Does anyone own pigeons?

[Chickemee]

If anyone owns pet pigeons can you please tell how to raise them and if they are anything like taking care of chickens. Thanks.

 

[ZooZoo]

I used to own pigeons. They are very different from chickens, especially raising them from eggs. Unlike chickens, their hatched with no feathers and have to be handfed many times a day. I would definitly advise not to hatch out or raise pigeons because its a very time-consuming task handfeeding them every few hours. They are great mothers though, so they do well hatching and raising their own eggs. I bought mine as adults, and Loved them. Their really fun to watch and train. I housed mine in an 8x19 outdoor aviary. Feel free to ask any questions.

Edited to add a link on handfeeding pigeons if you already have the hatchlings
http://birdsinwhite.com/articles/article1.html
http://www.pigeoncote.com/vet/feedbaby/feedbaby.htm

 

[Chickemee]

Thank you very much for replying. I was thinking about getting adult pigeons. What can you train them to do?

 

[ZooZoo]

After mine got used to associating me with food they would sometimes fly right on my shoulder to get thier food. They really are fun birds. How are you planning on housing them? Some people use lofts, which are usually used for racing pigeons.

Heres a link to a loft for example:
http://www.speedpigeon.com/homing_pigeon/lofts.htm

 

[Chickemee]

I was planning on getting 2 pigeons and have a cage something like this.
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...w=126&prev=/images?q=pigeon+cages&gbv=2&hl=en

Is it ok if I let them out during the day and put them away at night or will they not come back? Also is it ok to have 1 or do I need more.

 

[Chickemee]

Can anyone one else answer my question? Thank you Zoozoo your very helpful.

 

[birdmandan]

pigeons are great, they rear their own young and survive well on cracked maize and wheat.