how long should i keep pigeons cooped up for before letting them out to fly

[maransfan16]

i have four birmingham rollers and two spanish barbs and this coming saturday i'll have had my pigeons a month and i just wanted to know how much longer i should wait to let them out the only thing i saw when i looked it up said about two months before i should let them out. should i wait that long, longer, or less

 

[fowlsessed]

You'll be fine flying now. For such breeds I've waited only two weeks before. Enjoy, and feel free to ask any other questions. Good to have some more raising birds.

 

[maransfan16]

thanks good to know i hope i'll have some spanish barbs here soon since they are yellow the guy i bought them from says you don't see the color very often he said the boy carried some sort of gene which is why he has white wings but i don't remeber what

 

[Hokum Coco]

Just in case you should decide on getting some homing pigeons:

I bought one adult homer cock back in January 2012 that had never been out of the loft and never flown free. He raised 3 clutches of eggs in my loft and when I finally decided to try and loft fly him and released him May 2012 he returned to his original loft over 100 miles away and there he stays.

I would never release an adult homer until it has raised at least 3 batches of young in my loft.

Young squeaker birds a week or so and they are good to release.
There are no hard and fast rules for homing pigeons is my experience. Some fanciers try clipping its primary flight feathers to impede his ability to fly (or even using dish soap on their feathers never tried that personally) and releasing him that some times helps or sometimes make him more prey worthy. It is a slippery slope.

I have some adult birds in my loft now that I am sure you could never get to stay. They would either fly home or die trying. In most cases life as a prisoner is the only answer.

In the late 1800 the most heroic recorded flight was from a pigeon that was released in Africa and took 55 days to get home in England. Traveling over 7,000 miles.

That just seems unbelievable..

 

[omaeve]

my dad found a pigeon where he worked In D.C with a broken wing ..he set wing and we put a note in band when it was well. I came back for weeks till finally 3 months after we released it we got a ph call that he had returned home.

 

[sourland]

my dad found a pigeon where he worked In D.C with a broken wing ..he set wing and we put a note in band when it was well. I came back for weeks till finally 3 months after we released it we got a ph call that he had returned home.

Neat story!

 

[laughingdog]

I was told by breeder that his barbs had some homing ability to point theyd try to get home when sold and let out to soon. so id air on the side of caution and settle them in first inside for week to month, then settle to surroundings outside. the rollers id say youd be fine inside and out after a week, but told some lines have some homer in for vigor, the larger showier ones. ive had one hen, when first back into pigeons, that when let out finally, took the cock and two squeakers straight back in direction of were seller was. recently a show and performer winner hen, I traded for, did the exact same thing. ive never had this trouble with any other than the largest showier roller hens, so maybe they just retained more homer blood and had stronger instinct to get back to old nests, and i had them nesting but didnt wait for them to have raised any young for me. both were younger birds. those two id had kept penned up one for month and other recent for several months, then finally decided to gamble on them as felt bad for not letting them out to fly with rest. non of my cheaper smaller strictly performing birds ever had that problems in between, and all others were let out after week only and homed then rehomed to new places, and have moved three times since getting these that have had now since got back into pigeons, and got into rollers. I used to be strictly a homer man, and saw signs of homer traits, but figured good looking roller abilities showed enough dilution of homer blood, but guess was wrong.

 

[maransfan16]

when i turned them loose i kept the barbs in the pen since i noticed that morning she was starting to make a nest but even when i let the rollers out two out of four didn't go back into the pen

so i had to wait till dark and go get them out of the tree RIGHT NEXT to the pen

and get up into the tree to get them (thankfully i'm 16!) and get back down onto the ladder and down that with a pigeon in each hand! so thats my next question do i need to expect them to do this everytime i let them out or does that mean i need to wait a little longer to do it again

 

[Hokum Coco]

There are too many factors one has to consider to predict what is going on with your two slow learning pigeons. If your pen happens to be on the small side one bird might be dominating over the others not allowing the other birds to roost.

They may have just decided to roost their and would return in the morning when hunger is the key motivator.

It is best to release your birds on an empty crop so you have an ace in the hole when it comes to motivating your birds to come when called (by shaking a feed can or what ever other motivator you might employ).

I usually take away all feed from my new birds for at least 12 hours before releasing to encourage that first return to the loft. Sounds like all your birds are grounded to your coop and surrounding area you just have a bit of fine tuning to do. Once they have your feed call registered in their memory you will be fine.

I also hand feed my birds shelled peanuts or sunflower hearts so they fly to and on me (a trick that will help you enjoy your birds even more no climbing to get them to come to you).

Pigeons have a flock mentality and if you release one that goes into the pen easily the others may follow suit (something you may try if you have another straggler at some point).

 

[Pouter Guy]

I must say that MOST on this thread are leading maransfan16 in the wrong direction. You need to keep the rollors and barbs in breeding pens and let them raise young and fly the young. Only fancy breeds will re-home after a month or two. ALL flying or performance breeds will try to get home. Keep them up and fly the young birds and breed more when the hawks start hitting your flying birds. Then you dont have to worrie about having birds to breed and replace the ones lost or eat by hawks.

Thanks