# raising quail or pigeons



## Eroc33 (Feb 4, 2008)

i am thinking about raising some quail or pigeons just for dog training. What would the best, what would i need to get setup. i would probably order about 50 day old chicks with the quail or try and trap some pigeons. I dont need anything fancy, just the basics. any help would be appreciated.


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## sasmojoe (Feb 4, 2008)

I would suggest using pigeons, they are more hardier than quail and are easier to take care of.


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## Eroc33 (Feb 4, 2008)

if i cant trap them where can i buy some


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## Eroc33 (Feb 4, 2008)

what all do i need to raise/keep them


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## John F Hughes (Feb 4, 2008)

I always start out with pigeons,wings popin makes apup go hay wire. also hard part of starting a pup is did on pigeon like steady em up and you can be a lil hard on him with pigeon. all the dogs i use pigeon on alway points with there head high.


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## BOB_HARWELL (Feb 5, 2008)

Call your County Agriculture Agent, They can give you books on raising Q & P. Quail require more attn., the pigeon will feed her own young. My Dad found out that Quail aren't easy to raise. Good luck.

                              BOB


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## Luke0927 (Feb 6, 2008)

if you get pigeons you want to get young bird preferably 30 days old or less just ones that have never flown that way you teach them to home you your loft.  I have quail i just go get 20-25 when i need them from M and M quail but i will turning my quail Johnny House into a pigeon loft in the next couple of weeks and getting 6-8 pigeons.


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## hevishot (Feb 6, 2008)

scent wise it makes absolutely no difference what so ever whether you train with pigeons or quail.....but when it comes to shooting over your dog, quail taste a heap better than a dang pigeon.


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## t bird (Feb 6, 2008)

Put a trap on the top of the store down there, Bait um up good and leave the trap set, but were they  can go under it and it not fall, then set it and  see what happens. There  are a bunch of pigeons that hang out on that building. Just my 2 cents


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## Eroc33 (Feb 6, 2008)

i was going to try that but they said they had tried to trap them there before and it didnt work real good.


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## Luke0927 (Feb 6, 2008)

Use both....pigeons for your whoa and steadying work and you can use quail when you acutally want to shoot over the dog.


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## TaxPhd (Feb 7, 2008)

If you are training young dogs on pen raised quil, your dogs WILL catch a bird.  You really don't want that to happen.  Day to day training with pigeons is much better than with quail.  They will fly better which is very important.  Even non-homers will often home, giving you reusuable birds. 

Finish the dogs on quail, work them on quail every so often, but nothing beats pigeons.


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## mototayota (Feb 13, 2008)

I would go with pigeons for a couple of reasons...first, if you get homing pigeons, you don't have to keep buying them because they come back...second, pigeons get up and fly a lot better than pen raised quail and there less of a chance that the dog will catch it.  If you decided to go with quail you won't need much more than a pen, food and water because you'll probably go through them pretty quick.  If you go with homing pigeons there is lots of information on the internet about successfully keeping and raising them.  With any kind of bird you keep though, the best advice I can give you is to keep the pen/loft clean and change the water often to prevent disease and bacterial infections.


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