Gun Dog Forum

Are these a distinct breed or just a genetic anomaly?

MonsterDad wrote:Are these a distinct breed or just a genetic anomaly?

There are many breeds of rollers and tumblers but the most common I think is the Birmingham Rollers.

Ahhhh ok....so they are selectively bred for this trait.

Yes they are. There are different breeds of rollers as well. When I kept pigeons, rollers were my first and greatest love. I enjoyed competing with racers, but rollers are much more fun since they are always in sight when flying.

Rollers are a pain in the butt when i buy them at auction for dog training. They usually flop right over the pups head. Not fly off, like good homers.

Pigeons are like dogs in that there are specific breeds for specific purposes. Rollers are bred to roll just as pointing dogs are bred to point. There are different breeds of rollers that perform differently just as there are different breeds of pointing dogs that have different hunting styles.

The Birmingham Rollers I had as a kid circled the loft and flew to great heights before rolling. They were a lot of fun as they did typically remain in sight, and watching some of them spin down for a hundred feet or so was pretty cool. Smaller bird than a homer, probably eat less, but not as strong, maybe a little more fragile, but I think they'd still work ok for dog training. Some of the other tumbling / rolling breeds would not work; Parlor Tumblers, for example, can't even fly, just flip over backwards on the ground.

We had two of them here many years ago. Never used them for training but let them free fly a lot. We also had a few tumbler's. Didn't realize it until we noticed them flying and for no reason at all, they'd fall like they just got shot! Guy was by a month or so ago and said two of my feral's are roller's. maybe so but I've never seen them roll. The only reason I got them was their looks. Both red one with a pure white head!

Speaking of red's, I had one hatch about a month or so ago in my homer loft. Prettiest one I've ever seen. Head and neck a light red, body a lighter red and dark red bar on it' wing. This one won't get flown to much! I'm finding these days I din;t get the bang out of shooting my pigeon's as watching the dog's find and point them. As a result pigeon' that year ago would have died, not live and I've got some really beautiful birds, both homer's and feral's. About 80+ right now 50/50 homer's and feral's.