Everyone Post Your Pigeon Pics!!!!!

[Fuxzi]

No I have two cocks and two hens. They mate they fly around never leave each others side. But It could possibly be that they are barren.

 

[lightchick]

Hey, everyone! I really need to get pics of all my flock, but haven't gotten around to it.....
I've been thinking of getting rid of all my Birmingham rollers and maybe some of my West of Englands and getting some White Homers or/and 2 Fantails...not sure though. Do you think that would be a good idea?

 

[lightchick]

Ok. So this is my flock of 18.
Pearl. She's a West of England and she's blind in one eye.

Pearl's mate. West of England.

Spirit a Birmingham roller. Almond color.

Bad pic, but this is a younger cock. Hatched this year and is the son of Caspian and Bella.

West of England cock.

Brother of the other young cock. Birmingham roller.

Father of the 2 young cocks. Caspian. Birmingham roller.

Asher. Birmingham roller.

Daughter of Asher. Young Birmingham roller hen.

Spirit is father. Not sure of sex. Birmingham roller.

Not sure if this one is a cock or hen. Young West of England.

Youngest pigeon of the group. This one is full brother/sister of the one above.

Young West of England. Is the son/daughter of Pearl.

Mate of Spirit. Jewel, Birmingham roller.

Granddaughter/son of Bella and Caspian.

Daughter of Bella and Caspian. Also mother of the one above and the checked one that was the daughter of Asher.

Bella. Birmingham roller.

West of England. Mother of 2 of the young West of Englands. What is her color called?

 

[lightchick]

Those are all the pigeons I have right now. Hope it wasn't too confusing!

 

[Noah J]

Nice birds lightchick!!

 

[lightchick]

I haven't been flying them lately. This is only my second year of having pigeons and I really haven't been flying them much at all. I hope to soon, but I'm not very good at training them and they always give me trouble when I try to get them back in the loft and they don't want to fly most days.

I really don't know how to train them well. And I have a lot of young ones that haven't been out at all and they are always hard to get back in because they get lost really easily. lol They are kind of just a hobby. The last time I let some young ones out one of them flew into a tree and the other got lost a block away and it took all day to get them back. I'd appreciate any advice! lol

 

[paramount]

Most of your training and flying problems will come down to the amount of feed that you are giving them. Heavy regulation of the amount of feed will not only get rid of their laziness, but also make them responsive to commands to get back into the loft.

Keep your flying birds separate from your breeders and limit the birds you want to fly to about a fistful of grain for every three birds (maybe a little more if you have small hands). I know this seems like very little, but the idea is to keep them hungry. They should put their wings up and come scrambling for the feed when you give it to them. Have the feed in a large soup can when you feed your flying birds and rattle a small amount of feed in the can when you feed them. They will come to recognize this sound as a signal and you can make them drop to the loft from even high altitudes by shaking that can once they fully recognize it.

A good handler can make them follow him/her around the block just with the feed can.

If they don't want to fly, make a flag on a long pole and flag them up each day. Push them. If one bird seems to hold the others back, take him out of there. Eventually they will start to fly higher and longer and start to kit up.

Once they start flying a reasonable amount of time, you can build them up or tear them down just by changing the amount of feed. (It doesn't take much of a change). You can shorten or increase the flying times by more or less feed. In mature birds, this "tearing them down" and "building them up" also alters their performance. When you build them up, it will inhibit their performance. When you tear them down, it will induce more performance. Controlling their water intake also has an influence.

The most common diet fed to kits of rollers and tumblers is two parts wheat and one part milo. This is very low protein.

Those are the bare basics of how it is done and is the real core of the original system developed in the English Midlands in the mid 1800's by the people who first developed the two breeds you have. Once you start to get a handle on it, I GUARANTEE that you will get more pleasure from your birds than just staring at them in the loft, regardless of how good or bad they are in the air.

Any good book on Birmingham Rollers will help you. Dave Henderson's will be a good place to start for you. It is written in pretty plain, clear language and covers many of the basics.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Birmingham-Roller-Performance-Pigeon/dp/149914203X/

 

[Zimbabwefarmer]

Fascinating guys, thanks for the info - let the birds fly!
They are truly good-looking!

 

[lightchick]

Well, right now I'm feeding chicken scratch.

 

[paramount]

Most chicken scratch has cracked corn.

Some successful old timers used to feed it (the late Stanley Plona comes to mind), but if the cracked corn gets damp and mildews, it will result in lip cankers. While canker is not very dangerous to the adult birds, they will pass it to their young, who will develop large masses of it in their throat which eventually grow so large that it will strangle them before they leave the nest.

As a rule, you should probably avoid feeding anything with cracked corn for that reason. If you are feeding it because it's cheap, you are better off with just basic Poultry Wheat. (It will make their droppings a little soft though).