I recently got 7 young (2 months old) homers. My questions since I really don't know much about how these guys "work", other than they are low maintenance and easy to keep.:
1) how do you tell males from females. The person I got them from, said they weren't old enought to tell yet?
2) Assuming I have a couple of each sex, will they breed automatically and when?
3) I was also told that after theyhad been in my loft about a month, they should "home" back to my loft, is there anything special I need to do to "train" them or is it instinctive?
4) (this one may sound stupid) but, my little loft is under lots of tree branches, will the birds know where to come back if they can't see it very well?
Thanks for helping out a new owner of pigeons, really don't want to lose these guys and hope to get more young from them so any advice would be great before I release any of them.
pigeon talk
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raven
WHEN I FIRST GOT MINE I WAS TOLD AFTER A MONTH TO OPEN THE DOOR THAT THEY WILL BE COOMING BACK TO OPEN SO THAT THEY CAN GO OUT OF THE COOP AND KIND OF LOOK AROUND TO HELP GET THEM USE TO THE SUROUNDINGS. MINE ARE ALSO UNDER A BUNCH OF TREES AND THEY HAVE NO PROBLEMS FINDING THERE WAY BACK AS LONG AS THERE IS FOOD AND WATER. AS FAR AS TELLING THE SEX'S I CAN'T HELP YOU THERE JUST LOOK FOR EGGS, ONE NOTE ON THAT IF YOU DO HAVE A PAIR TRY NOT TO USE MOM AND DAD IN TRAINING BECAUSE THEY BOTH SIT ON THE EGGS . I WAS TOLD THAT DAD SITS DURRING THE DAY AND MOM AT NITE DON'T KNOW IF THAT IS TRUE CAUSE I CAN'T SEX THEM . HOPE I HELPED 
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icefire
emae,
2 months old is a little old for my taste but a lot will depend on what you do and what has been done with them in the past. the first thing is to put them in the loft and give them a couple of weeks just getting used to their new home. make sure that your loft has a landing board that leads to the trap that you can cover up. (it shoud be like a wire enclosed cage on the outside of the loft that eventually you will open up to let them back in.) you need 2 different doors leading from the loft to the landing board. one is some sort of one way trap (several different ways to do that) that the birds will learn to go into but cannot go out of. the other is just a littel door that you can open to allow the birds to go out to the landing board on their own. with the landing board closed, leave the door open so they can go out when they wan and look around to start getting used to the area around them with out them getting away. do that for at least a month or so. if these young birds were ever released where they were born, I would do that for 2 months or so. after that wait for a clear calm evening and just open the small door with the landing board open and let them go out on their own. watch them. after a few nights of them wondering out on their own and flying around a little you can start going in and chasing them all out. since this is getting long, get to that point and let me know and we will go on for there. this might not make a lot of sense at first so let me know if you have any questions, either here or my e-mail that i believe you have.
Ice
2 months old is a little old for my taste but a lot will depend on what you do and what has been done with them in the past. the first thing is to put them in the loft and give them a couple of weeks just getting used to their new home. make sure that your loft has a landing board that leads to the trap that you can cover up. (it shoud be like a wire enclosed cage on the outside of the loft that eventually you will open up to let them back in.) you need 2 different doors leading from the loft to the landing board. one is some sort of one way trap (several different ways to do that) that the birds will learn to go into but cannot go out of. the other is just a littel door that you can open to allow the birds to go out to the landing board on their own. with the landing board closed, leave the door open so they can go out when they wan and look around to start getting used to the area around them with out them getting away. do that for at least a month or so. if these young birds were ever released where they were born, I would do that for 2 months or so. after that wait for a clear calm evening and just open the small door with the landing board open and let them go out on their own. watch them. after a few nights of them wondering out on their own and flying around a little you can start going in and chasing them all out. since this is getting long, get to that point and let me know and we will go on for there. this might not make a lot of sense at first so let me know if you have any questions, either here or my e-mail that i believe you have.
Ice