training with pigeons

[Hattrick]

I`ve been using pigeons for training an would like to start having them home so i dont have to keep putting $ out every week.. I just bought a dozen of the biggest fluffiest pigeons i ever seen ,i have no idea what kind they are. How long do you have to keep them penned up for them to home. Is there any tricks with this?

[mudhunter]

I have found that if you keep them in the pen for like a month they will start to home from a short distance BUT if you really want to do it right you really need them to have babies and then those babies will home back to the coop. Feral pigeons will work if you don't train far from your pen but if you have a distance you might want to try and find someone who has racing pigeons and buy some extras.

[Hattrick]

I buy them at the local stock yard . There are so many different kinds of pigeons do you no what the racers are call?

[mudhunter]

Any homing pigeon or rollers (they are similar but smaller and more aerobatic in the air.) You do need to let them have the babies and then the babies will come back to your coop.

[ezzy333]

Any homing pigeon or rollers (they are similar but smaller and more aerobatic in the air.) You do need to let them have the babies and then the babies will come back to your coop.

I don't think rollers are related to homing pigeons in any way. Rollers and Tumblers are related and both have a brain defect that makes them do their thing when flying and some can't even walk without tumbling.

Most pigeons have the homing instinct but no where near as strong as the homers due to breeding. Most of my purchased birds are free flyers now but I didn't release them till they had eggs or young in their nest. And like everyone says, your young birds will home also.

Ezzy

[solon]

I bought 7 pigeons a number of years ago that were supposedly homers. I have kept them ever since and they have been breeding every year, some get killed by predators, I keep some new ones, and I have given away a lot of fledglings too. This fall I took some shooters up to a trial to work some pups and noticed one that was banded and thus one of my older birds. I let it fly and was surprised to find it back in the coop when I got home. It returned 190 mi (by car) and had no previous distance training.

SLR

[Hattrick]

Thats pretty cool, did he beat you home:)

[bmacinok]

Hattrick,

I started my coop last fall with a bunch of roller/homer crosses. I left them in the coop for a month or so to get acclimated, then would leave the door open during the day for about a week to let them come and go. I then started taking them and dropping them off different distances to get them used to coming back to the coop. First time was just a couple hundred yards down the road, then a 1/4 mile, then a 1/2 mile, then a mile. Where I train is about a mile away so I would drop them off there. Since we have a lot of hawks I would normally do this in the evening (hopefully the hawks had fed that day) so the birds would be ready to come back to the roost.

After some issues of feeding, etc. I now have quite a few new pigeons being raised and it seems to be working well. I was feeding scratch with cracked corn and my babies were dieing, but when I switched to a pigeon mix (whole grains) they seemed to do well.

I also built a "killer" cage, 2 x 4 frame 4' x 8' x 4' tall, covered in 1/2" x 1" wire, with a plastic tarp on top and partial sides for my feral pigeons. I had them mixed with the homers but then that made it difficult to open the door and let the birds fly. The "killer" cage is just a temporary holding place for my killers since they don't last long, but works really well for the purpose.

bm

[Sharon]

That's funny. I use my "killers' up first too.

[Hattrick]

Thanks for the info, i just started building mind 4'-5--6' high. I put acouple shelf's on each corner so they can nest, i have a wire setting box an a one way recall door. Now as they start to recall well should i leave the door open so they can come an go? or should just take them out for a fly once an while?

[Hattrick]

Another question, i live in the woods an wanted to set this thing behind my garage in the corner of the woods line is this ok or should i have it in the open on a hill some where?