homer help

[uplandrsb]

So I have 30 hikers that I have had laying for some time.. I have split the ones that were born at my location and the ones laying... I have had the door open to get them flying.. I have had 3 come right out and two will not go back in but the one will.. the others have not even tried to come out at all... Should this process take longer to get them flying together? The hikers are anywhere from 6 mos to 4 weeks old.. now o know the real young ones aren't ready yet.

Any thoughts on what I am doing incorrectly?

Also, is it better to feed 1 time a day at a certain time or just every so often so they go out for food?

[ROTTnBRITT]

I started with putting the birds in a wire cage and setting in on the landing board. Leave it there for 30 mins or so, then would push them through the bobs to put them back in the loft. I did this a couple of times. Then aftet that I would place the birds on the landing board with out the cage and with the bobs open and let them do what they wanted. The younger (4-6 wk) birds just stayed there, but the older (8-10 wk) birds would fly around some. But they all eventually went back into the loft for the night. It wasnt long before they all were flying together.

[DonF]

So I have 30 hikers that I have had laying for some time.. I have split the ones that were born at my location and the ones laying... I have had the door open to get them flying.. I have had 3 come right out and two will not go back in but the one will.. the others have not even tried to come out at all... Should this process take longer to get them flying together? The hikers are anywhere from 6 mos to 4 weeks old.. now o know the real young ones aren't ready yet.

Any thoughts on what I am doing incorrectly?

Also, is it better to feed 1 time a day at a certain time or just every so often so they go out for food?

I don't know what hiker's are? You say they are from 6 mos to 4 wks. So I guess you mean young birds. The 4 wks birds will come and go when they are flying well, probably have never been outside, they are a shoo-in. The other's, 6 mos, could have been flown already and you might lose them back to where they came from if you fly them. Just sit on them till you can get them nesting. Once you have them on nest's you'll probably get them back. To get my birds coming and going, I tie up the bob's and let them come and go for a while. Then every couple of days let a bob down. I think most people feed the same time everyday, I do once in the morning and once in the afternoon, 2oz for each bird a day.

Feeding the same time will get your birds back in at that time every day and you can train them to come in by making some same noise every time you feed. Mine hear me start cleaning and they start coming in. I don't think bob's for training pigeons are necessary even though I have them on both loft's. They get tied up most the time anymore unless I want them in for some reason. If I want the use them the next day, I make sure the predator door is closed that night. It would be better to close that door every night but I don't have problems much with predator's.

[Brittguy]

What is a hiker? I am not familiar with the term.

[uplandrsb]

Sorry. A hiker is what happens when you don't edit and you have auto word on the phone.. so I meant pigeon.. . All of the birds that I have now were born in the loft.. I am surprised they don't come out on there own and fly.. I will try to put them in a crate and put them on the landing by the door..

[steamer]

here is a brief artical on getting them out for their first flights http://www.freewebs.com/kjcii/trainingtips.htm

[ezzy333]

here is a brief artical on getting them out for their first flights http://www.freewebs.com/kjcii/trainingtips.htm

If they were hatched in your loft and the parents are not prisoners then I just open the loft to let the old birds fly and the youngsters will learn from them. If you can't let the old birds out or you have bought the young birds then the cage on the landing board works well but I leave the opening open so they can get back in the loft during the day if they want. You can train coming through the bobs in the evening when you feed. Two or three days of this will normally work and then you can open the loft without the cage on the board and just let the birds do what they want but do not push them. They will fly when they are ready. After a couple of weeks of flying and the birds are flying as a kit. I take them a mile or two from home and release them. Do that several times and you should be ready to go 3 to 5 miles from there on.

Ezzy