Pigeon Talk

[rolohman]

It’s at least a LITTLE bit funny that the chickens, banned from the laying boxes by a piece of cardboard, finally roosted last night, but the pigeons chose to fight their way over the barrier to be with them. And that we've got four chickens crammed into the space that would fit TWO, to get as far away from the scary pigeons as possible. One of the black ones is actually sitting on TOP of the other black one. They stayed like this all night - the pigeons even spread out and got closer, but the chickens gave them PLENTY of room.

Of course, I'm worried about the pigeons safety - they have their own coop that is next to this one (hardware cloth barrier) and they can fly over the divider while the chickens can't (too narrow and high). That keeps their food and water safe, at least. They have roosts JUST LIKE THIS ONE over there, plus other pigeon-specific roosts and a nesting box that they hang out in during the day. But at night? "No one here but us chickens!!!"

 

[cavemanrich]

On this pigeon forum,,, you can read many articles/posts and opinions about housing chickens and pigeons together.
No one suggested doing such as I recall. Those that did keep together,, were not by choice, but by current circumstances.
One person I recall, had the top portion sectioned off for pigeons, and the bottom portion is where the chickens stayed. Chickens had a pop door on bottom for outdoor access. Pigeons had their own exit on top into an aviary.

In My case, during winter, I house my Pet chickens inside the garage loft. It is a LARGE LOFT,,, about 60 square feet total. I had the loft separated by a wire screen. Probably the most dangerous portion of keeping them together,,,, CHICKENS COULD EAT THE BABY SQUABS JUST HATCHED. It never happened to me,, since I always kept a separation.
I currently do not have pigeons at this time.. but the garage loft serves as winter housing for my pet chickens every year.

 

[Qwerty3159]

In My case, during winter, I house my Pet chickens inside the garage loft. It is a LARGE LOFT,,, about 60 square feet total. I had the loft separated by a wire screen. Probably the most dangerous portion of keeping them together,,,, CHICKENS COULD EAT THE BABY SQUABS JUST HATCHED. It never happened to me,, since I always kept a separation.

I think this is the biggest/worst thing to watch out for when cohabitating the two species.

For now the chickens and juvenile pigeons will probably continue to get along, but I would be concerned when the pigeons start to mature (become more aggressive/territorial) and also because at that age they will start breeding. I don’t have any chickens but I know they can get a bit catty with eachother at roosting time. Pigeons are pretty rough and tumble with each other, for what it’s worth, but it wouldn’t take much for a chicken to seriously harm a pigeon (especially in the dark).
If you want to leave the gap in the divider you could try taking the pigeons after they’ve gone to sleep in the chicken coop and putting them in their correct sleeping quarters. Or maybe lock them inside their coop for a few days so they start roosting inside

 

[Amer]

Apparently my family did not tell me about the eggs right away

 

[Amer]

Only one hatched, but I guess it will be easier to feed and keep warm, the one on the nest is a first time mom and it is cold.

 

[Qwerty3159]

Only one hatched, but I guess it will be easier to feed and keep warm, the one on the nest is a first time mom and cold.

Singleton babies in my experience are best for first time parents.

I had a pair hatch one egg in February 2022 during a blizzard, wind chill was below 0 for it’s first week of life, we got so much snow that it piled up in a drift and actually began to fall into the loft through a ventilation slit. I threw a ton of extra straw and nesting material into the box, piling it up along the walls to help keep some heat in. Really fluff up the sides of the nest so that even if the parent is hovering and not fully covering the baby that there is minimal exposure of its skin to the outside air. I also hung a rag with a slit cut in the middle in front of the box to keep it warmer inside, I found the easiest way to do the rag thing was fix it on the front of the box at night when the parent is already inside sitting on the baby.

He made it!

 

[cavemanrich]

I always discouraged winter hatches. Switched out eggs with plastics. But,,,, a couple times I did get a surprise hatch during cold. Since my loft inside garage is way up high,,, I placed a light with an incandenscent bulb under the floor where the nest was located. It took the chill out from the nest area, but did not overheat. The warmth from the lightbulb had to go thru a plywood floor first.
Another option, which I did not try, but know to be good. Get a small heating pad, and locate under nest. Set on low. You need one that does not time out after a certain amount of time. My heating pad is somewhat older model with no timeout option.
I'm not sure what is available out there currently. Seems everything comes with a small computer built in to have control over what we do.
All my coffee makers shut off after 2 hours of on. Not a big deal,, for me, since I would shut it off anyway, and reheat my cup o joe in microwave.

 

[Qwerty3159]

The guy in the last photo is my blizzard baby I mentioned before. Cupid (born on Valentine’s Day)

Not looking his best due to heavy molt

 

[rolohman]

On this pigeon forum,,, you can read many articles/posts and opinions about housing chickens and pigeons together.
No one suggested doing such as I recall. Those that did keep together,, were not by choice, but by current circumstances.
One person I recall, had the top portion sectioned off for pigeons, and the bottom portion is where the chickens stayed. Chickens had a pop door on bottom for outdoor access. Pigeons had their own exit on top into an aviary.

In My case, during winter, I house my Pet chickens inside the garage loft. It is a LARGE LOFT,,, about 60 square feet total. I had the loft separated by a wire screen. Probably the most dangerous portion of keeping them together,,,, CHICKENS COULD EAT THE BABY SQUABS JUST HATCHED. It never happened to me,, since I always kept a separation.
I currently do not have pigeons at this time.. but the garage loft serves as winter housing for my pet chickens every year.

Yes, thank you for this. I definitely read all those threads and built separate living areas for that purpose, with the ability to completely shut off the pigeon area if need be. We don't expect to raise squabs, but things may change. My mistake was that I thought they could share our run - it's about 10' square and 9-10' high, with lots of branches high up for the pigeons that the chickens can't reach. Chickens definitely can't get into the pigeon housing. However, I just didn't anticipate that the pigeons would seek out the chickens! I've got videos of them happily walking up the ramp. Shoot.

I completely agree that this isn't a tenable situation. I did start going in and moving them after I saw this video of them together at night, and I'm happy to say that the pigeons started off last night in their own home without my help.

The new plan is to build an adjoining run that will be pigeon-specific, with a new coop within that run for them. I don't like my setup anyway for them (hard to clean) and this way I can do a bit more research on how to set it up. And it's already clear that we would like to raise a few chicks if any of our hens go broody, so the current pigeon coop can become a nursery/isolation area with a few alterations.

I'll be checking out other people's pigeon setups since I hope to start building this month! Since we are doing floating foundations I could conceivably install this soon even though we are starting to get frozen conditions.

 

[rolohman]

I'll be checking out other people's pigeon setups since I hope to start building this month! Since we are doing floating foundations I could conceivably install this soon even though we are starting to get frozen conditions.

On that front - do they REALLY like wire floors? That's what I see in so many pigeon setups and it seems....surprising. We are in upstate NY, so it gets pretty cold, and I'm just wondering if that would cause too much of a draft. Or perhaps they are fine as long as there are nesting boxes they could shelter in on a windy day? I'm imagining we will have a solid wall on the windward side of the coop, down to ground level, and that the coop will be elevated. Perhaps the lack of direct wind will keep drafts from being a problem.