Homeless Pigeons

The pigeons in our barn have had a tough time lately. First of all, their numbers have about doubled, so the original avian homesteaders are feeling a little crowded.

A few of the many pigeons in our barn/arena.

How did that happen? 

The birds and the bees, sure, but not all at once. I think we had some visitors who decided to stay. One of them is almost completely white. This is not a good look when there are predators on the wing everywhere.

Then there’s said predators. A beautiful hawk decided all that dinner under one roof simply could not be passed up. S/he came, s/he scared the crap out of them, and two of their numbers became a meal. When Glenn and I talked about too many pigeons in the barn we were trying to think of ways to get them OUT,  not necessarily get them all killed. Slight guilt trip, because the hawk literally showed up the day after our “too many pigeons” conversation. Talk about manifestation. We must be more specific.

Large and beautiful, the red-tailed hawk is prevalent in our area

In order to get the arena pigeon free, we need to close it up. This means we need to build a different horse shelter for Chancie, whose current abode is in a corner of the arena, with a big opening to outside. Once she has a new shelter we can close up that corner and make more room in the barn for cool coaching stuff. Of course, where are the pigeons going to go? We can’t just leave them without a home.

We’re softies (despite manifesting a hawk).

It’s getting colder out, so I’m going to lobby for letting the pigeons stay through the winter. We do very little coaching in the barn from November through February. This also means we don’t have to hurry with building a horse shelter AND (ta dah!) a small roost for the pigeons to live in on the outside of the barn.

Wait. I have to move because of some BIRDS? Can I be closer to the other horses?

The roost will merely be a place to get out of the weather and rest their wings. No food, no overnight protection, nothing more than they have right now, really. We don’t want to tame them, but we do feel they need a place to put their feet up.

It will be high enough that ground predators cannot get at them - I’m talking at least 12 feet. If a raccoon can jump that high, they deserve a pigeon dinner.

We’ll build the roost. We’ll build the new shelter for Chancie (closer to the other horses). We’ll have a pigeon roundup and get everyone out of the high rafters. We’ll close up the openings. Voila, no more pigeons in the barn.

We’ll keep you posted.