raising pigeons with chickens?

[thechickenman]

i dont know. can it be done. just wondering bc i have a big chicken coop and i was thinking about getting some pigeons about 10-20 and putting them in with the chickens. can i let them out with the chickens in the morning and they come back at nite when i shut the chickens in. and if so what type of pigeon is best for this.

 

[nzpouter]

yes you can.. I do, my 12 lofts have 7x5 floor area each, kept broody hens with chicks in each one in spring. pigeons fly in and out via their trap door.

 

[thechickenman]

thanks!

 

[thewarriorchild]

I have both in the same house and honestly the pigeons are POOPY!! I would not get so many as they breed like rabbits and you will soon have a bazillion. I would put cages for them outisde if I had a covered run. They could go all the way in if they wanted but wouldnt have to. Hawks during the day and Owls at night will be your biggest problems. I am using old mailboxes for pigeon nesting boxes and you can use those plastic bukets nailed to a wall. Of course you have to keep them high up.

 

[merry hens]

Well, I can say that it never worked for me. The chickens were always harassing the pigeons, eating their food, laying eggs in their nests, and pecking at their babies. A lot of times I wanted to let out just the pigeons and not the chickens or vice versa. So, I made a pigeon loft. Good luck, it would be really cool for that to work out....

 

[keeperofthechickens]

I currently keep them together, but the chickens do harass them some. Mostly nest related. Not much though.

I would stay away from Fantail or other breeds that don't fly and move well as a chicken if in a bad mood could easily cripple or kill one of those.

Also I have been told chicken layer feed isn't the best for pigeons. A good cheaper mix for pigeons is whole corn and turkey pellets.

 

[robbie34]

i raise pigeons with my chickens but thay will take over the nest boxes of the chickens so i put nest boxes at the top of the coop and this way the chickens cant kill the baby pigeons

 

[BigPeep]

I had posted this question on a couple of other threads before I saw this one.

I don't have much experience yet with chickens as I just got mine a month ago. However, I did use to raise and race homing pigeons.

I would think that the pigeons would have more or less specific requirements that might not mesh well with the chickens in terms of their being in the exact same loft. For one thing, you don't want to use chicken wire in a pigeon coop because the birds will grab onto it and flap their wings against it, shreading their wing feathers. Dowels are usually used for that reason.

Second, pigeons don't really need much of an outside run if they are habituated to that loft. They need to exercise their wings by flying around, which is best done at set times just before feeding.
The rest of the time they only need a small inside area to nest and a cage that projects outside but is not on the ground for fresh air, which does not need to be large either. Again, it should be short so they don't want to climb the walls as you can't use the dowel approach outside.

There are also different feed requirements and there could be disease transmission issues.

If you must keep the pigeons in the same building as the chickens, I would build something for the pigeons up high that you can access by opening doors at chest or eye level, with an outside cage, also up high, opening to the opposite side as the chicken run. You could also have a coop with a central hallway for yourself and pigeons on one side and chickens on the other. You could construct the chicken nest boxes to have a flap to open into the hallway so you can access the eggs without having to go inside the coop. The feed and supplies can then be kept as well in this area.

If your pigeons can't be flown outside, you will need a much larger enclosed run which should be as long as possible so they can fly from one end to the other. This can be on the ground so you have an entrance to get in and have access to the birds.

Basically, pigeons are fliers, chickens are ground birds.

 

[deerman]

Can they YES, will you have trouble YES. Best to keep birds pen by type.

No good reason to mixes them. Young squeaker get on the floor, chicken can and will kill them.

 

[Drel]

silly ?'s for you. why would you raise pigeons and chickens together, but not quail and chickens? pigeons and quail are both considered game birds, are they not? isn't that a no no?