Pigeon Talk

[WVduckchick]

I contacted the man I got my pigeons from and asked about bath water. He said he gives his birds a bowl to bathe in about once a week. Is that sufficient?

 

[sourland]

I contacted the man I got my pigeons from and asked about bath water. He said he gives his birds a bowl to bathe in about once a week. Is that sufficient?[/QUOTE

I used to provide bathing water once a week or so in winter - depending upon the weather and several times a week in the summer.

 

[biophiliac]

Me too.

 

[WVduckchick]

Awesome! Thanks!

 

[LamarshFish]

Whilst on the subject of poop, I have a mesh floor in my loft and it works great until they molt. Now what is happening is the feathers are getting pooped on and it turns into a bit of a tangled mess stuck around the mesh. A bit of a pain to clean. I'm thinking of putting a board down whilst they finish molting so I can just scrape it up rather than pick it out if the floor!

LOL, my loft floor is 1/2" hardware cloth, and I'm dealing with the same thing right now! But as far as "messes" go, this is no big deal, I'm a big fan of most of the poop usually just going to the dirt below my loft, to be raked out and used as fertilizer 3-4 times a year.

 

[LamarshFish]

Concerning reproduction, I haven’t seen any eggs yet. What is their laying cycle/season? And how many will they usually brood?

Pigeons will pair and start laying anywhere between 6-9 months of age, but usually closer to the 9 month age. Once they're old enough, in theory and in nature, pigeons breeding season is around March-September ish, and will cease breeding season during the winter, but I've noticed sometimes they just do not stop, and it's a year long thing, and I think that is mainly because of temperature and availability of food. Their typical winter "non-breeding" season is a natural thing they know to do as a result of difficulty in raising young in cold weather and lack of food. In a loft, food is always there, so as long as the temps are what they think is fine to breed in, I've noticed they'll just keep going. Now, while they will lay and set clutches back to back during the main spring/summer breeding seasons (literally setting new eggs while they are still feeding 3 week old squabs), I notice they will space them out a bit more as it gets colder, taking longer breaks, etc. Just my observations.

 

[LamarshFish]

Im doomed!
I have a serious case of champagne taste with a water (not even beer) pocket book..
I want some of these!
And others like them..
View attachment 1558085 View attachment 1558086 View attachment 1558087

Not to steer you away from fanciness, but I will just note that things get more difficult when you keep and breed towards colors and fanciness. Feral flocks tend to gravitate towards blues, and so do winning racing lofts, and for good reason, survival and performance are the things driving breeding, and blue is a dominant gene. While some racers do well with all whites, it is rare. Look up the racing birds that cost tens of thousands of $ and almost all of them are blues (bars and checks, and of course the occasional splashes, which are neat).

Don't get frustrated when you try to breed neat colors by breeding two birds of such color scheme, but get mostly not what you expected. Pigeon genetics are very complicated. For example, I have one blue check splash hen, who I was excited when I got thinking I'd get a lot more splash in my loft, and she's paired with a blue bar cock, but only about 10% of their offspring, maybe less, have any splash WHATSOEVER. Not even a speckle of white.

 

[CCUK]

I just removed two more eggs yesterday and replaced with plastic ones. I only have one pair sat on eggs at the moment. The other nest seems abandoned. I'll clean it out tomorrow and see what happens!

 

[CCUK]

Not to steer you away from fanciness, but I will just note that things get more difficult when you keep and breed towards colors and fanciness. Feral flocks tend to gravitate towards blues, and so do winning racing lofts, and for good reason, survival and performance are the things driving breeding, and blue is a dominant gene. While some racers do well with all whites, it is rare. Look up the racing birds that cost tens of thousands of $ and almost all of them are blues (bars and checks, and of course the occasional splashes, which are neat).

Don't get frustrated when you try to breed neat colors by breeding two birds of such color scheme, but get mostly not what you expected. Pigeon genetics are very complicated. For example, I have one blue check splash hen, who I was excited when I got thinking I'd get a lot more splash in my loft, and she's paired with a blue bar cock, but only about 10% of their offspring, maybe less, have any splash WHATSOEVER. Not even a speckle of white.

I've had 8 hatchling in my loft and only one had white. The others are all barred or checked. Isnt the blue something to do with camouflage from hawks?

 

[LamarshFish]

Here's a question. Can you loft fly fancy pigeons or do they not have the same instincts that racers have?

I think with proper settling techniques, the answer is yes. Pigeons have impeccable abilities to memorize images. Absent homing instincts, I don't think it's a ton different than free ranging chickens who head back to the coop at night, except I think pigeons are better at it.

The nice thing about NON-homing pigeons is you can relocate them and not worry about them returning to where they were originally settled. Yes, there are plenty of people who have re-settled homers after them laying and raising 3-4 clutches in the new loft, but many more who have never been able to re-settle. You always run the risk of a homer returning to where it first learned to home/fly. One racer I know had a bird come back to his loft SIX YEARS later from over 500 miles away. Yup, six years after having been re-homed, the bird traveled over 500 miles to go back to its original home. Really good homers are just that, REALLY GOOD homers. Can be a blessing and a curse. They often end up in peril trying to home from too far away after being with a new owner.