# How ti use feral Pigeons as Homers



## mateeb4u (Aug 19, 2014)

*How to use feral Pigeons as Homers*

I have read some where that Feral Pigeons have strong Homing capability,
and in my country mostly people keep high fly pigeons and Homer pigeons are rarely(very low) found on market or very costly,
feral pigeons are lives in some cities in very high ratio, can i take feral Couple tame them and after taming, take them a long distance from home and after releasing they come back home and enjoy the hobby,
Is it Possible or any advice
Thanks


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Im gonna say no. I had a hen and two cocks that were ferals, lived with me for 6 months till the mother recovered from hawk attack, then I loft flew them and they were fine, but when I released them 1/2 klm up the road, they never came back, I would drive there 3 times a week to feed them, they never found their way back here so I doubt very much they will home. I realeased them on purpose hoping they would stay where they were and they did, Im sure if they wanted to come or COULD come back, they would have, so that tells me no. Unless anyone else on here has had a different experience with pure ferals (not homer crosses) would love to hear it.


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## mateeb4u (Aug 19, 2014)

Ok Thanks,
I would try to found Domestic Homer Pigeons


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## WSteinhoff (Jan 27, 2015)

I've had a small flock of ferals for 6 years and let them out to fly daily. I don't take them miles away and let them lose to fly back home because I love them too much to risk losing them. They do fly far enough away that I can no longer see them though and they've gotten attacked by hawks before which made them fly far away for a while but they always come back so they must have some sort of homing ability. I wouldn't take them on any long distance flies though and expect them to make it back because in the wild they aren't breeding selectively for their homing ability. I have noticed though that on a nice spring day mine make pretty decent highfliers.


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## lordcornwallis (May 2, 2010)

hi do you have them in a loft ?


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

CBL said:


> Im gonna say no. I had a hen and two cocks that were ferals, lived with me for 6 months till the mother recovered from hawk attack, then I loft flew them and they were fine, but when I released them 1/2 klm up the road, they never came back, I would drive there 3 times a week to feed them, they never found their way back here so I doubt very much they will home. I realeased them on purpose hoping they would stay where they were and they did, Im sure if they wanted to come or COULD come back, they would have, so that tells me no. Unless anyone else on here has had a different experience with pure ferals (not homer crosses) would love to hear it.


Same happened with me. I relocated several dozen ferals less than 1km away this year, out of sight from the original loft. Most stayed put, but the odd one or two flew off way into the distance, in the wrong direction. I felt really bad for those ones, they had no idea where to go and it looked like they just kept going and going.

I later tried to relocate a couple of homers (not ferals) to the same place as the ferals. I thought they would join the flock there. But not only did they fly right back to my place, they took the flock of ferals back with them. So I had to start the process all over again.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Bella_F said:


> Same happened with me. I relocated several dozen ferals less than 1km away this year, out of sight from the original loft. Most stayed put, but the odd one or two flew off way into the distance, in the wrong direction. I felt really bad for those ones, they had no idea where to go and it looked like they just kept going and going.
> 
> I later tried to relocate a couple of homers (not ferals) to the same place as the ferals. I thought they would join the flock there. But not only did they fly right back to my place, they took the flock of ferals back with them. So I had to start the process all over again.


Lol that is too funny and proves my point, ferals dont home and the homers dont feral lol. Great story. Did u succeed in the end with the ferals at least? Why would you try to rehome homers tho with ferals? I think and it is proven also that homers wont just take up with ferals and learn and be wild, they will tho hook up with other homers and fly to other lofts. This has happened twice with mine. Toss 12 and 13 came back. Two young racers from other lofts that were down or exhausted. 

They just go anywhere that looks like or resembles a loft. The one male stayed 3 weeks at some ladies house cuz she had some of the metal mesh on her roof to keep out critters and that looked enough like a 'piece' of a loft to this bird, so I went and trapped him. Still have him to this day.


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

Most ferals can home OK at 25 to 50 miles away. I have heard that some people have had them home from 150 miles. BUT a homing pigeon/race bird would be better to get and raise from to have them get home home from most distances


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

mateeb4u said:


> I have read some where that Feral Pigeons have strong Homing capability,
> and in my country mostly people keep high fly pigeons and Homer pigeons are rarely(very low) found on market or very costly,
> feral pigeons are lives in some cities in very high ratio, can i take feral Couple tame them and after taming, take them a long distance from home and after releasing they come back home and enjoy the hobby,
> Is it Possible or any advice
> Thanks


The racing homer has beed purposely bred to get home and fly athletically. I think it would be very slim chance that a feral bird by chance was bred just right by chance , perhaps to compete with a racing homer who has a background of purposeful selective breeding.


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## Bella_F (Nov 29, 2008)

CBL said:


> Lol that is too funny and proves my point, ferals dont home and the homers dont feral lol. Great story. Did u succeed in the end with the ferals at least? Why would you try to rehome homers tho with ferals? I think and it is proven also that homers wont just take up with ferals and learn and be wild
> .


Yes, the wild flock in my area is a strange mix. Apart from traditional ferals, we see around 2-3 stray racers joining the flock each winter. I sometimes catch them if they are injured, but usually they feed up for a week and leave. Only two have mated with wild pigeons and stayed around permanently (both hens). 

So the flock has some racers and their offspring amongst it that I've been trying to relocate. The racing offspring are usually bigger and have racer colours, many are pieds and grizzles. These ones do happily mate with ferals. Interestingly, there are also 4-5 stray serbian high flyers (with crests) living with the ferals permanently, and for a while we had a king pigeon and white wedding dove with the flock.

At the moment, I'm still providing food to the homers/racers in a park across the road; there's about 12 of them. I've managed to finally get the ferals eating back at the abandoned building where I put them before my homers took them back to my place. What I'm hoping for is that the racer descendants will get hungry enough to go back to the food source where the ferals live, so I can continue to feed them in one place long term.


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## mateeb4u (Aug 19, 2014)

*How to get Hommer Pigeon online*

I have Posted a thread about online buying Homer Pigeon But no reply in selling section

If you know any website who ships the Homer or other Pigeons to pakistan can you please tell me, i also Google it but i found mostly websites that ship the pigeon in only USA, Pakistan is in Asia and nearest countries where people kept the pigeon is India and Iran, if you know any Web site in India who Ships the Pigeon in pakistan is better
Thanks For all you experiences and Great replies
Thanks again


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