Care
The most important factor in pigeon keeping is taking good care of them. Sick pigeons should be medicated immediately. I find tetracycline very helpful. Pigeons affected by PMV should be separated from the loft since PMV is highly contagious in pigeons.
Weak pigeons should be kept in separate cages with water and feed. I give vitamins to weak birds. Care should be taken to avoid overdose as pigeons get a handful amount of vitamins from the feed they eat. I check each bird and the chicks every day, Sometimes pigeons don't feed their young ones, In that case I try having foster parents if the chicks are too small. If the chicks are more than 20 days old, I hand feed them using a syringe. I take the grinded mixture of feed and mix it with some warm water and feed them using the syringe.
I dip my birds in Butox once in 6 months so that they are free from ticks, lice and pigeon flies. I even dust them with Notix powder. The pigeon loft should be kept clean and ventilation is a must.
Nesting
In my loft each individual pair has its own cage. Kings, Pouters, Modenas, Swallows and Jacobins need a bigger sized cage. So I keep these breeds in a cage of dimension 3 feet X 4 feet individually. Fantails, Nuns, Helmets and Capuchines are comfortable with small cages of dimension 2 feet X 3 feet. I provide earthen bowls filled with sand for the pigeons to lay eggs, I open the cages every morning and close them in the evening, In the meantime they have plenty of open space to fly around
