# can I start with 2 birds?



## tinyloft (Jun 13, 2017)

I'm looking to start a very small loft of homing pigeons.
Is 2 birds possible? I want to eventually be able to release or have them fly in and out of the loft. I'm not looking to race for now.
What age of birds should I get? What's the minimum loft size possible?
Thanks for any advise.


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## pnkmlks (May 23, 2017)

Hi, I started with 4 birds with a 8ft tall, 4 ft wide loft. I got my birds when they still have yellow hair on their heads and still squeaking. ( I think about 30 days? ) and they are now flying really good and sometimes flying very far until they came out of my sight and then coming to our roof minutes later.

Although I have 16 birds right now...I got this some kind of addiction of getting more birds haha. But my wife-to-be is getting a bit mad so I kinda stopped..LOL! Goodluck!


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## White Homers (Sep 22, 2016)

I was reading about a flier in the UK that only has 4 breeders and races no more than 8 birds and he is one of the top fliers.


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## 1bad97svt (Apr 19, 2017)

White Homers, that's what I want to do, fly about 8-10 birds, keep a few pairs of breeders, no more than 18-20 birds total at least until I move further out of the city in about 10yrs. 

TinyLoft, I'm just starting out myself and I have 2 pairs of breeders from which I'm starting to breed from. The thing about only having 2 birds is that if you plan to fly them you run the risk of losing one or both of them to predation, getting lost, and whatever else happens that can cause a bird to not come home. I would think the best thing to do would be to get a breeding pair, and fly what they produce. In the event you lose a bird or two, you have the breeder to produce more so that you're not starting from scratch. I started with an 8ftx8ftx7.5ft loft and I am already feeling that I should have made it bigger, but that was as big as I was comfortable making it for a starter loft and I didn't want to freak out my wife. (I'm a newlywed lol). So my advice is to make it as big as you are comfortable making it, everybody here will tell you, bigger is better with lofts.


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## heeler (Nov 19, 2013)

to the original poster.......if you start with a breeding pair in a matter of a VERY short time you will be over run with birds....unless you have someone to give them to. Pigeons will breed and lay so fast you wont have room in a matter of months. Remember, they will lay about every 30 days. Even before the last clutch has fledged and left the nest they will breed and lay again. 
Nowthen, if you start with two hens or two cocks then you can at least keep control of your flock until you have learned what to expect and you want to expand. Pigeons are breeding machines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## tinyloft (Jun 13, 2017)

Thanks for the replies. Now I'm thinking of 4 birds to start with. Probably all youngsters. If I start with a breeding pair instead, is there a chance they will go back to their old loft when I let them fly? Will they leave their eggs or babies for their old loft?


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## 1bad97svt (Apr 19, 2017)

If you start with a breeding pair that have been flown before, then it is not a good idea to fly them as they will more than likely return to their old loft. You would need to keep the pair that have been flown "prisoners" so to speak. In regard to pigeons being breeding machines, its true, they are, however that is if you let them continuously breed without taking steps necessary to keep your population to where you want it, such as replacing eggs laid for fake eggs, separating the sexes, etc. Good luck!


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## YaSin11 (Jul 23, 2009)

tinyloft,

I would not suggest letting the 'breeder' pair fly, esp. if they are from another loft. To answer your Q; usually pigeons will not leave their young...but it has happened to me, one parent leaves.

So as others have suggested, best to keep the breeder pair 'prisoner'..for some time.

I just wanted to say, you can start with 2 birds. Let them breed and start flying the young. Advantage is, birds born into your loft will have a strong tendency to return.

Good Luck


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## tinyloft (Jun 13, 2017)

Thanks for the further replies, 1badsvt and YaSin.

I think what I want to eventually achieve is just have an average of 4 birds (6 at the most), and all of them be able to fly. Due to space constraints, I can only build a loft this size: 5' tall, 3' wide and 2' deep. I'd be happy to give pairs away to maintain this number of birds.

I'm against the idea of having permanent 'prisoner' breeders, because it's just my opinion that birds have wings because they're supposed to live a life where they can fly. But I would consider this option temporarily. Eventually, I see myself letting breeders fly and just accepting the possibility they may not come back. That's just me.

I also want to create a situation where any pair of birds are paired for life. Or at least for as long as I can help it.

So with the above goals and constraints, I see 2 approaches:

A. Get a breeder pair. Produce 4 birds out of them. Let the breeders fly when their youngsters are old enough. If the breeders come back, great. Otherwise, no regrets.

B. Get 4 young birds and train them to fly home.

Related to approach A, I've seen feral pigeons use our roof to nest, for the past 2 years. I think the cock is not just a street pigeon. It looks like it has some racing homer in it, judging by its built and larger wattle and eyelids as I've observed from afar). If I can catch and keep him, would he be good to breed? I think he already has bird-of-prey evation skills, having lived this long 'in the wild'. I'll just get a good hen that I'm sure is a racing homer. I'm interested in this idea, but not sure if I can trap the cock at all.

As always, any advise is much appreciated!


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## YaSin11 (Jul 23, 2009)

Hey tinyloft,

Just a quick reply; Approach A , In My Opinion.

Plus, yah...definitely, if you can catch the 'wild' bird, why not? Sounds good to me.


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## jowjowjow404 (Apr 13, 2017)

pnkmlks said:


> Hi, I started with 4 birds with a 8ft tall, 4 ft wide loft. I got my birds when they still have yellow hair on their heads and still squeaking. ( I think about 30 days? ) and they are now flying really good and sometimes flying very far until they came out of my sight and then coming to our roof minutes later.
> 
> Although I have 16 birds right now...I got this some kind of addiction of getting more birds haha. But my wife-to-be is getting a bit mad so I kinda stopped..LOL! Goodluck!


im from philippines too and planning to start raising pigeons! jst amaze i see someone kababayan here


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## donc (Dec 8, 2017)

30cm by 30 cm by 30 cm per bird the loft should be in size for racing pigeons. Stock birds need more space then that.


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## rpalmer (Mar 10, 2011)

donc said:


> 30cm by 30 cm by 30 cm per bird the loft should be in size for racing pigeons. Stock birds need more space then that.


30cm = <12 inches. 12x12x12 inches is only suitable for a single bird transport. Some roof-top fliers use this size for nesting boxes. Not sure what you are recommending here.


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## Flapdoodle (Nov 8, 2009)

I like option B. Especially if you are new to pigeons.
That being said a lot of the enjoyment I get in caring for the pigeons is watching them build the nest and raise babies. The issue you will have is in loft space. I built eight of the lofts in this video: https://youtu.be/gp96lTLc2A4 
I loaned them out to 4H kids with a group of six squeakers. In most cases a cock would decide he was boss and keep other birds away from the water and food. Those lofts are 4x3. 12 sq ft, figure roughly 2 sq ft per bird, 6 birds in the little loft. It would be fine if they stayed squeakers, when they start to mature we ran in to problems. 

There would be options with a dominant bird. You could pull him out at feeding for the first couple of minutes, lock him in a nest box, I might even try to hobble his legs to slow him down a little. The ones I had in my small test loft I just moved to the big 40x8 loft. 




tinyloft said:


> Thanks for the further replies, 1badsvt and YaSin.
> 
> I think what I want to eventually achieve is just have an average of 4 birds (6 at the most), and all of them be able to fly. Due to space constraints, I can only build a loft this size: 5' tall, 3' wide and 2' deep. I'd be happy to give pairs away to maintain this number of birds.
> 
> ...


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