egg shell - has a baby hatched?

Tuesday 28th July 2015 – Before Sultan took over – nice and early for him at about 11am – I peeped in again at Cissie and talked softly to her. As she shifted position, I caught a glimpse of a tiny wriggling yellow downy baby!

Below, has my Grace, right, teamed up with handsome new male, Snowdon?

 I hope they will be as happy as we are, says Cissie, below, with Sultan

By Wednesday there seemed more shell in the nest, so I was pretty sure the other egg had hatched too! I am so thrilled! My Cissie, with her problems, had still managed to hatch two live babies!

Thursday 30.7.15 – All goes well. Sultan comes to the hutch earlier now there are babies, so Cissie gets longer free time than when they were sitting on the eggs. I’m glad that the more competent bird is on the nest during the day, feeding the babies. Mind you, Cissie, despite her disability, is coping magnificantly with the new responsibility– I am proud of her!

Below, I gently move Cissie to get photos of the new little ones

Cissie’s story, in brief, so far:- On the 19^th Jan ‘14, I picked Cissie up from the lawn. She was a very unremarkable little pigeon, obviously very young, probably quite newly fledged and she had paramyxovirus. I called her Narcissus as, at the time, I had a male with PMV called Echo – she was soon shortened to Cissie. She was in quarantine for 6 weeks before being allowed out in the garden to mix with the others, but she was a very scared and unsure little bird. She eventually settled into her life as a flightless bird but has given me at least two scares – both when she somehow managed to fly! One by flying up to the roof, and down on the other side where the offices and the old mill wheel is - and deep water - I luckily found her on the pavement -  and two when she flew or blew over the fence and into the river – where I fished her out! Earlier this year she and Cloud started up a little girlie kissy kissy relationship that didn’t get very far before Sultan arrived on the scene – a big male with a racer’s ring. Cissie enticed him away from his first choice, Cloud, then took over Cloud’s hutch and laid two eggs – one broke and one she hid. Then she and Sultan started again, and here we are now, with two babies, aged two days old today. (At a guess, Cissie is about 19-20 months old)

1^st August 15 and already I am feeling a Septembery tinge in the air. Cissie came out of the nestbox into the main hutch early at about 9am and I wasn’t expecting this, but did manage to get a photo of the babies alone.

I let her do her big morning poop on the ground, then fed her quickly and put her back with them. One baby is much smaller than the other, though I have seen this before with other siblings. They are both still covered with downy yellow fluff, but I can now see dark patches and dark ends to their beaks. Their parents are both grey pigeons so I am expecting them to look similar. I’m calling the babies Tink and Pan – Tink’s the little one and I am of course very much hoping she will continue to thrive and catch up in weight.  Although my little ‘chickens’ are hatched and I AM counting them – two!  ....I realise that anything could happen. One thing in their favour is that when they are shut in the hutch with mummy or daddy they are much safer than little squabs in a normal nest or even the dove cote which is open to possible predators – or falling out from! One thing that is worrying me is the babies’ food. At present, baby pigeons get fed ‘crop milk’ – which is of course nothing like milk, but is some sort of glandular secretion produced by the parents. So this is fine.... but soon the babies go on to half cereals half crop milk.... What is worrying me is that I feed Cissie (as I have to) and therefore she is not choosing what to eat so it may not be right for the babies. I can only hope that Sultan is feeding them correctly.

Sultan went on the nest later today at 11.30am and an hour and a half later I saw him come out into the hutch – oh no mate, you’re not coming out now! Luckily, he didn’t try to – he ate, drank – then having thought about and realised he was stuck inside, crouched and did a poop  - he doesn’t like to on his own doorstep, but needs must! - I will clean up later. I’m not going to the hutch now and letting him think he can come out so early – this is Cissie’s free time and she deserves it!

Sun 2.8.15 – Tink and Pan are now about 6 days old and are getting big; with Pan still bigger. They seem fine and I love to look in on them every day after I’ve fed Cissie. I don’t disturb  Sultan when he’s  in charge as although he is very tolerant of me, he doesn’t know me like Cissie does. I was telling someone about Sultan and Cissie, and she suggested that maybe Sultan is having a holiday romance, and will head off back to his owner and loft when summer turns to autumn. Well, we’ll see.....

 Above and below, Cissie re-arranges her nest

 Below, the cote doves, surprisingly, sit with the homies -

Left to right, Chino, Cissie, Lucky, Cloud (sitting) and Lottie below Cloud

Mon  3.8,15 – Pan is just beginning to open his eyes, but Tink not quite yet, as she is obviously the younger sibling. The lovely thing about having them in the hutch is that I can just open the door as see the entirely, without having to peer into or delve into the dovecote. I’ve only had this once before when Jose and Happy reared baby Pearl in the old hutch.

I saw the kite again today, soaring overhead.....And also some little cuties popping about in the leaves – I am pretty sure they were juvenile Long-Tailed Tits and they were so adorable, probably just fledged.

Later – Tink’s eyes are now opening. I saw Cissie feeding them this afternoon..... it’s so awkward about the food, I’m not sure what to do. I gave Cissie an extra feed today  and have put a jam jar of smaller grains in the hutch for her to attempt to get grain for herself and the babies. I am worried about them being underfed, especially Tink, who seems half the size of Pan – but having said that they both are growing and seem healthy enough.

You can see the difference between the babies - Pan, on the left, is far bigger

Below, Cissie manages to control her head 'wobble' to feed the babies.....

When I went shopping I saw someone had dumped a hutch down our little country road. We do get some fly tipping but not that much, thank goodness. The hutch seemed more or less ok, so I rang hubby at work and asked him to have a look when he came home. When he arrived he had it in the pick up – the deal being that I get rid of the run (which he hates because it is ‘messy’ he says). The hutch will probably be more useful to me than the run – although of course I won’t have that ‘outside’ facility, but the birds don’t actually use it that much. The hutch will need a huge clean out which I will have to tackle tomorrow – it’s full of old dirty rabbit straw. It is appalling that someone would just chuck something like this in a little local road but I will be able to put it to good use.

If I had wanted to get rid of it I would’ve put in on Gumtree for ten or twenty pounds, buyer collects and it would’ve sold.

Lucky built a new nest immediately and he and Lottie have been sitting in it at times and ignoring it at others. I expect they will have new eggs soon.

 Tink and Pan again

And the kite, way up overhead

Tuesday 4.8.15 - The babies, or at least Pan, are roughly a week old today, and can be left for short periods. Normally the parents would fly in and out of the cote as they see fit, but I have to monitor what Cissie is doing and open the front for Sultan if he wants to go in. It's awkward, but worth it as I love these babies and want the best for them. I don't want to leave the door open unless I have to at least until the babies are two weeks old - oh well I have managed so far!

 Above, Tink and below, Pan

Lucky built a new nest immediately and he and Lottie have been sitting in it at times and ignoring it at others. I expect they will have new eggs before the end of the summer.

Later...... Lottie’s staying the night!

Wed 5.8.15 – One new egg this morning. And today's photos of our lovely babies. The light across them is the chink of sun coming through when I opened the nestbox side door.

 The homies rest together in the afternoon - L to R Cloud, Cisse, Chino

 To be cont....