Homing Pigeons

[blueoval1]

Can someone tell me about homing pigeons like housing, food, breeding and the homing part im just curious.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Well, I am by far an expert, but what I do know is that you need to get young ones, or they will most likely 'home' back to their old home. My dad feeds his pigeons a feed called cluckin' chicken, or something like that. It basically looks like scratch grain. The person we got most of them off of said he used bird seed with sunflowers in it, and he added some black beans for protein. I really don't know much on the appropriate housing, except that you need to make sure you have a trap door on their loft! We had 3 homers get out last Sunday, and in the process of getting them back in, 6 more got out! Luckily, one of the homers was hatched here, and the other two had young ones to care for. So they were in no hurry to leave their babies. The other escape artists were not homers, so they just hung out till bedtime, then went back in.

Like I said, I'm no expert, but this might get you started! We have 23 birds (counting 4 squabs) in a coop that is about 4'w by 6'l by 7' high, and they seem to like it ok. Just make sure to have plenty of roosts. A small area can seem much bigger if they have a lot of roosting space. They aren't really floor dwellers.

 

[deerman]

http://www.pigeon.org/


Link to National racing club.


Best to get a good blood line. If you start with good young birds(5 weeks old )you can break them to your place.

Starting with old birds, will get your started breeding sooner. Old birds with good blood line, will try to home to their past home.

Feed a good mix of pigeon feed, grain or pellets. Just ask most feed stores can get Pigeon feed.

Pigeon will breed at 6 months, Males set on eggs 9am to 5pm, female set 5pm to 9am. Both feed the young.

Best to get birds from someone who does race them, then you know they will home. I would get birds that have race 300 to 500 miles.