I Just Got My First Pigeons for my First Gun Dog

[OceanMon]

So I got the pigeons. Basically I have them prisoners. My unspoken agreement with them is: I have rescued you from a literal ........ where you could only fly in a small room, packed in with other birds. Now I have put you into a smaller pen, albeit a cleaner one. To get the privilege to fly the skies freely, I need you to make me babies. I don't care which of you impregnates whom. Just do it. Those that do, will get your freedom because I will know you would be irrepressibly tied to this place as I will have your defenseless children here.

Kind of messed up. Though I suspect they're oblivious to it all .

[Steve007]

So I got the pigeons. Basically I have them prisoners. My unspoken agreement with them is: I have rescued you from a literal ........ where you could only fly in a small room, packed in with other birds. Now I have put you into a smaller pen, albeit a cleaner one. To get the privilege to fly the skies freely, I need you to make me babies. I don't care which of you impregnates whom. Just do it. Those that do, will get your freedom because I will know you would be irrepressibly tied to this place as I will have your defenseless children here.

Kind of messed up. Though I suspect they're oblivious to it all .

That sounds fair. You can probably help by buying some nice négligées for the ladies.

[art hubbard]

Am I on the right forum?

[Sharon]

LOL I was wondering the same thing.

[cjhills]

Don't bet all your money on the birds that produce eggs and hatch them hanging around. Some do, maybe most do. But especially if you are starting with older birds the first chance they get, some will head back to their nasty loft and forget they ever had babies. Sometimes cock birds mate with two hens. They might leave them all, all 4 babies die because the hens can't take care of them all............Cj

[oldbeek]

Lots of luck on that one. I went a full year with one calamity after another Hawks, bull snakes, rats eating their legs off. you name it. Finally get good bunch of breeders and don't have a pup to train with them.

[polmaise]

Oceanmon I hope you get sorted.
It's difficult on open forum to reply politically correct, other than some previous jovial replies ,just in case you may well be aged 10 or 30. who knows ?
Perhaps some should remember this.
I'm sure the pigeons don't know.

[DonF]

Don't bet all your money on the birds that produce eggs and hatch them hanging around. Some do, maybe most do. But especially if you are starting with older birds the first chance they get, some will head back to their nasty loft and forget they ever had babies. Sometimes cock birds mate with two hens. They might leave them all, all 4 babies die because the hens can't take care of them all............Cj

And that would not be all. The parent birds will need to leave and re-enter the same loft. How you gonna keep the rest in there and do that. Sometimes you keep some birds in the same loft a long time, like several months, then let them fly, some will come back in. Best bet I think is have two loft's, one for breeding and one for flying. Put the new birds in the breeding loft and use their young in the flying loft. After while the young birds will also start beading in the flying loft and by that time the birds in the breeding loft may go out and come back. Try it knowing you'll probably lose some of them but the rest are flying well. Or use the older breeding birds as kill birds. Your either gonna have to sell birds of shoot them sooner or later! otherwise you will be over run!

[cjhills]

That is right. I am at the being run over stage. If I don't get rid of a lot of birds. looking at 400 or 500 babies next year........Cj

[oldbeek]

what do you feed them? that sounds like a lot of feed.

[504_Greek]

Good luck!
As said above, make sure they raise their young before letting them go. I lost a couple pair of little ones like that.
Also, I’m sure you have a limit on how many birds you want, but keep a few extra because you will lose some!