Expert: Roger Lederer - 7/22/2007

Question
I have a dove that laid eggs once already this year and now she has laid another round. There were 4 eggs, but she added 2 more making six total. She was on the nest for a while and now she is never there. It has been about a week and there has been no sight of her. Although there are a lot of doves around our house and she may be one of them, she hasn't been back to sit on the eggs. What should we do? Are they dead? Should we remove them or hatch them ourselves? Thank you for your help. Jillian

Answer
Doves alomost never lay more than two eggs at a time, so this means she has three rounds of laying. If she has not been sitting on them they may or may not be fertile. Whether fertile or not, they may be dead anyway. It is EXTREMELY difficult to hatch and raise baby doves, so I would not try. If you have a local wildife rehab center you might call them for advice, but my advice is to just leave things as they are. If the mother does come back and try to incubate the eggs, she might be able to do it. If she does not, well, it happens sometimes. Thanks for your concern.