How Many Days Is Pigeon Incubation? Natural Incubation, Crop Milk and Squab Care

Pigeons differ from other poultry in a crucial way: the pair almost always incubates the eggs themselves and feeds the young with a special secretion called "crop milk". So in pigeon breeding the real issue isn't the machine settings — it's making sure the pair incubates healthily. This guide covers pigeon incubation duration, how to support natural incubation, why artificial incubation is difficult, and squab care.

How Many Days Is Pigeon Incubation?

Pigeon eggs hatch in about 18 days (normal range days 17-19). The hen usually lays 2 eggs and the pair shares incubation in shifts: the female sits at night and early morning, the male around midday. This natural rotation keeps the eggs both warm and regularly turned on its own.

Parameter	Value
Incubation period	18 days (17-19)
Temperature (artificial, forced-air)	37.4-37.6 °C
Humidity (phase 1)	50-60%
Lockdown day	Day 16
Hatch humidity	65-70%
Candling	Days 5, 12 and 16

For a species summary see our pigeon species page.

Supporting Natural Incubation

With pigeons, the highest success comes from leaving the pair in peace and letting them incubate. What you should do:

• A calm, safe nest: Provide a separate, dim, undisturbed nesting spot for the pair. Frequent interference makes the pair abandon the eggs.
• Nesting material: Offer dry straw, pine needles or nest pads sold for pigeons; the pair arranges its own nest.
• Nutrition: During incubation and squab-feeding, give the pair a quality grain mix, grit (mineral stone) and clean water at all times. Crop-milk production depends on the parents' diet.
• Parasite control: Check the nest and pair for mites and lice; a pigeon sitting in one spot for 18 days is an easy parasite target.
• Candling: If curious, on days 5 and 12 — while the pair is briefly off the nest — you can check the eggs against a strong light and cull infertile ones, but don't hold them long.

Why Is Artificial Incubation Difficult?

Hatching pigeon eggs in a machine is technically possible (37.4-37.6 °C, 50-60% humidity, lockdown on day 16). But the real difficulty starts after the hatch: a newly hatched squab is naked, eyes closed and completely dependent on the parents. In its first days it feeds only on crop milk — a special secretion produced in the parent's crop that cannot be imitated with grain feed.

So raising a parentless squab by hand is very hard: it must be fed in a ~35 °C warm pen every 2-3 hours with a special squab formula using a syringe/tube. In practice the most reliable route is to place a squab hatched artificially under another pigeon pair that is incubating at the same time (a foster pair); these pairs usually accept and feed the foreign squab.

Squab Care

• The first days are entirely crop milk; both parents produce it and take turns feeding.
• After about a week the parents start mixing softened grain into the milk.
• Squabs grow very fast; they're ready to leave the nest at 3-4 weeks.
• If the parents aren't feeding (abandonment, death), giving the squab to a foster pair offers a far higher survival chance than hand-rearing.

For general rearing principles (heat, cleanliness, hygiene) see our brooder guide; but a pigeon's feeding is entirely different from other poultry because of crop milk.

The Most Common Mistakes

• Disturbing the incubating pair frequently (they abandon the eggs).
• Trying to feed an artificially hatched squab with grain feed (crop milk is essential; the squab starves).
• Neglecting the pair's grit and quality feed during incubation (milk production drops).
• Taking the squab out of the nest too early.
• Never checking the nest for parasites.

Whether you incubate naturally or artificially, you can track the 18-day calendar and the candling and hatch days with the KuluçkaTakip app: pick pigeon, enter the start date, and let the app calculate the critical days for you.