Hello! I want to start filming the pigeons again, so today, for the first time in a while, the camera is in the pigeon room.
Happy and friends
Here are Happy and Happy’s husband, who is hanging back a little. Happy, on the other hand, attacked the cameraman. She used to be very friendly with people, but now she has a husband and seems to be thinking about babies, so she doesn’t pay people much attention anymore. Still so shiny, though.
This pigeon with “eyebrows” came to us from an animal welfare group. Its feathers have a curly texture that reminds me of the chocolate topping on tiramisu. I think the texture is called frizzle, the same as in chickens. It’s a bit shy and won’t let me get close, but it almost looks like it’s wearing clothes. And Little Peep came sidling up to me, too.
We also took in a big pigeon from an animal welfare group, and I mean big: bigger than a chicken. It’s pure white and very beautiful, with feathers on its feet too. Its age was listed as unknown, but the bumps on its nose are well developed, so I think it’s at least two and fairly old. I was told it was tame, but once it went in with the other pigeons, the tameness dropped to zero.
Learning to come home
We have 20 pigeons right now: some with names, some without, and some that I was told have names but I can’t tell who is who. The pigeon room is 240 by 240 centimeters, so it looks crowded. Eventually I’d like them to fly outside: I open the door in the morning, everyone goes out, and they come back for dinner in the evening. That’s the ideal. The three fancy pigeons don’t fly long distances, so while the others are out, they’ll get to enjoy the big chicken coop with the chickens.
A few days ago, four or five pigeons got out by mistake. They all came back, but they didn’t know how to use the door. They bobbed around on the roof looking lost. More practice needed! I think once one learns, the rest will follow.
I’ve heard some schools in Japan keep pigeons that always return to their loft. How do people teach the very first pigeon to come home? If you know, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. I’ll be making pigeon videos again, and maybe we’ll even try for pigeon babies once more.
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise Hawaii! See you in the next episode.