Why won't my pigeons come home?

[QuoVadis]

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).

Wow, I bet you hung on to that pigeon from then on!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Wow, I bet you hung on to that pigeon from then on!

Oh just for the record he kept him prisoner for 9 months and raised 6 clutches of eggs with him before he escaped. I had warned him never to set him free on selling him I knew he would never bond to a new loft.

 

[QuoVadis]

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.

So now I have taken them in each direction to release, but this time I did it closer to home, about one city block, (which where I am doing it is about 0.1 miles). Thay have all come back from each of these "drops" (if you can even call it that - I just walked a block away with them in an old cat carrier!) My question is is it now safe to go back up t the 1/2 mile mark in each direction or should I do another round in each direction of, say, 1/4 mile distance? And pertaining to your condition that they "make it home before me" - they have not been doing that for the most part, and I am walking not driving. But because I have been releasing them so close to home I am not sure if this is because they are confused or because they are enjoying stretching their wings and don't want to come back right away. I am leaning toward that later, except for one bird (I'll come back to him in a sec).

Sometimes they have been out a couple hours after the release (flying and sitting roofs, I assume), but other times they have gotten back a few minutes after I finished walking home... will they speed up thier return when I am releasing them farther from home? In both cases they had not had food for about 12 hours. Again I am releasing just for pleasure, not racing so I am more concerned about dependability than speed, but I also don't want them taking taking days on longer drops.

I also have one bird (who I mentioned earlier) who doesn't seem to fly with the others. He is homerXroller (well actually I don' really know - he was sold to me as homer, and I do think he has homer in him, but he is clearly smaller, rounder, and cobbier than fulll homer) and when I release he just flys to the nearest roof and sits there looking around while all ther others take off doing laps in the air. He has made it back from each of the short drops (he was not among the group I released 1/2 mile from home) but often he takes longer than the others and I never see him just circling in the sky. He is improving in time each return (first 0.1m release he didn't come back til the next day, next one the same but faster, third he came back late the same day, and most recently he was the second bird back (but the other took longer on this most recent drop - I suspect they were smelling the roses!) How far is it reasonable to expect a bird like this to come home from? I want to push him but sentence him to death!




I realize these might be weird questions, but I find I am in the minorty when it comes to homing pigeons, since I want to do more than just free fly, but I don't want to race either. I want my pigeons to home decently and be beautiful and calm. Those are my main goals. That's what I have no problem flying some of my crossbred birds. I like the feathered legs and colors! I have Opals, Andulusians, blacks, almonds/qualmonds, ice, and saddles. When I am done breeding this year I will have more homer crosses than pure homers, but I don;'t mind. It was mainly due to mismatched numbers in the sexes and odd numbers in some breeds, but I figured since they are unlikely to sell well so I will just fly them and see how they do. I will have Homers crossed with monks, WOE tumblers, Indian fantails, Voorburg Shield Croppers and German Beauty homer crosses. I will also be flying (but not homing) some roller/Komorner tumbler crosses and highlflyer/Kormoner tumbler crosses. I'll probably try to even out the pairs by breed next year, and just let the crossbreeds pair how they like... but you know if if I have a crossbreed that flys well maybe I'll pair it back with another homer. My monk/homer corsses fly very well and so far seem to home well.

Well I'll stop rambling now!

 

[Hokum Coco]

My question is is it now safe to go back up t the 1/2 mile mark in each direction or should I do another round in each direction of, say, 1/4 mile distance? And pertaining to your condition that they "make it home before me" - they have not been doing that for the most part, and I am walking not driving. But because I have been releasing them so close to home I am not sure if this is because they are confused or because they are enjoying stretching their wings and don't want to come back right away. I am leaning toward that later, except for one bird (I'll come back to him in a sec). I would try them again at ½ mile and repeat this distance until their return time improves. I always release my birds hungry when training (take away their food for 12 hours you may have to increase this time to 18). There are as many methods to training as there are pigeon fanciers. I release my birds in one direction until they are up to 30 miles. Then I do another point on the compass starting at maybe 5 miles until the 4 points are covered. Once the birds mature an select a mate the motivation to home increases.

Never fly a bird you are not willing to loose is one piece of advise I would pass along and refrain from flying your breeders until your flock increases you do not want to loose your best birds.

Did the rest of your homers make it back yet?

Sometimes they have been out a couple hours after the release (flying and sitting roofs, I assume), but other times they have gotten back a few minutes after I finished walking home... will they speed up thier return when I am releasing them farther from home? I had one bird that regardless what distance I released him from it seemed like he did not make it home until the next day as a rule. Pigeons govern their own agenda on their release. Your best birds will make their presences know. Young birds their main motivation is hunger. If hunger is satisfied they will stop smell the roses and enjoy the day.

How far is it reasonable to expect a bird like this to come home from? That is something you are going to have to guesstimate on with your own instincts.

I also put out a few handfuls of shelled unsalted peanuts enough to feed all the birds at first then once they are used to the routine only enough to feed the first arrivals.

 

[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!

 

[Crzytrkr]

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.

They where probably hungry it's a thought.