Pigeons

My helper and I just built a small pigeon coop (5x3x3) inside box dimensions.

I have never had to train a bird dog without having plenty of wild birds within walking distance to work the pup on. Where I live now I don't have that luxury. My newest dog will be trained on pigeons.

I know some of you keep pigeons. I would like your opinions on how many birds I can keep In this space as well as any tips you can give on taking care of these birds, bird launcher tips, ect.

Thanks for the help!

You should be able to keep 10 or so in there but they need perches. If you want the birds to be able to return so you can re use them, you will need a trap door too, unless you plan on leaving the main door open for them to come back in. Oh, and not sure where you live but it probably doesn't matter, get ready to deal with a snake or two every year. We love having pigeons, really enjoy watching them fly. I have a 4x4x8' tall coop and 15 is the max for me, I like to keep it at about 10-12. I have 14 right now but it's training season, I'm sitting perfect.

Thanks for the reply. The last thing I did was put in a 10x12" trap door on the front. Do you feed yours chicken scratch? What do you use for grit? My boys are looking forward to trapping their pigeons. I'm looking forward to flying them in the evenings myself. I was also wondering how long I'll have to keep them in the pen after catching them for them to return when I let them loose.

I feed Purina pigeon chow checkers. No grit. With pellet feed you don't need it. I've never tried wild pigeons. I bought six Homers and they started breeding like crazy. In 2 years I have sold about 20 birds. Probably had 5 or 6 that died for un known reason's all but one of the birds I have now, we're born in my coop. I left my Homers for about 6 months before I let them fly. All had raised 2 clutches of babies by the time I let them out. All of them came back.