Gun Dog Forum

Way to many pigeons. These poor guys that can't catch a pigeon. And I have more than I could ever use. A coop for white homers, coop for breeding ferals. Coop for young ferals that have long since turned into breeders. Young ferals that want to live with the white homers. A stray homer that mated up with a red feral. Dang pigeon food is costing more than the dog food.

Just a rant
Thanks
Greg

They do make pigeon contraception, it's called lead.

Wooden eggs

aulrich wrote:Wooden eggs

Not contraception, just delays them. Best way is separate them.

Ezzy

You obviously don't have a Hawk problem! Consider yourself lucky.

White birds, Homers or whatever go to the auction. I'm sure the buyers double their cost............

Had 2 cooper hawks around last winter but haven't seen them. Must of Migrated back to the forest. Got 8 different colored ferals from the guys at work. By the end of the summer I had 19 young that I was training the pup with. Started letting the captive 8 fly. Gradually last 6 of those. Hawks or went back wild. They raised enough through the winter months to replace the ones lost to the hawks. Got 8 white homers in the middle of the summer. Lost two to hawks but have 15 now. Comes a point the hawk losses don't hurt you much. How long will they sit on fake eggs? Seems like they know when there is a problem with eggs. They seem to abandon them and start over pretty quickly. Going to start by removing 1 egg from every pair. We like to let them fly after we get home from work. A cold beverage and a lawn chair watching them fly is a nice way to wind down. Separating them we would have to fly only half every day. Probably another coop for young and a craigs list add. That will make 4 coops.

Greg

I had to look it up but it seems they will set on wooden eggs a few weeks anyways. For me training losses, lead or a fish bonker keep my population in check. One thing I have not tried yet is squabbing the extras I would imagine they would taste like quail or Cornish game hens they get high quality feed.

greg jacobs wrote:Had 2 cooper hawks around last winter but haven't seen them. Must of Migrated back to the forest. Got 8 different colored ferals from the guys at work. By the end of the summer I had 19 young that I was training the pup with. Started letting the captive 8 fly. Gradually last 6 of those. Hawks or went back wild. They raised enough through the winter months to replace the ones lost to the hawks. Got 8 white homers in the middle of the summer. Lost two to hawks but have 15 now. Comes a point the hawk losses don't hurt you much. How long will they sit on fake eggs? Seems like they know when there is a problem with eggs. They seem to abandon them and start over pretty quickly. Going to start by removing 1 egg from every pair. We like to let them fly after we get home from work. A cold beverage and a lawn chair watching them fly is a nice way to wind down. Separating them we would have to fly only half every day. Probably another coop for young and a craigs list add. That will make 4 coops.

Greg

They will usually set on eggs for about 20 days and then they will start over. Will take at least 5 days for them to start laying again and then you go through the whole cycle again. Taking one egg would work if you just want to slow them down.

Call me 'old fashioned' . :roll:
Separate the cock birds from the hens

Separating them. Is that what most people do?

Greg

greg jacobs wrote:Separating them. Is that what most people do?

Greg

That's how most breeders do it but I don't know what most dog trainers do.

ezzy333 wrote:

greg jacobs wrote:Separating them. Is that what most people do?

Greg

That's how most breeders do it but I don't know what most dog trainers do.

x2. I'm in the process of seperating them out now, actually. Once they finish this round, they are seperated out.