My first pigeon!

[ducksliketoswim]

I was at the flea market yesterday and found a man selling an assortment of pigeons, and had to buy this lil'guy! I never realised how cool pigeons were until now, I am excited to go and buy some more! Being a nooby to pigeons I was wondering if you guys could help me out by telling me what type of pigeon it is? It looks like a normal pigeon to me but i am unsure of what its proper name is, thanks for the help!

 

[Hokum Coco]

I can tell you that it is a very young bird and still is what we fanciers call a squeaker because of the call it makes. I could not tell you with any sort of accuracy at this age as to what sex it is little own anything else.

There are quite a few classes of pigeons. There are meat, show, performance, and homing to name the basic ones. If I were to take a wild guess I would think it might be a homing pigeon.

I would rule out the meat and show classes with this particular bird. That being said unless you can get some background from the actual breeder of the bird you may actually never know what type of pigeon she may or my not be. Hopefully some one else may be able to help you more.

This is about the minimum space required (about a 5 gallon bucket) for a pair of pigeon with in an enclosed area. They are seed eaters and require a lot of the same requirements as chickens.

Here is a picture of a mated pair the one on the right is the male (usually more iridescent and sightly larger not always). I would look on line at pigeon lofts and incorporate some of the ideas for your set up before I went too far.

If you are thinking of homing pigeons it is best to get young birds. My experience is older birds may never home to your loft and will have to be kept prisoner the rest of their lives.

Here is a link on Parlour Rollers (they can not fly.)

 

[ducksliketoswim]

Thanks for the info! And those parlour rollers are crazyyy! lol Is it hard to teach a homing pigeon to find its way home? I'd be scared of my bird never coming back D:

 

[Hokum Coco]

There are lots of articles on line about training Homing Pigeons. There are as many different methods as there are fanciers out there. Here is one method I copied and pasted for your information.

Homing pigeons come in different colors. White homing pigeons have been selectively bred over the centuries for their color and homing instinct.

Not all pigeons have a homing instinct, the capacity to find their way home. For example the common street pigeons or feral pigeons in our cities do not have a highly developed homing instinct. They all have some the question remains as to what degree.

You can train white homing pigeons to return home because they have a built-in "homing instinct". Some exceptional homing pigeons can find their way home as far as 1,000 miles from their loft. White homing



pigeons generally can find their way home within 50 miles of their loft; exceptional white homing pigeons can return to their loft from 200 miles.

You cannot train white ring neck doves to return home because they do not have a "homing instinct". See white ring neck doves at right (photo). White ring neck doves cannot fly more than a few feet away or fend for themselves. If released outdoors, white ring neck doves try to run free but they can easily fall pray to cats and hawks and may fly into car windshields and buildings. This is not something you want to see at a dignified wedding or memorial service. Therefore, we urge the public not to use white ring neck doves for dove releases. You should only use trained white homing pigeons for dove releases. They are bigger, stronger, more visual, and they know how to fly home.

Homing pigeons are gifted with a superior eye sight and memory that helps them find and remember landmarks such as rivers, lakes, mountains, and building structures. Unlike humans, they have the advantage of a "bird's eye view" that helps them recognize landmarks as far as their eyes can see!

Homing pigeons need sunlight to navigate. Unlike owls and bats, they cannot see or fly at night to find their way home.

Like most birds, homing pigeons cannot navigate in inclement weather conditions such as heavy rain storms. A bright sunny day provides the best conditions for a dove release.

Training Homing Pigeons to Home

When the young pigeon is between six and eight weeks old, it will venture out of the loft on its own. Their first lesson is to be able to get back into the loft through the trap door. If you wish, you may train the young pigeon to enter the trap door at about six weeks old. At this time it will allow you to help him through the trap door and won't be able to fly away from you.

Once they master entry into the loft through the trap door and get accustomed to flying and recognizing their neighborhood surroundings, you can start training them to return home. The first time, take the young homing pigeon by itself or its mates 2 to 3 miles from its loft and release it. The next time double the distance to 5 miles; then 10 miles, then 15 miles, etc. We suggest that you increase the distance by no more than 5 miles to avoid bird losses.

You should release the doves from different directions (north, south, east, west) so that they may get used to finding their home under different conditions. When you change directions, you should start releasing within 5 miles to avoid bird losses.

If you experience bird losses, slow down the training to avoid further losses. Most trained white homing pigeons will cover a distance of 50 miles; exceptional white homing pigeons can return from as far as 200 miles. Do not push the homing pigeons beyond their natural range.

 

[laughingdog]

i think you have a young roller pigeon mix maybe there, just from what ive seen so far of it, as had a pair father was showier colored roller, and mother was donek or middle easterm performing pigeontumbler type mix, and most of their babies came out looking just like what i can see from your photo. so if it starts back flipping, barrel rolling, or diving, ect. in air around you dont worry.

i have parlor tumbler and they are similar to the airial rollers like birmingham rollers ect, and more so to parlor rollers that roll on ground were they jump or fly up and bacl flip back down right away withing a couple feet of the ground.

these are similar and like how some of mine tumble. birm, american one other, the name i forget, and parlor rollers, and parlor tumblers, all look pretty basic in general and are bred more for and judged on performance only coming in many to any look size shape and color. course there are show rollers and tumblers and of all the differant types of pigeons, that dont home or perform (roll, tumble, barrel roll, dive, soar without flapping, fly for many hours or days on end, fly extreamly high, ect..) at all, except: parlors/parlours (if any one has parlors that dont jump/fly up under to two feet and tumble, or roll around or straight back on ground, after one to about three, maybe six months old, its not a parlor, though young parlors can fly, and actually supposedly well bred parlors fly good and roll better for it when mature and come into roll or tumble). im right now on my first batch of parlor tumbler squeakers, that are just feathering in, so not sure from much personal experiance yet. one squeaker however till recently was rolling right out of the egg, till i started to tame it down so wouldnt freak every time i putzed around it.

 

[Hokum Coco]

If you are not prepared to suffer losses homing pigeons may not be for you.
Here is a 4 part documentary on Racing Pigeons to give you insight on some of their capabilities.

 

[ducksliketoswim]

@laughingdog I think that would be pretty cool if my pigeon was a roller! I've never seen a bird do tricks in the air before and think it would be pretty neat to see!

@Hokum Really interesting video, people put alot of effort into getting the perfect racing pigeon. To bad pigeons arent that big where i come from, i'd love to race 'em too!


Hey, If you remove the eggs from the nest of a pigeon will they keep laying more until they have a full clutch, like a chicken does?

 

[Hokum Coco]

I personally do not race my white homers either but trust me your days are filled with worry and sometimes regret when you toss your birds and they are slow to return or do not return at all.

Yes pigeons will lay another clutch of eggs. However they are not as proficient at that game as chickens and it may take 10 to 14 days before the pigeon lays again.

 

[laughingdog]

worry and regret.. check!!!

i let some males out today as was really nice out oddly, and a female peragrine attacked and although it sucked for my rollers that were frantic, the tumblers faired better, and the flights seemed amused at the challenge. its nerve racking waiting till tomorrow to see who comes in off roof, and from were ever else, but it sure was beautiful to watch while the ballet unfolded (as the boys hadnt been out in months and wouldnt come in preffering to try to deal with the hawk apparently, and i didnt have a bat ect on hand or wouldve hit a home run they were whirling so close around me). its so surprising to watch how fast some BOPs are, but how even really out of shape pigeons can out fly them for so long, and how differant not only look of pigeons are to trained eyes, but how differant they can fly from each other. funny though how the two roller males had been out all day no trouble as were let free fly on occasion, but as soon as let more coveted rollers out before flights, the BOP struck, though the flights swarming around unphased by the BOPs seems to unnerve them, this one seemed eager to keep stooping, diving, and brushing the ground trying to match and catch them in its determination. i havent seen a bird this determined since the young turkey vulture that tried to raid my free flier nests. one of my best male rollers (oddly these two are both vetren hawk survivors of many attacks, as one's young all roll out as hawks grab at at last second, or when intially hit), and my proven capped breeder male flight, were/are both out.. heres hoping!

 

[laughingdog]

if you take the first egg laid out or second, depending on how you want to do it (first egg is usually male under normal circumstances), right after second one is laid or sometime after, ive found i can with some get them to lay again, and will keep laying if inexperianced and young maybe, till they can keep two eggs. my mex buddy whos fam used to eat the roller eggs used to take one all the time, as would his chickens, and the hen would promtly lay another egg in days. or some are just exceptions and flukes that do that. ill admit im probly pretty inexperianced compared to most on her in terms of my own birds, but i admit it, and have heard seen and had from mine, some odd stuff happen as i like to experiment. at time when took eggs myself, id give them to ring neck doves, as they can raise one pigeon egg/chick along with their two with no problems (also the doves great at raising quail eggs for you out there that like more exotic chickens or quail thats eggs dont do well in bators, as they can only hatch one or two chicken eggs of not bantams, but many quail eggs).