How (and why) raise pigeons

[LamarshFish]

I too keep pigeons primarily for my entertainment. The husbandry aspect of it, simply caring for them and perfecting the whole thing, has a degree of "zen" to it, and brings me a lot of joy. Watching them fly is very fun, and stress relieving. They are incredibly smart, and are always doing things to show their intelligence, which makes things interesting.

I currently only have racing homers. Below is a pic I recently took of my small 4'x4' loft. In hindsight, I wish I had a larger loft that was divided into at least 2 sections.

 

[Gspsaku]

There are so many pigeon breeds that whatever it is you want in raising animals, you can find it all in pigeons.

 

[Rezbird]

interesting topic. I now interested in trying to raise a few pigeons.

 

[acbossDennis]

I started w/rollers. Nothing in world to compare to a kit that performs in unison a roll. Hawks were terrible so I got out.

Then we had helmits; their personality was great but once again hawks cleaned me out as I free flew them.

Thinking about white homers but I want them to free fly and I hate hawks.

Hawks do love to eat pigeons.......

Years ago, I’m71 now but have chickens and NOW (grandson) we have 2 pairs of Rollers ARE Tumblers as we called them that also. The acrobatic tumblers are awesome. They got *NSYNC and flew together and tumbled at the same time. That was awesome. I also raised racers. I grew up around a pigeon racing club. Each Thursday night they would bring their birds to the clubhouse and they would put tags on them so that Saturday morning when it was time to release them, they would drive anywhere from 200 to 500 miles. With those tags on them, they would release the birds roughly 200 and people that own the birds would be sitting outside that afternoon waiting for the see the bird come in. Once they go into the door, it trapped them and they reached and took the capsule off of the pigeon leg. Put it in a time clock then turn the clock after the race everyone would go to the clubhouse with their time clocks to see which birds made it back the fastest. This was in Shreveport, Louisiana, and we had several that constantly had races and they met at a doctors office. He was the head honcho and behind his doctors office. He had more pigeon coupes than some Houses. They were big. He raised allot of birds and even crossed bred a dove and pigeon. After that birds death. He mounted it to show clients that they WILL cross breed. But when you coop them up one on one. Sooner are later they will have fun lol. Lay eggs and hatch out mixed birds. He called them, doveds short for pigeon and doves. But the racing part. I watched at other racers houses waiting for the birds to come home. THEY actually have clubs that do this. Btw European pigeons will fly up to 3000 miles to get home. Those birds are extremely smart. Hope y’all enjoyed this story. Like I said I’m 71 and waiting for my pen to be built to start my own bird’s. Probably 3-4 pairs. Not sure since we already have two pairs. Brown and white and More white and black. Beautiful color choices.

 

[acbossDennis]

Hey, I live in Sport. Louisiana and I’m looking for pens are the nest boxes and if you have one the trap doors. But I’ll take about anything right now. Thx