Nest material

What do members use for nest materials I only use wood shavings with a small amount of sawdust never used tobacco stalks or hey what do members think of these

Straw, paper, oyster shell. Best is Marujuana stalks. Legal to grow come June. Tobbacco leaves kill bugs.

used straw for the past few years, as good as anything in my opinion, its cheap and cheerful.

sometimes put sand in the bottom of the bowl.

I use a felt and a handful of shavings

Shavings then straw if i could get it id use dried cut heather

fieldwalker wrote:

Shavings then straw if i could get it id use dried cut heather

posh bugger.......

Wood shavings and straw.

When I had the dogs we'd walk along side a swamp with big Reed beds. Used to cut bundles of these in winter when they were brittle and dried out, build a stock up and hang them in greenhouse in old fashioned Hessian sacks to dry out totally and sprinkled with lice powder just to be safe. Some of the birds would build nests 6 inches high. Found using reeds the bottom of the bowl was always bone dry.

I always like pairs that build a big, high nest.........I think it shows good parents.

I’ve found soontjens build massive nest

barnie wrote:

When I had the dogs we'd walk along side a swamp with big Reed beds. Used to cut bundles of these in winter when they were brittle and dried out, build a stock up and hang them in greenhouse in old fashioned Hessian sacks to dry out totally and sprinkled with lice powder just to be safe. Some of the birds would build nests 6 inches high. Found using reeds the bottom of the bowl was always bone dry.

I could do that,never thought of sedge grass plenty of that about,cheers.

markevans wrote:

What do members use for nest materials I only use wood shavings with a small amount of sawdust never used tobacco stalks or hey what do members think of these

Sand & pine needles for me down here . Never really liked the idea of using saw dust etc Mark & I also found straw seems to sweat more than I like in my environment here.

fieldwalker wrote:

Shavings then straw if i could get it id use dried cut heather

plenty heather up here sounds good might give it a try, will also be using wooden nest bowls for the first time this year

Boosey wrote:

I’ve found soontjens build massive nest

yes steve, exactly the pair I was thinking of, my soontjens, always build a big high nest........

jonD wrote:

fieldwalker wrote:

Shavings then straw if i could get it id use dried cut heather

plenty heather up here sounds good might give it a try, will also be using wooden nest bowls for the first time this year

aye its like tobaco stalks for non smokers

Some wild birds in the UK lined there nest with filters from cigarettes. Study should be on a UK site. Think more positive than negative. But each to their own preference, why pigeon racing is such a challenge. Sport of kings..bullshit. Sport of the working people who started it continues today. But nowadays seems to be a cash cow for many people selling birds.. Young future fanciers cannot afford the prices asked for pigons that may make them win. Or are told they need them. Everyone should get back to basics. As stated in anothr post, the great majority of fanciers have excellent birds. Maybe not a lot but enough that do very well with. No one needs a winner as such unless selling. Top 5 in 4 or 5 races a bird worth keeping.

halcanada wrote:

Some wild birds in the UK lined there nest with filters from cigarettes. Study should be on a UK site. Think more  positive than negative. But each to their own preference, why pigeon racing is such a challenge. Sport of kings..bullshit. Sport of the working people who started it continues today. But nowadays seems to be a cash cow for many people selling birds.. Young future fanciers cannot afford the prices asked for pigons that may make them win. Or are told they need them. Everyone should get back to basics. As stated in anothr post, the great majority of fanciers have excellent birds. Maybe not a lot but enough that do very well with. No one needs a winner as such unless selling. Top 5 in 4 or 5 races a bird worth keeping.

Good post Hal      I can see all the relevance etc     to this subject here .  

tobacco stalks, gives them summat to do apart from fighting, also think it builds bond when they up and down with nest material

We use straw and tobacco stalks plus this year for the first time bought nest pan liners but forgot to use them lol