# Training And Basketing Opinions



## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I was thinking about the ways I have read about training, the norm seems to be, take the birds a bit at a time down the road, one mile then 2 then 5 then 10 etc.. then I have heard of getting your birds in shape by loft flying and then they can be taken on a toss or put in a race without all the road training, thinking that the homing instinct is there, it is not trained into the bird,they already can home, the bird just needs to be in shape to fly the distance you want him too, does anyone here do this? do you have more losses vs the other way? for how long would you loft fly them to know they are in shape?


and then second topic, how do you basket your birds, in the AM before light? the night before? or should they just be caught in the day time and taken for a toss? would it be ok if they were in a basket all night and tossed in the morning? or is that too long in the basket, And what if you only could do a toss in the afternoon, to catch them easier would be before dawn, but they would be in the basket for so many hours.. I guess Im asking..do most of you just catch your birds in daylight and bakset them. thanks in advance for your ideas and opinions.


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## Kevin (May 13, 2009)

This is a great topic, thanks spirit!

Can't wait for the replies, I too, would want to know. 

Kevin


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

It being a homing pigeon does not mean it "can" or "will" home..It needs to be trained up to 30 miles. If you are going to race them --they need to fly 1 hour ever day--If they do not fly 1 hour around the loft--you have to haul them a distance it taked them 1 hour to get home. It also teaches them they have to "trap" when they get home.
BUT this my opion and the way I do it.


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

In the begining I lost half of my birds. So now each time I train I use one or two old birds that know the way home. I do this the first mile out, North, West, South, then East. But to train for speed when I basket I first train to go from basket to trap. I wait until feeding time and catch all the birds and put them in the baskets in the yard. I wait ten minutes then feed the loft ring my cow bell and release my birds. The old birds quickly trap and eat. The young birds learn in a day or so. After learning to trap quickly then we do the mile down the road. I always take the bell with me and ring it right before I release, this is so they know food is waiting at the loft. My deal is this, loft flying is for their enjoyment and they can spend as long as they want, but basket training is get back as quickly as you can so you can eat. This has helped me with my hawk problem, because I could road train and not lose a bird but if I loft fly the hawk would come and attack. Truthfully, I believe the hawk helped me trap train.

As for how many in a basket. It depends on how long they are going to be in there. If I catch them drive and release them within 30 minutes to an hour. I pack fairly tight. If they are going to be stuck in the basket for a while then they get moving around room and I take more baskets. My 15 bird basket would only get ten if they had a while to wait.

God Bless,
Tony


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

I have also caught my birds at night and loosely packed the baskets, left them in the loft for the night, then in the morning right before I left, moved some birds out of a basket or two and tightly packed the baskets I was taking with me for a morning release.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

spirit wings said:


> I was thinking about the ways I have read about training, the norm seems to be, take the birds a bit at a time down the road, one mile then 2 then 5 then 10 etc.. then I have heard of getting your birds in shape by loft flying and then they can be taken on a toss or put in a race without all the road training, thinking that the homing instinct is there, it is not trained into the bird,they already can home, the bird just needs to be in shape to fly the distance you want him too, does anyone here do this? do you have more losses vs the other way? for how long would you loft fly them to know they are in shape?
> 
> 
> and then second topic, how do you basket your birds, in the AM before light? the night before? or should they just be caught in the day time and taken for a toss? would it be ok if they were in a basket all night and tossed in the morning? or is that too long in the basket, And what if you only could do a toss in the afternoon, to catch them easier would be before dawn, but they would be in the basket for so many hours.. I guess Im asking..do most of you just catch your birds in daylight and bakset them. thanks in advance for your ideas and opinions.


Rather then repeat myself, I will first of all share a recent post I made on another thread:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showpost.php?p=426397&postcount=11

I personally prefer basketing my birds the night before, just like we would do during an actual race. By the time race season comes around, the birds fully know what to expect and don't seem stressed from the experience very much, since they have been through this so many times before. Also picking them off the roost at dark, seems so much less stressful then chasing them around and catching them during the day.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

quote from thread.
Before this ends up being a book, let me also add that again IMHO, it is not necessary to "Train" a modern day racing pigeon to be a homing pigeon. That skill is already in their head the day they are hatched. The training is given to turn this "Homing" pigeon into a "Racing" pigeon, which means to come home quickly and enter the loft. You can avoid all road training completely IMHO, and these pigeons will still return home from a race at some point, but it would be rare that they would be home quickly enough to be consistant winners.



for how long do they loft fly to get in shape? do you have more losses than the road trained birds? how do you know when your birds is ready for a race?


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

spirit wings said:


> .....for how long do they loft fly to get in shape? do you have more losses than the road trained birds? how do you know when your birds is ready for a race?


 I want to let others put in their two cents....a whole chapter in a book, could be devoted to how to bring a race bird into, and then maintain form. 

IMHO, the "best" race birds in the world, will be of little use to the fancier, if they are not in condition to do the job. This past weekend, I won 1st Place in our club in a 296 mile race, and took 3rd Place in the Combine in our auction race. This was a slow race, with a winning speed of 1272 YPM. Which means 6 hours and 50 minutes on the wing. A club member an hour or so before shipping, called me and asked if he should ship or not, because "my birds are not flying so good". I asked him how long they fly around the house, and he said "Maybe about 20 minutes". I asked if he was giving them any road work, he said no. 

I told him the birds may be sick from a respiratory ailment, and/or so over fed and out of condition, IMO, they will never make it home. He made the choice not to ship. The day before, my birds flew for over 2 hours around the loft on their own. Healthy pigeons in good condition, want to get out to fly around, they don't fly for 20 minutes and then sit on the roof. I don't know what the exact ideal amount of flying time around the loft should be, but I am of the thinking that more is better then less.


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

spirit wings said:


> I was thinking about the ways I have read about training, the norm seems to be, take the birds a bit at a time down the road, one mile then 2 then 5 then 10 etc.. then I have heard of getting your birds in shape by loft flying and then they can be taken on a toss or put in a race without all the road training, thinking that the homing instinct is there, it is not trained into the bird,they already can home, the bird just needs to be in shape to fly the distance you want him too, does anyone here do this? do you have more losses vs the other way? for how long would you loft fly them to know they are in shape?
> 
> 
> and then second topic, how do you basket your birds, in the AM before light? the night before? or should they just be caught in the day time and taken for a toss? would it be ok if they were in a basket all night and tossed in the morning? or is that too long in the basket, And what if you only could do a toss in the afternoon, to catch them easier would be before dawn, but they would be in the basket for so many hours.. I guess Im asking..do most of you just catch your birds in daylight and bakset them. thanks in advance for your ideas and opinions.


*Well I believe that training begins the day that you put the band on the youn bird.You might ask how can you train a baby bird. From the day that you band the bird you must pick up the bird every day this done so that the bird will lose his fear of your hand this in turn will make it easier to pick up your birds when you basket them when they are older.I use ideala pills when the babies are old enough to take them,and 1 peanut every other day.Rember that that this point you are training the bird not to fear your hand. The next step after the birds have been weaned is basket train. here you put about 6 young in the basket be sure there is food in the basket in small amounts,rember never over crowd them, and you are training them not to fear your hand.................Now for road traing. Once your birds have been loft flying and routing or as some call it tripping for about 2 weeks you can start to road train,now let me say this before I go any further there are different ways to road train,find one that suits you and stick with it.I start with 2 or 3 releases in my back yard. the next 4 toss are 1 mile 1 east,1west1 south AND 1NORTH, north is the last one as that is in the line of flight that I will be using. Now I feel that the birds are ready for real road traing they are taken 5 miles two times the next is 10 miles two times, next 20 miles again 4 times, here they go up as one group 2x the next 2toss at this 20 mile station I tossed them in group of 5 or 6 birds.From here the go to 40 miles and again 1 toss the whole flock and the second time in small groups of 5 or 6 birds. One other thing I must point out that I never had over 50 young birds to train and by the time I got out to the 40 mile station I would have around 45 birds on the race team, I was never a mob flyer I will leave you with one thought THERE MANY WAYS TO TRAIN BIRDS, WHAT I DID WAS GOOD FOR ME ,THERE ARE OTHERS THAT DO IT DIFFERENTLY IF THEIR WAY WORKS FOR THEM THAT FINE, SO BE IT.*GEORGE


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

You wil find some people train there birdslate say 4 to 6 weeks before race season. Then you find some that will start training theres when the birds near 3 months. If they have been loft flying well and routing out. NOW olds days it was even recomended to start trainging the birds at 6 weeks of age 1/2 mile first then 1 mile. Many ideas many ways. All birds should be loft flying at least an hour This take work sometimes keeping them up And fly them hungry to get better trapping results. Fed birds will sit out longer most often. EVEN though some may think the so called modern race bird does not need the traing. They really all do. Being born with ability Is not without skill training. Ever person will get lost birds. Because of many things also. And every bird is not as smart as the other. So they get lost. oldewr young birds when trainingcomes get lost less on the tosses. BUT at race time they still get reduced down. A 50 to 75 mile training course Is most often good enough to give a test And find The birds abilty to get home either race ready or regular just get home in a decent time. The four corner method helps to make the bird think. north east west and south at least ten miles each way.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I really apprecicate all who posted, and the wealth of information your willing to share over so many years doing this. thanks again!


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