Homing Pigeon

Loving these guys. I have 2 different bloodlines - both great- though one is more colorful than the other. As a general rule of thumb, better birds usually are plain colors, as they were bred solely for homing.
These guys (when bred for FLYING and not show) are great flyers, hard to home (so that once they 'home' to a place - ie, fly back to it repeatedly - and rehoming them means that they learn a new place is their new home, and fly back it. A good pigeons is almost impossible to rehome, if not), and full of muscle! Good size to eat as well.
Profolic, good parents, and overall a great beginner bird. They do great in both cold and hot weather, and aside from hawks, ravens & crows, they're excellent for avoiding predators. Ravens & crows are very smart, and while homers CAN avoid them, sometimes intellect beats speed. Hawks in general always win, unless you have a good, vigilant line. Fast too.







It won't let me preview, so ill just describe the pics ;
The hen sitting on the eggs is from a different line than the colorful homers. Those eggs were infertile, I think because it was winter so the cock probably didnt do his job quite right..
Then there's the colorful homer, the one that I'm holding. Different line, but still good, though a bit inferior to the one that was on the eggs, simply because color made a difference so sometimes homing was sacrificed for color. But, well worth it.
Then there's the homer squab - not sure who the parents are, but I got him with the hen that was sitting on eggs (I got them as a group with a couple others). Working on building up his muscle for summer flying.
The there's my 2 ferals. They're the ones standing in front of wood. Both cocks, so neither is very afraid of me. Gotta stand up so that they can prove to the ladies that there'll be good fathers... the plain, blue on was actually the father of the 2 eggs the one homer hen was sitting on.

I have 2 homing pigeons, and they are very fun pets. They are people friendly, and not very loud. I've never lost a homing pigeon, due to the fact that they are hardy in all kinds of weather and situations. Their only drawback is if you have males and females together; males can get a bit feisty during mating season. Despite that, they are a very great pigeon!

My grand daughter and I are trying to starting a dove release business in our area. She helps me with the birds and it is something we share an interest in. She has experienced love, loss, worry, responsibility, first aid, birth, pride,happiness, and more all from being involved with these doves. The farthest toss we have done to date has been about 60 miles. The birds made it home before we did.

It has became an interesting subject for class assignments for her. We also did a dove release at her school to support the anti bullying campaign. Those campaigns have become more and more prevalent over the last few years. It has become our unique way of giving notice and support to an on going problem.

It is fun to watch the pigeons fly around. Although hawks are of concern. I have seen the pigeons outfly a hawk, but sometimes a hawk wins the battle. They are very messy - much messier than chickens. They have a great mothering ability.

Ive had them for a few years and I love them!
They come in several colors and patterns.
They are very smart.
They are wonderful parents.
I have a few that fly onto when I enter the loft to greet me.