Pigeon Talk

[WVduckchick]

No access to electricity, hoping to get to that next year but figured this was the next best thing. They are almost 4 inches deep and haven’t had one empty by the time it has froze so they are working decently

Looks good to me. I did something similar with plastic coffee containers, I just cut sections out with a knife lol. And I always have plenty of those, admitted coffee-aholic here.

Mornings when I’m in a bigger hurry, I use a plant watering can with a long skinny spout, fill it with hot water, and just pour some into one of the holes, and it helps to melt the frozen ice, and gives them something to drink until I come back and fully break any solid stuff out, or it thaws during the day. We rarely stay below freezing for many days at a time.

 

[Qwerty3159]

Got some new stock birds a while back as well as two young birds and didn’t post about them, they’re the blue bars and blue checks.

 

[cavemanrich]

Got some new stock birds a while back as well as two young birds and didn’t post about them, they’re the blue bars and blue checks.

Are your stock birds homeset to your loft,,?? Do you loft fly the young ones?

 

[WVduckchick]

Ran across this video on another thread and thought it was interesting.

 

[Qwerty3159]

Are your stock birds homeset to your loft,,?? Do you loft fly the young ones?

I got three new old birds the other day, and I plan to breed them for one or two seasons and then after that have a go at resettling them. Worst comes to worst they decide they want to go back to their original loft, which is only a few miles away. I have a feeling that these new pigeons won't be easy to resettle because they've raced from ~400 miles but we'll see. I’ve successfully resettled an old bird that I purchased in the spring of 2020, but I had her shipped from across the country.
I’ve integrated the two new youngsters into my flock that I loft fly daily, and they actually just flew around and trapped in with the rest of the flock for the first time today.

 

[cavemanrich]

Qwerty3159​

Is the hawk migration over for your area now??

 

[Qwerty3159]

Qwerty3159​

Is the hawk migration over for your area now??

Yes I had a lot of Cooper’s pass through in September and October but that’s over now. I had a peregrine chase them pretty hard a few weeks back but it moved on too, I kept the birds in for about a week after that but they were keen to get back out. Proud to say I haven’t lost a pigeon to a bird of prey this year.

 

[Pigeon28]

So me and my sons went to our first club meeting lastnight. Very relaxed and they each won something in the door prizes, 3 pigeons, a 50lb bag of feed and a 10lb bag of shelled peanuts! They also have a loaner loft program and my boys wanted their own so they dropped off a new 4x4x6 loft today with 6 more birds! Very great club and programs for kids and adults. The 6 birds they dropped off today makes 42 so hopefully going to have a good breeding year this year

 

[Pigeon28]

Yes I had a lot of Cooper’s pass through in September and October but that’s over now. I had a peregrine chase them pretty hard a few weeks back but it moved on too, I kept the birds in for about a week after that but they were keen to get back out. Proud to say I haven’t lost a pigeon to a bird of prey this year.

Wish I could say I was as lucky! Down 10 from hawks most likely

 

[Qwerty3159]

Sorry to hear that I had really bad luck like that my first two years flying but everything really worked out this season. I got lucky with a lot of young and inexperienced hawks this year that helped my pigeons hone their skills a bit.
The only thing I did differently this year was start all the young birds out with an old bird I had that was experienced and I had tossed quite a few times but out of shape from not flying for ~ a year. Because he is so aggressive I have him and his mate currently living in a separate breeding loft, which cut down on the noise and fighting in the loft by like 90%. It really worked out great because he is usually the leader in the flock and a pretty lazy bird so he was a great trainer, never took the young birds out too far and I could send him on short tosses to reliably recover them when they didn’t turn up. He still flies with them every single day but he often taps out around the thirty minute mark and goes back to his mate.
He’s the big guy almost at the peak of the roof and then the one further to the right in the other pic