# can ferals be homers?



## aarongreen123 (Jan 26, 2005)

i have rescued three (strange) feral pigeon chicks from a nest on my room, the mother was killed in the street in front of my house(still a mystery). They are eating on their own now and i was wondering what their homing abilities will be when they fledge? are homers a special breed, or is it a developed behavioral thing?


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Thank you for rescuing those babies. Sorry to hear about the mom.
Homers are a special breed. But, ferals do have some homing instinct. They will keep on coming back where food and shelter is.

Reti


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## Jerry (Nov 21, 2003)

*Three Babies*

Finding three babies in one nest is somewhat unusual. Are they all the same age? Perhaps it is one from one nest and two from another who have gotten into the same nest. Feral birds can be of any breed or strain. It all depends on what got loose or got lost. But after a few generations of crossing with who-knows-what, the genes become amalgamated into the "feral" that we know today.


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## Sweetie (Sep 15, 2004)

Yes, I believe that. I constantly see one that has pied markings. Its wings are white and this pigeon is mostly white with orangish brownish spots on it. It is the only one that is marked like this in this feral pigeon group I see constantly. 

Sometimes I let Sweetie Flap for a few minutes and when she goes to the bathroom, I put her back in the purse when she is done. I did this one day when it began to snow a little and she went, and I placed her in my purse. The next day I saw Pigeon prints in the snow. After the snow storm I saw the same thing. I the pigeons are looking for Sweetie. 

Victoria Lutes & Sweetie


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## aarongreen123 (Jan 26, 2005)

*trapping*

there are a TON of ferals around my house. its amazing how people think so little of them, cuz they're so cool to watch. someone in my neighborhood is paying someone to trap them, getting a few i guess. not sure where they are going. how does this community view trapping in general? i'm a bit conflicted i guess....


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Hi Aaron,

I think the consensus is that trapping is a bad thing. Often the trapped birds are used for training hunting dogs or used for pigeon shoots. Trapping for purposes of relocating pigeons is not an effective method of reducing a pigeon population in any given area .. thus, there doesn't appear to be any good, humane, or proper reason to be trapping pigeons.

Terry


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## Lee (Jul 28, 2001)

*homers*

Lee here, 
The natural homing instinct in a feral is about 5 miles . This distance is natural for them to feed . In the wild the parents will fly up to 5 miles out to get feed to bring back to the nest this natural homing instinct is the same in a bred homer. both ferals and bred homers myst be trained to return home from more than the five miles. Pigeons learn by watching other pigeons so they learn this 5 mile area by flocking and following the leader (the young feral learns from the old feral) . Many people have trained ferals to home from long distances however the birds you have will train the next generation should there be any and you could train the new generation to home however they will never preform like a bred homer but they will home.. I have some birds that are trained to 450 miles out and some 600+ miles but it takes work and the right kind of bird...hope this helps some


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

Ferals can home from 25 to 100 miles. Not as great as a homer. And about trapping birds and relocating I think its better then killing. Plus just 2 days ago a person called me about catching birds and selling them to a dog trainer. For 3.00 dollars a peace. I had to decline. I gave this person some very good racing homers When I got totaly out of racers. He still has them. But I thought it wrong that he would catch birds for dog trainers. Hope he wont be selling his extra birds in the future for that.


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