New COOP

[jbobperry]

This may have been answered before but I could not find a thread. I have three pigeons I have had for several months and have been flying them for a couple months now. I built them a new larger coop about 50 yards from their smaller one. Do I need to keep them locked up in the new one or can I just keep flying them. They are working on 4 miles now.

 

[sourland]

I'd put a settling cage on the new coop until they feel at home. Even then they will likely home to their old coop when flown.

 

[cavemanrich]

Without seeing pictures of your loft setups, I can only use my imagination.
50 yards is equivalent to pigeons at your neighbors house. (in pigeons viewpoint)
You may be out in open areas, where no close neighbors are around.
Sourland gave good advice above.
If you keep putting the pigeons into new loft, but after flight return to old one,,, you may try putting old loft next to new one. Connect them, so they have access between the two. Then slowly transition them to enter traps at new one, by having old traps closed off.
Then simply remove small old loft, and place on ground away, and possibly covered with tarp.
Once they homeset to new loft, all will be good from that point forward.

WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Qwerty3159]

I moved my pigeons from their original spot to the totally opposite side of the yard. Not quite as far as you, but a similar distance and the new loft was completely out of sight of the old spot. I kept them in an few weeks and they actually all returned to the new loft the very first time. Once or twice they flew back to the old spot, wandered around a bit, and never went back. This new loft had a pretty big aviary, so I honestly didn’t bother with a settling cage because they had a good view of their surroundings from inside. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to use one anyway.