Remember this is coming from a person fairly new to pigeons, but a bird fed before flying will 1: be an easy meal for predators and 2: not respond to you offering food to quickly bring them in. I would advise using only after birds come back in. Even if your birds will not be trained to fly for long periods of time, being fed before being let out is a recipe for disaster. My experience ( and I have only had pigeons for 2 years and I’m a teenager) is that fed birds fly away and never return because of predators or joining feral flocks. The desire for food keeps them close and light so they can avoid predators. Just my experience so far. About the fancy breeds they are pretty but tend( remember I’m still pretty new) to have bad flying and homing skills. I have flown fancy birds and it’s was quite a site. They would fly less than 10 ft above the ground and were flying fast and uncontrollably. This was with classic frills. They were flown regularly but it’s just not in them to fly. However there are exceptions to this rule and some fancy birds are good flyers. Just my 2 cents.
Yes is the short answer. All pigeons have some homing ability it can be seen in squabs as early as 2 weeks of age if taken from their nest inside the loft. Fancy pigeon in a perfect world will not venture further from their loft than they can return. The main problem with fancy breed pigeons is most of them are poor fliers or flightless and are subject to attack from a variety of predators. For this reason a lot of fanciers keep them confined to the loft or flown under strict supervision.
