# how do you train pigeons to fly in and out of loft?



## pigeon4ever (Jul 15, 2002)

i had a couple of pigeons that i let free after a couple of months they now never enter the loft, they just come to eat. i recently bought some more pigeons. im not going to release them in awhile. i want to teach them how to fly in and out of the lofts and not stay as long as they want outside, how do i train them?


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## Rick07 (Dec 7, 2002)

How do you want them to enter. You could entise them with food, and repetition, keep doing this they will eventually go in themselves. Also dont feed them b4 u let them out, that way they will enter the loft faster if the hear the food or your sign to them. Teach these new ones to go in and the others will follow. Good Luck


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## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Put the food INSIDE the loft. Don't feed them outside, you are just teaching them to stay out.


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## bigbird (Aug 19, 2000)

Teach them to enjoy flying but always looking forward to getting back inside where home is. You do this with food.
Good luck,
Carl


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## WhiteWingsCa (Mar 1, 2002)

to begin with, you must have a "trap", so the birds can go into the loft, and not fly back out. Kinda like a one-way door, made with heavy wires (bobs). The birds push past them to get in, but can't go back out.. they only swing inwards (unless you have some smart aleck birds, like some of ours, who learn how to hang onto the end of the trap board, flapping like crazy, and pull the wires open with their heads, so they can go back out LOL







)


"Trap" training ahead of time makes life much easier. You need a large landing board, and a cage that will fit over it. The cage is open on the trap (door) side... you put the birds out in it, and the only way they can get back into the loft is to go thru the bobs. Once you've done this for a few days, you can start letting the birds fly.

ALWAYS let the birds out when hungry. Oh, and whistle training them helps too. Every time you feed them, blow a whistle. Then, when they're out flying, and you blow the whistle, they know it's mealtime, and come in (in theory, anyway)

If you let the birds out when they're not hungry, they have no reason to come back in right away, and will learn bad habits, like sitting on roofs, tv antennae, trees, etc. There, they are open to preditors.


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## raynjudy (Aug 22, 2000)

You might take notice of the company you're in and act accordingly.

Perhaps, if you rise to the challenge of educating yourself, you will prove to be a class act.

[The context of my reply was lost when the prompting message was understandably deleted...]

--Ray

[This message has been edited by raynjudy (edited March 28, 2003).]


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## Birdmom4ever (Jan 14, 2003)

It's also important to start when they're young. We start putting our babies on the landing board before they are out of the nest, usually around 3 weeks, just for short periods of time. I've actually passed some of them through the bobs (holding onto them, of course, 'cause they can't fly yet) and I swear it helps. Once they are older, say 6-8 weeks, we make sure they know how to come in through the bobs, using the training cage idea referred to in the previous post. Then we set them on the roof of the loft and they learn how to come in from there. Once they can do that, we try taking them a little farther away (say across the yard). 

Even with training, the first time they take a long flight (somethings startles them or they just decide to take off) they often get lost and are out over night. But they always find their way home. 

I've had problems with older birds, even ones hatched here, that weren't trained as youngsters. 

We also have some smart aleck birds that figure out how to go back out through the bobs. I had a awful day last fall when I flew my pigeons in an effort to bring home two that had gotten out by accident, and lost more to a hawk. The following day I had the landing board open (we have wire doors over our landing board) hoping my missing birds would come in. I looked out and saw, to my horror, one of my favorite pigeons coming out through the bobs! I did NOT want him out--there were hawks around. He wasn't hungy, so he took a nice, leisurely flight, while I desperately tried to call him in. He finally trapped in five minutes before a hawk showed up.
Whew!


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