Adopted Homers... will they stay?

[Hokum Coco]

I hear it takes at least 3 or 4 rounds of raising young in a new loft for adult homers to home to the new loft, and even then, sometimes they take off and don't come back.

I have been on both ends of this statement I had one bird return after a year away from home 728 miles. I had one adult return to its original loft after 5 months in captivity and 3 rounds of offspring 102 miles. My bird was a feral squab that was hand raised "Jackson" whose parents had bands that I could not catch. "Laszolo" was the name of the Belgium blood line male bird that returned after 5 months in captivity (named after the fancier I bought him from).

These are exceptions NOT the rule of thumb.

I have heard of homers that would not bond to any new loft.
They spent their years in captivity inside lofts as breeders..

Never fly a bird you are not willing to loose.

A statement all fanciers learn the hard way.

 

[BecKub]

nice coop too. like your Idea that they can go out and check their surroundings. I'm sure you can let them fly.

I'm just so nervous to let them out! We only have 4 and like I said we acquired them. If we lost them I have no idea where I would get more! lol

 

[biophiliac]

Is that what they are?? No idea! They just showed up one day and so I kept them

Sorry, I was replying to @scottcaddy 's post. but they might be or just rollers or ...
eta I'm still jealous they didn't come to my house!

 

[BecKub]

Look what we found the other day!! We were catching the birds to put them in the front loft so they can learn to use the bob system and one was sitting in the box and didn't want to fly. Then we saw the 2 eggs! How exciting! Will they be able to survive the cold weather since it's getting close to winter? And how long before the hatch? So exciting!

 

[BecKub]

Sorry, I was replying to @scottcaddy 's post. but they might be or just rollers or ...
eta I'm still jealous they didn't come to my house!

I realized that after I posted it lol. Oops!

 

[biophiliac]

Look what we found the other day!! We were catching the birds to put them in the front loft so they can learn to use the bob system and one was sitting in the box and didn't want to fly. Then we saw the 2 eggs! How exciting! Will they be able to survive the cold weather since it's getting close to winter? And how long before the hatch? So exciting!


View attachment 1176567

Can you tell which birds have paired up? They should be sitting on the eggs. Usually the female will sit 4 pm to 10am and the male will sit while she eats, drinks, bathes, etc. That is super exciting.

 

[LamarshFish]

I'm just so nervous to let them out! We only have 4 and like I said we acquired them. If we lost them I have no idea where I would get more! lol

From what I remember about your original post, your birds don't seem like homers. First, they don't look too much like homers, plus you indicated that they just stayed where the lady who was training her dog with them at the park, and did not attempt to home anywhere. So, the risk they will try to home somewhere else may be low, but who knows. If they are not homers, you don't have to worry about it much, so long as they were settled to your loft properly and have good visuals of where they are supposed to return to for food, water and shelter. You said you already had a bird or two go missing then return, so that's a good sign.

Here's a thought for you though, that may help you make a decision. Loft flying your birds is a great pleasure to watch. They fly around and are so obviously happy to do so. It gives them exercise. It gives them purpose. It gives you the peace of mind that you are not keeping a pet cooped up and captive. It does; however, come with that risk that they will get hurt, killed, lost or whatever. There's no avoiding it. But I think the benefits and pleasures of loft flying over weigh those costs. If your birds get hurt or killed, they only did so because you had simply given them the option and opportunity to free fly, like they are supposed to. It's that in alternative to a "safe" life cooped up forever.

If you lose your pigeons, it should be very easy for you to find more. We can help you with that on this site.

Best of luck. At least for me, it is such a pleasure watching them fly!

 

[biophiliac]

From what I remember about your original post, your birds don't seem like homers. First, they don't look too much like homers, plus you indicated that they just stayed where the lady who was training her dog with them at the park, and did not attempt to home anywhere. So, the risk they will try to home somewhere else may be low, but who knows. If they are not homers, you don't have to worry about it much, so long as they were settled to your loft properly and have good visuals of where they are supposed to return to for food, water and shelter. You said you already had a bird or two go missing then return, so that's a good sign.

Here's a thought for you though, that may help you make a decision. Loft flying your birds is a great pleasure to watch. They fly around and are so obviously happy to do so. It gives them exercise. It gives them purpose. It gives you the peace of mind that you are not keeping a pet cooped up and captive. It does; however, come with that risk that they will get hurt, killed, lost or whatever. There's no avoiding it. But I think the benefits and pleasures of loft flying over weigh those costs. If your birds get hurt or killed, they only did so because you had simply given them the option and opportunity to free fly, like they are supposed to. It's that in alternative to a "safe" life cooped up forever.

If you lose your pigeons, it should be very easy for you to find more. We can help you with that on this site.

Best of luck. At least for me, it is such a pleasure watching them fly!

 

[BecKub]

Can you tell which birds have paired up? They should be sitting on the eggs. Usually the female will sit 4 pm to 10am and the male will sit while she eats, drinks, bathes, etc. That is super exciting.

So the two that are paired up have laid another 2 eggs!! They're really reproducing now! It's pretty neat. The babies are so big already it's crazy! I'm excited to see what the next two will look like! One of the babies has some crazy feathers on the top of his/her head just like it's mom! How cute!

 

[BecKub]

From what I remember about your original post, your birds don't seem like homers. First, they don't look too much like homers, plus you indicated that they just stayed where the lady who was training her dog with them at the park, and did not attempt to home anywhere. So, the risk they will try to home somewhere else may be low, but who knows. If they are not homers, you don't have to worry about it much, so long as they were settled to your loft properly and have good visuals of where they are supposed to return to for food, water and shelter. You said you already had a bird or two go missing then return, so that's a good sign.

Here's a thought for you though, that may help you make a decision. Loft flying your birds is a great pleasure to watch. They fly around and are so obviously happy to do so. It gives them exercise. It gives them purpose. It gives you the peace of mind that you are not keeping a pet cooped up and captive. It does; however, come with that risk that they will get hurt, killed, lost or whatever. There's no avoiding it. But I think the benefits and pleasures of loft flying over weigh those costs. If your birds get hurt or killed, they only did so because you had simply given them the option and opportunity to free fly, like they are supposed to. It's that in alternative to a "safe" life cooped up forever.

If you lose your pigeons, it should be very easy for you to find more. We can help you with that on this site.

Best of luck. At least for me, it is such a pleasure watching them fly!

I really like that theory. I LOVED watching them fly when I let them out those few times. They had a blast and quite happily came back to the loft. Mom never left, though. And now that she has two more eggs I doubt she'll leave again if I let them out this week. But that brings me to a few more questions...

The babies are now old enough to fly and have been going out on the "porch" for the last few days. If I let them out, I'm worried the babies won't quite know what's going on. Do they need more time in the loft to get strong and figure things out? Should I continue to suspend food before I let them out? Last time I did that they came back pretty easily because they were hungry.

We had a Coopers Hawk attack one of our chickens last week and I had to run outside and chase him off. He often likes to sit on the pigeon's loft also. I haven't seen him in a few days but I'm giving it some time before I let them out again.