Yellowman

Having been around the sporting canine scene for many years I’m well aware of the ups and downs of both husbandry and competetion but obviously having yet to be bitten by the bug of pigeons it was an easy thing to walk away from after all how do we know we are going to get into a hobby or sport until we give it a fair go,which i now intend to do. Why is that though mate what’s changed ?

Thanks for replies so it can be done then good.I first joined this forum as a complete beginner about 5 years ago and after several months buying and raising a few birds i went out to the kitbox i was using one morning to a pile of corpses after a cat somehow got in,i was so annoyed i gave up the ghost which i don’t normally quit on things and since always felt there was an itch i didn’t quite scratch so am going to have another go at it on a very small scale so although I’m not ready for birds just yet thought I’d seek info and do my research early.Being just as much of a beginner now as i was then is there a website or book i could get that will tell me the basic rules of racing and how it works,times,distance etc thanks

Is it possible/worth it to race with only 10 or 12 pigeons ? I am trying to learn the whole process of pigeon racing and how it works but thought it best to just ask straight out.

Hi,my son has recently left home and wont be returning so i am selling his pigeons so i can have my shed back.He has only been into pigeons for a few years so nothing is very old.There are 9 birds which he tells me are mostly Jansen Grizzles and Bush hearts,none of them are more than 2 or 3 years old and at least 3 or 4 are this years birds.They all have the rings and his record keeping of the birds ages etc is available. FROM ESSEX Also for sale is the following. Wooden dowel wall partitions and 2 x doors made by himself. 2 x wooden 10 bird perches. 1 x wooden 8 bird breeding boxes with doors. 1 x wooden transporting box. 2 x brand new and unused sliding door runner kits. Various feeders/drinkers/scrapers etc As you can probably tell i dont know anything about pigeons so apologies if ive described anything wrongly,i would prefer everything to go together.Please send me a private message if you are interested.

A few of my pigeons are having bald spots around the face and neck would it be some kind of mite ? some are fine its only 3 or 4 birds out of about 20

What do people do when it comes to going away on holidays,get a friend to come round and tend to their pigeons or is there some kind of feed/water hopper system set ups ?

There needs to be a 3 foot wide corridor from the front door of the shed,which is in the middle.......hence its either a corridor straight down the middle with 2 x 3 and a half ft sections each side......or a corridor across the front with 2 x 9 ft sections behind. I was going to start a different thread so as not to complicate things but looks like a few folk couldnt wait to,hence what i thought was a pretty simple question has now been turned into the Crypton Factor !!

Thanks for replies,what would be the better size to have.......2 sections at 12 ft x 3 and a half ft........or 2 sections at 9 ft x 5 ft ?

Having messed up the dates of when 2 eggs were due to hatch i now have a nest with 4 eggs in it as the first 2 were obviously clear.....should i guess at taking the 2 older ones away or just leave the lot in there ?

Yes i agree that may be best,1 or 2 ? i see yes i think your right.

Ive kept pigeons for a while but not raced yet although its something i,ll be looking to get into in future.I have a shed/summerhouse in my garden that i want to convert into a pigeon loft and just wanted to know how i would go about it would i need 2 different sections ? a walkway ? etc etc its 12 ft depth x 10 ft width so not very big the door into the shed is right in the middle and cant really be moved.Any advice would be appreciated.

Not sure if this is in the right section but still.......to identify one bird from another do folk use those clip on rings or bands ? The parent birds have coloured elastic type bands which id prefer to get for the youngsters but cant seem to find anywhere that sells them,not even ebay unless i get them sent from China !! any ideas ?

If i was to try this what is a sensible time to leave them before giving up and trying a different combination ? Thanks for replies by the way.

Ive got a number of young pigeons together none of them are established pairs i dont even know what sex they are....will they pair up of their own accord or do i need to physically put them in nestboxes on the off chance they,ll be a cock and hen ?

Excellent thanks,can a green,loose or watery dropping be down to stress as ive moved my birds about a bit lately as been building a new loft.

Sorry if anyones eating dinner....buy does anyone know of any specific topics on here that explain the basics of what the different textures/colour of droppings tells you about a bird. Am i correct in thinking the drier the better as disease tends to carry in moist droppings ?....if so how do you get the droppings drier im currently feeding a basic pigeon mix from Jollyes

Walter i really appreciate the explannation mate thats perfect...this is all new to me and not being the brightest spark i often need the dot to dot approach but i couldnt ask for more thankyou sir i,ll probably refer back to this a few times over the coming weeks.

In all honesty im nowhere near ready to start racing its just that ive been given some nest boxes with widowhood fronts and cant quite suss out how they are used....purely for breeding some pigeons for the time being would i be better off taking the plastic fronts off ?

Being as how folk were helpfuland nobody blew a raspberry at me after asking how you tell the difference between cock and hen pigeons im going to chance my arm and ask something equally daft. The cheap plastic widowhood fronts,what actually is the idea behind them and does the sliding door part go towards the front the side or what ?....ive tried reading up on the widowhood system but cant seem to get the absolute basics anywhere do the pair stay in them or should the door be left open.

Right i see thanks.....so for a novice like me who cant sex his birds i presume i just have to let them crack on and choose their own partner i only have 5 birds at the moment i,ll be buying a few more in obviously but would like to breed a few of these,also once a pair breed will they then only breed with each other or go and find another mate.

Well that wasnt as painful as id expected thanks for your patience .....I only have a handful of birds and have been staring at them trying to tell but am none the wiser i guess its just a time/experience thing. Another thing i dont get is when people say " the hen lays eggs "....yes but whats the odds on seeing the eggs actually come out or do people go by the cock sits on them at night and hen during the day as the only factor.

I havent joined a club yet and dont know anybody else into pigeons so pretty much everything im learning is off the internet but theres one question i cant find answers to that im afraid to ask through fear of someone blowing a raspberry at me How do you tell if a pigeon is a cock or a hen ?....be gentle with me.

Yes thats exactly what im wanting to make Showman.....i get it now Paddymac thanks for explaining,probably more difficult to explain in writing than in a real conversation !...cant believe how stupid i feel after reading your first explanation i was thinking the cut halfway was through the thickness of the board ( router ) Makes perfect sense now think i was over engineering it .......after checking out the price of timber im now wondering if it might just be worth buying them instead !!....anyway thanks for replying.

Just to make sure ive got that right,so you router a groove halfway through the piece,screw up into 1 piece and down into the other is that what you mean ?....for the cross sections i mean.

I want to make a bank of 20 box perches,not being the brightest of chaps would somebody be kind enough to just talk me through it.....what dimensions ? what wood ? do you use dowels for the joints ? etc etc.....many thanks.