by Paula Stahl

Created on: March 03, 2007   Last Updated: June 19, 2009

I have a ten year old son, who has had a yen for racing pigeons. Since I am a good and loving mother, trying to foster his interests and education, I got him a pair of the birds for his birthday one February. Not knowing from whence the birds came, and not wishing to cause weather shock....I started out by putting them safely out of Eastern Forest winter snows and in a cage in the house. And the learning began.

First, we got to witness and watch the mating rituals of pigeons. Let me tell you, rabbits have nothing on these fellers. What they lack in duration they make up for in number of attempts. I also thought right from the start, how similar to people they are. The male will strut, and bob his head, and spread his wings and tail feathers ....and try his best to convince his lady bird
that he is the one to lay eggs with.

She, reacts with what seems like disinterest.... eating, calmly preening her feathers....looking the other way....I think our lady pigeon actually rolled her eyes a time or two. She knows what all us women know...that he would act that way for any ol' lady bird.

Just to prove this, we put a mirror in the cage one day. Catching site of himself, Manly pigeon began to bob his head and flex his feathers, strut around in his little circle, never guessing he wanted to mate himself. Whoops. Mr. and Mrs. Pigeon soon produced two shiny new eggs. One at a time. Well....two days apart. They nicely took turns sitting on the eggs and treated each other tenderly ....preening each others heads, practicing feeding on each other ......I began to wonder if they were like humans at all. They did not bicker or fuss ...but lived in perfect peace with each other it seemed.

Then one afternoon, the first egg hatched. Lady bird took on the task of mother, and at first Manly bird looked on curiously and protectively. Soon, he jumped in the nest and tried to help. Lady bird took the opportunity to go eat some gourmet seed. (Wild birdseed, $1 a bag from the Dollar Store.)

Within minutes, she noticed that Manly bird was making serious and disastrous mistakes in his feeding and sitting techniques, and promptly went over and kicked his hinny out of the nest. He looked hurt, but he listened. I think he watched TV for the evening.

Another day later, the second egg hatched. The first chick had already grown so much you could immediately tell the difference in the two from size. But both parents were attentive, taking turns with care and feeding and keeping them warm,

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