Pigeon Questions

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ibbowhunting
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Pigeon Questions

Post by ibbowhunting » Sun Jun 12, 2016 4:21 pm

Ive Been raising homing pigeons the past few year to have my own flock of homers all is well, just a couple questions on homing pigeons,

What is the purpose of banding the birds will the bands fit on older birds? or just when they are young you band them?

how do you tell the difference between homers and barn pigeons?

I'm assuming homers and barn pigeons will mate will it reduce there homing skills

lahunter562
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Re: Pigeon Questions

Post by lahunter562 » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:48 pm

The reason I banded homers is because I flied in a racing club, without the band racing pigeons can not be enter in the races. The band is for identification purposes. Racing pigeons are banded when they are about 7 to 9 days old. Both feral and racing pigeons are in the same family. Racing pigeons are bred for that specific purpose of racing and feral pigeons can home, but not that far like racing pigeons do. when racing pigeons are bred to feral pigeons, the babies don't have a strong homing ability, is decreased some what.

rinker
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Re: Pigeon Questions

Post by rinker » Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:52 pm

Bands are just for identification. You can buy bands that will fit adult birds.

Feral pigeons do look a little different. Homing pigeons, like brittanies have been selectively bred for dozens or maybe hundreds of generations to perform specific tasks. Feral pigeons will mate with homing pigeons just as coyotes would mate with brittanies with very similar outcomes.

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CDN_Cocker
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Re: Pigeon Questions

Post by CDN_Cocker » Mon Jun 13, 2016 4:56 pm

ibbowhunting wrote:Ive Been raising homing pigeons the past few year to have my own flock of homers all is well, just a couple questions on homing pigeons,

What is the purpose of banding the birds will the bands fit on older birds? or just when they are young you band them?

how do you tell the difference between homers and barn pigeons?

I'm assuming homers and barn pigeons will mate will it reduce there homing skills
Banded for identification - it tells the year the bird was born. Especially important if you show or race birds. Yes, all breeds of pigeons can breed/mix - and a homer/feral cross will have less homing ability. However, ferals can make their way home up to 100 miles if you take the time to train them like you do with your homers. As far as telling the difference... look at them side by side. You will see differences - the biggest one being size.

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DonF
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Re: Pigeon Questions

Post by DonF » Tue Jun 14, 2016 7:38 am

You have a loft of homer's? Put a feral in with them, no doubt about which one it is. They are smaller. They are also wilder. Pick up a homer in one hand and a feral in the other and there will be no question about which is which. Compared to my feral's, my homer's are pet's! One time after getting homer's, a feral came into the homer loft. Should have seen that little sucker sitting with all those big homer's!

I have some homer's with band on them but they have my name and ph # on them. haven't used them all and can't remember why I got them when I did. but I got some clip on bands from Foys that I put on paired birds. Plastic and they wrap around and clip on.

Interesting thing about the homer's, Figuring out the rooster's I think I can do it by looking at them any more. I used to wait till a rooster got to badgering a hen and then mark one as the rooster and one as the hen; I use colored wire ties for that. After some time I notice there does seem to be a difference between them. The rooster's have broader back's and wider chest's. So far the one's I've banded with wire ties like that have all been right. Can't see it in the feral's though but then maybe I don't watch them enough.

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