Why won't my pigeons come home?

[QuoVadis]

I have some homing pigeons I got as young babies and for a little while I kept them in my fancy pigeon loft because the loft with a trap I was still working on. Then I later put the birds in that new loft and trap trained them. After they had been trapped trained for a couple weeks I let them out to fly for absolutely a week, but they kept want to go in the loft they had been (that doesn't have a trap) so locked them in the new loft for about a month. Then recently I let them fly again and they trapped into the proper loft, so I decided to start road training. I also a wanted to do this because I felt that they were being kind of lazy - for example they spent a lot of time sitting on roofs in the neighborhood instead of flying. So I took them about .4 miles away and released them yesterday. None of them came home, and furthermore I have gone back to where I released them a couple times and every time I have seen some portion of the group I released has been sitting on roofs in that area. Why haven't they come home. They should know where it is... They have flown around my house. Do you think they didn't fly enough (because of sitting in trees and on roofs) in thier free flying to know where home is?

 

[Hokum Coco]

Good News keep us posted. Happy for you back yard buddy. You never know what abilities a pigeon has. One of my best homing pigeons was in fact a feral. It made it back after i sold him 734 miles (if one traveled by car).

 

[Hokum Coco]

I think you might have gave them too much of a challenge on their first release. I release in sight of the loft the first few times and make sure they have not eat in at least 12 hours on release. Then I move about a ½ mile away and keep doubling the distance as long as they make it home before me.

Then again some homing pigeons just come from the shallow end of the gene pool.

All homers are not created equal.

 

[isaacearlg]

I wouldnt have released them that far unless they started nesting

 

[jak2002003]

Glad most are back now... bet they have been having a fun adventure and in no hurry to get home.

As they are young, at the 'teenager' stage right?

Once they pair up and start nesting they will want to get back ASAP.

Maybe the pure homers are trying to get back to their home loft?

Still you have plenty of time. I have know some of my birds go for over a week but they came back in the end none the worse for wear... they were young birds too, and I suspect they got attracted to the large feral flock in the local park near my home and spent time with the city pigeons before deciding they had a better life at m place.

Wishing you good luck to get the last ones back soon.

 

[QuoVadis]

Thanks so much for all the advice! What a difference doing those drops close to home makes! Today I took them back almost as far as the 1/2 mile drop I originally did (a couple birds in the group, including the roller/homer cross I mentioned int he previous post, weren't part of the original drop so I didn't want to go too far). After I released them I watched them doing big circles for a couple minutes (none stopped of roofs this time! Yay!) and then drove home. Within a couple minutes of getting home the group was back! Interestingly one of the homer/monk crosses was back first, or at least he dropped down and trapped sooner than the others. I have been really impressed with those monk/homer crosses! They seem to fly fast and they especially seem to trap really fast. I think that is so important for when the hawks get worse in the fall.

And the roller/homer cross has continued improving. This time he was back from a much farther drop only a few minutes after the rest of the group! I will watch as the distance increases to see if he seems to be struggling, but I was thinking even if I can't take him on longer drops I could always use him when I take new YB on thier first couple drops, since he seems dependable, but probably wouldn't leave them in the dust like a stonger flyer might. Then he can help show them the ropes, so to speak.

I am still missing two out of seven from the original 1/2 mile drop but I am going to keep realesing my group in that area for a few days and hope the lost ones are still in the vicinity and will follow them home. And yes I have learned not to fly birds you can't afford to lose! I had some white homers last fall I was training and I took them for thier first drop about 0.3 miles from home. All of them came home that day except my very favorite who was super tame and would sit on my shoulder all the time. I was kicking myself for taking her. But then the next day she showed up and her entire chest had been ripped open from top to bottom by a hawk. When she drank the water just poured out of her crop. Luckily I was able to get some disolvable sutures meant for cows, sew her up and she healed perfectly. But she is never getting flown again, because I love her too much to risk it. Now she and her mate live in my fancy pigeon loft (along with four other homers I bought as adults and can't fly).

So I do have some homers as back ups. I just hope the hawks don't get as bad this fall as last year again. I had to completely stop flying because I lost so many birds. Well actually I think it was mainly one hawk. I had a Cooper's hawk that had my place staked out in the fall and in late winter he literally broke into my coop one day and ate some pigeons and after that he was constantly trying to break in again. He even went into my garage where I had some pairs in pairing boxes and tried to get them through the wire. I came out and chased him away from them and he smashed through one of the garage windows to escape and I haven't seem him since. I am hoping he injured himself and died later.

Or atleast was so freaked out he will never return. Having pigeons really makes me dislike hawks more than I used to!

 

[jak2002003]

You took them too far... sorry for that.

Maybe you can go back and try to catch them?

You should start very close to the loft and gradually get further away.

 

[QuoVadis]

Hmm interesting. Everything I had read online says after free flying your first release should be about 1/2 mile from home... One from that group came back last night so I'm hoping they will start trickling in...

 

[QuoVadis]

Then again some homing pigeons just come from the shallow end of the gene pool.

All homers are not created equal.

I think it might be this as well. I have read 1/2 mile over and over again on homing pigeons websites, but I guess that is probably assuming you have good quality proven racing homers, where as mine are mostly just non-descript "homers" I picked up here or there... in fact the lone pigeon who has come home so far was the only one who was a pure Black Eagle racing homer, so I think she has better genetics to work with than the ones who haven't come home yet. I assume also racers probably want to elminate any but the best YBs so maybe they intentionally do farther first drops than a pleasure flyer. All I really want is decent homers I can have fun with, that are fast enough to avoid hawks, find home if they get driven away and that I can release from around town sometimes.

 

[QuoVadis]

Well four more came home... so I guess most of them were able to figure it out eventually, it just took them some time. Interestingly three of the "homers" I released were actually homer crosses (homerXmonk and homerXroller??) and all three crosses came back (3/3), while so far of the full homers only four have come back out of seven(4/7). The three I am missing still are all pure homers. Interesting, that wouldn't have been my guess.