Found a banded pigeon! Connecticut!

[Kusanar]

Cool! I know that in a lot of old timey books I've read, they mention carrier pigeons with capsules on their legs, which seems really cool to me.
From my understanding, there are racing pigeons and fancy pigeons? What are the ones that people send to fly to somewhere? I'm a bit confused on that front.

Racing pigeons are the same as homing pigeons and the same as the carrier pigeons you are referring to. Those are the ones that are taken away from home and released to fly back.

Fancy pigeons, some of them don't even fly but the ones that do fly are loft flown (meaning they open the door and let them go out and fly for a while but are never taken away from home and turned loose) but they will not fly back home if they are taken somewhere else and released.

Fancy pigeons also have fancy feathers, some have a curly look like a frizzle chicken, some have huge fan tails like a tom turkey, some are very interesting colors, some have feathery feet, etc.

 

[backyard pigeons]

How much space do quail and pigeons need?
Do they need flying space?
Do they lay eggs regularly like chickens and some ducks, or only when they're going to sit on them? (I'm still unsure about how that stuff works)

quail need about two square ft per bird, if it's cots or buttons. with a minimum floor space of 10 square ft. Pigeons like to be able to fly, so there loft (what a pigeon coop is called) is awesome if it's big enough for you to walk in and the it's a to fly, as well as having an aviary attached (which is where the quail would be, ideally). Pigeons do love to fly, but quail dont. If you have a 4×8 loft with 8×8 aviary that would be plenty of space to fly your pigeons, even if they never get to free fly them outside. In that setup your could keep 6 pairs of pigeons, plus a bunch of quail outside.

free flying pigeons is very rewarding, but has lots of risk and needs lots of training. I can give you a brief example of free flying pigeons and training later tonight.

pigeons lay eggs with the intention of hatching and raising them, plus, they do it ALL themselves! QUail, lay eggs nearly every day, but rarely sit. Coturnix quail have lost the instincts to sit and raise babies. button quail are close to it, it given a good big coop and a natural setting, they still might. Mine have started to try, but aren't the most faithful of mothers.

Another question: Are carrier pigeons actually a thing?

Kinda. Carrier pigeons were used in the water to deliver messages from battles, or from station to station. They were very commonly used in WW 1, and at the start of WW 2 they weren't used. But later, they said "where are the pigeons!!" you see, the pigeons were more reliable than electronic communication, as they could not as easily be intercepted. Carrier pigeons were homing pigeons, but got named carrier pigeons because they carry messages. You an still send messages from one pigeon loft to another, if the birds are trained. How it worked in war was the soldiers would take pigeons with them, and attach a note and release them with updates. And bases would borrow pigeons to send messages to each other.I

Homing pigeons today are raced against each other, which is a very interesting aspect of the hobby, which i dont participate in,,, yet.

 

[microchick]

Interesting thread.

Many years ago I was out riding my horse and came upon a pigeon in our field. It was unable to fly and I was able to dismount and catch it with ease. Returned home with my find. It had similar bands and had taken a piece of buckshot through it's wing. I had no idea who to call and had to go to work so I turned it over to my mom who called our vet. They gave us the number of the local pigeon racing club and she called them.

Yes, it was one of it's member's birds and they were thrilled that somebody had found it and contacted them. the bird had not reached its destination and they were worried that it had been killed.

When all else fails, call a vet!

 

[backyard pigeons]

I believe that carrier pigeons were a type of pigeon that is now extinct. That said, the modern racing pigeons were used in war to carry messages back and forth from the front lines.

Close!

Carrier pigeons were called that just because they carried massages. They were actually homing pigeons. so carrier pigeons do still exist, but they are now called homers, racing homers, or homing pigeons. Sadly, you cannot find a pure strain of pigeons that are from the wars, they are all mixed with strains that did not participate in war.I

Today, there is a breed called the English carrier pigeon, and it branches from the carriers. But it's strictly a show breed, and has been crossed with other show breeds, so today, it doesn't have the flying ability that the breed used to have.

 

[NatJ]

"Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However, by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably, covering round-trip flights up to 160 km (100 mi)"

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_pigeon

So the choices are to either take the pigeon somewhere and let it carry a message home, or train it to go back and forth every day (because it eats in one place and sleeps in another).

Carrier pigeons, homing pigeons, racing pigeons: pretty much the same birds, but slightly different uses. All of them get transported away from home and then go back--carrying a message, just going home, or racing to get home fastest.

 

[backyard pigeons]

Interesting thread.

Many years ago I was out riding my horse and came upon a pigeon in our field. It was unable to fly and I was able to dismount and catch it with ease. Returned home with my find. It had similar bands and had taken a piece of buckshot through it's wing. I had no idea who to call and had to go to work so I turned it over to my mom who called our vet. They gave us the number of the local pigeon racing club and she called them.

Yes, it was one of it's member's birds and they were thrilled that somebody had found it and contacted them. the bird had not reached its destination and they were worried that it had been killed.

When all else fails, call a vet!

Awesome! Thank you for helping it. Check out this article about getting them back to their owner: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/found-a-lost-pigeon-here-is-what-to-do.75944/

 

[Kusanar]

Close!

Carrier pigeons were called that just because they carried massages. They were actually homing pigeons. so carrier pigeons do still exist, but they are now called homers, racing homers, or homing pigeons. Sadly, you cannot find a pure strain of pigeons that are from the wars, they are all mixed with strains that did not participate in war.I

Today, there is a breed called the English carrier pigeon, and it branches from the carriers. But it's strictly a show breed, and has been crossed with other show breeds, so today, it doesn't have the flying ability that the breed used to have.

I figured out what I was thinking. I was thinking Passenger Pigions which are no longer around.

 

[backyard pigeons]

"Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However, by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably, covering round-trip flights up to 160 km (100 mi)"

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_pigeon

So the choices are to either take the pigeon somewhere and let it carry a message home, or train it to go back and forth every day (because it eats in one place and sleeps in another).

Carrier pigeons, homing pigeons, racing pigeons: pretty much the same birds, but slightly different uses. All of them get transported away from home and then go back--carrying a message, just going home, or racing to get home fastest.

although this is commonly heard, there is questionably if this is what they did.

You see, although "homing pigeons", they don't always go home. If they have a source of reliable feed at one spot, 50 miles away, they will resettle to that spot to take advantage to the close proximity to the feeding area. And battles moved from place to place, so they could not be trained to the specific battles, as they would be there one day, gone the next. so that means only from base to base would make that method of training possible. which that could be helpful, but they will return more reliably is they have one home, where they roost, have feed, a mate, and perhaps young. If they feed at one spot and roost at another, they will also begin to feed along the way. And this could make for a very slow return. So although I believe they experimented with this, it did not last. I don't believe they used it in the second war.

 

[NatJ]

battles moved from place to place, so they could not be trained to the specific battles, as they would be there one day, gone the next.

I was pretty sure that for battles, you would just have to take pigeons with you and let them fly home. And even military camps might move too often to be very good "homes" for pigeons.

But I could see the food one place/nest other place maybe working between two stationary places (like two cities.)

And I could certainly see it working if you just wanted to have them go back and forth with a friend who lived in another part of the same small town

 

[backyard pigeons]

I was pretty sure that for battles, you would just have to take pigeons with you and let them fly home. And even military camps might move too often to be very good "homes" for pigeons.

But I could see the food one place/nest other place maybe working between two stationary places (like two cities.)

And I could certainly see it working if you just wanted to have them go back and forth with a friend who lived in another part of the same small town

Yep! you are correct.

I need a local pigeon fancier (fancier is what a pigeon enthusiast is called) to try to train them to do this! do you live in middle TN?