Raising baby pigeons advice

[Pigeonbeast]

Sup guys, how can i train baby pigeons? Yes i know that they will stick to their home that they are born. Do i put them in a cage outside near the loft so they can see the whole area etc? Basically train then to come back home. Please if you can provide more info! Thanks guys

 

[Hokum Coco]

Sup guys, how can i train baby pigeons? Do i put them in a cage outside near the loft so they can see the whole area etc?

Most fanciers only feed their birds twice a day morning and evening all they can eat in about 15 minutes. This is usually accompanied by a feed call which some fanciers use a shaker can full of grain or a whistle.

The first step in training should be to take away their food for at least 12 hours in advance of their first release. I suggest about 20 feet away from the platform.

The feed call will also give an additive incentive to enter the loft straight away if you have some that are lingering.

Check out this link it will give you some insight into what I am talking about.

 

[Pigeonbeast]

Thank you! Good information! I was wondering when can i exactly put the chicks on the landing board? I heard 3 weeks after they are born. What i am going to do is actually make a landing board and a small window for them to enter. The tricky thing is that i have 4 adult pigeons which i bought as adults. And if they were released, most of the time they would go back to their old homes.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I was wondering when can i exactly put the chicks on the landing board? I heard 3 weeks after they are born. I would agree with that statement. What i am going to do is actually make a landing board and a small window for them to enter. I have 4 pigeons which i bought as adults. If they were released would go back to their old home.
As a rule of thumb after adult pigeons raise 3 clutches of eggs in a perfect world they "MAY" finally home to your loft (release them hungry and seperately).
I sold my best homer after 9 months he manage to escape. He returned in a day and 1/2 home 719 miles away (he was an exception to the rule).

 

[biophiliac]

@Hokum Coco "I sold my best homer after 9 months he manage to escape. He returned in a day and 1/2 home 719 miles away (he was an exception to the rule)."

WOW!

Can you tell us more about this bird? Did he get sent back?

 

[Hokum Coco]

@Hokum Coco "I sold my best homer after 9 months he manage to escape. He returned in a day and 1/2 home 719 miles away (he was an exception to the rule)."

WOW!

Can you tell us more about this bird? Did he get sent back? No the fancier said I could do with him as I chose.

I was about 12 years old when I noticed a pair of banded homers nesting on top of the girder's on a city bridge. I tried to climb and catch the parents but they were too evasive. I had to settle for snatching a pair of squabs. One squab did not make it. I hand fed the reaming squab and named him Jackson. He latter brought home a mate of his choosing (a feral with white wing tips and spotted head). I am sure she had a lot of homer blood in her linage too.

Long story short when I reached my twenties I sold off all my birds. For want of guitars, cars, and women. My best bird Jackson I sold to a fellow fancier locally with the instructions to "NEVER" release him as I knew he would not bond to another loft especially in such close proximity.
The bird had already flown home from 100 mile releases.
Almost a year later he called me and told me how pleased he was with the pigeon and the accomplishments some of his offspring had accomplished.Then he told me that Jackson had escaped his loft when his daughter was following him into the loft at the exact moment when both the outer and inner doors were open.
I never thought I would see the bird ever again because it's lack of conditioning and the perils it would face from Ottawa Ontario to Moncton New Brunswick 719 miles away. He returned home again about 36 hours later. I sold him again to a fellow fancier he passed away at about 15 years of age. He still visited my parents home from time to time but the loft was pigeon proof and used for storage and did bond eventually to his new loft but never forgot where he came from.

I do not have a picture of Jackson but he does resemble this bird (without the white around the eyes and neck).