Here’s the nesting box I made for my five, now four, homing pigeons. It’s made from 1/2″ plywood, wood glue and 1″ common nails. The dimensions are 2 feet by 4 feet with a depth of 11 inches. The spaces on top can also be used as nesting spots. I finished with two coats of glossy, clear exterior Varathane. No front lip was added for ease of cleaning.

I realize now that the holes may be pitifully small, but I assume they can just take over an additional space if they want.

It has poop in it so I know they go in there, but it will be a few months yet before anyone is ready to breed. I’ve read they need to be about 8 months old and I think my birds are only 2-3 months.

How do we get in?

Don’t get discouraged.

It’s now seven hours since I let my homers out for their very first flight and they are all at this moment safely back in the coop except for the one older male who has seemingly left for good.

What a day. After kicking myself for letting my birds out prematurely and expecting never to see them again, they began to filter back. First they lined up on my roof, then my back porch railing, then they started landing on the windowsill right next to me. I could tell they wanted back in but they couldn’t remember how.

I knew from research that they needed a landing pad and not just a doorway, and I made sure to install one before letting them free. You can see it to the far left of the photo under their little pigeon door. They still didn’t seem interested in using it despite mounds of food piled there that the sparrows were all too happy to sample for them.

I saw them eyeing their food dish through the window that I had on my kitchen table. Knowing they have excellent eyesight, I decided to place the bowl half sticking out on the landing pad. Success! Ten minutes later two birds were inside. Well one was half inside. I went in the coop to shoo him completely in and he was only too happy to go. The two birds ate their fill and settled in on a perch for a nice nap. Meanwhile the other two birds were still trying to figure out how to get in. At this point it began to gently rain.

Well, that did it. The two remaining pigeons were not happy about being caught in the rain and began to try everything they could to gain access to the coop. They were climbing the walls, pacing the ground, skidding off the metal nest box roof and even flying up to me as if asking for help. I opened the coop door at one point and they landed on it, knowing it was an access point. The chickens started escaping immediately though and I had to close it again. Then one bird finally flew to the pad. Overjoyed, he began stuffing his face and getting settled inside. The last pigeon, my favorite one who has a little white stripe next to her eye, was still stuck outside. You could tell she was starting to freak out. I opened the coop door again, blocked the chickens with a piece of fencing and called the pigeon over. Gratefully, she flew in and landed on the ground in a pile of chickens. Then up into the rafters for a well-deserved meal and rest.

WHEW! So what have I learned? Well, I’ve learned that pigeons really do know where home is and they want to get back there, but maybe not right away. I learned that I need to teach the pigeons where their door is and have them reliably using it before I set them loose again. I will accomplish this by making a cage that will hang in front of the open door. They can exit the door into the cage and look around, then they can go right back in, using the pad. I will also be installing a wire “trap” to the door that will only swing one way, allowing pigeons to go in but not out. I will keep the trap lifted while they explore the cage, and when they are all checking out the cage I will lower the trap door and call them to eat. This will hopefully teach them how to push on the wire to re-enter the coop. The trap will also ensure that any pigeons I release will stay home after returning to the coop without the need for supervision.

How about the pigeon I lost? Well, I emailed the gentleman I bought them from and told him to be on the lookout for him as he was probably flying home. He very kindly wrote that he hadn’t returned yet, but he had a new batch of young pigeons almost ready to go and I could pick up a replacement bird at the next Poultry Swap. I think that’s the best possible outcome I could have hoped for!

I thought I knew a fair amount about pigeons. I had a pet pigeon named Danny while in university in Nova Scotia. He had been found as a squab by a friend of mine who was too busy running a venue to continue caring for him. I took over the duties while he was still pretty young.

I lived in an old house converted into apartments, on the second floor. Danny, once he was old enough, occupied one of my ample bedroom windowsills. Coming inside to be fed, or when it was too cold and free to roam the city otherwise. It should be noted that my roommates at the time hated him and wanted him gone. He was charming though, and would bat his wings like a Mantis shrimp at my cats if they got too close. Definitely as good a pet, if not better, as any canary, zebra or society finch or budgie, all of which I have experience with.

It was always thrilling to have him follow me to school and join me for lunch. A lot of students were shocked to see what looked like a wild pigeon fly down and land on my shoulder while I was eating a sandwich out on the deck.

I also learned from reading multiple online experiments that if you do harm to a pigeon, they will remember your face for the rest of their lives. Only such intelligent, well-adapted birds could have acquired such a bad rap.

Now I have five homing pigeons. I thought they could just live in the coop with the chickens and that was kind of that. I considered the possibility that the moment I let them out to fly the first time they would just return home to the guy I bought them from, but he had assured me they were young, unflown birds and I could probably safely let them out in a couple of weeks. (That means that they’ve always been locked up and haven’t been able to fly around and really “lock in” where home is by taking note of landmarks and such. Some people say that even unflown pigeons know where they are geographically and can find their way back and I tend to agree. Hoping my pigeons will feel spoiled enough to want to stay here though, fingers crossed.) Well, once turned loose in the pen they flew to the highest point on top of the coop and that was that. I set them up with ample food and water and let them be. First mistake.

Apparently a hungry pigeon is a friendly pigeon. After a day or three of pigeons who wanted nothing to do with me, I decided I needed to remove the food bowl and instead feed them once or twice a day and call them to the feed with the same sound every time. This will eventually set me up to be able to let them loose in the morning before they’ve been fed, and hopefully then call them back for breakfast. If I can practice this routine over and over, I can coop train my birds. Then I can slowly progress to taking them farther distances away for flight training. I allow them to free feed for around an hour or so while  I complete the rest of my farm chores. I give them a mixture of wild bird seed, whole grains and laying pellets. The pellets are not a big hit.

Well, it worked. I now have an attentive group of pigeons who are very interested in me and what I’m doing.

Another aspect I didn’t know was that pigeons are extremely territorial, to the point that the nicer the setup they have at home, the faster they’ll race back. Some people suggest nest boxes that are 30 by 24 inches. That’s nearly the size of a rabbit cage! I decided to compromise and made them a six unit plywood nesting shelf with holes that are about 16″ wide by 11″ deep and 12″ tall. I figure they can always claim two if they require more space. I don’t plan to keep a lot of pigeons, so it should do for now.

Waiting for a snack