I want to get some plain pigeons but very hard to find

[Triplell]

I want to get into pigeons, just the plain ones and they are very hard to find. Also, what kind of pen do they need and any special feed? I see that many let theirs free range but how do you get them back into the cage? How many babies do they have, do they lay all year or just once or twice? I have an old barn with a very large loft and I thought about putting the pigeons up their. Any info would be great!!

 

[KWAK]

Plain pigeons as in the wild breed? I see those on cl all th time.

As for a pen you can really use anything as long as it keeps preditors out!
Pigeons will go back into their lofts on their own after you have them for a few weeks.
They usually have 2 babies at a time but can lay all year round.

 

[Triplell]

Thanks, we have a dog training facility for bird dogs and they use pigeons. We usually have a barn loft full of them but no way to capture them. They pay 3.00 a piece.

 

[gunnarwordon]

rock, feral pigeons? go outside and get a net ready! LOL!
they are common to find, just look on Craiglist or Petswap.

 

[deerman]

buy a pigeon trap of make one , they catch one right after another without resettting . seen as many as 16 caught in one time

 

[Triplell]

cool, thats a good idea!!!1

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

How do you use them to train your dogs?....

 

[Triplell]

That I have no idea, The dog kennel does all that and all I know is they pay good for pigeons and they usually end up at our old barn. I think they use them for flushing and pointing I guess. When we had hay in the barn loft we alway's would shoot them as they were crapping all over our hay for the sheep and horses. We have tried so many different methods to keep them out but to no evail.

 

[seedcorn]

You take the scent of what ever animal you are trying to train your dog to, put it on the pigeon, put the pigeon's head underneath his wing (he goes to sleep). You then allow your bird dog to find the bird, point it, you then nudge the pigeon, it flies off just like the game bird you are trying to train for.

We did it to train brittany spaniels. No one gets hurt, pigeon goes free.

They should use homers, so then they could use the same birds over and over again. Back then, we had no access to homers and if we did they were very expensive. We had places where they wanted us to go catch the wild pigeons so we never had to buy any. Plus we only used them about 1 week, then we had them trained.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

Okay good. I know some people do it inhumanely. Which using "just any pigeons" and leaving them to fend for themselves is not that great either. I agree, homers should definitely be used so that they can come back to their home rather than starving, getting killed, or ending up in someone's barn and shot Haha.