# Homing pigeon speech



## esms4 (May 19, 2005)

I had to write a speech for school and was wondering if you saw any thing wrong.
Ethan

Today I decided to talk to you about how to train your homing pigeons this is the metided that I used to train two of my pigeon. 
The first thing you need to do is to start a routine by only putting there food in the loft for ten minuets twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Before putting the food in the loft blow a whistle. After a few weeks your pigeon will start to associate food with the whistle. Next you will need to put the pigeons on the landing board of your loft and have them walk in threw the one way repeat this until your pigeon will walk threw with becoming scared. Now that your pigeons are not scared of your trap door and knows that the whistle means that food is in the loft. Now for the next step in training you will need to not feed your pigeons in the morning. Then place your pigeon about ten feet away in a box so that he can still see the loft. Then with the food in the loft open the box and at the same time blow your whistle. Your pigeons should fly back to there loft of land in a tree. If they do land on any thing other then there loft. Shoot at them with a Nerf gun. Repeat this until they fly right back to there loft. 
Now fly your pigeon about a block away, but before you do this you will have to not feed them in the morning this way they a very hungry. You will have to release them from north, south, west, and east. Then you do this again at two blocks. Most trainer work up to one hundred miles by the end of there first year, five hundred the next and then if the trainer believes that his birds are strong anufe his will work up to one thousand miles.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

esms4 said:


> I had to write a speech for school and was wondering if you saw any thing wrong.
> Ethan
> 
> Today I decided to talk to you about how to train your homing pigeons this is the metided that I used to train two of my pigeon.
> ...


Scratch the "1000 miles".......any fancier who sends his bird 1000 miles to return home is trying to get rid of a pigeon...........1000 miles means DAYS of having to find food and water on thier own...........I may get some flack on this one, but no responsible human would ask a pigeon to do such a thing.


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

Not much at all any more but there was a time That people would send the birds out on a 1000 mile race. Not many but they did. Now days the 500 to a 600 is max for a old bird race station.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

Hello esms4,

I see that you are 25, what grade are you in ?

There are a few details, not to mention sentence structure, that I think need some work. I am not even going to try to correct the English part of it, but it needs some polish.

In the details, like Love Birds mentioned, 1,000 mile races may still take place, but they have fallen out of favor because of some of the points mentioned. I also would not favor shooting nerf guns, throwing balls, or anything else at the birds. If they are trained properly, all of that should be unnecessary. How can I build and develope trust, when I throw things at them ? Fear, is something I never want my birds to experience with me. 

Another point, which may be missing, is you do NOT have to train homing pigeons to home. Your training is to be geared towards getting them to RACE home, and then immediately fly into the loft. All of your other details concerning 10 feet away, a block away etc, all seem so unecessary. 

One could argue that there are several phases of a pigeon's training. The first step could be phase I, and that is at weaning time, where they learn how and where to drink, and that the loft manager and not Mom and Dad, represents food. During this process...say phase II is where the bird is "settled" to the loft, and learns his surrondings and how to get into the loft. 

There are some very important weeks that follow this, which you did not mention, and that is loft flying. This where the birds develope their flying skills, develope some conditioning, and will "range". In an ideal world, this may be given about six weeks before road training begins. But, during this time, the birds are learning that when you call them in, it is supper time. And by the way, it does not have to be twice a day. The birds are also learning where home is, and believe me, at the end of this six week period, I really suspect that they have already flown more then ten miles in anyone direction.

Phase III, we could call the "Road Training" and it is exactly what is sounds like, they are taken down the road and released. They are taken down the road, and will fly back home for their meal. I personally start them at 1 mile, for several tosses, and then to 5 for several more, then 12, then 18 etc. 

I could write a book on the topic, but training starts at 28 to 30 days of age, and continues every day for the next six to eight months and through out the entire racing season. The distances taken, and the tasks undertaken, are not based on a list of to do items, but based on how they are progressing, and their conditioning. I am always trying to build their endurance by several hours of flying time, beyond the task I am asking them to do. So, when they are being taken say 50 miles, in reality they would be able to fly 150 miles in a pinch. And by the way, at six months of age, they are asked, and expected to race up to 350 or more miles at winning speeds.

Good luck on your article.


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi Ethan

I don't have much information to offer on training birds, but I do have some experience in composing speeches. One of my courses in college was Public Speaking and I'm assuming that you must be in college as well. Most of the time, they want you up there speaking a good three minutes, so you might need to flesh out what you have already written.

Warren has given you some good information and you could also go to our Racing section...there are a couple of "sticky" threads right in the beginning on training that can also help you.

You could start by giving some facts and figures about the popularity of racing pigeons around the world and locally. You could describe how races are conducted and some of the prizes that can be won.

You could also liven it up by personalizing it a bit...start telling the people about your own birds and how you got into the sport---then lead into how they are trained and why training is so important. Include any experiences you have personally had training your birds. I think most people enjoy hearing personal anecdotes and experiences, rather than just cut and dried facts...personal stories usually keep the audience interested.

You could tie it all up by describing what your own goals would be with your birds...such as entering a race one day, etc. and by providing useful information to your listeners if any of them would be interested in getting into keeping pigeons themselves, such as local clubs, etc.

The main thing with speeches is that they should have a beginning (introduction), middle (body of the speech) and an ending (conclusion). And all those parts should relate to each other and "flow."

With just a little fine tuning, you should be able to give a great, informative speech that everyone will enjoy and that should get you a great mark.

Good luck,
Linda


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