Help!!!! What is what???

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by Shrek

wow I thought this was going to be easy. I candled eggs back in high school but that has been a year or two.

Okay here is a dumb question....how do you tell the males from female? I read on another site you couldn't unless it was laying an egg.

Okay lets give shrek a 101 on pigeons.

Not a dumb question..........we get that question A LOT around here. Fact of the matter is, when a pigeon lays an egg, you can be 100% certain you got a hen. Sometimes you can tell by their actions and sometimes by their size, but nothing is 100% for sure. A big hen can act like a cock and you're sure she's a he..........then "he" lays an egg.

[Lovebirds]

If you've got high speed internet ( or lots of time) go here and click on "A Miracle" at the top of the page. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.albertaclassic.net/

[Shrek]

Originally Posted by Lovebirds

If you've got high speed internet ( or lots of time) go here and click on "A Miracle" at the top of the page. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.albertaclassic.net/

Very cool. So what is the story on the bands the racing pigeons have? Why couldn't they just have a bigger band? Man there is sooooo much to learn its almost overwelming. The wife wants to race them........I said lets learn how to raise one first.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by Shrek

Very cool. So what is the story on the bands the racing pigeons have? Why couldn't they just have a bigger band? Man there is sooooo much to learn its almost overwelming. The wife wants to race them........I said lets learn how to raise one first.

Gotta go cook dinner in a few. I enjoy talking to new people, so don't you go anywhere with all your questions. Others will read and learn too.
The bands are individual bands for each individual bird. No two bands are just alike. The club letters may be the same, but the numbers are different. Others will have the same numbers, but different club letters. They are put on the baby at a young age so that they can never be removed and replaced with another band. They CAN be removed by cutting them off, but it's impossible to "correctly" band a grown bird with a nother band. Not even grown, if the bird is older than 10 days old, forget it.
Racing the pigeons is fun, but you've got to have the heart and guts to do it. There are birds that get lost, in spite of all you do for them and that's just the way it is. We had our birds for two years before we started racing them. I learned a great deal in those two years. Didn't learn it all of course and I never will, but I got the basic stuff down.

[jbangelfish]

If a pair has 4 eggs, you have two hens on the same nest. Pigeons always lay two. They could actually be fertile as a hen with no mate will breed with another male. Pigeons mate for life, sort of. They will sometimes breed with other mates. An unsuccessful pair will often split up after not raising any young. You can hold a pigeon egg up to the light and see if anything is in it. You should see blood veins in a young egg or a very dark area with an air sac at the large end in an older one. They only take 18 days to hatch. A clear egg, (no veins or sign of life) after a few days incubation is infertile. It is unlikely for two birds to successfully raise more than two young at a time, although some good feeders could raise a third.

The Pigeon Encyclopedia by Levi is probably the most complete book of pigeons ever written. It is getting old and there are possibly 100 or so breeds that are not in the book. The internet probably has as much info as any book, you just have to look alittle harder.

Sexing pigeons is as much by observation as anything else and it takes time to get a knack for it. Within each breed, males and females tend to have a certain look and the males are usually ( not always) alittle larger than the females. The males normally have a larger cere (nose) than the females. Males tend to coo at all hens with much bowing, tail dragging and pushing themselves upon the females. The male tends to coo in a longer and more pronounced and drawn out way. The female can make the same sounds but tends to do them in a quicker and more subtle manner.

Females are usually not aggressive in any way but will vehemently defend their young, their nest or their roost. A female will bow but not usually with anyone besides her own mate and will only peck at other birds that bother her in any way. She can coo but will usually only do so when defending her space, nest, young, etc. Males do it often and flirt with any female unless their own mate is nearly ready to lay eggs and needs all of his attention. If you see one bird chasing another (everywhere) and pecking at its head or back of the neck, this is the male chasing his mate to her nest as he thinks it's time for her to lay her eggs. They always do this after breeding for a couple of days and it is called "driving the hen". Pigeons and doves all do this.

You will begin to see the behavior of both males and females but it does take alot of observation of each individual bird.

As for letting birds out to fly, a month may have been a bit soon. If you had good homing pigeons, the probably would have gone home to where they were raised. I tried to keep birds in until they had a mate, a nest and eggs or young. This way, you know that they will come back. This is true of most but not all breeds. I had Doneks which never seemed to learn to find their way home. With homers, I think the rule was that you could only fly the ones that you raised in your own loft as good homers always tried to find their original home.

Hope this bantering helps.

Bill

[philodice]

I made a compilation book based on beginning dove and pigeon advice from this forum. If you would like a free copy I can email it to you. I love mine! So educational it took me months to create and I'm still reading it.
Here is the thread that tells all about the e-books. If you think they would help, just send me your email.

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=25640

I know the contents is mostly about doves but pigeons ARE doves.

[eric98223]

ok im weiging in lol go figure!!

homers i have never had good luck rehoming them. they always seem to want to go home.

yes get grit soon!! gravel doesent cut it. i didnt notice where you were from but if you live in a damp climate dont put too much out at once it seems to absorb moisture and it goes bad.


if you want to race then you need to be prepared i dont want to sound like i am talking you out of it but it is definatly not for the meek at heart.
35 birds in the loft is a good start but normally all of our club members are sitting on 100or so at a time

training time is here im up a couple hours early every morning now taking birds out to release them. old birds racing starts in 2 weeks and im not racing this season because i only have 20 flyers in my old birds right now.

by young bird season i will be taking my birds 70-80 miles away 2-3 times a week and 100 plus once a week to train them.


but when you are standing by the loft any you hear the flutter of wings and look up and here they come, wings tucked and come home to your loft itis worth every minute of it!!!!!


now i disagree on feed amounts. i figure 2oz of mix per day per bird when i go back into the loft an hour after feeding it is pretty cleaned up.

i also have turkey grower pellets and pigeon peas available to them 24/7

and of course fresh water every day.

check on the au website and find a local club. once you join a lot of clubs have extraspace that you can ship birds to a race called trainers they are not in the race but they will ship them for cheap. my club it is under .50 a bird.

http://www.pigeon.org/

as always just my opinion!!


but let me say you made the best first step possible. you found the bestest pigeon site on the web!! welcome to pigeon talk and many happy years of flying!!

[Shrek]

Okay here are some of the little buggers.











So what do you guys think? haha What is what?

[Shrek]

A few more.

[Reti]

I don't know what is what, but I do know they are gorgeous.

Reti

[spirit wings]

Originally Posted by Shrek

A few more.

wow, they are pretty birds. I hope you will enjoy careing for you new PETS!

[TAWhatley]

Very pretty birds, Shrek! Thank you for the photos!

Terry

[jbangelfish]

The larger birds with the larger ceres (noses) are homing pigeons. Be careful letting any of them fly loose as they may return to where they were born.

The smaller birds with smaller ceres look like rollers but wild pigeons also look like rollers. The photo of the black is likely to be a roller as is the mostly white grizzle. You should be able to see the differences between the two breeds and it appears that these are the most popular breeds today, so it's a fairly safe bet that this is what you have.

Homers are easy, they are strong flying, strong in appearance and have pronounced ceres. If all of your birds look similar to these in the pictures, then this is what I'd say that you have. The rollers will be smaller in most cases and not have the large ceres.

Bill

[eric98223]

awesome birds!! a great start!! if i had to guess thae very first pic and the one of the bird on the perch by the vent both look like cock birds to me. notice the thick neck. very pronounced. a great start.
E..