Should I give my pigeons a nesting bowl?

[degunuts]

Hey there! I just got into pigeons this sunday, and I was wondering if I should give my pigeons a nesting bowl. I have a pair of mixed breeds and a pair of homers, and the guy I bought from said they were all young but they would be able to breed soon. Should I give my pigeons a nesting bowl just in case? If you want pictures of them for size or gender or anything, I can try to snap some. I'm not sure if the "hen" in my mixed breed pair is a hen at all, but that's an issue for another time! If I don't give them a nest bowl, is there any way for me to tell when they would be ready to breed?

Also, about how long should I wait before letting them out? The guy was guessing they were about 3-5 months (they weren't banded) so they're still young.

 

[cavemanrich]

Let me sort some things out for you since you are a beginner at this. We all start somewhere, so you coming to this forum with questions is the right way to do it.
You do not need to rush with a nesting bowl. Once the pigeons are ready,,,,,, the hen will lay an egg. You can at that time provide a nest, or bowl. A nest/bowl does not speed up the breeding process.

Banding only indicates in most cases the year of birth. Unless the previous owner kept records, bands do not have much more info about age. Banding (permanent type) is done from 4 to 7 days after hatch. Temporary snap-ons can be placed on adult birds. Many peeps us those to ID their birds with a phone # in case found.

Releasing them and expecting them to return can get somewhat tricky. That is referred to home-setting. Them being young, and possibly not homeset to their original loft, your chances for them home-setting to your loft are FAIR to GOOD.

Best way to homeset adult birds is to have them raise 3 clutches of young. Homeset the young ones, starting at 4 weeks old. Then when you have accomplished the 3 clutches, release one of the adults, (loft fly) with the young offsprings. If it keeps returning, then do same with the other parent, while keeping the paired one inside loft. If both seem to keep returning regularly, then you are quite safe releasing them all.
If they decide to say ADIOS, then you still have the young offsprings that will keep returning to your loft.
Keep in mind to never release a bird you don't want to chance on loosing.
Often times home-setting even adult birds does happen and relatively easy. You will learn as your pigeon journey progresses.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[degunuts]

Let me sort some things out for you since you are a beginner at this. We all start somewhere, so you coming to this forum with questions is the right way to do it.
You do not need to rush with a nesting bowl. Once the pigeons are ready,,,,,, the hen will lay an egg. You can at that time provide a nest, or bowl. A nest/bowl does not speed up the breeding process.

Banding only indicates in most cases the year of birth. Unless the previous owner kept records, bands do not have much more info about age. Banding (permanent type) is done from 4 to 7 days after hatch. Temporary snap-ons can be placed on adult birds. Many peeps us those to ID their birds with a phone # in case found.

Releasing them and expecting them to return can get somewhat tricky. That is referred to home-setting. Them being young, and possibly not homeset to their original loft, your chances for them home-setting to your loft are FAIR to GOOD.

Best way to homeset adult birds is to have them raise 3 clutches of young. Homeset the young ones, starting at 4 weeks old. Then when you have accomplished the 3 clutches, release one of the adults, (loft fly) with the young offsprings. If it keeps returning, then do same with the other parent, while keeping the paired one inside loft. If both seem to keep returning regularly, then you are quite safe releasing them all.
If they decide to say ADIOS, then you still have the young offsprings that will keep returning to your loft.
Keep in mind to never release a bird you don't want to chance on loosing.
Often times home-setting even adult birds does happen and relatively easy. You will learn as your pigeon journey progresses.
WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

well thanks for the info! Luckily I only paid 10 bucks for my birds (then I got two racers for free since the guy was nice!) so I’m not HORRIBLY concerned about losing them, though it would suck. Either way, I’m probably going to be buying more birds, especially since that one bird I was talking about I still on the fence about being a hen (I’m hoping, but either it’s a cock or it’s a kind of beefy hen with a tendency for trying to challenge my cock!) One of them snuck out of my hand when I was looking at it yesterday and flew back to its loft after only one day of living there! Once again, thanks for the information. Hopefully I’ll start getting eggs around December to January!

 

[degunuts]

Quick secondary question, is there a way to de-stress my birds? My two racers just hole up in a compartment all day and it seems they’ve been losing small feathers, though I don’t see any bald spots. I think they’re just nervous! Would letting them mingle with my other two birds help?

 

[cavemanrich]

Only thing I could think of to de-stress birds, is giving them food treats. Try giving them some unsalted shelled peanuts. Those are sold as bird feed at my Menards.
The small feathers are just molting, and occurs in pigeons at multiple time per year. to a varying degree of amount.

Simply because you don't have MUCHO $$$ invested, does not mean a bird is one that you just cant risk loosing. Often times you may end up with too many males, and insufficient hens. Those then get quite important not to loose.

@biophiliac I believe is in that situation, with more males than hens. I think she free-fly's her males more often, and keeps hens safe in loft/aviary.

I would allow all your pigeons to be in one area together. Observe, and see how the interaction is. If there is much fighting, you may have 3 cocks, and they are fighting over the one hen.
In that case, see if you can locate 2 additional hens to add to the flock.

 

[degunuts]

Only thing I could think of to de-stress birds, is giving them food treats. Try giving them some unsalted shelled peanuts. Those are sold as bird feed at my Menards.
The small feathers are just molting, and occurs in pigeons at multiple time per year. to a varying degree of amount.

Simply because you don't have MUCHO $$$ invested, does not mean a bird is one that you just cant risk loosing. Often times you may end up with too many males, and insufficient hens. Those then get quite important not to loose.

@biophiliac I believe is in that situation, with more males than hens. I think she free-fly's her males more often, and keeps hens safe in loft/aviary.

I would allow all your pigeons to be in one area together. Observe, and see how the interaction is. If there is much fighting, you may have 3 cocks, and they are fighting over the one hen.
In that case, see if you can locate 2 additional hens to add to the flock.
View attachment 2353837

Alright, thanks! I thought those small feathers were molt feathers since the birds are young (hopefully they'll start breeding soon, I want some babies!) but I wasn't sure. I gave em some peanuts and let them all together, and they seem to be doing fine. I will say, I certainly HOPE I don't lose any birds, but the inevitability is I probably will. Luckily, my local monthly swap meet sells pigeons quite often! So I'll probably start training my pigeons about two weeks from now and if I lose them, it will be sad, but I can get some replacements. Thanks for the info!

 

[degunuts]

Well, I gave my pigeons bowls anyway and the black bird LOVES hers! She spends a lot of the day standing in it, but the cock likes to sit on it as well. I’m not sure if it’s just the feel or if she knows it’s a nest, but she loves it. Also, I’ve got another question! My racing cock has been shaking his tail, but I don’t really know if he was doing it to try to attract the hen, since he wasn’t moving or looking at the hen while he was doing it. Any thoughts? I feel like he’s still to young to be breeding since he’s about the same size as the hen just more iridescent and stocky- attached is a picture of the cock- but I just thought I’d ask.

 

[cavemanrich]

See if you can find some nesting material outside. Small sticks, straw, hay twigs, Etc. Then place that stuff in a corner of the loft, or just spread/throw, on the loft floor. If pigeon is ready to breed, and get ready for eggs, they will place some of those into bowl. It is usually the male that starts building the nest,
On another thought, don't always assume that the cock will be significantly bigger than the hen. Often it is the case, but I have had both with no noticeable size difference in the past.
Often it is how they stand that makes them (cocks) somewhat taller.