Anyone catch their own? I do. I catch 12-15 a week to meet my needs for training.
I had a guy trapping for me. I was giving him 4 bucks a bird and he kept me covered up in birds. He has quit and I am back to trapping for myself. I use milo instead of corn.
Anyone on here trapping pigeons?

I never had any luck. Made a serous effort. The feed stores have pigeons but never could get them in the trap after the food. I even left the doors open on the trap to get them used to going in. Food was untouched

60 years ago my brother and I along with a friend trapped pigeons in downtown Abilene for a car dealer. I think he paid us a nickel a bird. For a kid that was lots of money back then. Then he stiffed us, and decided he wouldn't pay. So every evening we would ride through his car lot and spread out a little milo. He had more pigeons than he could shake a stick at. He tried to hire us again we told him no.

I struggled for a while. Using one trap. Finally got to 5 traps and started to get 8-12 a week. Guy offered to trap for me at 4 bucks a bird and I took him up on it.
Now Im back to trapping on my own. Ran 6 traps this morning on top of businesses here in my small town. They are very cooperativer, they want them gone. I wound up with 9. Got 9 in pen already from last week. Had to skip a day of training due to work. I am set for the week on birds, doors left open til next Thursday or Friday. I like to keep fresh birds, I cycle my birds weekly or so, depends on life, work and such.
I have always loved wild spooky pigeons and go to lengths to keep them on hand. Makes things so much easier. I despise homers and wont use them. They will work in launchers I do concede, I dont use launchers.
I am using a pretty simple trap setup. Nothing fancy. Wire swinging door with a cut out for bird to stick his head thru, I leave doors open with bait in for 1-2 days then rebait and drop doors. I wait for two days and run traps. A few in trap encourages the others. I have used a Judas bird at times, that works, but currently I dont need to. I have water in trap and use poster board held on with cheap bungy straps from dollar store for shade. Occasionally wind will mess me up a little, that poster board acts like a parachute. I dont get upset, reset trap and keep after it.

What kind of pen do you keep them in. Are the 5 traps on the same roof or spread out to other roofs

We just use a fish net on a long pole and catch them under bridges when they sleep.

Awesome!

me too in the 80's

Karma baby....

Love it!

My 6 traps are on different roofs. two on one roof. Sonic is my best spot currently. That best spot ebbs and flows with the season and weather.

I built a 4 ft wide by 8 ft long by 4 ft tall pen on legs with a wire bottom. I can keep birds in it for about 10-12 days before they get what I call stale. I let them go as I get fresh birds and fairly often catch some of them again.

Just to get the word out there an option if Rock doves or feral pigeons are not available. The state allows trapping of collared doves and are on the same line as Pigeons. A lot of cities are now with established populations.

Back in the day, I trapped them on commercial buildings when I needed some. Kept them in a 4 x 4 pen and used them up for a couple of months. Used cracked corn to bait the traps and feed in the holding pen. They are real tough birds and the older birds would kill the younger ones in the pen. Freeze them and use to soften a hard mouth pup.
Several times there would be a hawk sitting on the ac units watching the pigeons looking for a free meal. Kept the trap blocked open until I needed some, bait and a couple days they were in the trap. I had a lot better luck with pigeons than pen raised birds and working dogs you can excite them better with pigeons than quail. They last a lot longer and turn them loose when you are done with them.

Bobby

I grew up in Wisconsin where every farm had silos, we would go in the silo at night with flashlights, we would shine the lights back and forth real fast and keep yelling and they would become disoriented and fall to the floor where one guy would stuff them in gunny sacks. We had a pen in the back of the truck and would go sell them to the retrievers club for .50 a piece. We thought it was pretty good money, could catch a couple hundred a night sometimes.

that's how we did it, works

If you don't use launchers how are you using the pigeons ? are you carding them ? Forrest

Yes, I do use carded birds exclusively. Short video of what I am doing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAc...2Hxat81c8JxsD2WKEK&index=6&t=0s. This is what I call a turn loose dog. Plenty of work still to do, but turned loose.

Note three things. Pigeon did not let me get close to flush, he came up not unlike a wild bird, that is why I use feral pigeons, and also notice the "flag" on bird. Also notice check cord on dog. I make them earn my trust before check cord is off. I have been called meticulous a time or two.

Launchers are not and really never have been part of my dog training.
I will use one with a dog silhouette for initial backing work. Once dog "stops" to the silhouette I put the launcher away.

I’ve got a bunch of homers and use launchers. I’m a big fan of the launchers for training pups. Growing up we had plenty of wild bird to work with outside the fence and that’s all we knew to train pups with. I think pigeons and launchers are the next best thing. Everything is under control and you don’t need to check cord your pup. Use the launcher to teach him what to do. That’s the fun thing about training mutts. They’re are all kinds of ways to get them to where you want them to be. I didn’t see the pigeon come up in the video, but that wouldn’t have happened until you wanted it to with a launcher.

You have plenty of company with that thought...

I use quail in a recall pen for pups. Same ultimate result, different way to get there.

sounds fun I'll bring the beers.

Not sure if the charges were dropped, but they should have been.
Catching pigeons, is not animal cruelty.
Texas is becoming a state, I know longer recognize.

I used to catch them for extra money in college. We caught them under over passes and had large nets and we also had agreements from Houston Metro to be on their property and the railroad. We would occasionally run into some gung ho cop that would try and make us release them. We once got a ticket for cruel transport even though they were in chicken cages. We beat the ticket and had a lawyer write a cease and desist letter to the BW 8 cop that constantly harassed us. Pigeons are not protected and many cities wanted us to take as many as we could.

The gay mayor and sanctuary city doesn’t surprise me at all that catching pigeons is cruel