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In general this winter I have been supplementing my normal feed mix with whole popcorn, about 1:3. For the polar vortex, I lined the bottom of my loft, which is 1/2" hardware cloth, with cardboard to keep out the wind, and sealed off all openings. They are locked inside there for a few days...

In the 2 years I've had my racing homers, I have never had a bird come back after the 5 day mark. Most that go at large are back by the next day. I've had many instances of them coming back a few days later, and a handful that have come back on the 4th day. After 5 days of being missing, I...

It is! I liked thinking the reason he was the only one bursting out of the loft when he's not supposed to was because he was looking for his lost mate. I hope he found her, rather than being eaten by a hawk, but my guess is they were both eaten by hawks.

There is no doubt in my mind that with the right circumstances (combination of thirst and being taught how to get the water out) that pigeons would learn how to operate this. During WW2, before heat seeking or smart missiles were invented, BF Skinner designed a missile piloted by a pigeon...

In Michigan I think the migrators begin in September, peak in November and the migration is over by late December early January. As others mentioned, residents may stay around, but here they are usually red tails, which I do not think pose even close to the threat that the migratory goshawks...

I'm sort of being rhetorical, but define "diarrhea".... Most birds when stressed by something like a relocation, especially coupled with new food and water source, will have runny poop for some time, and it may even be green. I'd say if it's green and runny for longer than a week start being...

I honestly have no idea, but as you can see wild doves at a bare minimum can land on your loft, and presumably poop on areas exposed to your birds. I think the fact that you don't let them out greatly reduces risk from wild birds though.] Maybe a better thing to wonder is what, if any...

I'm not totally sure what it is, but from what I understand about PMV, that sounds like a possibility. I think contracting it from wild doves is distinctly possible. As you can see in the photos below, they do occasionally fraternize with my pigeons. West Nile is not uncommon where I live...

Well I have 4 YBs (about 3 months old) who I've been loft flying as much as I can for the past 10 days or so, but I only fly them with 2-3 hours left of light. Few times after I let them out, I've seen hawks circling around, but they all came back. My loft is at its capacity max, so if I lose...

Me too. A few of my birds have names that they earned. The others, I've thought of names and they just don't stick, but what has stuck for those are simply their leg band number.

Me too, from the hose around my house, but it's still a pain. With something like what you have, you could design something pretty nifty. Tub with a drain plug at the bottom. Fill it up with a hose through one of the spaces in the fence thing, then drain it when they're done!

That's cool. Are you going to add some perches in that flight pen? Would be cool! If I had something like that, I would also add a bath that could automatically be filled up with water, and drained!

What is the flight pen for? Are you not loft flying your birds? Is this just for them to get exercise during hawk season?

Most adult and young adult pigeons sleep on perches. But, for obvious reasons, brooding hens will sleep in the nest boxes, on their eggs. Cock birds first claiming a nest box may also spend a lot of time in that newly claimed nest box, and may roost there as well. Sometimes, usually due to...

To date, my top dream loft is the one the English guys have in the video where they're showing their loft to Mike Tyson, and all the nest box floors have these conveyor belt things that automatically remove the poop, no human work needed. Pretty nifty.

I had never seen a tick on a bird until last weekend I was grouse and woodcock hunting, put a grouse and two woodcock in my cooler to take home and dress out, and upon emptying the cooler found what looked like a large dog tick in the bottom of the cooler. Had to come from one of the birds...

Ferals are one way to start a loft. Ferals are most likely to have mostly homer blood in them, although likely watered down. They say some ferals can't home at all, and some could home hundreds of miles, with most being able to home just fine within 20 miles or so. Ferals haven't been bred...

If any of you are curious how serious racing birds can get, this guy's loft's website sort of spells it out! Offspring from his winners go for thousands. Big race birds, with six digit purses. http://www.ganusfamilyloft.com/index.html And these birds have served in both our world wars, some...

Just be aware, while all pigeons are susceptible to hawks, and there are ways to minimize exposure, it seems rollers are especially targets. For one, I think their rolling attracts predators (just a thought), and two, if they get chased away too far they are almost without a doubt lost, whereas...

I do 1-2 times/week and put some borax in with the bath water. About 1/8-1/4 cup of borax to 2 gallons of water.