# A Question Regarding Distance and Roller Pigeons



## Gille (Sep 8, 2006)

I have been raising Rollers in northern Ontario for the last two years. I have not trained them to home from further than a couple of miles. My question is how far can a Roller home from. I have some white Birmingham Rollers I might use for weddings if it would not be too hard on them. I am looking at distances in the range of 20 to 25 miles. Is this possible? Thanks, Gille
OK I get it...lol Figured it was wiser to ask than to start pushing them and find out opps it don't work...lol
I have two wild homers... I would be happy to have input on the post i added regarding them , thanks again, GilleWild and tame homer breeding


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## Grim (Jul 28, 2007)

I think the short answer is no. There is only one way to find out, but I think you are either going to have a lot of missing birds or be feeding a lot of hawks.


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

I am certainly no expert, but I would be surprised if you could get much more that 5 miles out of them. It would be like putting a Yugo in the Baha 1000. Could it make it? Maybe, but that isn't what it was designed for.

Dan


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## j_birds (Sep 8, 2008)

Better get you some white homers


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

j_birds said:


> Better get you some white homers


Absolutely! I don't think the rollers would have much of a chance at the distances being considered.

Terry


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*I don't know about 25 miles but maybe*

It is not uncommon for city pigeons to fly 15 or 20 miles to find food or water. I'm sure in some parts of the world that they would have to go farther than that. Once they learn a route, they can cover pretty long distances. These would be mixed flocks of wild and feral birds that would not be considered to have any great homing instincts. True homing pigeons can learn to return from hundreds of miles.

The normal choice for wedding and special event releases is of course, homing pigeons but it would not surprise me if almost any pigeon could learn to home from 20 miles or so. Once they get up in the air, they are very good at getting their bearings and heading home. I'm sure you'd have to work them up to it over time.

Bill


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

Use a homing pigeon for the job. Rollers were not breed to go home. Also different strain of Birmingham rollers have varying navigation skills. Some get lost easily say next street. Some perhaps a little bit more. But it is too much risk.


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## amoonswirl (Nov 14, 2006)

Rollers can home from about 5 miles, not much more. There is, however, a method for homing them to a portable kit box. But you must start training them this way as squeakers. Once they are older it is too late. I have done a lot of research on this method & would be happy to share the info I've gathered. I plan to train a portable kit myself someday...


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## pigeonpoo (Sep 16, 2005)

Rollers might make it home, from not too far, when the weather conditions are perfect BUT, if you are considering a release business, you will need birds which can home when it is overcast, windy or even raining. Buy the best birds that you can.


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## Gille (Sep 8, 2006)

> Rollers can home from about 5 miles, not much more. There is, however, a method for homing them to a portable kit box. But you must start training them this way as squeakers.


Interesting thought. I had a buddy tell me that would be the best way. I'm not ready at this time to do that but i would like to know how. I'd wondered about doing the same with the homers. I know it would cut down on loosing birds if all they had to do was launch, circle, locate the nearby box and land. PLease email me at [email protected] with any info. I could then fly both Rollers and Homers. Being as Rollers are smaller it would make the handling of them easier for totally novice bird handlers - the bride and groom. Thanks, Chris


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## Pegasus (Feb 6, 2007)

What can you guys say about the homing abilities of high flying tipplers? Can they perform as good as special breed of pigeons (e.g. Janssens, DeKlak Van Reets) all that...Or the difference about these kind of pigeons are the distance they fly?...I know one thing for sure when I trained and kept a feral pigeon s/he got a homing ability but one day I released my whole flock about 20 miles from home s/he is the only one who didn't come back...Is it because the ferals are not able to fly far enough and land or is it because s/he can not keep up to my flock...Remember my ferals was trained to go in and out my loft but I don't know why s/he didn't make it home...If all pijs have homing ability but because of the food source and if the tippler pijs are high flying bird, do they race these birds too?


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## DannysDoos (Mar 14, 2011)

I've got a breeding pair of birds- one of them is some kind of roller or roller cross and the other is a garden fantail crossed with a "dove". I did a practice toss with a few young birds to see if they would home (only from 1 mile away) and they did. The loft wasn't even in sight, either. I was wondering if I could use any of these birds for a very local release for my cousin's wedding (5-6 miles). The village I live in has three huge radio masts that can be seen from tens of miles away, so hopefully this could help with navigation?
To add to this, none of them actually roll, so maybe they have a bit of the homing gene or whatnot in them?! Haha! Moreover, their ceres are fairly well developed (but not as big as a racer's).


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## DannysDoos (Mar 14, 2011)

*haha, btw, the young birds are the offspring of the pair- probably should have mentioned that!


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