klorinth

PJC, I was thinking about what you said. You are right. I need to decide why I would want to have pigeons in the first place. Chickens, turkey, ducks... all for eggs and meat, and pleasure of raising heritage breeds. Same thing for pigs and sheep. Pigeons... I want to fly them around the property. That is what it comes down to. I like to watch them tumble and roll. I also like to watch them dance with each other when the cocks are trying to entice those little hens. So I guess I should look at finding someone with rollers near here. Not the Homers. I don't know of anyone with rollers but I do know where to look. Thanks

I may have just missed someone else making this comment..., but I just noticed that rain is going to run right off the roof and into the loft through the top trap. This is an issue that has been discussed on other forums, especially with shed style buildings.

I totally agree about the "bit of this bit of that". I would not be getting more than one breed. At least for the first couple of years. It is more a matter of deciding which breed to start with. Homers or rollers. In the long run I like the looks of the Oriental Rollers. This is what I think I would like to fly. I just don't know if I can start with them. They are very rare here in Canada. It would be a fairly large outlay of money. Far more than getting a couple pair locally. This is why I was wondering if there is a difference between breeds when learning on my own. I can't get local help with the Oriental Rollers, homers yes, rollers yes. I also know myself well enough that I can see myself getting into the race thing, if I start.

Question about starter breed... Should I be starting with Homers? This is what has been recommended to me. I like the homers and the rollers, both for looks and behavior. The Homers sell for $5-10 CAD around here( I went to an auction recently). I know the whole argument about the quality of breeding and such, but I am talking about a few birds to just learn to care for, breed, and train pigeons as a total newbie. If I really get into it I will build a new loft and start with better birds at that point. I just want something to start with that I can fly. Are pigeons like pheasants? Is there a difference in difficulty for new people? Should you start with certain ones or just pick what you like? Opinions please...?

Question about starter breed... Should I be starting with Homers? This is what has been recommended to me. I like the homers and the rollers, both for looks and behavior. The Homers sell for $5-10 CAD around here( I went to an auction last Sunday). I know the whole argument about the quality of breeding and such, but I am talking about a few birds to just learn to care for, breed, and train pigeons as a total newbie. If I really get into it I will build a new loft and start with better birds at that point. I just want something to start with that I can fly. Opinions please...?

Total newbie question Alert... Can someone please explain what type of lights you are talking about? And what is meant by "jacket"? My impression from discussions here in North America is that tsykes is right about a BOP making a kill if it really wants to. That is why I have read posts talking about a BOP taking a bird right off the loft with the guy standing there yelling and jumping around like an idiot. If they are hungry, they will go for it. I am curious though. If it will give the birds an extra chance, it is worth looking at.

LOL Comments like that, around here in February, can get a guy hurt fairly badly. LOL ;D Winter over though so people are in a bit better mood, although everything is flooding. Imagine the Thames becoming 16 km wide over a couple of weeks! Not a good thing. Later.

Good One! Biosecurity 101! You're right. I wonder if I can get a hold of the slip over paper booties? They are used in hospitals and labs along with the coveralls and caps. Good thought. Thanks ========================= Next thought... Since I will be starting out by having a settling period for my first pairs... How should the loft be set up that could be different than when you are flying birds? Or is it all the same? I will be having the covered aviary, so a bath area would be needed. Perches in the loft and aviary. Nesting boxes in the loft. How do people deal with bathing in the winter? I already have heated water dishes for the dogs that hold about a gallon of water, about 20 cm wide. Or is a dust bath fine? Fine sand and some diatomaceous earth?

Salmonella- So a pigeon can contract salmonella in the same way as you or I?... contact and entry into the digestive tract?... I then assume that it is poisoning due to the toxin excreted by the bacteria?... or is it the typhoid/paratyphoid infection? ============ Just did a quick review of Salmonella to refresh my memory. I had forgotten how many different types there are and how many different ways there are to get it. Not to mention the fact that we all can be carriers and not know it. This is why it can be bad to know about disease. Now I remember why microbiology was stressful at times. Seems there are three types that effect birds. Interesting. Salmonella = Typhoid fever. One of those nasty diseases that can kill quite well, unless you are very healthy. Seems to be the same thing for pigeons. Thank you for the thought, Oldyellow and Cabin Boy. Still doesn't stop me from thinking about them in the same building though. Salmonella is everywhere and far to easy to contract. They could infect each other or I could even if they were on different ends of the property. And it's a half mile wide. Nature sure can be nasty. Have to respect it though. Nature is really inventive. Thanks guys!

Thank you for the encouragement. It is needed sometimes. Being as I don't know anyone that has pigeons, this is a little hard to do alone. I agree with the feeding in the fields. I will be feeding in the loft only. Partially just to discourage the ferals from thinking my place is a good place to eat. So far tehy have stayed away. They only fly over the property on their way somewhere else. I think I prefer it that way. But, if i have my birds flying around fairly often, or at least when I am home, i imagine that they will eventually start feeding in the fields. I live in the open prairie. There is almost nothing but fields for as far as the eye can see. An absolutely all you can eat restaurant for pigeons. Hence the ferals doing well I would think. That is the reason for my wanting to plant things on the property that they would be interested in. At least this way they are less likely to eat from the fields. A minimal amount of control, I know, but at least it is something. ================== On a whole other tangent... Can pigeons see colour? I've noticed people painting their lofts bright colour. Does this really make any difference to the pigeons ability to find the loft? Or is this just for us? My loft will be red most likely to match the house and garage, but I'm curious.

Hi to everyone from Winnipeg, Canada. I have been lurking here for a few weeks now. Just did my first post. I am a complete newbie to pigeons. I do not have any and have never known anyone that did. All i can say is that I am a nature lover and have watched them my whole life. I now have the opportunity to develope a new peice of property in the country. This means building everything from scratch. I finally get to have some of the poultry and animals that we had when I was a kid. i want to add to that list though. And so I came to the idea of pigeons. While I was doing research into old farm house design and construction, I kept coming across designs that had a dovecote included. These dovecotes were both in the House designs and Barn designs. I looked into this from curiosity and discovered the idea of raising squab on the old farms. Interesting history. I was amazed at how old the history of keeping and breeding pigeons is! I guess the more I read the more I became interested in pigeons. There is no way that i could have a dovecote designed into the house of course. LOL I can just imagine the looks on the inspectors faces! They would scream health and safety violations. lol I can have a dovecote as an outbuilding though. They would consider them to be the same as poultry. Once I decided upon pigeons I needed to decide what I was going to do with them. Chickens, turkey, ducks, etc are for food and fun. But what about pigeons. Well I have decided that I would really like to fly them. I already breed dogs and go to dog shows, so the Fancy ones are not for me. I do like the rollers and the homers though. That is the kind of thing I could enjoy doing. Come home after work and send the rollers out for a fly. That sounds good. It would also be fun to train some homers and see if I could join the local guys. A couple of them have already said that they would be happy to help with a couple pairs of homers to start with. As always I have found that I have obscure tastes in pigeons as in everything else. When it comes to rollers I was immediately attracted to the Oriental Rollers. I like them. Of course they are really hard to get in Canada. Go figure. I have found one of the only breeders in the country though. The club has been very welcoming, so I can get around the distance problems. I would need to bring birds in by flying them across half the country. For those of you that have never been here, that would be a 5 hour flight, on a big commercial plane. Not to mention the driving he would need to do just to get to the airport. A full day of travel time for the birds. Not great, but necessary. All of this leaves me trying to plan out what I need to do this summer in order to prepare for birds. New loft, feeders, waterers, heaters, and anything else that I can think of. I am looking forward to learning lots from everything written here. I will especially need help from those that have had an open loft with free flying birds. This is one of the things that I would like to look at doing. Thanks for everything.

What does Salmonella do to pigeons? Vermin(rats+mice I assume) are always an issue out in the country. Although we do not seem to have much in the way of rats in this area. I'm not sure how much more I can do to avoid them. My dogs do a very good job of tracking them and eating them. Our one female seems to prefer to sniff out their nests and destroy them. She does not eat any though. Just kills the pups. We also have a cat that patrols the areas the dogs do not. Not much more I can do. I will not use any of the poisons that some people use. Out of the question. I will build the coops and lofts as solid as I can, within reason.

The property that I am building on is completely open. This means I am planting all of the trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, etc. Is there anything that I should be looking for? I will not be planting any large trees close to the loft. No need to make easy ambushing of the loft by BOP. We have enough hawks already. I don't need to make it easier for them. Should I plan to have an area with large shrubs that could provide protection for the pigeons? I'm thinking of the descriptions of pigeons diving into trees and bushes to avoid a BOP attack. Is there any way that I could create appropriate protection for them? I may be getting a little out of control with this I guess. Its just that I will be starting to do the planting in early May, and I have a lot to work with. I will be planting more every year for the next few years. I have access to an almost unlimited amount of trees and shrubs. ==================== Next thought... Are there any types of grasses, fruiting shrubs, or anything else that would benefit my pigeons as food? I already have things like wild oats, rape, wheat, flax... and possibly more that they could eat. Corn will be grown as a wind break for the next few years around the property. I could do sunflowers as well. Some of the shrubs that I already have ordered are picked specifically for the berry's they create. They are what the local birds like. I just don't know enough about pigeon diet. I am working on encouraging the prairie songbirds, so I though maybe I could expand that plan... Occurs to me that in reality if I wanted to truly have an old fashioned dovecote, I could. There is so much food in the surrounding countryside that I probably would never need to feed them if i didn't want to. I wont do this though. I like to be involved too much. The local ferals do very well though.

Skull, From a total newbie, that sounds interesting and makes sense. Flying around the loft is like a warmup and reminder of their home. They then are thinking about home and the food that is waiting for them. I like it.

Thank you. Good point about the airborne virus issue. I was wondering about that. I know human diseases well but not avian ones. Anyone know how common the airborne viruses would be? I was thinking about the pros and cons of separate ventilation. Common ventilation would be the best for temperature control, but disease does then become the issue. I can easily have two sets of intakes. The chicken intact is going to be through the sunporch. No problem giving the pigeons their own. I was already looking at a system for tempering the intake air, warms or cools the air slightly before it enters the loft, depending on the season. I could have a dedicated one going up the inside wall into the loft. Would need to be a large one, but that is doable. Temperature is a major issue for me. Our temps here swing from the high +30's in the summer with high humidity, to the -45 range with very low humidity in the winters. Had a fair bit in the -40 range this last winter, December and January. Makes building a proper building critical. Hence the sunporch design. Gives the chickens a place to go outside of the coop in the winter without being in the wind and snow.

I am a complete newbie to the world of pigeons. I have watched them but have never known anyone that kept them. I would like to have a small number to fly at my new property. Everything is being built from scratch on the property and that includes the buildings for chickens and pigeons. I had the idea of combining the two into one building. To this end I have been working on designs. I think I have a design that I am happy with, both in function and in looks. My wife wants it to look like it belongs on the property. I will attach a couple of pics of the design, and try to explain it. The building will be built to resemble many of the typical old barns in this area. It will be one and a half story, chickens on the ground and pigeons above. There would be an enclosed sunporch for the chickens, with the aviary above that. The sunporch would be enclosed with clear polycabonate panels. This creates a solar heated space for the chickens during our extremely cold winters. The pigeons would also have this type of panel on the front of the aviary but they would be able to fly in and out. I placed a landing board in the pic along the front. There is also a small drop entry at the top of the loft front. I want to have a free flying dovecote. Not a closed one like is used here in North America. The inside of the loft could be done almost any way. As I am learning this is one area that will take time to figure out. In this pic you can see possible locations for nesting boxes in the back and perches on the sloped ceiling. This is not a large loft. Only meant for a handfull of pairs at most. The chicken coop would be about 8'x12', but the loft would be smaller and not as high. I need help to know if I am doing the right thing with this kind of idea. The chickens and the pigeons would be kept separate, so no problems there. What am i missing and not thinking of? Most people that I have spoken to here do not like the idea of an open loft at all. They see nothing but problems with predators. I have no concerns about the fourlegged kind. The property is patrolled by 5 hunting dogs that will happily chase and kill any stupid enough to enter. The building would have smooth walls, the roof overhangs more than enough to keep them from getting on top. The roof would be smooth metal. The sunporch is inside a much larger fenced garden inside the chicken runs as shown below. I need help from those who have experience building and keeping a more traditional dovecote. What am I not planning for?