Expert: Roger Lederer - 6/10/2007

Question
Hi! I hope you can answer my question. I want to know how many times a pigeon will lay eggs in a season. I am a Police Officer in Jersey City, NJ and due to a missing pane in the window in my locker room, a pigeon moved in and laid 3 eggs in a nest on the floor. This was about 2 months ago. I wanted to wait until they flew away to fix the window as I am an animal lover. The problem is, two days before they flew away another nest appeared on top of my locker with 2 eggs. I am not sure if it is the same female but I have only ever seen 1 adult in there. The two new babies are pretty big (almost ready to fly)and when I went to check on their progress today I found 2 more eggs in their nest. My question is, how many times do you think the mother will lay eggs this year? I am trying to keep ahead of the bird droppings but it's getting a little difficult. Luckily, I am the only one using the room or they would have been long gone!! I'm not sure how this message board works, so if you could respond to my e-mail address I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much for your time!

Answer
Officer Kelly - pigeons breed all year around but never lay more than two eggs, so you are probably dealing with more than one female. One one female could possibly lay eggs 4-5 times in one year. I think it's time to get the window replaced! I didn't get your e-mail so I had to respond through this forum, so I hope you got this. Roger Lederer