Pigeons not going in loft

[SergeantSniffle]

I guess all but one of my pigeons don't know that sitting out in a torrential downpour is not good. Any ideas? They do go in in the evening to sleep, but also when I'm training them they usually just fly home and land on the telephone poles or the roof, and not back in. I'm attempting to train them to a whistle, but they're afraid of me so it's not working very well

 

[MartinsPoultry]

I used to Raise Homing Pigeons for a few years.
My advice is once you get them into the coop/loft lock them in. Then retrain them, depending on their age training is going to take a good long while. My stepdad and I would train fledglings to the coop for about 6 weeks, I would double that for adults. Catching them and placing the Pigeons into a cage to where they can see out of, leave them in there with water only, when you feed then catch them again and push them through the trap or entrance way. Do that everyday for the amount of training time you do. Then let 1 or 2 out and see how they do, if they return when its feeding time then try a few more a few days later.

 

[biophiliac]

Yikes - looks like a monsoon. They love to bathe, maybe showers too. lol

usually just fly home and land on the telephone poles or the roof, and not back in.

I've heard this referred to as 'loitering' and it is considered to be a bad habit if you are training homers. Of course it is desired for them to trap in readily after exercise periods and not hang about as 'hawk bait'.

 

[LamarshFish]

I guess all but one of my pigeons don't know that sitting out in a torrential downpour is not good.

On the contrary, pigeons LOVE the rain. Admittedly, I didn't think they prefer downpours like that, but who knows. Do you offer them baths? If you did often, perhaps they'd be less inclined to take matters into their own hands... but who knows, pigeons do weird things. I wouldn't be so concerned.

They do go in in the evening to sleep, but also when I'm training them they usually just fly home and land on the telephone poles or the roof, and not back in. I'm attempting to train them to a whistle, but they're afraid of me so it's not working very well

I'm new to training homers, and I have similar problems. I don't plan on racing, so I don't care much, so long as they come back some time (some times it's days for my bunch of little rascals).

You may need to take a few steps back in the training process. They need to be kept hungry AT ALL TIMES during the initial training process of training to respond to the whistle and/or other calls. Deep hunger at each meal makes the association of food with the call stronger (positive reinforcement, conditioning).

But I've done this myself, and my birds still loiter. Typically if I really stretch out holding off their meals, maybe 36 hours, I'll let them out and they'll trap back in within 30-60 minutes, but I never get them to immediately respond to the call like the racers want.

One thing you may experiment with is to remove the food if they don't respond to the whistle (i.e., let them out, then blow the whistle and put the food in... and if they don't trap back in within a desired time, remove the food). This way they learn that if they don't trap when you call them, they miss a meal.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Any ideas? they're afraid of me

Feed you pigeons shelled unsalted peanuts with patience you will have your birds fly to you for their treats. I have been around the sun 67 times been raising birds for decades. Trust me peanuts are like crack cocaine to pigeons (feed as treat only.)

 

[Hokum Coco]

if they don't trap back in within a desired time, remove the food

Food is a primary motivator for pigeons. When doing a toss with my homers to get them to trap sooner I always leave enough peanut treats on the landing board to feed only have the flock of the release. It eliminates the circling and landing on the house or out buildings. When the loft is in view they swoop down after one or two releases immediately to the landing board hoping to get the lion share. Then after a flight they usually need a drink and the water is in view through the bobs on the landing board.