how long do I pen my Rollers up

[OzawkieBantams]

Hi,
I bought some rollers about two weeks ago. I need to know how long I need to keep them locked up before I can let them out.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

Keep them in a couple more weeks. Do you have a trap door on your loft? It's also helpful to get them trained to a feed call.

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

I usually don't let new birds out till they have mated up started nesting. Once they have done that they seem to this is their new home

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Quote:
Wish I could have got yhis ansewr sooner. I let them out four of them they cirled the house for about ten minutes an bam gone the other four stayex in the pen for about two hours then got out. They stayed flying from tree to tree. After about seven hours One of the four that left fisrt came back. I did see another one circling the house but never landed. So now I have five out of eight.

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Well after going out and looking i have six only lost two......not so bad.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

Glad to hear you didn't lose many

It isn't so much that rollers have the homing ability to fly away, because they don't. It's that they want to get out and fly, and sometimes they go too far. If they don't know their surroundings well enough, they can easily get lost. Keep them up for a little while longer and make sure next time you let them out, you haven't fed them yet that day. It's a lot easier to get birds in when they have the motivation of food

That's where the feed call comes in. I whistle every time I feed my birds, so they know it means there's food in the loft. When they're outside, all I have to do is whistle and they come back in. A lot of people think only people with homers/racers do that, but really it's beneficial for any pigeons. It's especially good when hawks randomly decide to visit. While my homers can usually out run any hawks that chase them, other breeds like rollers and fancy birds aren't quite as quick. So if you hear a hawk and don't want to risk it, then you can just call'em in

 

[arherp]

I would suggest putting an aviary outside your trap so that they can learn the surroundings and familiarize with the trap. Definately whistle-train them aswell.
I also would not fly them until spring, it is bop migration time so they will risk being snatched up.

 

[OzawkieBantams]

UPDATE
all birds have returned and are all safe at home. ......

 

[puredelite]

Great to hear that you have all your birds back! You have received some great advice in the other post, I always whistle train my birds as a feed call. They learn quickly to respond to that. Also, if you have a wire trap (bob) that you can open and let them venture out on their own and just sit around on the roof of the loft for a while then they will get used to their surroundings and are less prone to get lost. Best of luck with your birds, I just in the past year got back into having pigeons( rollers) have been raising pigeons off and on since I was about 10 yrs. old and am now 61 so guess once they get in your blood they never really leave!