In late Winter the pigeon fancier turns his attention to the start of the breeding programme. The birds are already paired 'on paper' and it's the time to put the cock birds into the breeding compartments.
For most breeds a compartment measuring 8ft x 5ft x 8ft in height is adequate to house 8 pairs. The nest boxes are built against the rear wall of the compartment and have half the frontage covered to provide the dim light preferred by these descendants of the cave-nesting Red Dove. At this stage the other half of the boxes are open fronted allowing the cocks to vie with each other for the preferred top boxes. Generally, the old cocks will secure the boxes which they had used during the previous season, whilst the young ones will fight over the remaining ones. I like to allow the cocks two weeks before the hens are introduced. In this time 'the dust' has generally settled.
Before the hens are introduced a nest bowl is placed in each nest box and the sealed doors are put in place. The hens are then put in with their intended mate. This is a time of intense excitement for the birds and generally pairing is immediate, the cocks driving madly whilst the hen birds are showing and then copulation completes the ritual. This done, the fancier can be almost sure that the pair bond will be secured and the hen is unlikely to be scalped by an over-zealous mate. However, if the hen is not in a receptive state, ie not in breeding condition, she must be removed from the nest box to avoid the serious damage which can and does occur when the cock continuously pecks the hen's head as he drives her, she in the confines of the nest box having no escape.
In this case, give the hen a few days' rest before trying again or place the two birds into an empty loft compartment and allow them free space to pair at leisure and where the hen can escape the cock's too-close attention. Once the pairs are settled, allow one pair at a time out of the nest box. This helps to ensure that they know their own box and also helps to avoid birds trespassing in their neighbour's box, where fights may occur and eggs be broken.
When the birds have been together for four or five days and they are seen together on the nest bowl, nesting materials should be given. Providing this earlier may result in it becoming fouled. A good layer of sawdust or a nest pan felt pad are both ideal insulation materials, over which a good handful of straw is ideal.
After eight to ten days, the first egg should appear, this will be laid in the late afternoon. The second egg is laid two days later in the early part of the afternoon and incubation will commence. Cock birds incubate the eggs from about l0am to 4pm, the hens sit the remainder of the time.
During incubation the birds are fed and watered in their nest boxes. But I believe that the pigeons 'do' better when they are allowed to go in and out of their nest boxes when they wish. This is achieved by systematically allowing, for example, a pair from a top box 'out' at the same time as a pair from a box lower down. This is a painstaking business but well worth the effort once all the pairs know their own boxes.
In my loft after this is achieved, I remove the slatted box fronts allowing the birds the freedom of the loft compartment and the adjoining aviary. Of course, with this system, one can never be certain of parentage, for a certain amount of cross treading will occur. I think that this is more satisfactory than having the pairs locked into their nest boxes for weeks on end, which induces boredom and poor parenting, particularly when two or more rounds of young are required.
