Pigeon Talk

[Qwerty3159]

I'm giving the NN tumblers one more shot before I decide to switch to another breed (which would be Saints, which I still might get a couple pairs of).

I found a breeder who has reds and bought a hen for Rojo, my red boy. And to justify shipping cost I also bought another red cock and a yellow hen.

Best of luck! I know you’ve had trouble with them in the past. Remind me, were they having trouble rearing the squabs or just issues with laying eggs in general?

 

[danielwow12]

Hello! I'm new to pigeons, but not pet birds in general. I love the idea of having birds that can free fly and return home. My concern is that my backyard has a very large oak tree that provides a lot of shade, which is great, but hurts visibility of watching the birds fly and potentially the visibility of the loft from some angles in the sky. Has anyone kept pigeons in a backyard environment like this and let them free fly? I would hate to lose them because of them getting lost or confused because of the tree.

 

[cavemanrich]

Hello! I'm new to pigeons, but not pet birds in general. I love the idea of having birds that can free fly and return home. My concern is that my backyard has a very large oak tree that provides a lot of shade, which is great, but hurts visibility of watching the birds fly and potentially the visibility of the loft from some angles in the sky. Has anyone kept pigeons in a backyard environment like this and let them free fly? I would hate to lose them because of them getting lost or confused because of the tree.

That tree will not affect the birds finding home. When they free-fly they will associate that tree as their location finder as well. The pigeons when loft flown will learn to recognize your home, tree, yard, as their loft location.
Welcome to the pigeon thread and

 

[sourland]

Hello! I'm new to pigeons, but not pet birds in general. I love the idea of having birds that can free fly and return home. My concern is that my backyard has a very large oak tree that provides a lot of shade, which is great, but hurts visibility of watching the birds fly and potentially the visibility of the loft from some angles in the sky. Has anyone kept pigeons in a backyard environment like this and let them free fly? I would hate to lose them because of them getting lost or confused because of the tree.

I'd be more concerned with the tree providing a hiding place for hawks waiting to attack as the pigeons land on their loft.

 

[Pyxis]

Best of luck! I know you’ve had trouble with them in the past. Remind me, were they having trouble rearing the squabs or just issues with laying eggs in general?

Both. My first pair was only producing an egg at a time, and it wasn't developing. After dosing them with Baytril, they laid two. Only one was fertile, and then the squab died while hatching out.

Then their next try, they successfully hatched one and raised it.

After that I didn't get eggs for awhile. I bought another pair and Rojo intending him to be a mate for the female baby they had raised. Then the baby randomly died. Then one night it got really cold over the winter and I thought they would be fine, because all my other birds always are with no heat. Nope, everyone but Rojo and Sundae (the feral) died and I had to put in a heat lamp.

So what I've learned from this is, they're going to need heat of some kind over the winter I guess.

 

[Pyxis]

The pigeons are here! Good news is they all made it okay. Rojo seemed very happy to see some familiar-looking faces. I'm going to have to get a clip-on tag for him and the new red cock so I can make sure that I can tell them apart.

Annoying news:

The seller shipped in a box that was definitely not okay to use. He put duck tape all around a WALMART box, cut some holes in it for ventilation which he covered with quilt batting, took a handle from a real bird box and slit holes into the top and jammed it in.

Since the box was not made for this, the side got bashed in and I was afraid I was going to have dead or injured pigeons:

I mean look at this, clearly a Walmart box:

And the best part is, he charged me for the box. Fairly standard when you're using an actual bird shipping box because if you're not buying them in bulk they're like $15 each. But he charged me for a box and then sent them in this.

Now, the shipping ended up costing him double what quoted me, probably because of his stupid box not being the correct size, so in reality I didn't pay full shipping.

But this is not cool. Had he not been very wrong about shipping cost, I would have paid for this thing, and my birds could have been killed.

Obviously I need to say something about this but I need to figure out how I want to phrase it.

 

[Qwerty3159]

I'd be more concerned with the tree providing a hiding place for hawks waiting to attack as the pigeons land on their loft.

Agreed on all counts. I have a similar yard as you I believe with lots of trees and never really had issues with the trees themselves. I had one cockbird who used to land in the tops of the pines and call the hens up there which was irritating but other than that I haven’t had issues with them in the trees or flying into them. They quickly learn where any gaps in the tree line are and use them happily during flight, and when they go get attacked by hawks most of mine will fly right through the crowns of the trees if necessary to escape, which has foiled more than one hawk’s breakfast plans. My biggest issue was just getting them to fly ABOVE the tree line and not do short circles in the yard itself.

My current setup is even further under the trees. They just land on the shed roof and then go inside.

Here’s my own giant oak tree. The neighbors across the street cut down a lot of trees for their construction, so the pigeons actually just loop around the back side of the tree, cut across their yard, and then come back into mine. Don’t worry about them hitting the telephone wires either, I only have had that happen one time but the pigeon slowed himself enough before he hit it that he was uninjured.

 

[cavemanrich]

The pigeons are here! Good news is they all made it okay. Rojo seemed very happy to see some familiar-looking faces. I'm going to have to get a clip-on tag for him and the new red cock so I can make sure that I can tell them apart.


Since the box was not made for this, the side got bashed in and I was afraid I was going to have dead or injured pigeons:



Obviously I need to say something about this but I need to figure out how I want to phrase it.

Are these birds from same breeder as Rojo?
I gave your post a because pigeons arrived alive and well. The bad box shipment would tick me off just as much.

 

[Pyxis]

Are these birds from same breeder as Rojo?
I gave your post a because pigeons arrived alive and well. The bad box shipment would tick me off just as much.

No, different breeder. But I know he's bought from the same same breeder I got Rojo from, so it's not like he doesn't understand how shipping birds is supposed to work.

I actually called my post office and told them they needed to talk to the PO that this guy shipped out of and tell them they CANNOT accept a box like that. The guy I spoke with said he would send them an email.

 

[Pigeon28]

So looks like I will have at least one baby in the am, not sure about the other egg. Sadly both of my floor sitting pairs decided to stop sitting tonight, there are only 3 eggs as one broke the other day. Looks like they are viable, should I stick one under each of the other hens or just let them be? They were all within a day of being laid to each other.