# Weather and YOUR racing pigeons



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Hello all, I have been going through all the archives here on the site and I have seen many posters complain about weather on releases, etc etc. I am curious as to the conditions which folks consider to be to rough for the birds to go up in, the reason I ask is two fold, first I am curious to see the difference in opinion according to location, and also to see what people would say about the conditions that I race in, which I consider fine, but from previous posts I am thinking many wouldn't even ship a bird. Also please list reasons for these opinions, thanks all!


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

I ship my birds no matter what because I'm flying for average speed not just to win a race. Plus the combine liberator does his job pretty good here and most of the time if he thinks the weather is ok to ship a race then it's normally a good race. Now last week he made a lil mess up up he pushed the race back from sunday to monday. And sunday wound up being nice and monday we had a bad race only about 5% of the birds made it home on the day from the 300 mile becasue they had a headwind between 15 and 20 mph and the rain they hit on the way home didn't help anything either. I was lucky enough to get 2 of my 7 birds home on the day 4 the next morning and I'm still missing one as of now. One of my 2 day birds was my winner from that fast race a few weeks ago. Idk if I should stick her back this week since the race was on monday and this weeks race is on friday but it's suposed to be a blow hom 250 almost like the one she won maybe just a bit slower.


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

If you are into pigeons to RACE--ship them. The Liberator will not release them in unfavorable weather. May hold them overnight or bring them "back" to another release point.


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Pigeon0446 said:


> I ship my birds no matter what because I'm flying for average speed not just to win a race. Plus the combine liberator does his job pretty good here and most of the time if he thinks the weather is ok to ship a race then it's normally a good race. Now last week he made a lil mess up up he pushed the race back from sunday to monday. And sunday wound up being nice and monday we had a bad race only about 5% of the birds made it home on the day from the 300 mile becasue they had a headwind between 15 and 20 mph and the rain they hit on the way home didn't help anything either. I was lucky enough to get 2 of my 7 birds home on the day 4 the next morning and I'm still missing one as of now. One of my 2 day birds was my winner from that fast race a few weeks ago. Idk if I should stick her back this week since the race was on monday and this weeks race is on friday but it's suposed to be a blow hom 250 almost like the one she won maybe just a bit slower.


Ok, so in your opinion a headwind of 15 mph can lead to a bad race, is this correct? Just wanting to make sure I got it right, or is it the combo of the rain AND the 15 mph headwind that made it rough?


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

With just the wind it shoulda been a 7 and a half hour race 8 hours tops and that aint too bad I myself don't like the slow races like that but it's all part of the sport of pigeon racing. But with the rain thrown in it made it almost a 9 hour race for the handful of birds that made it home early. I'm not saying it was a bad race because of the wind it was a bad race because only a small percentage of birds made it home on the day from a 300 mile race which is really nothing to an old bird plus the days are so long this time of the year.
It was a bad race because of the returns ppl got I'm one of the lucky ones in that race I'm only missing one out of 7 there's guy who are missing 15 out of the 30 they put in.


----------



## Guest (May 29, 2010)

I personally think wind isnt a big problem for the birds ,it does slow them down but it wont stop them from homing now anything like heavy fog, rain even thunder and lightning will throw them off greatly so if you can avoid anything like that you should be ok 

p.s. even my whimpy whites can handle the heavy winds


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Well I was curious because I have seen so many posts on here about headwinds and people keeping birds home because of a forecast of headwind, not even rain, just wind. Then I was looking at where my birds fly, my loft is located in the 2nd windiest city in the country, our 200 mile release station is the 3rd windiest city in the country, and I was thinking that man, half these people would never ship a bird lol. Let alone that they fly over deserts most of the way to get home, just trying to figure out why so many folks scream and holler about the winds. Thanks for the few replies I got, keep them coming!


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

One reason some ppl might be hesitent to ship birds in different condition is because it is far from normal where they fly. Like where you are from that is normal to get those kinds of winds and ppl breed and fly birds that are made for those kind of races. But alot of other areas in the country most races are pretty easy on the birds and ppl have birds made for those easy races because that's what they get most of the time. They don't have birds made for those one or two really hard races you get every few years. So when that race comes some ppl choose just to sit out becasue they know their birds aren't made for it.


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

What race course do you guys fly down there in Dallas? What's a few of your stations? Her on Long Island we fly a SW course because that is the fairest course for everybody. If you drew a line down the center of Long Island and continued it out to Pennsylvania most of our stations would be very close to that line. It was done that way so eveybodys birds can get to the island by crossing the narrowest body of water to get here.


----------



## Wingsonfire (Dec 22, 2009)

I don't even drive my car into a headwind.


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Pigeon0446 said:


> What race course do you guys fly down there in Dallas? What's a few of your stations? Her on Long Island we fly a SW course because that is the fairest course for everybody. If you drew a line down the center of Long Island and continued it out to Pennsylvania most of our stations would be very close to that line. It was done that way so eveybodys birds can get to the island by crossing the narrowest body of water to get here.


I don't fly in Dallas, my loft is still back home in SW Kansas. My loft is located in Dodge City, KS. Stratford, TX is 100 mile station, Amarillo TX is 200, Lubbock Tx is 300, Andrews TX is 400, Ft. Stockton TX is 500, Presidio TX is 600. This is mostly a SSW course, get some real fast races and we get some real hard races too. If you look at a map of Kansas, our combine has lofts in Johnson, KS, Garden City, KS, Cimarron, KS, Dodge City, KS, Holcomb, KS, Scott City, KS, and a few out in the middle of nowhere too.


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Dallas is flying a 500 today---From Alabama- East -Temperature is 99 F in Dallas


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

I mapped out your location and the location of the other locations with lofts along with the stations. I wanted to see where you were compaired to the stations and other lofts.










Here's my loft and stations all the rest of the 180 or so lofts are basically on Long Island. And as you can see I'm pretty much right in the middle.









I zoomed out to show both of our courses on hte same picture.


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

My Loft is--
LAT-32-58-57
LONG-96-36-27


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Pigeon0446 I like the map, it gives a really good idea as to the courses that we both fly. We used to fly a few other courses more SE, the 600 being down by San Antonio TX, when we flew with the clubs out of Wichita KS, this course currently makes more sense for those of us flying. Thanks for putting it on a map, I don't know how to do that.


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

sky tx said:


> Dallas is flying a 500 today---From Alabama- East -Temperature is 99 F in Dallas


Are you flying today SKY TX? How has their old bird season been going?


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

I no longer have birds
This site may help some flyers--it will show the birds being clocked

http://www.wincompanion.com


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

sky tx said:


> I no longer have birds
> This site may help some flyers--it will show the birds being clocked
> 
> http://www.wincompanion.com


I've never seen that site before, how does a club go about getting on that site with the live updates and such?


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

I'm not sure Matt--I believe it is something to do with Unikon clocks.


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

Thanks sky tx for your loft location I made a new map and I put you on it. If anybody else on pigeon talk want to be added to the map just put your location it doesn't have to be your exact loft location like mine and sky tx. If you just post your town it should be good.


----------



## Wingsonfire (Dec 22, 2009)

Might as well put mine in also:
Lat 39 4950.26 North
Long 97 1328.72 West
Elevation 592
Michael Perez


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

I like the map idea Pigeon0446, good job!


----------



## Airbaby (Aug 9, 2008)

Matt Bell said:


> Well I was curious because I have seen so many posts on here about headwinds and people keeping birds home because of a forecast of headwind, not even rain, just wind. Then I was looking at where my birds fly, my loft is located in the 2nd windiest city in the country, our 200 mile release station is the 3rd windiest city in the country, and I was thinking that man, half these people would never ship a bird lol. Let alone that they fly over deserts most of the way to get home, just trying to figure out why so many folks scream and holler about the winds. Thanks for the few replies I got, keep them coming!


For me I really dont have any problems with the wind....however it all depends on what I am getting my bird ready for...if I am getting a bird ready for 500 race or more and it take them all day long to get home from a 200-250 then to me i think i have taking steps back in there preperation versus going forward...now if my intention is to keep them home the next week or of some other reason i would send a bird to a 25 mph headwind race....but since these races usually drive most birds right into the ground and then you cant race them for a few weeks afterwards then i dont see the point....but you should know i race a very small team so I try to be a little more careful than maybe someone who has a 40-50 bird race team....but to each there own i guess....i know others will say if your bird is ready it should be no problem...but I dont think there are very many individual pigeons that can handle it week in and week out on tough headwind races...to me if you find a bird like this keep and breed it....cuz there are not that many IMO.


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

Wingsonfire I added you the only thing is you must have had a typo with your Lat I figured you must have ment 32 4950.26 North instead of 39 4950.26 North.


----------



## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

Airbaby said:


> For me I really dont have any problems with the wind....however it all depends on what I am getting my bird ready for...if I am getting a bird ready for 500 race or more and it take them all day long to get home from a 200-250 then to me i think i have taking steps back in there preperation versus going forward...now if my intention is to keep them home the next week or of some other reason i would send a bird to a 25 mph headwind race....but since these races usually drive most birds right into the ground and then you cant race them for a few weeks afterwards then i dont see the point....but you should know i race a very small team so I try to be a little more careful than maybe someone who has a 40-50 bird race team....but to each there own i guess....i know others will say if your bird is ready it should be no problem...but I dont think there are very many individual pigeons that can handle it week in and week out on tough headwind races...to me if you find a bird like this keep and breed it....cuz there are not that many IMO.


I have a small team of old birds as well I had 13 then I lost 2 so I only had 11 for the race last week. I knew it was gonna be a hard race with the headwinds so I didn't put them all in like I normally do I only put 7 of them. I wound up losing 1 of the 7 and the other 6 were beat because the combination of the head wind and the fact they hit rain. So I couldn't put any of them back in this week I only had 4 to put that I didn't think were right last week. I still didn't have much confidence in those 4 for this week but I had to ship. And I didn't have a good race it was another hard race and I wound up 28 mins out of first. But like you said the guys with the big teams don't mind they have plenty of birds that are sitting home resting even when they stick 30 birds in thesehard races. It's been 3 str8 races with head winds here and my small team is hurting from them and we still have the 400 and the 500 the next few weeks IDK if I'm gonna be able to fly the 500 my birds might be shot by then.


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Anyone have any hard and fast rules about shipping their birds? For instance, if a bird of mine had 10 hours on the wing the week before I won't ship it no matter what. If its less than 10 hours in the week before then it depends on how the bird has recovered and what type of form it is in. I don't keep a large team either, and thus I don't really concern myself with Average Speed rewards, they are nice if they come but I won't break my rules in order to stay in the thick of them. Anyone else?


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

sky tx said:


> I'm not sure Matt--I believe it is something to do with Unikon clocks.


Hopefully some of those Dallas guys just weren't using Unikon clocks...if so man that was a bad race...


----------



## Char-B Loft (Dec 28, 2008)

The following are conditions in which pigeons should not be released: 

1. Visibility is less than 3 miles
2. While it is raining. 
3 Heavy overcast conditions with low cloud cover, fog or thunderstorm-activity. 
4. Strong headwinds in excess of 23 MPH
5. Extremely high temperatures 95+ for old birds and 86+for youngbirds. 
6 Strong winds with heavy rain on the line of flight. 
7. Extremely calm conditions indicating something is not right. 
8. When the pigeons inside the transporter are very quiet and indicate something is very wrong. 
9. When inversion is present. 
10. When the earth's magnetic field is very disturbed and at the same time other negative effects are present. 
11. When the pigeons did not have sufficient time to rest after arrival at the release site. 
12. If the release time is too late in the afternoon. 
13. If the birds do not have a reasonable chance of making it on the day except in the case of long distant races. 

http://www.stevenvanbreemen.nl/?Release_Manual


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Now Matt how can you say it was a bad race???????? It was several DAY birds.
How long does it take you to "drive" 500 miles?


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

sky tx said:


> Now Matt how can you say it was a bad race???????? It was several DAY birds.
> How long does it take you to "drive" 500 miles?


Well I checked that site last night and no birds were reported, thats why I wasn't sure what was up. Now the site has been updated and it looks like the race was fine, I figured since it has a 60 second refresh time that it was a live update, evidently not. If you check the race from Montana, no birds are reported yet, which would lead me to think that as of 2 days no birds returned, but I have a feeling thats not the case, thats all. Takes me about 8.5 hours to drive 500 miles.


----------



## Airbaby (Aug 9, 2008)

Matt Bell said:


> Well I checked that site last night and no birds were reported, thats why I wasn't sure what was up. Now the site has been updated and it looks like the race was fine, I figured since it has a 60 second refresh time that it was a live update, evidently not. If you check the race from Montana, no birds are reported yet, which would lead me to think that as of 2 days no birds returned, but I have a feeling thats not the case, thats all. Takes me about 8.5 hours to drive 500 miles.


So you take about 1400-1500 YPM when you drive 500 miles Matt?? *laughs*


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

500 miles in 8.5 hours=58 MPH----1760 YPM = 60 MPH
So Matt is closer to 1700-1750 YPM
And that is Hauling A$$$$$ ?????


----------



## Matt Bell (May 5, 2010)

Lol, well from my loft in Dodge City to Fort Worth I can make it in 6.5, and thats right at 464 road miles, but I take the back roads and haven't been caught yet, now thats hauling a$$!


----------



## Airbaby (Aug 9, 2008)

sky tx said:


> 500 miles in 8.5 hours=58 MPH----1760 YPM = 60 MPH
> So Matt is closer to 1700-1750 YPM
> And that is Hauling A$$$$$ ?????


I had him going into a headwind the last 120 miles slowing him down a bit


----------



## conditionfreak (Jan 11, 2008)

Char-B Loft said:


> The following are conditions in which pigeons should not be released:
> 
> 1. Visibility is less than 3 miles
> 2. While it is raining.
> ...


Hmmm. Numbers 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, all have me perplexed. That is asking a lot from a release guy, or a decision guy back home (liberator).

Maybe you should include heavy sun spot activity and a full moon. (joking, sort of)


----------



## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Char-B who made these rules???? Your Club?---Combine? How close do you follow them?
Sounds like you NEVER ship to a Race or NEVER get a release.


----------



## Char-B Loft (Dec 28, 2008)

sky tx said:


> Char-B who made these rules???? Your Club?---Combine? How close do you follow them?
> Sounds like you NEVER ship to a Race or NEVER get a release.


I posted a link...


----------

