I have recently found out how homing pigeons could help me train my hunting retreiver and I am really excited to get started. Not only am I a hunter but I am a big animal lover and think these homing pigeons will be alot of fun. So, I am about to build a homing pigeon loft and get some birds to train my duck hunting retreiver. I was going to build about a 3(wide)x4(tall)x8(long) loft with a 2 x 2 screened in area connected for the birds to get air/sun/rain. These deminsions are based mostly on the shed I have in the backyard that I'll be building the loft under. I have been searching for about 2 days now and am finding it hard to find some information (the search option isn't working for me on this site). So some questions...
1. If I get a pair of homing pigeons to breed, I don't let them out, so I have a section of the loft for them and any other breeding pairs, correct?
2. If they breed like crazy and have a bunch of youngsters, (I'll need about 12-15) will the youngsters start inbreeding or does it matter?
3. When do you seperate the youngsters from the breeding area to the area for the young birds that you fly?
4. How many birds would my loft hold at those deminsions?
Any other tips and information for a beginner would be greatly apprecitated, I will be getting my dog soon and want to try and get this mostly figured out before I get him.
Thank You
Michael
1. If I get a pair of homing pigeons to breed, I don't let them out, so I have a section of the loft for them and any other breeding pairs, correct?
2. If they breed like crazy and have a bunch of youngsters, (I'll need about 12-15) will the youngsters start inbreeding or does it matter?
3. When do you seperate the youngsters from the breeding area to the area for the young birds that you fly?
4. How many birds would my loft hold at those deminsions?
Any other tips and information for a beginner would be greatly apprecitated, I will be getting my dog soon and want to try and get this mostly figured out before I get him.
Thank You
Michael