# Adopting homing pigeons!



## AnnaM (Jun 4, 2010)

Edit: I have pigeons now! We got four young homing pigeons, and 3 are doing very well and one is a little shy so far. Apparently they weren't given much space where they came from because the when we let them out into their loft for the first time they acted like it was their first time flying. Their names are Porumbei, Onion, Peaches, and Clover. 


I would like to adopt a mating pair as pets, not racers. 
If anybody has birds for adoption that can be allowed to fly outside, I would love to adopt them. If you want to be sure your birds are going to a good home, I can send pictures of their new home and my backyard where they'll be allowed outside (we have lots trees, shrubs, shade, bird bath, and no or few hawks-there's no forest around for them to live in and it's a suburb)

I'm confused about how a homing pigeon will learn to stay in its new home? I've read that you get a mating pair, let them have chicks, and then it's safe to let them outside, but what do you do afterward. 
I will then have four birds, and i do not want to keep any more than that, so how could I prevent them from having any more chicks?
Could I take the eggs away, or would that be inhumane?
Will the chicks find feral mates? There are not many, but a few wild/feral pigeons in my area, but not in my neighborhood. I've never seen them in my neighborhood. 
I'm pretty sure I cant spay or neuter my pigeons, so what can I do? 

When I let my pigeons fly about outside, how far will they fly? There's plenty of things for them to entertain themselves with in my backyard, but I still want to be sure they're not going to leave. 


Obviously I'm new to this, so please help! 


Location: Plano, Texas


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Post a picture of you coop? To settle them to your place --you will need to get 30-45 day old birds.
I don;t know of anyone raising birds this time of year.


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## cotdt (Apr 26, 2010)

You can use ferals too, they home. I've also had a roller that I let free-fly around, and she always came back every night for 7 years until she eventually left with a neighborhood feral. It's best to get the young ones that can easily get attached to you. For pets all you need is one bird, if you're breeding them they become territorial and make poor pets.


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## AnnaM (Jun 4, 2010)

cotdt said:


> You can use ferals too, they home. I've also had a roller that I let free-fly around, and she always came back every night for 7 years until she eventually left with a neighborhood feral. It's best to get the young ones that can easily get attached to you. For pets all you need is one bird, if you're breeding them they become territorial and make poor pets.


I'm not sure where I would get a feral bird. 
Do all rollers come back? If not, I'd rather play it safe a get a pair of homing pigeons. 
I would like to have two birds, either as a mating pair (but I would not let them have chicks) or two females (I've heard young males get grumpy without a mate). Is it better to get two females, or will they run off to find mates? It would be ok if they brought home feral mates, I just really don't want them to leave


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## AnnaM (Jun 4, 2010)

sky tx -
I'm still building the coop, but i made sure to design one that they could see out of (to see their new environment) and it's its on 1ft stilts off the ground, and 3 feet tall in all. If there's nobody raising birds then I guess I'll have to wait...but I'm sure I'll find somebody... 

Thanks for the help!


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## cotdt (Apr 26, 2010)

Don't worry about mates, you can be their mate. If it's a female you can coo and spin in a circle. If it's a male it's pretty much automatic if you spend lots of time with him. They will see you as their lifelong mate and want to be with you.

It's easy to obtain homing pigeons if you buy them and get them shipped. Otherwise you'd have to check if there's any rescue pigeon adoption shelters near where you live, or any local breeders.

There's always the chance that your pigeon leaves to live with another pigeon, or it gets killed by a hawk or run over by a car. I never had any hawk problems but there are stories about it. 

You can prevent babies by replacing the eggs with fakes. As for what to do with the eggs, they are edible. You can feed it back to the pigeon or eat it yourself. Or just throw it away.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

pigeons do best in a flock, as the are flock birds, a lone pigeon kept outside would not be an ideal life for it.. if you get 4 young birds 30 to 40 days old, you should be able to settle them to your coop/loft, there is a good chance there will be a hen in the group so they would pair up and you need to have a place for them to nest and sit fake eggs..that is alot of what pigeons do, so you would have to accommodate them to do that, just use the fake eggs so you would not have any hatchlings.


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## The_Dirteeone (Apr 18, 2010)

I just started letting out my first young birds last week.I had 4 3 month old birds that never flew from thier home loft,so I let them settle for 2 weeks and all of them came back each time.They flew around a hundred yard radius several times and came back and landed on my work shop,and went back to landing board in a couple of hours.I aquired 12 more babys ranging from 18 days old to 24,and have had 1 of the 24 day old birds go out with the 4 originals.I am pleased so far with these birds.I want to say I am very new to the sport,and am enjoying it tremendously.I am not holding back feed from the young birds,so I come home and get the ones that have flown,out in the aviary,lock them out and quietly feed the babys.Just before dusk,I shake the feed can and open the trap for the ones outside and they come right in to feed.I am being careful to not let them get too strong on the wing,so they wont leed the young ones away too far.This is not how I should go about training a racing team I am sure, but I am in the learning state for now,and will have another loft next year for seperating the sexes and different age young birds.This all said To recomend you get young birds and settle a couple of weeks to raise your chances of them returning.


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

Since you only want to loft fly,(only fly around the loft), and not take them off to home back to the loft, you do not need Homers. Kings, figs, rollers are a few good birds that will fly around the loft and roost at night. Then you do not have to worry about age. Also you could adopt.

Tony


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## June2013 (Dec 12, 2014)

Big T said:


> Since you only want to loft fly,(only fly around the loft), and not take them off to home back to the loft, you do not need Homers. Kings, figs, rollers are a few good birds that will fly around the loft and roost at night. Then you do not have to worry about age. Also you could adopt.
> 
> Tony


Does that mean if I were to adopt two homers, they can only stay inside the loft forever? Will they not be able to come out?

I also heard of this being a common practice among parakeets, but would clipping a homer's feathers be okay to let them go about? Or among pigeons, this just isn't done?


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## hamlet (Oct 26, 2004)

*clipping*

Hello. I call this captive breeding. I clipped the wings of two adopted homers and they stayed forever with full feathers.


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## chayi (May 1, 2010)

June2013 said:


> Does that mean if I were to adopt two homers, they can only stay inside the loft forever? Will they not be able to come out?
> 
> I also heard of this being a common practice among parakeets, but would clipping a homer's feathers be okay to let them go about? Or among pigeons, this just isn't done?


If you were to adopt two homers that have already loft flew around the loft where they grew up its more likely that they would home back to where they where born. If they have never flown before and they are too wing strong they might fly very far until they realize they are lost its a chance you take. I would keep them as prisoners and work with there young.


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