# Simple questions for experienced pigeon keepers



## kschaef65 (Jul 4, 2011)

I have kept White Homing Pigeons for about 3 years now. Everything I have learned has been from reading online or reading books. My loft is adequate but I'd like to make some improvements. Everything I've read says you should have a section for the males, females, breeders and youngsters at a minimum. Fortunately I have not had a trouble with a lot of sickness.

We have been taking her pigeons out to fly home about 5 or 10 miles 2 or 3 times per week. And since we're not currently letting any of them breed we usually take the whole bunch which is 15 birds.

So here's my question:

If we're going to keep our loft between 15 and 20 birds. If I separate the males from the females. When I take them out to fly home I take all of them. So when they return home are they just going to co-mingle anyway. *Do serious racers take their male flyers only? Or do they typically have mixed male and female flying kits?*

Also, after a couple of months of letting a pair breed do you separate them back into the males and females are just let them live together forever even though you may be providing wooden eggs keep them from multiplying?

Is it cruel to separate a mated pair? They seem to have no trouble finding another pair in making baby birds. I have allowed them to find their own mates which I think will stop in favor of controlling who mates with who. Any feedback on this?

I imagine I'm going to get some answers that say "it depends on what you want to do". I'm not interested in hard-core racing. We are likely to use them for special occasion white dove releases. I do plan on restarting selective breeding so we improve our stock. I think I have some good ones right now. They are all a nice medium size. They return home very well and don't stop off to get lost. I had some problems in the first year or two occasionally losing one. So I just assumed those guys didn't have very good homing instincts or were lazy flyers.

Thanks in advance for the direction.

Kevin


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## tman10001 (Sep 8, 2012)

Good Question Bra ,


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## hamlet (Oct 26, 2004)

Hello. to answer this: *Also, after a couple of months of letting a pair breed do you separate them back into the males and females are just let them live together forever even though you may be providing wooden eggs keep them from multiplying?*
I would not fly the females in this setup because they may be with eggs and will not do good in flight: turn to hawk food.


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## Jass SamOplay (May 29, 2012)

Hey Kevin,
It really depends on what you want from your birds.
I have kept White Homing Pigeons for about 3 years now. Everything I have learned has been from reading online or reading books. My loft is adequate but I'd like to make some improvements. Everything I've read says you should have a section for the males, females, breeders and youngsters at a minimum. Fortunately I have not had a trouble with a lot of sickness.

We have been taking her pigeons out to fly home about 5 or 10 miles 2 or 3 times per week. And since we're not currently letting any of them breed we usually take the whole bunch which is 15 birds.

So here's my question:

If we're going to keep our loft between 15 and 20 birds. If I separate the males from the females. When I take them out to fly home I take all of them. So when they return home are they just going to co-mingle anyway. Do serious racers take their male flyers only? Or do they typically have mixed male and female flying kits?
*If you keep the genders separate and have two sections then you can take cocks and hens separately on alternative days for training tosses,if you don't want them to mingle.
Young birds being trained for young bird races are flown in mixed flocks and can be kept in mixed gender loft.*


Also, after a couple of months of letting a pair breed do you separate them back into the males and females are just let them live together forever even though you may be providing wooden eggs keep them from multiplying?
*it depends how you breed your birds.
if you wanna race then you need to train your birds and if you wanna train you gotta breed right. For that you need to keep your males separated from females and join them only in the breeding season to take preferably not more than 3 rounds of youngsters. When you have first round of youngsters of similar age group you can train them all together. They will probably won't breed for 7months to upto a year so you can keep them together and train them regularly.

The idea behind keeping cocks and hens separated is ofcourse not to let them breed and waste their energy,stamina and form which they should focus on training and racing but the pairs also need to be joined to race them under widowhood system of racing which is an efficient one for old birds.

That uncle nephew duo from Germany,who are winners only have 12 racing pairs, they keep 24 of their birds as pairs together all year around,don't let them breed and always win with their this theory. I don't remember their names,they can found on net/ytube*

Is it cruel to separate a mated pair? They seem to have no trouble finding another pair in making baby birds. I have allowed them to find their own mates which I think will stop in favor of controlling who mates with who. Any feedback on this?
*you can keep them together and replace their eggs with fake eggs if you don't race.
When young wean they are separated so that they become less social and focus on training rather on mingling. Those whom are kept separated on gender basis from young age,will likely to stay alone for longer than those young who have been kept in a mixed gender loft. More you train your birds less they would want to breed.
*

I imagine I'm going to get some answers that say "it depends on what you want to do". I'm not interested in hard-core racing. We are likely to use them for special occasion white dove releases. I do plan on restarting selective breeding so we improve our stock. I think I have some good ones right now. They are all a nice medium size. They return home very well and don't stop off to get lost. I had some problems in the first year or two occasionally losing one. So I just assumed those guys didn't have very good homing instincts or were lazy flyers.
* That's great if you have good racers.
If you have three different sections its best to keep young and solo cocks and hens separated from breeding pairs as they can disturb the breeders and cause problems. If you're on track of improving your birds then it makes sense to letting the breeders raise young for you year around and you keep testing,keeping the best young in separate sections. You can let them raise one clutch and replace the next clutch with fakes to keep them up in health
*


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

kschaef65 said:


> I have kept White Homing Pigeons for about 3 years now. Everything I have learned has been from reading online or reading books. My loft is adequate but I'd like to make some improvements. Everything I've read says you should have a section for the males, females, breeders and youngsters at a minimum. Fortunately I have not had a trouble with a lot of sickness.
> 
> We have been taking her pigeons out to fly home about 5 or 10 miles 2 or 3 times per week. And since we're not currently letting any of them breed we usually take the whole bunch which is 15 birds.
> 
> ...


ok, I will keep this short and sweet..lol.. 
If you are not racing and even sometimes when you are you do not have to seperate the pairs. tradition in racing is they seperate them so the hen has a break and they can break pairs . it is not written in stone just because you have homing pigeons you have to seperate the pairs. 

I have white birds too.. about 40, they come and go in and out of the loft when they want.(when let out) they have food all day and eat what they want, their young learn to go in and out and how to fly well from the older birds. this is because I do not race and don't have to get my birds to trap quick to trap quick they have to be hungry and know the feed call..etc.. 

keeping homing pigeons for release or just pleasure need not be complicted or you do not have to keep them as a race hobbiest would. 

I use fake eggs for hatch control, seperation is too much of a hassle and it does stress the pairs for a spell. 

I find most hens don't need a forced break, mine take their own break at around october they start to slow down as daylight gets shorter. if there is a cock bird that is very hard on his hen then I may give her a break..but that has not happend yet. they seem to calm down as they mature.

well that was not as short as I was planning but it's simple enough to follow.


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