Pigeon nest boxes

rselliott725 · Post by **rselliott725** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 2:17 pm

I finally finished my boxes yesterday. I had some old 1x12 shelf boards laying around so I dusted off the table saw and started ripping. I screwed the perch boards on the front of the boxes to the uprights so each individual box floor can just be lifted out for cleaning. 12 boxes for 16 birds should be enough until they start raising babies, then it's off to the farmers market to sell what i don't need.

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aulrich · Post by **aulrich** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 2:34 pm

You should have more than you need in short order. One thing they do like a nest inside of the box. I just made bottomless squares out of plywood, but there are plenty of ways around that issue.

I think I will re-make mine come fall. I am contemplating making them a full 2' deep or 18" I want the space to have 2 nests in each nest box. My better breeders don't even have the first batch kicked out of the nest before laying the next set. A I understand it if they have two nest sites available they will use them. After I am done training, I'll start raising them for food until I need them to train the next dog.

rselliott725 · Post by **rselliott725** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:05 pm

Yeah I'm going to put some pine straw in the loft for them to build their nests out of. The only problem for me having two nests per box is too many birds. I only want what I need for training and I don't want to feed anymore than I have to. My FIL has rollers and they will raise babies anywhere! He has so many birds its ridiculous! I will just pull any eggs they lay while they still have babies in the nest.

cjhills · Post by **cjhills** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 4:14 pm

The first pair in a box probably won't allow a pair next door.

aulrich · Post by **aulrich** » Thu Jul 11, 2013 4:43 pm

I am not sure I was clear, 1 box per pair, with two nests per box. The idea is to have the new clutch go into a clean nest. my best breeders have some nasty nests at the moment. the box has been cleaned, but the nest itself has has eggs/chicks or both for months now. I am not sure how they react if I was to dump the nest contents, and put there current eggs in a clean nest.

walterguns · Post by **walterguns** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 1:17 pm

be snake proof

rehderd · Post by **rehderd** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 3:02 pm

The cheap dollar store plastic dog bowls work great for nest bowls and can easily be cleaned. Your nest boxes look to be too small for two each though. I may be wrong. The boxes I have are 24'' wide 14" deep and 14" tall with fronts. A breeding pair normally has two nest bowls - in one nest box - going at the same time in my loft. The downside is you have only half of your birds you can train with for a single session since one of each pair must remain at the loft taking care of their young and eggs. The upside is you will have great fast homing birds flying back to their families - and - a perpetual supply of kill birds.

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