Is it better to keep pigeons free-range or caged?

Free-range farming and cage farming have their own advantages. Free-range farming is suitable for small group farming, and cage farming is suitable for large-scale farming. Generally, free-range pigeons have good meat quality, strong resistance and are not easy to get sick. Cages are the opposite.

Advantages of caging: good management, timely and accurate observation of pigeon symptoms, such as defecation, eating, drinking and so on. Disadvantages: Pigeons have limited activity space, weakened physique and resistance, and are not easy to take a bath, which makes pigeon feathers easy to breed parasites.

The advantages of free-range breeding pigeons are low cost of breeding facilities, large space for pigeons to move, convenient water bath and sand bath, healthy breeding pigeons and long service life. However, the utilization rate of group sheds is low and management is inconvenient. Each breeder can only keep 200-300 pairs of breeding pigeons. Secondly, in the case of group breeding, breeding pigeons interfere with each other greatly, which affects the breeding of breeding pigeons and the commodity rate of young pigeons; Third, raising pigeons in a shed without a bottom net is not conducive to disease prevention and control, and pigeons are in direct contact with feces.

As can be seen from the above, different feeding methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. It's best to lock up the young pigeons and put them in a free range. Pigeons have just left their parents, and their physique is weak and their self-care ability is poor. Keeping them in cages is convenient for management and beneficial to their growth and development. The comprehensive benefit of cage breeding pigeons is high, which is convenient to find and eliminate breeding pigeons with low productivity in time. Young pigeons need more space to cultivate healthy breeding pigeons, so they should be kept free.

Breeding method of pigeons

Pigeons mainly feed on miscellaneous grains, such as wheat, buckwheat, sorghum, corn, peas, mung beans, pockmarked seeds and peanuts. At least two kinds of feed should be mixed when feeding, such as wheat, corn, sorghum ***3, pea 1, and wheat, corn, sorghum ***3, pea 1 and pockmarked 1 during training.

In addition to miscellaneous grains, it can also supply green feed and mineral feed such as vegetables, Chinese cabbage and wheat seedlings. Mineral feed can be bought from carrier pigeon associations all over the country. It can also be matched by itself, which generally meets the needs of homing pigeons. The mineral feed is made of, for example, 3 parts of yellow mud and yellow sand, 2 parts of hydrated lime, 65,438+0 parts of salt, 0.5 part of shell powder or eggshell powder and 0.5 part of charcoal. After crushing, they are mixed with water, kneaded into balls and dried. When feeding, break the ball and put it in the pigeon house.

Feed twice a day, once at about 7: 00 in the morning and at about 4: 30 in the afternoon 1 time. The feeding amount in the morning accounts for 1/3 of the food intake, and the feeding amount in the afternoon accounts for 2/3 of the food intake. The daily feeding amount of each adult pigeon is about 50 grams, which can be increased appropriately during training. Pigeons can be called back to their homes and fed after being grounded, so that they can form a conditioned reflex to return to their homes for dinner, which is conducive to homing.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Pigeons (collectively referred to as pigeons of the family Pigeonidae)