Many pigeon fanciers add a tea recipe to the birds drinking water. Generally the view is that it improves the look and feel of the birds and promotes good health.
Personally I have experimented with a couple of recipes including elderberries and other fruit but I think that probably the best is to use nettles. Chop the tops of the nettles off and heat gently in hot, not boiling water. Boiling it kills certain vitamins, so allow it to heat up for a while to the point where the water discolours. Allow it to cool and add it to the drinking water.
I don't tend to give this daily, maybe 3 times per week, but you will find that the pigeons don't like the bitter taste so persevere and a good tip is to remove all water after the morning feed, so that when they come to the evening feed they are thirsty and they will take the nettle tea mix.
Nettles are a natural ingredient and are packed with vitamins and nutrients so whilst it's not scientifically proven to improve performance it can't do any harm. If you buy additives and vitamins for the water, they are expensive and most of it gets chucked down the drain because you should be changing the water at least once per day.
Whether or not giving your racing pigeons tea increases your chances of winning that all important pigeon race is debatable but it is all about small degrees and it's certainly worth experimenting with.
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