how to sex homing pigeons? how to care for them?

[KWAK]

Thanks any other information i should know?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Sure....get some dummy pigeon eggs or you will be overrun before you know it

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Sure....get some dummy pigeon eggs or you will be overrun before you know it

Yep , i alway seperate mine after spring breeding, or they will breed year round, also help break the bond of pairs , so you can remate them next year.

Shelly knew you just got the time switch.........you been raising doves long enought , i knew what you ment.

 

[KWAK]

haha will they breed as fast as rabbits? (we bred them fo a while)

 

[appalachianchic]

Just as fast as rabbits (used to have them as well). We are on our third clutch for the summer and had to remove two clutches of eggs from the nest while they were raising the first one. We let them have the third clutch because the babies have already fledged with only the male feeding them. Planning on removing the nest after this hatch and gathering any eggs they lay as it is getting cold here at night.

For a nest I use a large plastic dog bowl. I put about a half inch of sand in the bottom for padding and then give them long pine needles for material.

We feed ours chicken layer and a seed mix for wild pigeons/doves. It is cheaper then the dove/pigeon feed. We also provide some free choice grit of sand and oyster shell (little pan on the piece of plywood). We taught ours to drink out of water rabbit water bottle and feed them the layer out of a rabbit gravity feeder with a fine bottom.

An extra large shallow bowl of water every couple of days for bathing. But when you are training for drinking out of the water bottle you will want to remove all bowls to encourage them to use the bottle. I remove the dirty bath water when they are all done.


I have noticed that the head of the mature female is rounder than the male.


Here is our temporary flight until we get moved and can make a bigger one.

 

[JasoninMN]

You should have 2 nests per pair because they will start renesting before the young leave the nest.

 

[Hokum Coco]

There are some adult homing pigeons that will not orientate to a foreign loft and have to be kept prisoner the rest of their lives.

Young birds about 2 weeks. Show pigeons and utility birds at most a month. If trying to orientate an adult homer do not release the bird until it has raised at least 3 clutches of eggs (even then your chances are 50/50 at best if the homer is of any value).

There are as many training regiments as their are pigeon fanciers. I personally leave my young and mature birds mingle (a lot of fanciers have a separate loft for their young birds). When the young birds begin to fly from the loft with the adult birds and are gone for about a half hour or more that is when I begin training (anywhere from 5 to 8 weeks depending on the bird).

I then begin tossing the young birds from one compass point at a time always (South in my case). I start out with a 2 mile toss and keep doubling it until I am up to about 20 miles. Then I take another compass point (East in my case) and begin the procedure a second time until all 4 compass points are covered.

When it comes to gender of a pigeon it is best to ask another pigeon.

It is lays an egg it is female.

Or it it does a courtship dance like this it is male.

 

[Hollow Point]

Anyone ever used the string and screw ring (ones used to screw into screen door jams to latch the door) method? Old man showed me this and so far he's 95% accurate. Tie the string to the oval end of the screw ring and leave about 12" length of string. Grab the bird under its belly with one hand and with the other steady the string and screw over the birds back. If the string moves from tail to head its supposed to be a male, and if it turns in a small oval circle its supposed to be female. I have heard this from several people and they have all claimed it works. So far the birds I bought from that old man are exactly what he said they were....

 

[Hokum Coco]

Here is another method that supposedly works:

I personally would not bet the farm on it.