will it ever hatch?

[mollykins]

Dolly the dove's egg or two, which she layed on her nest, on top of the boiler flew haven't hatched yet, have they been cooked? its been nearly twenty days and there's no sign of chicks.

[redman41]

Should be hatching any day now mollykins if she has sat on her nest incubating the eggs.
If not you could have boiled Dove eggs for tea with some toasted soldiers to go with them ! :-)

[mollykins]

noooooo, its been about 20 days since dolly and olly have been laying on the nest, and when we googled it, it says 15 days!!!!!!!!!! Dad said the the outside of the boiler flew doesn't get that hot though, so the eggs can't be cooked can they?

[Prudie]

It's flue Molly

[boxtops]

I was trying to work that out Prudie, I thought molly meant Dolly had laid the eggs then flew off!

[Prudie]

Exactly Boxtops! Also if you mean the eggs have been left unattended for 20 days you have no hope.

[mollykins]

not, i weren't sure how that kind of flue was spelt. She's still been laying on it, but there's no sign of chicks, plus the nest looks like it leaning off the flue more and more.

[carmalee]

haven't googled in incubation period for dove eggs but if you have and got 15 days and it's now been about 21 - the eggs are probably addled and won't hatch.

[Mr Veritas]

The main things is,does Dolly have a mate,did they mate together,and were the eggs fertile.
If any of the questions above have a NO answer,then the likelihood of the eggs hatching is almost zero.

[Mr Veritas]

PS:~Sorry,missed the part about Olly.
However,are you SURE that Olly is a MALE?
Birds sexes are very very difficult to determine.

[Mr Veritas]

PPS:~
A birds body temperature is usually sufficient to hatch her eggs,so the heat from the boiler may had addled(cooked) them and they may now(sadly) never hatch.
I would move Dolly & Olly away from the boiler,and they may have more sucess at laying/hatching in a cooler (but not cold) place.
If you remove the old clutch of eggs,Dolly may lay some more,provided she and Olly are not on top of the boiler!

[mollykins]

Well there are definatly two different birds (i've seen one on the enst and the other building an extension on the nest at the same time.) we just assumed that they are male and female, can you get lesbian birds?

[mollykins]

i think they've given up on it, when i came back yesterday evening dolly wasn't on the nest and she's not this morning.

[mollykins]

A cat took the last chick (somehow managed to scramble up to the nest after it had been abandoned), but dolly is back and has layed another egg, what should we do?