At what age do doves start to mate/reproduce? I had two babies hatch last year. I don't know if they are male or female and was wondering when they will start to lay eggs or try and mate with the other doves I have.

Usually doves can start laying eggs at a few months old or so but in most cases, they will not be fertile. Even if they happened to hatch, a bird that young will not be able to care for the babies. Mating is something that is done for life. They may or may not mate with the doves you have. At one time, I had over 30 birds and a few of them never mated. Later, I matched those few up with a few new birds and they mated right away. You just never know.

Dave,thanks for the info. I guess nature will have to take it's course and I'll see what happens. I had heard before that the birds mate for life but what happens if one of the pair dies? Do I have a widow for life or do they start looking for a new mate? The reason I am asking is because the mother of the 2 doves that hatched last year died about a month after the last bird was born. So I figure at least one of the males knows what he is suppose to do. So is it possible he will hook up again?

Absolutely. Nature will take it's course and if he sees a desireable female...well you get the idea.

Dave, Good news, nature has taken it's course. One of the doves hatched a newborn this morning. She was feeding it so that is exciting! I guess they haven't forgotten what to do after the sun goes down.

And now the fun begins. You'll be amazed at how fast that little one grows. In a few days, you believe it was able to come out of such a small egg.

It's totally a fascinating experience watching the chick grows. You can see it grows every day. Watch out as soon as the baby has enough feathers, the pair will mate again and start to lay egg even the chick just barely knows how to eat by itself.

That's true... it's unbelievable, less that 40 days ago a baby dove was born and now it's already as big as the parents... and two more baby doves came to life yesterday and today