Starter guide
Keep a small flock that circles the sky and comes home to you.
Pigeon keeping is raising a small flock of domestic pigeons or doves in a backyard loft or a large indoor cage. People have bred these birds for thousands of years, which is why they come in hundreds of breeds: homers that find their way back from 300 miles out, fantails and pouters bred for looks, and soft-voiced ringneck doves that live happily in a living room. The birds are hardy, quiet compared with parrots, and tame enough to eat from your hand within weeks. The daily work is short: feed, change the water, scrape the perches, watch the flock. The commitment is long, since a healthy bird lives 10 to 15 years.
Scrape, water, feed, watch
Mornings start at the loft. You scrape the perches and floor, rinse and refill the drinker, and put down a measured feed: about one ounce of grain per bird, or two level tablespoons. Whatever is left after 20 minutes comes back out, because birds that are a little hungry are the ones that come when called. If your birds fly, you open the loft before the meal, watch them circle for half an hour, then rattle the feed can to bring them down. Twice a week they get a shallow pan of water to bathe in. Most keepers spend 15 to 30 minutes a day on this, plus an hour on the weekend for a deeper clean.
Start here
Find the racing club nearest you and go to a meeting before you get any birds. Members commonly start a newcomer off with a few young birds and will look over your loft plans.
Start here
Visit a pigeon show and walk the rows of pens until one breed holds your attention. Ask its breeders which birds they would sell a beginner, and start with two pairs of that one breed.
Start here
Measure the wall where a cage 30 inches wide or more could stand, away from the kitchen and out of drafts. Then look for a pair of ringneck doves from a rescue or a breeder.
Open a card and add its gear to put that direction's housing and feed in the kit. Picking one takes the others' out. The drinker, feeder, grit and cleaning gear suit all three.
Tick these off as you go
Dry, aired and wired against predators
Size
Allow 2 square feet of floor per pigeon. A loft 4 by 6 feet holds about 12 birds, which is plenty for a first year. A pair of ringneck doves needs a cage at least 30 inches wide, because doves fly side to side instead of climbing.
Dry and aired
Damp is what makes pigeons sick. Look for vents low on the front and high at the back, a raised floor and a roof that overhangs. Face the open front south or east, away from the prevailing wind.
Predator proof
Every opening is covered with welded wire of half-inch mesh or smaller. Chicken wire keeps pigeons in but does not keep raccoons, rats or hawks out.
Perches
One perch per bird plus a few spare. Pigeons stand flat-footed, so they want a shelf or box perch about 4 inches deep, not a round dowel.
An attached aviary
A wired porch on the loft gives the birds sun and a bath spot. It also lets new homers study the neighborhood before their first flight.
Before each feed
Count heads and look each bird over. One that sits fluffed up and does not come to the grain is the first sign of trouble.
Local law
Some cities require a permit, cap the number of birds or ban free flight, and the rules change from one town to the next. Get the answer in writing before you build.
Your lungs
Pigeons shed a fine feather powder, and breathing it along with dried droppings for years can cause a lung condition called pigeon breeder's lung. Wear a fitted respirator every time you scrape or sweep, and dampen the floor first so the dust stays down.
Hands
Wash after every visit to the loft. Droppings can carry salmonella and the bacteria behind psittacosis.
Vaccination
Pigeon paramyxovirus spreads fast and kills. Racing clubs expect birds to be vaccinated yearly, and it is sensible for any outdoor flock. A vet or an experienced club member can show you how.
Wild birds
Keep feed and water inside where sparrows and feral pigeons cannot reach them. That is your main defense against avian flu and canker.
Hawks
Every bird of prey is federally protected, so you cannot harm one. Fly your birds at irregular times and keep them in for a week or two when a hawk starts hunting the loft.
No releases
Fancy pigeons and doves cannot find food or dodge predators outdoors. If you can no longer keep them, a club or rescue will take them.
A local club teaches this faster than any book, and pigeon people are generous with time and spare birds. The two national racing bodies both list member clubs by state. The national show association does the same for fancy breeds and publishes the standards the judges use. Dove keepers have a long-running reference site of care articles, and the largest pigeon rescue in the country posts free guides on housing and feeding pet birds.
Clubs, a show association and free care guides
Housing is most of the bill and it differs by direction, so each direction below adds its own housing and feed to a shared base of drinker, feeder, grit and cleaning gear. A racing loft is the exception: it is built or converted from a garden shed, not ordered, so the kit lists the welded wire that proofs it instead. The birds themselves are the cheap part: club members often give young stock to a newcomer, and rescues ask only a small adoption fee.
Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there. The first line, the birds themselves, is not something you buy online: they come from a club member, a breeder or a rescue. Housing and feed join the kit once you switch on Pigeon Racing, Fancy Pigeon Keeping or Dove Keeping.
Pigeons are flock birds, so you start with at least two pairs, or one pair of doves. Where they come from matters more than what they cost.
Not sold on Amazon · club, breeder or rescue
Not sold on Amazon. Get young, banded birds from a club member, a breeder at a show, or a rescue. Homers and common fancy breeds run about $10 to $50 a bird, ringneck doves about $20 to $40, and club members often give a beginner a starting team free.
Pigeons and doves drink by dipping the beak and sucking, so they need water at least an inch deep. A hood over the top keeps droppings and feathers out.
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Scrub it with a brush once a week. Slime builds up where you cannot see it.
These birds flick grain sideways to reach the seeds they like best. A feeder with a grille or divided holes keeps the feed in the trough and their feet out of it.
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Birds have no teeth. They swallow small stones to grind whole grain in the gizzard, and laying hens take calcium from the crushed shell.
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Offer it in its own small dish and replace it when it gets damp or dusty.
Feather powder and dried droppings are the cause of pigeon breeder's lung. A fitted respirator worn at every cleaning is the standard precaution.
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Look for a NIOSH rating of N95 or higher. A loose cloth or surgical mask does not filter this dust.
Droppings dry hard on perches and floors within a day. A stiff flat blade lifts them in one pass, which is what makes daily cleaning a five-minute job.
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Bathing keeps feathers in condition and loosens mites. The birds will use the drinker for it if they have nothing else.
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Fill it about 2 inches deep and take it away after an hour, before the birds start drinking the dirty water.
Hens lay two eggs every few weeks whether you plan to breed or not. A bowl gives the pair a fixed place to sit and stops eggs rolling off a shelf.
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Allow one bowl per pair, with a handful of dry pine needles or small twigs from the yard in the bottom.
A racing loft is built or converted from a garden shed, not ordered. This welded wire covers its windows, vents and aviary, and keeps out the raccoons, rats and hawks that chicken wire lets through.
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Measure every opening before you order, and overlap the wire onto the frame by an inch all around.
A trap is a one-way entrance of swinging wires. Returning birds push in on their own and cannot push back out, so you do not have to stand at the door.
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Fit it above the landing board, and let young birds walk through it for a week before their first flight.
Flying birds burn through energy. A mix of whole grains, peas and safflower with 13 to 17 percent protein keeps them in condition.
Order about a month of feed at a time. Grain kept longer goes stale and draws weevils.
Road training means driving the team a mile out, then 5, then 10, and letting them go. The crate carries them there and lets them out together.
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Size it for your team: the birds should stand without crowding, with air moving through on all sides.
Show breeds stay home, so they need a roofed outdoor enclosure with room to stretch their wings and a sheltered corner to roost in.
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Check the floor area against 2 square feet per bird: the smaller ones suit two pairs at most. Stand it against a wall or fence, out of the wind.
Birds that do not fly run to fat on a rich racing mix. A plainer mix with 12 to 14 percent protein keeps show birds trim.
Doves fly in short horizontal hops and do not climb bars, so the cage has to be wide. A tall, narrow parrot cage gives them nowhere to go.
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Bar spacing of half an inch is right for ringneck and diamond doves.
Doves swallow seed whole and cannot manage the large corn and peas in pigeon grain. A dove mix is built on millet, milo and small wheat.
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