# ? about training homing pigeons



## susanussery (May 13, 2008)

ok i know that you should start training your pigeons when they are about 6-8 weeks old, but what about older pigeons that you acquire. I have some that a friend gave me, they are approximately a year old that he had trained to return to his loft. they have here in my loft for about 3 1/2 months now. i was wondering how long they will need to be located here before they will return to my loft when let to fly loose (if ever, is it even possible to retrain them?). Also, is there any way of distinguishing the males from the females? these are the first ones i've had, and they have started breeding already (3 out of 4 of the eggs laid have hatched and the youngsters are doing wonderfully) but i dont know which ones are male and which are female, although i have noticed that the ones i'm assuming are males tend to fluff up their neck feathers making them look larger when they are cooing etc. at any rate any info you could possibly give me would be absolutely wonderful!!! thanks in advance!~susan


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

susanussery said:


> ok i know that you should start training your pigeons when they are about 6-8 weeks old, but what about older pigeons that you acquire. I have some that a friend gave me, they are approximately a year old that he had trained to return to his loft. they have here in my loft for about 3 1/2 months now. i was wondering how long they will need to be located here before they will return to my loft when let to fly loose (if ever, is it even possible to retrain them?). Also, is there any way of distinguishing the males from the females? these are the first ones i've had, and they have started breeding already (3 out of 4 of the eggs laid have hatched and the youngsters are doing wonderfully) but i dont know which ones are male and which are female, although i have noticed that the ones i'm assuming are males tend to fluff up their neck feathers making them look larger when they are cooing etc. at any rate any info you could possibly give me would be absolutely wonderful!!! thanks in advance!~susan


I assume you asking about the adult birds when you ask who's male, who's female? 
If they are on babies and/or eggs............the female (hen) sits on the eggs/babies all night and up until around 10:00ish in the AM. The male (cock) will take over around 10:00/11:00 and sit for part of the afternoon. The mother spends WAY more time with the nest than the Dad does. That's one way to tell. And then the cooing and fluffing up neck is more than likely the males. 
As far as flying your older birds............I won't tell you it's impossible to do, but it is very risky. How far away are you from their previous loft? If you are close enough and they were trained to home there and the previous owner will agree to let you come get any birds that return to his loft, then you MIGHT be able to break the birds to your loft with a little bit of effort and persistence. 
Now, if these birds were just raised in another loft, but never actually trained to home there, I would advise against turning them loose at all. They MIGHT go "home", they MIGHT stay there with you or they MIGHT (most likely) take off to parts unknown and be gone for good. 
For the most part, it's pretty risky to try to train birds to a new loft. The only way to know if it has worked or not is to turn them loose. If they don't stay, then you have no idea where they are or how long they will survive. 
So, depending on your situation, you'll have to make that call. They are called "homing pigeons" because they almost always will go, or try to go home, no matter where that is and home is where they first learned to fly from.


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## susanussery (May 13, 2008)

*hoping*

i live around 2 hours from where they were housed before, and i was hoping that if i kept them in their loft here for several months and then gradually let them fly for short periods of time, they would possibly "home in" on the loft they are in now (mine) especially those who have nests and/or babies here. Any thoughts? oh and they were trained to return home, they were used for wedding/funeral releases which is the same thing we were planning on doing.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Being a year old, and trained at the previous loft, it is very risky. If you're willing to drive two hours a few times to retrieve the birds, you could try to let them out. There's no guarantee that the birds will even make it back the their old loft, but they'll try if they leave your place. After a few times of letting them out, bringing them back, and locking them in for a while after each try, you _might_ be able to break them to your loft. Chances are you'll loose them all trying before you get them 'loft broken'. The best thing to do is just keep them prisoner from now on and raise/train the babies to do your wedding releases and such


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Being a year old, and trained at the previous loft, it is very risky. If you're willing to drive two hours a few times to retrieve the birds, you could try to let them out. There's no guarantee that the birds will even make it back the their old loft, but they'll try if they leave your place. After a few times of letting them out, bringing them back, and locking them in for a while after each try, you _might_ be able to break them to your loft. Chances are you'll loose them all trying before you get them 'loft broken'. *The best thing to do is just keep them prisoner from now on and raise/train the babies to do your wedding releases and such *



I agree 100%............
I gave a man some of my birds. He's about 150 miles from me, give or take. He had the birds for 4 or 5 months....long story short, he turned them loose and one that was trained to my loft showed up here one afternoon. 
A good bird will try to go home..........that's just what they do. Doesn't matter about mates, babies,..............if you care about the birds, keep them in the loft safe and fly their babies.


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## DEEJAY7950 (Dec 13, 2006)

That's my experience also, no matter how long you keep them locked up even if they have raised a few rounds when let out they will fly around even landing on your loft making you think alls well then probably when the bird gets his or her bearings and is strong enough up up and away they go ,higher and higher, then gone for ever!


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## susanussery (May 13, 2008)

well that is terrible, so will i need to make a separate loft for the new birds that are being born? how can i only let the young ones go and not the adults?


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

susanussery said:


> well that is terrible, so will i need to make a separate loft for the new birds that are being born? how can i only let the young ones go and not the adults?


That's the problem with having just one loft. It's hard to get by with just one or even two for that matter. You either need separate lofts or separate sections within one loft. Other wise, you're forced to catch the prisoners and put them in a basket until the flyers get out of the loft and you close it back up. That WILL become a pain sooner or later.


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