I must say, from the OP, to you now wanting pigeons, this is exciting around here. The "pigeon" section of this forum is helpful, lots of talking about, but it is mostly between like 10 of us lol, although we are on here frequently and most peoples' questions get addressed.
But I am just enamored at how fast people get addicted to pigeons. It doesn't take much more than one interaction with them, seeing how incredibly intelligent they are, and also beautiful and hilarious as well. Reminds me of a funny story that recently happened to me:
The bird in my profile pic, he is special to me. I started my loft about 2 years ago. I got several batches of 4-6 squeaker aged pigeons (around 4-6 weeks old), I think in total it took me 18 pigeons to end up with 9 that homed well and stayed in my loft, and by that fall they were still too young to breed. Then, in late December last year I see some nesting behavior, a nest built, and eggs laid. Oh man, what to do, how will they incubate the eggs in this weather (it was a bizarre cold blast here in Michigan, daytime temps single digits F, night time temps well below zero F). Low and behold, I go out the loft on the first expected day they may hatch, and out comes a squab. Next day, the other egg hatched. Now my worries are much worse. It's ZERO degrees out here, how will they survive? Mom or dad leaves the nest bowl for longer than a minute or two and they freeze to death. One of the two did die. But one did not. From the time his egg was laid, brooded and through the time he was about 3 weeks old I don't think the temperature ever once exceeded 10 degrees F. He was the first bird born in my loft. I named him Frost. Spring came, and all my birds started mating up, but not Frost, he had no mate. I once found a few dead squabs, seemed to have been killed (it happens sometimes), and I had some evidence it was Frost. In an abundance of caution I had to separate him, and put him in a small bunny hutch. He was NOT happy. At that same time I was training a few young birds to home, on 2 mile tosses. Frost was at the training level of being able to do a 2 mile toss, so I took him along. He did not come home that evening. Sometimes they go missing for a day or two. My longest period of one missing and still coming back was 4 days. After Day 4 passed, it was a Friday, Frost was still not home. I started beating myself up over it, he was my favorite bird, and was in the process of being in a new temporary cage, but I chose to fly him, and I lost him. Then I get a phone call from a farmer 50 miles away. He said there's this pigeon that won't stop landing on him as he was picking his crops, and it had an ankle band with my phone number on it. I asked what the other ankle band's color and number was, and it was Frost! I asked him if I could come pick him up, and he asked me where I live, and COINCIDENTALLY the farmer says "no need to come get him, we'll actually be selling our crops at the farmers market right in your town TOMORROW MORNING." That farmer's market is only a few blocks from my house. Ok, I'll be there at 7am. I go there, and I reach in to grab Frost and he gives a momentary struggle, but the moment he saw my face every muscle in his body melted lol.
Then I got to thanking the farmers, and they asked me if I am Belgian (pigeon keeping is like the national pastime in Belgium), and I said no, why? The farmer's wife said she is Belgian, and was raised with pigeons, but hadn't really seen any domestics up close since she was a kid, and she said they really wanted to keep Frost because they loved him so much, especially their grand daughter, but they knew it was wrong to do so. So I gave them my number and said, you call me when you're ready to start a loft and I'll get you some babies!
It's funny how they appeal to people! Some people just fall in love with them. Heck, I got mine for the sole purpose of training my bird hunting dog, but fell in love with them instead, and won't even use them for that! They're now my main buddies.
