Free-ranging Fantails - organic pigeons, strategies and tips for raising them in a enclosed garden.

There is nothing quite as beautiful as fantails flying in the open skies. They have a poetry of their own, made even more fascinating by the way they manoeuvre their 'peacock' tails. This freedom comes at a cost, because like all domestic and wild birds they are subject to predator attack from both above and on the ground below.

 Free as Air - Pigeon Pas de Deux or rather de Trois

 In the next series of blogposts I will be sharing how to create an environment in which they can freerange safely, discussing how to minimise predator risk and suggesting what to do when things go wrong.

 

Preamble

I've been raising fantails for over fifteen years, it wasn't exactly a planned exercise. I was only going to collect a Frizzled hen from a smallholding/homestead, where the owner had sadly died and left a collection of animals and birds in need of rehoming. Somehow, whilst we were packing up the Frizzled hen, six white fantails segued themselves into the deal. Luckily someone was there to scoop up the goats, swans, geese, guinea pigs, ducks and peacocks... It was one of those situations where you couldn't say, "No".

These are my first  Fantails, one male and five females. All I knew about them at the time, was that they had lived in an aviary and never bred any young. All I knew about fantails, or pigeons in general, you could write on a postage stamp. I was and still am adverse to keeping creatures in cages unless there is no alternative.

I did a lot of research both in books and on the internet and came to the conclusion that fantails, would suit me very well as they would thrive in a non-aviary environment.  I believe I even read how they would neither breed nor even make nests if permanently enclosed. However, not wanting the fantails to be further stressed by a complete change of environment, they had already had to cope with being moved, I placed them in a decorative welded arbour Andy had made for the garden. A couple of days later, when they seemed settled in, I just left the door ajar and watched and waited to see what would happen. After half-an-hour the male led the five females to the door and in single-file the rest followed him out on a short trip into the garden. Their return after the first foray was, I guess, just to make sure the house hadn't vanished whilst they were away. Once this fact had been established, they went off out again, this time in another direction. After they had completed these few short trips and obviously now believing themselves to be safe, they settled down perching on and around the dovecote. One thing I had realised very quickly from initial observations, was that their whole lives were centred around their new home. In my researched I had indeed read that they were originally bred to adorn buildings and sacred sites. The experiment being successful, I then dismantled the arbour and they were free to come and go at will. Over the years I have only lost one fantail and he actually formed a pair with a wild pigeon and was seen afterwards in the local area. I bought him from a Paris show and had just let him out to be with the others. Instead of remaining with them, as I expected him to, he kept to the roof and finally flew away.

Early days  and observations

Once my original six were free, they started a flurry of nest building. I decided to add to my little group and bought a black and a blue male, each of which added their own style and savoir faire to the community. Over the years, left to their own devices, these new males have created various shades and patterns of fantail.

From the blue male, the group learned to forage for edible greenery, slightly to my chagrin with regards to our wallflowers, lemon balm and michaelmas daisies but much to the benefit of their health. The blue male also taught the rest to consume oyster shell. I actually observed them watching him intensely as he pecked at the provision I had left out for the hens

With the advent of both the blue and the black male, the fantails became more demonstrative in display and courtship. The blue one was more static in his penchant for 'showing-off', mostly perching, 'puffing up', leaning backwards and frequently losing his balance. The black pigeon was more elegant in display and quite fascinating to watch as he danced a flamenco around the astonished females. 

The black pigeon was also more adventurous than the rest. It was through him the fantails began to explore more areas of the garden, roof and the lane in front of the house. It was thus through him initially that I began to think more about how my future gardening design plans would impact upon their lives.

Fantails and Forest Gardening

The relationship between keeping poultry and planting a forest garden is a symbiotic one, the former provide a richer compost for trees, fruits and vegetables. They also carry out very valuable pest control. The garden provides them with shelter and food and most importantly, a safe environment below a canopy of trees and bushes, which is the very essence of the forest garden. You can arrange your garden in such a way as to provide clearings, in which the poultry can sunbathe and in the case of pigeons add a bird bath. 

Bathing is an integral part of a pigeon's life and it is one of the times at which it is at its most vulnerable, as logically with its feathers dampened, it can't easily escape by flight. There is also a social side to a bird bath, I call it the "pigeon lido", and preening, courtship and sunbathing are all part of the activity. It's something therefore you need to provide for but you should equally be aware of the dangers it entails to a freeranging flock.

So, although my pigeon lido is in the open it is lightly but adequately obscured by a Kiftsgate rose. This vigorous, sinuous climbing rose, prevents the ingress of a bird of prey by creating a thorny and complex barrier. I know from experience, as will be discussed in the next post, what happens when you block flight paths by the physical presence of thickly  and/or asymmetrically planted trees and bushes.

When freeranging fantails you can not protect against every eventuality. Dogs, cats, rats, birds of prey and martens are opportunists. Dogs can be restrained by physical barriers and the others, in my experience, prefer easy pickings. The more difficult you make it for them to succeed, the less you leave your pigeons open to attack.

One of the greatest problems we have had here, is that the  architecture of a longère both attracts the fantails and leaves them vulnerable to airbourne predators. A bird of prey attacks by flying at the pigeon and hurtling it to the ground. However, the Forest Garden still prevails, as the terrain is difficult to negotiate and the fantail, on its home territory, has every chance of escape.

In conclusion 

Our experiences over the years have proved to us that fantails love living in a forest garden environment. It gives them the freedom to express themselves in all aspects of their daily life whilst still protecting them from its hazards.

Now, if you'd like to, sit back and enjoy the film on how we set up a forest garden from an abandoned field in order to grow food for ourselves and create a safe haven for our birds.

    

Next time:

Beautiful but deadly and how I came to have a bird in the hand just because we had planted so many bushes.

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Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! 

Sue

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© 2013 Sue Cross