Pigeon house

[oscar]

I am looking at building a small pigeon house to hold birds for training and I have a couple questions for anyone with experience. I have a set of plans for the house but its not very clear what size wire mesh to use for the floor. I don't want to go too big and have the birds legs falling threw or go too small and have their toes get stuck in it. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill here but I want to build the house right the first time. What size works the best? I'm also wondering who sells homing pigeons at a reasonable price. I can get them at a game farm for $80 a bird, but that seems kind of spendy. Any other tips on keeping birds would be welcomed. Thanks in advance.

[kentuck_ike]

I used 1/2" hardware cloth on the floor, it worked well for me. $80 a bird wow! You should be able to find young birds for $2 to $4 a bird. You can train them to recall. You should be able to get info from people who raise pigeons for a hobby. Where are you located, maybe I can help you find birds.

Ike

[oscar]

I'm located in St. Cloud, but I would be willing to travel for birds at that price.

[LABS4ME]

At 80 bucks a bird, forget the house and buy farm pigeoons for $3-4 a bird. Shoot them and buy more, you'll be able to buy 50 for the same price as 2 of the homers you are looking at!

I used to have a pigeon pen for about a year. Used 1/2" hardware cloth also for the whole thing. Then I started buying what I needed for each week and used them up. Never housed another one. I would bet you have pointers? and want to re-use them. Just remember homers need to be imprinted very young to their new home... I believe if you buy $80 adult homers, you'll be buying them again after each training session! that game farm will LOVE you....

Seriously though if you can't get reasonable price homers, buy or trap farm pigeons, or buy quail and chuckar. These are all in that $3-5 range so you'll be able to go through a ton of birds and have no upkeep.

Good luck!

Ken

[spearingboy]

Oscar-You've probably seen from the previous posts that $80 for a pigeon is a lot. And I can't help you on any building tips, but I just went to a local farm that I knew had pigeons and the farmer was more then happy for me to get them outta there. "Take as many as you want" so I did. Go at night and shine them with a flashlight and you can walk right up to them and pick them up. It worked great. We could've got them all.

[kentuck_ike]

I have a friend who is into pigeons, he is going to check with his friends up your way and see what they forsale.

[oscar]

Thanks. I would still like to go with homers, but I will start looking for a place to catch wild birds if the homers don't pan out. Let me know what you come up with.

[BLACKJACK]

oscar, don't give up if you can't find homers, get some barn pigeons. Pigeons + hunting pup = excellent hunting dog. If you use pigeons on a regular basis, your dogs will love it and be so birdy you won't believe. I have three pigeons in a cage, I haven't had them out in awhile, but I noticed one was picking on another one, trying to make it into a boy toy. I grabbed him, trimmed the wing, and tossed it three times for my 1 year old female lab. You should have seen her shoot out after that bird!!! He was still alive after three tosses but I don't think he'll be quite so frisky today, he lost a few feathers!! Plus it made me realize I have more training to do, she kep trying to break after the bird before I sent her. Thats the fun of having pigeons around, they add another dimension to your training.

[spearingboy]

Blackjack- How do you train with pigeons? I've only done it once and I just had my dad throw them up over a pond and I shot them for my pup. What different ways do you use them?

[BLACKJACK]

If you have lots of pigeons, your toss and shoot will work, gets pups used to gunfire and gets them on birds. I normally trim the feathers off one wing with a scissors so they can't fly, then kennel up the pup, walk out into a field and release the pigeon, give it twenty minutes or so to walk around, then take the pup out and hunt it up. If the bird is a walker, it teachs the pup to follow a trail. Other times I'll take a drive in some CRP, toss the clipped bird out, the window (so the pup can't follow YOUR trail), then we'll walk back thru that field, practicing our quartering, then the pups reward is the pigeon. Pigeons are good for two-three retrieves then put them back in the cage to recoup. My current pup is softmouthed, I've had the same batch of pigeons since I got them.

[oscar]

BLACKJACK What do you feed your birds? Do you medicate them? How about grit? So many questions,thanks.

[BLACKJACK]

I feed them shelled corn, or sunflower seeds if I'm out. I buy my corn by the 50 pound bags, and use some of it for pheasant feeders, but you can also buy 10 pound bags at bird feeding stores and that will last a long time. Yes, they have to have grit!! Get some of those granite chips that hardware stores sell for icebite. Or a hand full of gravel periodcally. The biggest thing is, don't let them run out of water! Go to Fleet Farm and get a chicken waterer. I've got the kind that you screw a 2 quart jar onto, it will last 4 pigeons a couple of weeks. No I don't medicate them.

Good luck. Remember, pigeons + hunting pup = very birdy hunting dog! Its worth the hassle.

[Moose-Hunter]

When training my English Setters, I used to keep pigeons all the time. Never had homers, just used what I could trap in barns and on top of buildings. Good fun for me with the trapping, and the pups loved having a the extra "bird time". I still have my traps just no time for trapping.

Had a coop out back that housed a couple dozen birds at a time. It was about 4' wide, 2' deep and 3' tall. It had an 18" square front door to add/remove the birds and the roof was removable for cleaning. I used 1/4" screen for the front and side walls with 1/2" or smaller mesh for the floor. I even gave it a "second floor" for them to roost on. I ended up modifying one wall to add a one-way door for my "barn-turned-homing" pigeons.

I found that if I kept the birds confined for two to three weeks, feeding and watering then regularly, the got to love their new home and would fly back after training sessions. Sometimes close to 30 miles! I was a real hoot to see all my regulars come home.

I've been thinking I may start trapping birds again so if anyone knows where I could trap a few pigeons, around the Cologne, Waconia, Belle Plain area, drop me an email. I'd be happy to split the take with you.

[Saw557]

Thinking of doing the same the questions is HOW do you trap the birds?

[Moose-Hunter]

Saw557....

So we don't hijack the thread, drop me an email and we'll talk.

[Reef Runner]

where could I buy some pigeons for my pup to play with?

I live in Cologne