8-12 times? what was your rush??? That's barely more than a week of flying. They should be routing for at least a good week or so before you try tossing them. Granted, it is only a half mile as you say, but it still serves no purpose to do tosses when they are so young. You might still get some back in the coming days. It's possible that a hawk scattered them after release, so there's no knowing where they went. You should try flying your old birds to see if it drags any in.
I wonder too. There are a couple microwave towers, along with cell towers that are popping up all around, so who knows. If it gets bad, who knows what I'll raise next... Nothing can replace homers. But, I can always do good old loft flys.developed areas are a BIG factor in pigeon navigation.This is not MY THEORY, but has been circulated as an idea throughout this whole pigeon forum threads.
I have gotten one more. That's number two. Hopefully I'll get a few more. I'm checking craigslist a bit.BP,for some reason, I get a feeling that you will get a few more of them back. Ether return on their own, or someone will contact you with " pigeon found"
I'm sorry, I should have made myself more clear. They had been out 25+ times, but alot before they were flying good, and mostly were on the ground. They had a good week of flying though. As far as routing, my birds never route. They never have, and I doubt ever will. They circle tightly over the coop. They will fly for 2 hours that way, it never go out of my sight. why do you think this is? My old birds now are only flying about 15 minutes before landing now. From what I've read, the old birds don't fly as good as the YB. Is this true? How would in get theme back to flying the way they did? My plan was to fly the YB separate from the OB.
what if they never route?
why? That's when they can build a lot of muscle? It thought short ones were beneficial when young.
I have. They haven't yet.
I have NEVER had young birds which didn't route, so this is extremely strange to hear. The only thing which comes to mind is that there is a bird or 2 on the ground or roof which aren't flying... but if this was happening, the others wouldn't be flying so long (they would be coming down and landing a lot sooner). What does your terrain look like? is there a lot of tall trees surrounding your yard? How long were these young birds flying?
Its terrible for flying birds. There are, giant pine trees near the coop. The birds love to land in them. Are whole yard is trees. the young birds would fly for a minite or two, and come back down. I never got my old group of YB, (now my OB) to fly good until I tossed them. They would be lazy until they got pushed on tosses, and did extremely long flights then.
right now, my aim is to create a better line of birds, out of a good line of birds. I also want to bring color into performance. I love blue bars, and checks, but love to see some reds, whites, white flights, etc. in the air. I would love to fly competitively, mostly with OBs. But right now that isn't going to happen. The clocks are so expensive!
I have tried that. They simply go into the top of a pine tree, and I think I hear them laugh, at me! I understand with the trees that it make training harder, but im up for the challenge. I had my YB going so good for awhile, but, they got old. My plan was to breed about 10 youngsters, fly them and toss them lots, and when they start getting old and not flying as good, choose my best two opposite sex bird and pair them together, and give away the rest to local fanciers I know. And then each spring breed my new team of 10-12.
If your pigeons were actually humans,,,,, Jerry Springer would have been in touch with you already
Beautiful! - All of them! 
I've never had a chocolate. I wonder what goes into breeding that?
nice! They are cool! what I've never heard of slates.
I bred two form pairing an indigo spread to a jet black.
