# New Flock Did Not Return Home



## yarbrough

We just started training our flock of 8 and let them fly right before dusk this evening. They were about a block from home. We had released four times and always returned but tonight none of them returned. It is now dark! Does this happen to others? Should we be worried? Our older birds all returned. Any help would be appreciated.

Peg


----------



## MaryOfExeter

I have done that before, yes...and they didn't come back until the next morning. The only reason I had taken them up the road that late was because a hawk attack made my young pigeons go insane, and I had to round them up somehow before dark so no owls would get them.

You should never take your homers on tosses of any kind right before dark. The best times are early in the morning, probably about 8-12 (personally I like the early mornings...as long as it is light enough. They are full of energy and are hungry, so they'll want to come back for food quicker). 

I wouldn't worry too much...I'm sure they will be back home tomorrow early, waiting for some food probably. The older ones are used to coming back, but younger ones may take a little more time...which is why it is safer to train during the early hours so they have all day to get back. After all, you never know what might scare them and make them take longer to return. Tomorrow morning when you go to the loft, if they aren't back, I'd take the older ones to the same location and let them fly around. The young ones will see them and follow them home


----------



## Matt D.

wow... night flights are really really bad. RULE 1 OF RACING PIGEONS: NEVER LET OUT BIRDS TO FREE FLY AFTER 4 O'CLOCK! NEVER! night flights are the most DEADLY thing that can happen to a loft. night predators are very common, and intense. It also teaches your pigeons that it is ok to be out of the loft after dark... you need to avoid this AT ALL COST.


----------



## maryjane

I don't fly my birds but have never heard of anyone flying theirs right before dark. Why did you pick that time, out of curiosity? Hopefully they will all be back tomorrow, I know it must worry you.  Hope it all works out.


----------



## yarbrough

*Not home yet!*

Well, we are new and all the books that we purchased said before dark so we let them out about 40 minutes before dusk. They never came home. We found five of them this morning in a subdivision about three blocks over on a roof. We took our older birds out to try to persuade the younger ones to return but only one left with the older ones and none have returned (old or young)! Its been about half and hour. Live and learn I just hope it was not at the expense of some of our young. 

Peg


----------



## Lovebirds

Peg
Sorry to hear about your birds. Don't give up hope as they probably will still return. Were the birds hungry when you let them out? How was the weather? There's really nothing wrong with letting the birds out before dark, but I think I would do it before 40 minutes before dark. More like 1 1/2 hours or two hours. I don't understand completely.......did you just release them from the loft or did you actually take them away from home and release?


----------



## Margarret

Peg,
I'm so sorry to hear that your birds are still out and missing. Am holding thoughts that they will return today.

Margaret


----------



## yarbrough

*Thanks for the words or wisdom everyone*

They were not fed before releasing, we took them about 50-75 yards away from the loft. We have not released from the loft because we were concerned about hawks becoming aware that they are housed at our loft so when training our other birds we started with short directional releases. One hawk tried to get one of our birds but my hubby rescued him during the attack so we were trying every precaution. The weather was cool but not real windy. Last night it was around 40 here in FL.


----------



## yarbrough

*Worried Now*

It has been about an hour since we released our older birds to try to get our younger birds to come home. None have returned! I hope we didn't make things worse. My hubby fed the older ones this morning but we thought we had better try something. Hope we haven't gone from a loft of 12 to a loft of two over night. Things are grim here! This is worse than taking your children to school for the first time!


----------



## Lovebirds

yarbrough said:


> They were not fed before releasing, we took them about 50-75 yards away from the loft. We have not released from the loft because we were concerned about hawks becoming aware that they are housed at our loft so when training our other birds we started with short directional releases. One hawk tried to get one of our birds but my hubby rescued him during the attack so we were trying every precaution. The weather was cool but not real windy. Last night it was around 40 here in FL.


Well, I wouldn't worry so very much. Not yet anyway. I expect that most of them, if not all will return home. As long as they've been trained to enter the loft and it's not their first time out, they should be ok. 
So, please excuse me for asking what may seem like a dumb question........you say they weren't fed before releasing? Does that mean they weren't fed at all yesterday or they weren't fed "before" releasing but DID have food at some time during the day. 
Without knowing your routine with the birds, just on first thought, it sounds like they just weren't hungry enough to some straight home. HOWEVER, you would think that they would come back home due to the simple fact that it's time to go to bed. That's one reason I suggested releasing them longer than 40 minutes before dark. Most birds, at least mine anyway, go to roost at least an hour before the sun goes down.


----------



## yarbrough

*Not a dumb question but maybe a dumb choice!*

My hubby feed them for about three minutes that morning. He times it. They get nothing but water until the night feeding. We are really new at this only about three months at training. The first set of 4 birds trained no problems we have released from 10 miles with no problems and they have always returned. The new young ones he was training the same way he did the first set and that is when we ran into the problem of them not coming home. Ours usually roost at sunset as well.


----------



## Lovebirds

yarbrough said:


> My hubby feed them for about three minutes that morning. He times it. They get nothing but water until the night feeding. We are really new at this only about three months at training. The first set of 4 birds trained no problems we have released from 10 miles with no problems and they have always returned. The new young ones he was training the same way he did the first set and that is when we ran into the problem of them not coming home. Ours usually roost at sunset as well.


Well............something may have scared them.........there's dozens of different things that go wrong. ALSO.........just because they are "homing pigeons" doesn't mean they ALWAYS come home. Just the nature of the beast so to speak. I've taken birds that were flying around the loft for months, about 1/2 mile away and never saw half of them again. Heck, they could have WALKED home from where they were released. I would just keep an eye out for them today. Like I said, I expect that they will make it home eventually. Let us know...........I know how worried you are.......been there, done that MANY times..........
We even had a problem with our young birds this year........all of the sudden, one day they didn't want to land on the landing board and go into the loft. We had about 8 birds that actually spent the night in the yard in a tree. All we can figure is that something scared them.......most likely a hawk and it took them a week or so to get over that. 
Are these birds banded? It could be that IF they stay out, someone will see them or even rescue them and start looking for the owner.


----------



## yarbrough

*Three returned*

The two older birds and one of the younger birds have returned. Still have seven young birds out. We are going to go over to the subdivision this afternoon where they were on the roofs this morning to see if we can find them. If they are still out there and we see them how do we get them off the roof and back to the loft?


----------



## Lovebirds

yarbrough said:


> The two older birds and one of the younger birds have returned. Still have seven young birds out. We are going to go over to the subdivision this afternoon where they were on the roofs this morning to see if we can find them. If they are still out there and we see them how do we get them off the roof and back to the loft?


Well, the only two options you have is to catch them (good luck with that  ) or release some older birds again and see if they will follow. Other than that, you just have to wait it out and see if they come home or not.


----------



## Pidgey

At times like that I've sometimes kept taking the older, experienced birds back out to them to give them the hint a little more. As soon as they get back in, you take 'em back out for another round. Don't feed them. Hopefully, more of the disoriented younger birds will follow them back over.

Pidgey


----------



## Skyeking

yarbrough said:


> The two older birds and one of the younger birds have returned. Still have seven young birds out. We are going to go over to the subdivision this afternoon where they were on the roofs this morning to see if we can find them. If they are still out there and we see them how do we get them off the roof and back to the loft?


You should try to release your older birds where your youngsters are at... again, and again-continue to do so, and if that doesn't work gently coax with them from the roof. Are they used to hearing the seed can shaking or the sound of whistle or another method you bring them in with?


----------



## MaryOfExeter

Hmm...just thought of something.

Were all these birds raised at your house, or did you buy all or some of them? There can be situations when one bird will mess it up for the flock. Like if one you bought was older than you thought, turned to go home, and the others followed too far and got lost. I've also had some homers just this past summer actually...that we were told were young birds that we could break. Well...after about 6 weeks, we let them out. Everyone stayed. A few weeks of them flying around the house with *our* birds and they still stayed. Then, we figured they were going to stay, so we took them about 1/2 (and maybe not even that!) a mile up our road (which by flying, is like...just over a little field and some trees) and our old birds came back...that pair of "young" homers must not have been young enough. They landed in some trees, and we never saw them again after that day. We even took the ones that returned back out there for a few days after that to see if they happened to be around. That weekend, while my birds were flying...I had pretty much given up on the new birds until I saw the pair super high in the sky, headed in the direction of the loft we got them from. They definately were not even thinking about MY loft from up that high. Like Renee said, just because they are homers, doesn't mean they're garenteed to come back - raised at home, or bought.


----------



## yarbrough

*How Crazy Is This*

We found five of the birds on our neighbors roof pearching. We went and took an older bird over to them and released him. He flew right past them and they followed persuit. We thought we were free and clear and they would all return home....nope, an hour later the older bird returned and the five young ones are no where to be found. We have only one of the original eight that is in the loft so seven are still at large! What a sad day...


----------



## MaryOfExeter

Hmmm....the older bird more than likely out flew the younger ones, so they landed again from being tired. Was that one old bird fed? If it is hungry, or has a mate that it's wanting to get back to, then it will most likely not take its time and come straight home. In that case, maybe the young ones won't give up so quick? I've had that happen too...the old ones flying around just because and the young ones getting tired and finally giving up.


----------



## maryjane

Don't give up hope!! I didn't mean to make you feel bad when I asked why you let them out at that time, I was just wondering if you had read it or something and I was curious as I know next to nothing about free-flying pigeons.  Everyone has beginners mistakes and they can work out okay. I'm sorry they haven't all come back, it must be so discouraging to find some, think they're on their way back, and then they don't show up. . .YET. Give them some more time and keep trying! I'm hoping and praying for a safe homecoming for them all.


----------



## yarbrough

*Two just showed up on the neighbors roof*

But only two. It is starting to get dark again and your right the older bird probubly did outfly the others. When I say older they are only 4 months trained and return always. I am just praying that the other show up before dark. It is 24 hours now.


----------



## Pidgey

Actually, you're not supposed to really give up hope for four days. If they're gone for that long, the chances they're ever going to make it back start going down dramatically. 

Pidgey


----------



## MaryOfExeter

Well, try not to overdo it with the older birds. Wait until tomorrow to try do the roundup again.


----------



## MaryOfExeter

Pidgey said:


> Actually, you're not supposed to really give up hope for four days. If they're gone for that long, the chances they're ever going to make it back start going down dramatically.
> 
> Pidgey


Yeah...I've had some homers that didn't come straight home...a few or even just one would come at a time each day. It took about a week to get them all back. We took them about 13 miles off though, and they were all old enough...it's just...we soon figured out that predators had been scaring them at night, so they weren't in a hurry to come back in the loft.


----------



## Lovebirds

yarbrough said:


> But only two. It is starting to get dark again and your right the older bird probubly did outfly the others. When I say older they are only 4 months trained and return always. I am just praying that the other show up before dark. It is 24 hours now.


If they are that close, they'll come in when they get hungry enough. At least they DO know where home is. They can go an amazing time without food, so, like everyone else says, don't give up just yet. 
I don't really think they are "lost".........just being a bit stubborn maybe.


----------



## yarbrough

*Only Three Out Now*

Five of the original flock returned tonight. We put out the fancier on the landing deck and they finally came in. No sign of the other three! We are not giving up hope though. I appreciate all the information and support you all have offered during this time. We found great comfort in having experienced individuals such as yourselves to resource. Thanks so much! 

Peg & Al


----------



## Lovebirds

yarbrough said:


> Five of the original flock returned tonight. *We put out the fancier on the landing deck and they finally came in.* No sign of the other three! We are not giving up hope though. I appreciate all the information and support you all have offered during this time. We found great comfort in having experienced individuals such as yourselves to resource. Thanks so much!
> 
> Peg & Al


What is that?


----------



## yarbrough

*A Fancier Pigeon*

Is a pigeon that has a large tail like a peacock and he won't go any where so you can put him out on the landing pad and he just hangs out until he goes into the loft through the bob. We were told that the facier will save us alot of heartache. I believe that he is the reason the other birds finally came into the bob.


----------



## Matt D.

Oh he is a lead bird... i have done that some times... and second if you have found your birds around your house if you let them out and they have found food somewhere else and they are hungry they will go there to get food...


----------



## Lovebirds

yarbrough said:


> Is a pigeon that has a large tail like a peacock and he won't go any where so you can put him out on the landing pad and he just hangs out until he goes into the loft through the bob. We were told that the facier will save us alot of heartache. I believe that he is the reason the other birds finally came into the bob.


That's what I figured it was. They're actually called droppers. Sounds like you have a Fantail pigeon. That's what some fanciers use. There's other breeds that are used too. I personally don't use droppers. Not saying you shouldn't. It's just that most fanciers use them to get their birds in AND in case a hawk hits, they hope it will get the dropper and not one of their flyers. I just hope that a hawk doesn't hit and IF it does, at least my birds have a chance of getting away. 
Anyway, hope you're other three make it back tomorrow.


----------



## Matt D.

yeah we dont use them anymore because of hawks. It almost seemed to attracted more.


----------



## Guest

my opinion on this is dont go taking your birds any distance from the loft for releasing til you know they are more familair with where they are homing too.. hawks already know where your birds are weather you take them 75 yards from the loft or not and releasing them from a distance from the loft isnt really helping them at all its only confuzing your birds especially since they are young .. I have hawks hitting my birds every day they are out but my birds know how to out wit them and the fact that they are closer to the loft helps them dive for the bobs in times of need without any disorientation of where they came from to do so .. just my 3 cents on this


----------



## doveman

*Give them time*

I had this situation happen to me once before. Many should return home the next day or so. You will probably have them little at a time return. be prepared to be disappointed as well. You might lose some due to predators or simply cannot find the way back. This is my experience only. I hope not to get you down. Just be prepared for the worse scenerio.

www.pigeonpeddler.com


----------



## doveman

*Never Before dawn*

One last thing I forgot to mention.....Never release before dawn.


----------

