I got pigeons!!!!

Well, I took the plunge. I bought 2 pairs of pigeons. I am very excited about this. They are roller pigeons and I know that they might not be easy starter pigeons, but I saw them and was hooked. They have not been let out to fly - they are over a year old and have been cooped. So I will coop them. Two of them have feathered feet/legs and the owner called them Jackenettes or something like that - something to do with their breeding over time. The other two are regular rollers. He said that he has been breeding for some time for particular colors. Anyway, I am new to pigeons so will need help (hear that Harmony???!!!) but am excited to start on this new bird adventure.

Here is a picture of my new birds.

Here is another pic. I like the front one. He looks like she is wearing a scarf made of chocolate. He is the male and the one behind him is his mate. Then the two in the back are the Jackinette ones and they are a breeding pair too.

Heads up Claire FYI pigeons carry pox i believe aproximately 80% of all pigeons carry pox and it can be transfered to chickens.
Do not allow these birds any where close to your chickens because you do not know their background.
Don't allow the carrier i see them in or their droppings near your chickens either.

I believe i spoke about my suspicion that my pox could have come from some free pigeons i was stupid enough to take.
I don't know that for sure but i did get them about the same time i got the pox and that a mosqiuto may have biten one and tranfered it to my chickens.
This is all theory but you never know.

They are beautiful, Moxon. And I am envious.....

So today I started a three storey dove-cote with running hot and cold water and brazen windcock. It will take me months to build and cost thousand of dollars, but it will be worth it if I can catch up with you!

I had a regular Ring Neck for years. Bob. He lived in the house in a big cage....I still miss him. Whenever I was on the phone he would do this weird coo that sounded like a mirthless laugh. It was depressing.... I had to stop making prank calls since everyone recognize the sound and knew who was calling:0(

More pictures, please.

OK Harmony, thank you for the tip. They are all in the same coop that the fawn duckwing birds are from. They were kept in the same coop with bantam chickens. They were $20 for the four of them. I hope you think they look nice?

Do you know anything about this jacinette stuff?

I will take more pix in daylight...

Aren't you supposed to congratulate me on my first pigeons? You were the one who got me interested because yours are soooo cool! And now you have another person to talk about pigeons with because I actually have some! You are my inspiration Harmony!

Ive seen satinettes and those are not satinettes.

They look like common rollers to me or even homers i had one looked kind of like that and it was a homer.

Never heard of jacenettes don't mean it don't excist.

Sorry Claire congratulations on your new pigeons it's been a long day and i'm tired.

If you want to learn more about pigeons go to Global Pigeon and theres alot on these birds there.

Something to do with the name of the British guy who started the breeding of them? He said the ones with the regular legs are common rollers and the other two are Jack...something.....

Oh dear, Harmony doesn't like my pigeons.....I feel all sad now.

I never said i didn't like them they are very nice pigeons as i said i use to have one that looked like that.

Don't be sad they will be very good pets and i hope to see some babys will you let them breed now?

Are they mated pairs or just males and females picked out by him?

Hey Moxie, look what I found: http://www.parlorroller.com/

Could it have been "Jaconette"? They are very venerable British rollers.

Pardon me but i find that video disgusting what some folks call entertainment is beyond me!

Claire do yours do that when you put them on the ground?

This message was edited Oct 21, 2008 9:58 PM

It is peculiar--but does support Moxon's understanding that they don't fly.

That must be one of those genetic things where one was born that way and they just decided to breed it.
I don't like those practice's and view them as inhumane.

Now Claire is upset with me OH Dear guess i'm not as good at complimenting as i should be i'm sorry Claire it's been a long day and a long month.

Guess it's time for me to go...............will talk later i guess.........

Morning all.

Yes, the intention is to let them breed. The owner said it might be best not to let them breed until spring if I was going to keep them outside, which I am. He said there would be a higher success rate by waiting and I am fine with that. Got enough chicks on my hands for the winter!

No Harmony....of course I am not upset with you! I was just all excited about my new pigeons and wanted to share them and then I felt sad that they might have pox and everything. But I always keep new birds quarantined so I am hopeful not to have problems.

Catscan - thank you so much for finding Jaconette! I looked up everything I could think of (Jackinette, Jackenet, Jaquinette, Jaquinett, etc) but never thought of spelling it that way.

I think Harmony was exactly right that the parlor rollers are the ones who do that thing on the ground. That is what regular roller pigeons do in the air. They do this tumbling rolling thing in the air, but you have to train them to come back from an early age and the owner did not do that so I cannot let them fly like that. Once they are more used to me and my handling them (they were very used to him - he sings to them), then I could let them fly inside our Wick building. It is a 30 by 60 foot building and they could fly in it and then I can still get them back.

I think the parlor rollers got their name from being a bird people kept in the "parlor" and they would be like a novelty item. It is kind of an odd behaviour but that is what they do I guess.

And I'm sorry Harmony - I do hope you are feeling better today. I know what a tough time it has been for you lately with the pox and everything. Hugs sent your way!

Claire,
I love them. I like the front one also... very pretty colors.

I had the rollers when I was younger. I loved them. They could be let fly and they would come right back to you and would sit on my shoulders. The only way they would do that roll thing was by snapping your fingers. Maybe they were just trained to do that?? Nice looking birds Cmoxon! I will have to research more on this pox thing. We always let our doves and pigeons live with our other fowl. They just came and went as they pleased. Now that I'm settled here I plan on getting more.
DD

I know a man that has tumblers and those are funny to watch they fly way up and just start tumbling.

Well Claire i'm glad you now have pigeons I think i'm going to sell all mine and just work with my doves.
Pigeons are so messy and i get frustrated cleaning all the poop I only have 3 pairs out of the 20 i did have and the 3 pairs have babys but i could get rid of them in about 2 weeks.

I really want some pheasents and i know a man that raises those and he would give me a good deal and they bring more than pigeons.

I guess I will see how I get along with the pigeons. I hope to not have too many of them. Yours are all very lovely and you could easily and quickly sell them but mine are not that special so it would be hard to sell them so I just will avoid letting them breed too much I think. But it would be neat if each pair of them would have a baby this spring.

I forgot to answer Harmony that one of them is a mated pair and the other pair he picked out because he didn't think that they had already formed mated pairs and they are from this year's hatch he said. Those are the Jaconettes. The other ones - the common type - are the mated pair. I have to take a closer picture of her neck feathers in the light because they are all different colors and I think quite pretty indeed.

I would still like an owl pigeon sometime in the future.

In the spring we want to wild raise some bobwhite quail and try to re-populate the land because there used to be coveys of quail living there but they died out, so we will see if we can re-establish them over time.

Claire Bob white's are sweet little birds i had some and tried to repopulate here but between the stray house cats, fox's, and dogs they don't have a chance around here.

I tried to have them as pets but they were so nervous and walked the wire all day i felt sorry for them wanting out all the time.

Glad to hear you are going to breed your pigeons and yes they would sell if they are purebred.
I know about the rainbow colors on their necks it's just beautiful in the sun it's called Grizzle.

I would love to interact with the bobwhites but the wild raising thing is supposed to be more effective for repopulating if you don't interact with them at all, which is kind of a drag, but best for them i guess. Maybe I will keep a pair for breeding? Fox and coons here but no stray dogs or cats around really.

So glad you know the name for the neck feathers - I have to take pix. :-)

PHEASANTS!!! You can do pheasants??? I so did not know that. I thought they were just wild birds. They are very prettiful. Is there a link about raising them or another thread about them? I think I'm hooped on my chick-a-poo but pheasants are doable. Do they rotatill? Are they're eggs go to eat? Do they bite like geese? I'm all ears!!!!

Hey Dahlia
Check out these pheasants. I have raised the golden and Lady Amherst. Beautiful birds, but skittish and I never had any of mine incubate their own eggs, but a silkie hen does the job great!
George
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheasant

Thanks George. It's illegal for me to have 'poultry' within city limits so I'm limited to pheasants, grouse etc. and such that are wild here. Wow they are so beautiful.

I am wanting some homer pigeons.
Thank you Harmony for letting us know about carrying pox. I didn't know that. I am wondering if it would be possible to vaccinate and then bring in some homers.
Beautiful birds CMoxon. Hope you get some babies.
CS

Dahlianut - I know someone who keeps seramas in her basement in rabbit pens. They are very small chickens - the smallest available chickens. They do very well for her. Lap-birds. Nobody knows she has poultry....least of all the city!

you know I had a friend who got away with Bantams and a goat in the city. She insisted they were "exotics" and got to keep them. Of course no roosters though : (
DD
Another fun bird to keep are cortunix quail and button quail. Small, lots of different colors and tame fairly easy. They also lay tons of eggs and hatch in an incubator well. Here's a great site for pics. It also has great pics of pheasants and peafowl.
http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=Quail++&form=MXCA00&kwid=ee5a1051cfaa91597d98ac9b498d9c77

Daylilydaddy I was working on a chick-a-poo which I was going to register as a dog until I found out from a friend from the city that many, many have tried to work the loop holes and any 'dog' or 'cat' better look like one or be proven as a registered breed. Picky, picky, picky. Because I live in ranch country I can't get away with much sigh. However we are crazy and luv our wild birds in Alberta. Quails aren't native here (at least that I know of) but would be considered a wild bird and not 'poultry' under the city bylaw. Pheasants would be a go too. oooooo I'm getting lots of good options. Thanks friends.

I had cortunix quail and hated them they did this crazy noise all day and were very nervous i didn't like them at all and those are the kind they serve in restarants,

I had button quail very cute and they were also nervous and would get upset and kill eachother it wasn't pleasant haveing those.

Pheasants ive heard they must be separated because they peck eachother i just wanted a couple cause i think their pretty and ive heard they do well with chickens. Now Claire here is something i know nothing about so can someone here tell me about pheasants??

You can vaccinate pigeons for pox just like chickens.

We just hatched off some button quail from eggs we got off eggbid. They are the size of bumblebees! You have to put marbles in their drinking dish to keep them from drowning. They eat catfood. We had to grind it up in a old coffee grinder. We plan to make a terrarium for them out of an old unsealed 125 gal fish tank. Planted to look as natural as possible. When It's done we will take pics.
George

o bummer. Quail and pheasants don't sound like good candidates for my urban chick-a-poo needs. Crappola. What if you just had two, a roo and a hen that were truly in luv? Would they live happily ever after?

I've been thinking of passing my Nankins off as giant canaries. They really don't look like chickens.

Goodness harmony! We have great luck with ours. They do have that little "whistle" sound. Our button quail are so tame we can put them on our lap. Maybe they needed more space? What I hate is the dove season here. Those guy(and some gals) kill tons of them and just take the breast and throw the rest away. I could never eat our doves!(well I guess if I was starving I could)

I only had pheasants in trio's. So I made them a nice looking habitat and they did well. Even in our climate. The red golden are my favorite. I was always nervous about putting them with my chickens. One got loose once and the chickens freaked and attacked it. The ones I hear are mean are the silver, but I don't know that for a fact. I have never had them. I have seen the common ring necks attack each other, but they were for food and really packed in the cages. They even had this weird thing through there nostrils to keep them from getting at each other. I am going to try an experiment in the spring. I am going to give one of my bantie's pheasant(red golden) eggs and see if they will be accepted if they are that young.
George

I'm glad to hear you had good luck with your buttons and cotunix i don't know why mine were the way they were.
I love my Doves and hate the dove season around here it's such a murder fest and all over such a tender sweet bird.

So a trio of red golds those are my favorites too.......What about the pecking i heard they peck the females?
Did you hatch yours?
I could hatch some the auction i go to has eggs sometimes.

House birds are very luvly. Catscan I did finches when I lived in the Arctic. Built an avery in my dining room. Way cool. Finches are very people friendly. They would go up to the high perchs and nests when I came in (it was a floor to ceiling walk in) and then buzz me with fly bys as I replaced the cedar chip flooring, cleaned the bird bath, washed the trees (they poop alot). I think that was their way of having too much fun. 'Let's buzz the caretaker'. They built nests like crazy and laid eggs but none every hatched sigh. They were luvly, luvly birds to have. They had such a short life span though I couldn't keep doing it. I'm not very good about the dieing part. I get too sad.

The rooster can get a bit "manly" and the hens would lose a few back feathers, but nothing major. Thats why I got a trio. I was told only one hen would not be enough for his "manly" ways. No I never had a broody pheasant. They laid well, but I used an incubator for the eggs. I didn't have small chickens at the time and was afraid the shells were too thin for a bigger chicken. Now I have silkies and some tiny "mutt" banties(I just went to a chicken swap and can't resist a cute little bantie hen) I hope you get some. The goldens are not too high and wait until you see the male show off his feathers. He does this little dance then spreads his head feathers all the way down with just his eye showing. It's really cool.

Now I don't agree with this at all, but it's how we got a trio cheap. I was at an auction and they had pulled all the tail feathers out of the pheasants so they went cheap. They pulled them out to sell. I do collect my male peacocks tail feathers after molt and do sell them on ebay. I get about a buck a piece and he gives me about 60 each time. Those tube mailers from the USPS worked great for shipping.

Just one word of caution harmony if you get pheasants. Be as careful as possible when moving them. Their little legs are thin and break easy. I learned the hard way : ( Same with peafowl. Watch those legs. I also broke a peahen legs while trying to move her(well I didn't, but the person catching her did) I did nurse her back. I was just lucky.
George

Thanks George i had a rabbit break it's leg once when it jumped out of my arms they have very fragile legs too.

Harmony it would be so exciting if you got pheasants. I don't know anything about pheasants either. I never knew about all these kinds of quail. I think we will just try bobwhites in the spring maybe because that is the native breed to Iowa and I think that would be best for trying to re-establish in our prairie grass area.

Maybe we could do wild pheasants too?

It would have to be next spring i don't do alot of winter "anything" with my flock.{{{Too Cold}}}
I don't have a good inside place i could keep them and outside i would have to build a pen i have always admired pheasants but was intimidated by their sheer beauty.

I will generaly raise about anything but those always caught my eye where ever i went and just looked so perfect until i was kinda like i could never raise anything that beautiful.

I will sure look into it and turkeys i want turkeys too.

Do you brood pheasants just like chicks and do they do better on the ground or can i raise them off ground?