# How many pigeons does one lose on average?



## churl82 (Jun 11, 2011)

Hello everyone! I'm just curious to know what percentage of racing pigeons are lost in a season (loft training, road tosses, racing, etc.) due to any reason. Thanks.


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## fadedracer (Jul 8, 2011)

me 3 so far


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## Lovelace (Jan 10, 2008)

Last year I breed 31 after 2010 young bird and 2011 old bird season I had 8 left, 4 of them were of the same blood two from the cock side two from the hen side. Needless to say I bred more of this blood for 2011 young bird. This blood did not get lost and also won races, 3 out of the 4 not bad in my opeion.


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## Alamo (Nov 22, 2008)

Last 3 years,I have lost a total of 17 birds....Average about 6 per year....I only breed 20 to 24 for myself,and a few for a friend here.....Alamo


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## Lovelace (Jan 10, 2008)

Alamo, I bred 25 this year 2011 myself and plain on keeping it small, I will get to were I wont lose many pigeons and still win races, I think it takes good homing abaility along with good speed. Just a few of my goals if you dont have any goals why race pigeons.


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## First To Hatch (Jul 19, 2009)

I had 32...this is also my first year, but I don't think I really lost any to stupidness on my part. Lost 2 off the landing board, I got one sick, and it died of e-coli, one was just randomly dead outside was a fine looking bird healthy etc I think it had a heart attack or something. Then I lost 4 to a hawk. That leaves 24, and I haven't even started road training .


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## g-pigeon (Aug 24, 2010)

i believe the longer you are in racing the less you lose.

i have lost 7 this season.(first year racing)
once you are in it for a while you know not to release your birds to early and have hawks get them. also the birds that were not lost are the ones you breed from and they may have a stronger homing instinct. some racers say they hardly lose any.other have about half left at the end of the season. good luck hope you don't lose to many


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

Last year young birds I had them trained to over 100 mi. Then I took them on a simple 23 mi toss checked the K factor in the morning and it was at a 1 when I got home it was at 5 1/2 I lost 47 of 65 that morning. Two years ago I only lost 8 birds out of 60 by the end of the season. I hope this year is better than last year.
Dave


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## First To Hatch (Jul 19, 2009)

How do you figure out your K factor? I'm going to start tossing soon and that sounds like a handy thing.


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## jeff houghton (Jul 17, 2010)

churl82 said:


> Hello everyone! I'm just curious to know what percentage of racing pigeons are lost in a season (loft training, road tosses, racing, etc.) due to any reason. Thanks.


nobody can really put an exact percentage at the start of the year because its all down to circumstances, my mate lost 44 young birds off his roof after a hawk dive bombed them you cant account for that.


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Forget about the "K" factor.
Its other problems that cause birds "NOT" to come home.
Just think--- 1,000's of wireless signals --To the moon and back.
You get upset about loosing a bird????
You get upset about loosing your Cell Phone connection?


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Guys in my club advised me to have plenty of YB's because you'll lose half by race time. Not sure if this will hold true but if you're just starting and want to have YB's to race and OB's next year you'd better have enough to afford some loss's.


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

sky tex is allmost right it is hundreds of thousands of wireless signals, and the high power lines. I still check the K factor, go to the NOAA web site and find the link.
Dave


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Just saw this........But times, or the planet are changing...
One of our 1 loft races over here just lost over 1200 birds from a single 30 mile toss last Tuesday. 
Tomorrow will be a week since it happened, and to date they have had 154 return and very likely no more will return now.
They had a handful back on the same day and luckily two of ours (the only 2 we have left) were in the first day's group. 
The prize pot is over $150 thousand, with only 154 total birds left now and still 2 months of training left to do.
The poor handler/ owner must pay over 130 teams of birds into next years race, for everyone who lost everything on that toss.


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

raftree3 said:


> Just saw this........But times, or the planet are changing...
> One of our 1 loft races over here just lost over 1200 birds from a single 30 mile toss last Tuesday.
> Tomorrow will be a week since it happened, and to date they have had 154 return and very likely no more will return now.
> They had a handful back on the same day and luckily two of ours (the only 2 we have left) were in the first day's group.
> ...


*Some thing stinks here,I would like to see their set and LOFTS. How much was the perch fee ? How much will the race fee be for the birds going to the race? With that many birds in the race I would like to see the sizes of their lofts,they would need a lot of space so as NOT to have sick birds,and we all know that over crowding leads to sick birds.* GEORGE


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Right George--
raftree--help us ---Perch Fee????????????
I hope that 1200 lost birds is a misprint???????
What was the Perch fee????????? $10---$20-----$50----I hope NOT a $100
At only $10 each--He scammed???? $12000---or $ ???????
Guess I'm in the WRONG bussiness.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

maybe the birds hunters were waiting for the training toss and opened up on the birds.


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Great Eric--Good excuse not to return the perch FEE. I'm sure the entry Fee is returned if the bird does not make the First race.
But raftree can fill us in about the rules.


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## newtopidgeons (Mar 11, 2011)

ERIC K said:


> maybe the birds hunters were waiting for the training toss and opened up on the birds.


They would have had them laid out in pictures on thier website if so, and youtube videos.
1200 banded pigeons would have have been like winning the lotery to them.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

A guy in my club forwarded this to me so I didn't see the entire article to say where it occured....like to know though.


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## Lovelace (Jan 10, 2008)

Well in my five years of racing I was told two square foot a bird, my self I like more, Three sq.ft. per bird, They would have to have a loft 16x140 to house that many birds.
and the sp.footages is the floor space I am using, not L,W,H.


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## atvracinjason (Mar 4, 2010)

what is the K factor?


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