We bought six white pigeons about five weeks ago. Put them in the doocot, but wired off their escape route. They seemed content as we fed and watered them for about five weeks.

We thought that would be sufficient time for them to lose their homing instinct for Rosyth. So we took down the wire mesh. For a morning they posed around on the doocot roof looking cute then took off.

They have never come back to roost in the doocot. However we see them flying together and landing on neighbours roofs. They seem to be hanging out with seagulls too.

Will they ever come back?

Bump, they’ve still not come back.

Clever salesman?
‘morning mc? Maybe you need to hide the log chopper. They might be scared 😉

Ernie’s your man on all things pigeony.

start a thread on Trotskyites and then ambush him with a question 🙂

They’ve simply got in with the wrong crowd, what were you thinking of letting them hang out with the seagulls. 🙄

They’ve simply got in with the wrong crowd, what were you thinking of letting them hang out with the seagulls.

It’s not like there was only one in the coop without a mirror. Seagulls, a bad influence, the doos will be down the Prom before you know it scavenging through chip pokes.

I’ve got to pick up my French niece from the airport in a minute, she’s got names for them all. Neige, boule de neige, Mont Blanc….. papier,

I’m screwed, maybe I should put some chip pokes in the doocot.

I’ve got to pick up my French niece from the airport in a minute, she’s got names for them all

aye she’s called em all Anjou pigeon

However we see them flying together and landing on neighbours roofs.

You stand a good chance I would have thought – as long as it hasn’t been too long since you last saw them.

Yours are not “homing/racing” pigeons. The good news is that they will not get an urge to take off and fly off for miles, in fact they will probably be extremely lazy and just fly off for about a quarter of a mile or so.

The bad news is that their homing instinct is not as strong as homing/racing pigeons, and they are more likely to get lost or not even make the effort to try to get home if they do go off gallivanting, which I still think is unlikely.

Food and a suitable sheltered nesting area will keep them coming back. Ideally you should have waited until they were sitting on eggs before letting them free, and better still, just let the cocks or hens out whilst there partners were remained incubating.

And you’ve got it the wrong way round btw Stoner, despite appearances, my commitment to politics is second to all things connected with nature/animals. Start a thread on foxes, and ambush me with a question on Trotsky 🙂

Cheers Ernie, that saved me from starting a ‘What pigeon recipe for a Trotskyite dinner party?’ thread.

A word of warning, the feckers will breed like rabbits – get some dummy pigeon eggs to swap as soon as they lay. Culling isn’t nice.

get some dummy pigeon eggs to swap as soon as they lay

I did not know that. Every day’s a skoolday.

Can yo not eat the pigeons?

If they are coming back on you then perhaps you are eating them too quickly…

Yep Stoner – dummy pigeon eggs, you can buy them from a specialist racing pigeon retailer.

The problem with just removing the eggs is that the pigeons will very quickly relay, which ain’t good. Unlike domesticated chickens, pigeons cannot keep banging out eggs without any serious side effect, eventually calcium deficiency will lead to serious potentially debilitating physical problems, eg, inability to fly. The dummy eggs slow down the need to constantly produce eggs, although only for a limit – after about 3 weeks they will give up on eggs which are clearly not going to hatch, otherwise it is likely to be every 6 weeks or so. Too much egg production really isn’t good for them.

I’m not sure whether hard-boiled eggs in the absence of dummy eggs would work, or whether they are likely to go off. But I do know from experience that the white of a hard-boiled pigeon remains clear/transparent, which surprised me. I’ve never eaten any mind – just fed them to crows and magpies 🙂

Wheres your Landing light you need a Landing Light.

I have to say my initial reaction on reading this was “why TF would anything want to GO BACK to Rosyth?” 😉

That pigeon is ripe for the Lolcat treatment 🙂

I have to say my initial reaction on reading this was “why TF would anything want to GO BACK to Rosyth?”

Indeed, I left there 30 yrs ago and have had no desire to go back.

My Speckled Jim still hasn’t returned .

I have to say my initial reaction on reading this was “why TF would anything want to GO BACK to Rosyth?”

Yikes the reputation of Rosyth has reached New Zealand!

Yikes the reputation of Rosyth has reached New Zealand!

I’m from near there, I used to go to Inverkeithing High !

The pigeons have landed. Not in the doocot, but on a neighour’s roof. They are born again Christians. The had held a nativity party the other day, as it concluded the six white pigeons landed and stayed on their roof. They celebrated it as a sign from on high. Though not quite as high as they had believed, they are just down the hill over the end of our drive. 

justatheory – Member
My Speckled Jim still hasn’t returned .

He tasted lovely

The pigeons have landed. Not in the doocot, but on a neighour’s roof.

Are they feeding off food which you’ve left out ? If so, they are unlikely to go anywhere now, and there is little chance of you losing them.

Ernie, the farmer down the road is stockpiling and spreading waste material from a chicken farm, which may include uneaten chicken feed, we figured that was why the seagulls were there. The neighbour whose roof they are roosting on is a builder. He’s going to get his ladders out on a less windy night and try and catch them whilst snoozing.

Meantime, we bought another six, taking note of your keeping them in until they start breeding, which I suspect won’t be until the spring.

Update from the doocot.

We have some chicks! We weren’t sure of the sexes of those we had, we must have had at least one of each.

We took down the mesh that had kept them in, they flew around for a spell, then came BACK!

Hopefully the Rosyth homing instinct has gone.

The offspring may be seagull hybrids…for the love of God WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!

Al, a squirrel found it’s way into the doocot, it could be worse than initially thought.

Awww, babies 🙂
Pics?

Baby pigeons are seriously ugly/stupid looking.

Awww, babies
Pics?

It’s dark in the doocot and I didn’t want to scare them with the camera flash. Having seen what they are like in daylight, I might be the one that’s scared!

I think Julianwilson knows about flocks of pigeons, maybe he can help? 😆

Baby pigeons are seriously ugly/stupid looking.

So it seems!

Its threads like this why I don’t even bother looking at the biking forum. Nothing bike related could keep me interested like a thread about something as random as pigeons.

Sad news from the Doocot.

It seems a bird of prey, probably a Buzzard has killed the mother pigeon and the chicks aren’t thriving.

I’ve seen the other pigeons hiding under the car.

Is there anything we can do to help rear the chicks? I doubt there is anything we can do to protect the others once out of the doocot.

Could have been these folks
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLSIU9BG41U[/video]

Plenty of keepers in your neck of the woods which would be only too pleased to help you out.
I guess you’ve got a peregrine around then.

doesn’t Ernie keep Buzzards specifically for the culling of anti-Marxist pigeons?

Is there anything we can do to help rear the chicks?

If the chicks have gone beyond the “pigeon milk” stage, and I guess they probably have, then it is very very easy to rear them yourself – trust me.

First of all you need to go to a racing pigeon supplier and get some tic beans :

http://www.interpigeon.com/products/162463_tic_beans_-_new_crop_bamfords.php

You soak the beans overnight, then you force the chick’s beak open and pop in one bean at a time. It’s easy to open their beaks which you’ll notice are quite “rubbery”.

The soaked beans will give them all the moisture they require (you’ll notice that the beans will swell up substantially) and they won’t need any fresh water until they are eating dry seeds. You can speed up the process by putting the tic beans to soak in very hot/just boiled water……..if you don’t want to wait hours.

A couple of tablespoons of (when dry) tic beans per chick per day should do it – a couple of dozen I guess, feed 2 or 3 times per day.

I say tic beans because they are just the right size and shape to do an excellent job – they just simply roll down their throats and aren’t too small to handle. Plus they are an excellent source of nutrition.

If you can’t get them tic beans then others will do – something not too small to handle such as maize, soak them too in the same way, although because of their shape they are slightly harder to roll down their throats.

But they need to eat something/anything before they get too weak, so if you have some pigeon mix, which I guess you must have, then pick out all the large peas and beans in the mix (about a dozen for each chick) and drop them in a cup of hot/boiled water, give in half an hour/an hour and then feed them to the chicks.

Even if you get just a few down each chick it will help to tie them overnight.

I counted them all out (of the coop) , and I counted all but one back. Good news though, the mother of the chicks is back. Yay!

We saw a hawk earlier, would it take out a pigeon?