Training homers

[PrinceSandwich]

Just wondering how I would go about training homer pigeons? Do they need to be hatched at your loft to be able to home? or can you train adults too? Would whistling evertime you feed them train them to come to a whistle? I don't have a pigeon loft just a barn with some breeding cages inside. So in order for them to come home they need to go thrrough our door in the loft of the barn to where there cages our.Will that set-up work?
LOTS OF QUESTIONS

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

- No they don't have to be hatched there. If you get new birds you want to fly, it is preferable to get them between 1 and 3 months old. The closer you get to 5 months old and up, the harder and more risky it can be to get them to stay.

- Yes, my birds are trained to a whistle. Everytime you let them out to fly, do this before you feed them. That way you can easily call them back inside when you need to. Just make sure you feed them when you call, or they'll start thinking you're lying!

- Yes that setup will work. You may want to let them out to fly around inside the barn a few times before you open the doors. That way they will be much more comfortable and used to coming in through the barn to get back inside their cages. They may want to start roosting in the barn as opposed to their cages. But again, if they are used to eating inside that particular cage, they will return to it. Close the door on their cage while they eat so they know to eat and sleep in there and don't end up with pigeons all inside your barn

They like roosting in high places.

Another thing, I (and most others) let my birds out twice a day for exercise. Once before breakfast, and again in the afternoon before their second meal. Pigeons only need 2 tbsp of food per bird, but you can also just give them a buffet for 20 minutes before taking the food away until the second meal. Keeping their food under control like that helps VERY much when you exercise them. Hungry (not starving) bird listen better, and fly better. I've had some very fat and lazy birds that became hawk meals

They'd just sit up on the roof and not pay me any attention when I called because they were full of food.