Urgent!! I took a mother dove's nest and now she has laid an egg where it was, what do I do?
Please don’t guilt me about this, I feel bad enough already.
A pair of doves built a nest on top of a fire extinguisher box outside my door and did not return to it for a couple days, so I assumed that they abandoned it and I took it inside. However, the mother dove returned some time last night and laid a single egg. Being that there is no nest there, the egg rolled to the back (the box is on a tilt), and although the mother is still sitting there, she is not sitting on the egg, and it looks to me like she is unable to because it is too far back. What should I do? I’m sure the egg is fertilized, and I’m afraid it will not make it through the night. Should I take the egg inside and attempt to incubate it?
I assumed the best thing to do would be to attempt to put the nest back and place the egg inside, but don’t you think the mother might be hesitant to return to the nest if I shooed her away and messed with her egg?
Filed under: Retirement Planning
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As she has laid an egg what you need to do is replace a few twigs or nesting material similar to what you removed and place the egg on it.
If the bird is happy with this situation she will return and lay again.
It is always worth trying and she may return to nest.
that whole don’t touch a baby bird cus the mom wont go to it any more thing is just a bunch of bs people say. your best off hoping the mom will come back and will stay with the baby, if you incubate it the baby wont be able to live on its own later cus it wont have learned the things its mom needs to teach it
yeah, you should return the nest.
and next time, if there is a next time, just friggin RELAX. You don’t need to go around tidying up the universe.
if you already touch the nest or egg the mother will not come back to it and most likely abandon the area… the best thing to do would be to take the egg and incubate it !!!
Doves dont make much of a nest. In fact every time I see one I am amazed any doves survive. It’s mostly a pile of grass and small twigs. So just put some dry grass there & hope for the best. Most doves will let you observe nest from pretty close up . Interesting to watch them grow. If you don’t want them nesting there again block off the nesting area when they are done with the nest.