Buying Pigeons - Questions
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:29 pm
I am looking to get some birds to keep for training purposes. Can anyone advise where a good place to buy birds is? I am not sure where/how to buy.
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Always put the youngbirds in a cage sitting on the landing board to your loft for a week or two and then let them loose. The biggest problem done this way is having a hawk attack that first day or two which can spook them bad enough you can lose some of them. Just a chance we take but the hawk problem gets better now that the small migratory birds are back. feel free to contact me and I will help however I can.Moulders Farm wrote:buy young pigions and do not turn them loose for a week or so then only a few at a time , but before relicing any I all ways catch and put them in and out the recall door several times so they know where thay can get back in do not buy to close at least 25 to 50 miles away .If you get young birds they will not reprudce for 6 mo to at year I know where yhere is some mid Mo. if coming this way
Not necessarily. Homer's probably would but ferals are easier to re-home. But even the homer's seem to be able to be re-settled. When I first got my homer's I got six. Three of each sex. They weren't old birds but not young birds either. They went into my homer loft and were left inside with access to the flight pen out back until they'd hatched out a couple nest's each and were on another. Then got a really wet snow and the net on my flight pen went don, ll six pigeons stayed! Today I still have one of them and two more homer's that volunteered! Thing is with homer's make sure they have been on a few nest's before trying them out. They are the important one's, the young one's raised there. You can do the same with ferals. Generally, if I remember right, ferals can be re-settled easier by locking them up a few weeks. Also help to get them on nest's. Get your start birds and build from them. Before you know it you'll have to sell off or shoot birds to keep from being run out.Mike da Carpenter wrote:Dumb question...if you buy pigeons locally and you release them during dog trading, wouldn’t they fly back to the place you bought them from?
What Ezzy say's is a way to do it, but never tried it myself. I have found that by tying up the re-entry bob's a week or so then dropping one bob at a time, they will learn to push the bob's aside themselves. At first they will come out on the landing pad and look around but seldom fly right away. When you start dropping the bob's drop one and skip one, leaves an easier path in. Actually, I have a flight pen out the back of my homer loft. Has a re-entry door just like the one out front of the loft. I train them to push aside the bob's with it. Open most the time but when I feed, most are out in the flight pen. I drop the bob's on them then feed and get out. They all learn to re-enter.ezzy333 wrote:Always put the youngbirds in a cage sitting on the landing board to your loft for a week or two and then let them loose. The biggest problem done this way is having a hawk attack that first day or two which can spook them bad enough you can lose some of them. Just a chance we take but the hawk problem gets better now that the small migratory birds are back. feel free to contact me and I will help however I can.Moulders Farm wrote:buy young pigions and do not turn them loose for a week or so then only a few at a time , but before relicing any I all ways catch and put them in and out the recall door several times so they know where thay can get back in do not buy to close at least 25 to 50 miles away .If you get young birds they will not reprudce for 6 mo to at year I know where yhere is some mid Mo. if coming this way
Ezzy
Are there Amish where you are in Indiana?Old Hennie wrote:I am looking to get some birds to keep for training purposes. Can anyone advise where a good place to buy birds is? I am not sure where/how to buy.
Over the years I have purchased over 50,000 birds in LaGrange, Shipshewana, Goshen Indiana areas The Amish love doing business with pigeon buyers. Shags is about right in the price range.shags wrote:Are there Amish where you are in Indiana?Old Hennie wrote:I am looking to get some birds to keep for training purposes. Can anyone advise where a good place to buy birds is? I am not sure where/how to buy.
We've bought barn pigeons from Amish kids for pretty cheap; stop by a farm with a nice loft barn and ask. Or post a note at the local feed mill. We've bought from weekly livestock auctions/sales that have lots of Amish sellers. Can be hit or miss there, but once you find a pigeon seller, you might be able to set up a deal oitside the auction.
Prices went from 1.50 to about 4.00 per bird.
These are one of many kinds of "fancy " pigeons. Not much use for initial training but great fun for a mostly steady dog. Nothing like watching a dog gaze at a "roller" coming down and knowing he still must stay put.Old Hennie wrote:Thanks everyone for the advice! I am planning to attend the local NAVHDA training day next month so that may be best if I don't find anything sooner.
Question - I noticed on craigslist someone advertising frill pigeons. I am new to all of this, so I don't know. Is this something worth considering? Looking up details online, it says they are good flyers. Does anyone use anything other than homers?
Meller - do you ship birds at all?Meller wrote:I have some homers right now for $3.50 .
Yeah, it seems that way.Meller wrote:Never have, I looked into it once, seems like with shipping it made them mighty expensive even at this price!
That depends on if you buy homer's of ferals. And if they are squeaker's on not when you get them. Ferals are easier to re settle than homer's. If you buy homer's and they are adult's, keep them locked up until they have egg's hatched out, then let them come and go for awhile. If you do that a couple time's, you'll have a good start with birds that will return. Ferals will do the same thing but locking them up a month or more and most will re-settle, I said most.Mike da Carpenter wrote:Dumb question...if you buy pigeons locally and you release them during dog trading, wouldn’t they fly back to the place you bought them from?
DonF.... would you mind sending me pics of your pigeon coup? I've just planted my first pigeon trap in the city to try to catch some ferals... my thought was use them once and just keep recatching. I'd love to rehome instead.DonF wrote:I've got birds I've had over 10 years now and am never wanting for bird's. Their loft is large enough to accommodate probably 75 birds plus another with 75 more in it and a small one that 20 works pretty good in. Pigeon's are better than sliced bread!
I have some photo's some where, I'll dig them out tomorrow or take some new one's. Keep in mind about a loft, it can be a super nice building to compliment your home or a box a refrigerator came in. Looks and convenience are for us, pigeons just want a safe home! Any kind of building will work well from an old chicken house to and old barn! One of my house's I use just to seperate birds now and then, is an old three seat out house with a small flight pen area built on. The birds that have been in there have never complained! I'll get some photo's tomorrow!BuckeyeSteve wrote:DonF.... would you mind sending me pics of your pigeon coup? I've just planted my first pigeon trap in the city to try to catch some ferals... my thought was use them once and just keep recatching. I'd love to rehome instead.DonF wrote:I've got birds I've had over 10 years now and am never wanting for bird's. Their loft is large enough to accommodate probably 75 birds plus another with 75 more in it and a small one that 20 works pretty good in. Pigeon's are better than sliced bread!
I also am in process of building a quail flight pen with a small quail hutch built into the end (I don't know if my design makes any sense or not...haven't really figured out how I'm going to get the quail out of it yet or how to get them to find their re-entry funnel...and I don't know how to get eggs out of it without the quail getting comfortable with me and getting tame).
Could I just mix feral pigeons in with my quail (I have 125 babies coming soon), or would they kill the quail?
That was a terribly worded paragraph with about 5 questions mixed in......but I'm sticking with it
This is honestly a great idea. Maybe not $2 a flush but for a small flat fee just to use as many birds as they want, works out great for amateurs trying to save money and the birds just go back home to the owner anyway. One of the biggest reasons I hear from people with pigeons is the initial coop building, raising and homing of the pigeons. I may have to borrow that idea, charge people $20 to essentially exercise my birds for me.DonF wrote:There's expense in raising them in the first place. For less than $7, I can shoot them myself. Think of them as quail or chukar's that always go home to be used another day! I've been thinking, thinking stage only at this point. I could rent out fly aways for say $2 a flight. If a bunch of guy's went to Boyce Corral's to train and didn't have many birds I could not only take out pigeon's but also remote release traps. A chukar runs about $9 last year. Rent a pigeon at $2 and for the single $9 chukar you can get 4 homer's, fly away's only. If they want a few kill birds, no sweat, I'll bring along some! Those of course are $7 ea! What ever is left when they leave I turn loose to go home!
$2 a flush is to much? What would you think is fair? Could take out more birds before long. Have several cage's to move then in and in the process of making two more. Probably haul more than I think with what I have but don't like to many in a cage, they do get hot!bustingcover wrote:This is honestly a great idea. Maybe not $2 a flush but for a small flat fee just to use as many birds as they want, works out great for amateurs trying to save money and the birds just go back home to the owner anyway. One of the biggest reasons I hear from people with pigeons is the initial coop building, raising and homing of the pigeons. I may have to borrow that idea, charge people $20 to essentially exercise my birds for me.DonF wrote:There's expense in raising them in the first place. For less than $7, I can shoot them myself. Think of them as quail or chukar's that always go home to be used another day! I've been thinking, thinking stage only at this point. I could rent out fly aways for say $2 a flight. If a bunch of guy's went to Boyce Corral's to train and didn't have many birds I could not only take out pigeon's but also remote release traps. A chukar runs about $9 last year. Rent a pigeon at $2 and for the single $9 chukar you can get 4 homer's, fly away's only. If they want a few kill birds, no sweat, I'll bring along some! Those of course are $7 ea! What ever is left when they leave I turn loose to go home!
Well can't find my picture's of the loft's. Will go out and take some today.DonF wrote:I have some photo's some where, I'll dig them out tomorrow or take some new one's. Keep in mind about a loft, it can be a super nice building to compliment your home or a box a refrigerator came in. Looks and convenience are for us, pigeons just want a safe home! Any kind of building will work well from an old chicken house to and old barn! One of my house's I use just to seperate birds now and then, is an old three seat out house with a small flight pen area built on. The birds that have been in there have never complained! I'll get some photo's tomorrow!BuckeyeSteve wrote:DonF.... would you mind sending me pics of your pigeon coup? I've just planted my first pigeon trap in the city to try to catch some ferals... my thought was use them once and just keep recatching. I'd love to rehome instead.DonF wrote:I've got birds I've had over 10 years now and am never wanting for bird's. Their loft is large enough to accommodate probably 75 birds plus another with 75 more in it and a small one that 20 works pretty good in. Pigeon's are better than sliced bread!
I also am in process of building a quail flight pen with a small quail hutch built into the end (I don't know if my design makes any sense or not...haven't really figured out how I'm going to get the quail out of it yet or how to get them to find their re-entry funnel...and I don't know how to get eggs out of it without the quail getting comfortable with me and getting tame).
Could I just mix feral pigeons in with my quail (I have 125 babies coming soon), or would they kill the quail?
That was a terribly worded paragraph with about 5 questions mixed in......but I'm sticking with it
I appreciate it DonF.... no hurry, but whenever you have a chance I'd appreciate it. I assume Pigeons like to be up higher, so my thought on letting them share with my quail in the flight pen wouldn't work. I also have a two sided chicken coup (tall, walk-in) that I could easily convert.... but I have read to keep quail in an area low enough that they won't fly up and break their necks. I assumed pigeons would be the same way -- if I have them in a walk in coup and they're not restrained, and I try to get them out they'll either fly away or hurt themselves, or at a minimum will be hard to catch. Are these assumptions accurate?DonF wrote:Well can't find my picture's of the loft's. Will go out and take some today.
Could be but look at the bright side, you don't have to feed or house them!Mike da Carpenter wrote:Dumb question...if you buy pigeons locally and you release them during dog trading, wouldn’t they fly back to the place you bought them from?