# When will homing pigeon fly off for a few hours?



## scooter1989 (Jul 19, 2011)

I have about nine Homing pigeons and racing pigeons in the loft with about seven other pigeons that are not homer. Anyways I fly them everyday and they fly around the coop for about five minutes then they rest on my roof. I was wondering if i'm doing something wrong, because I heard from other breeders that theirs homers fly off for about three house then come back home. I did road train them alot of time to fly about 2 miles but that the about it. Should I separate the Homers from the other birds? Do I need about 20 or more birds for them to take off and explore the town? Please help me. Thanks

Scooter.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

The other type of breeds may be keeping the flock of homers from routing.. but then again depending on where you live it is hot and they do not fly as much when it is hot. my homers have not flown far(route) for me..but they are just white homers and not race birds.. if you did have a flock of only racing stock they would probably flock tight and route for you. sometimes if you have other types of birds that do not fly like homers do, they just keep the homers near the loft. if your not racing then really it does not matter much and they do get exersize just loft flying.. in better weather they may fly more than they are now.


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## ptras (Jun 29, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> The other type of breeds may be keeping the flock of homers from routing.. but then again depending on where you live it is hot and they do not fly as much when it is hot. my homers have not flown far(route) for me..but they are just white homers and not race birds.. if you did have a flock of only racing stock they would probably flock tight and route for you. sometimes if you have other types of birds that do not fly like homers do, they just keep the homers near the loft. if your not racing then really it does not matter much and they do get exersize just loft flying.. in better weather they may fly more than they are now.


"Just" white homers? I'm expecting everything from my whites that I would from any homing pigeon!


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## scooter1989 (Jul 19, 2011)

The weather here right now get about 95'F or higher. It may be true what your saying. I have a few mix that are very large and only fly up and down the roof to the loft. I'm going to split the flocks. All my homers on side and all my mix and rollers on the other. I don't race but, I do have many whites, that I want to use for a release business. I'm going to fly them early in the morning so see if it makes any differences, before it starts to get hot. Then around 7pm I will put their bath out for them to cool down.

How far your birds go? Also how many times do they fly around the loft before landing?


Scooter.


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## pluviru (Jul 14, 2011)

If you have any rollers that fly and go high is good to let 1 pair or two with homers. They will take them up with them. 
Were I live is too hot and maybe they do 10 minutes or less at this time. In winter they will increase in flying. It's good to put a bath for them but put something in water so that deseases will not transfer to each other.


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## g0ldenb0y55 (Dec 23, 2008)

If these birds are mature birds then that could be your first problem. Older birds aren't really motivated to stay up in the air when loft flying. They just want to mate and breed all day!

The other possibility would be that you're feeding them way too much and they are way to out of shape to keep themselves flying for more than 5 minutes.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

ptras said:


> "Just" white homers? I'm expecting everything from my whites that I would from any homing pigeon!


..lol.. I see nothing wrong with treating them the same, just don't expect the same..lol.. I found this out when I actually got some young racing stock, they flew circles around my white yb's..and they mature quicker and fly faster. That should of not surprized me as the whites are bred for their color not for racing. I really enjoy my white birds and they do serve the purpose I have them for.


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## Don Fischer (May 13, 2011)

I have no idea where it came from, but a solid white bird landed by my barn a couple days ago. Didn't stay long and haven't seen it since.


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## ptras (Jun 29, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> ..lol.. I see nothing wrong with treating them the same, just don't expect the same..lol.. I found this out when I actually got some young racing stock, they flew circles around my white yb's..and they mature quicker and fly faster. That should of not surprised me as the whites are bred for their color not for racing. I really enjoy my white birds and they do serve the purpose I have them for.


Some of my young birds came from a guy who races his whites out to 600 miles. He took a second place in his combine last year with a white bird from 560 miles. His fourteen year old daughter flew three whites in a junior division one-loft race last year, and also took a second place out of 500+ birds. He keeps his white birds in with his regular racing stock, and only separates them out during breeding season.

He gave me five squeakers this past weekend (along with a blue bar which he gave to my daughter - now named Jade and being hand-fed daily). We are going back there this weekend coming up for a barbecue and a 4-H club meeting. He will be giving me two breeding pairs when we go back.

He also has some grizzles like none I have seen before. They are pure white birds with a splash of black across the tops of their wings - almost like a saddle. He told me that he wins regularly with the grizzles. (He hasn't offered me any of those yet ).

On another note - I tossed my birds this evening from about six miles. Nothing great about the distance, but it was unique because I tossed them from Duxbury Beach. If you go to Google Maps, you can see that Duxbury Beach (Massachusetts) is a peninsula of land that sticks out into Plymouth Bay. The birds were flying over water for the first mile or two on their way home. I'm getting them ready so I can release them from a boat. There is a guy with a Burial at Sea business near me that is looking for someone to do White Dove Releases as part of the services he offers. I will be giving him a demonstration in a couple weeks.


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## scooter1989 (Jul 19, 2011)

Omg, that is funny because I toss my birds on my boat all the time! It's only about a five mile long lake but, I thinks it's safer for the birds to fly over water, cause I think but not sure that, there are less chances of a hawk attack. Here are my birds being tossed today.


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## PigeonMadness (Apr 21, 2009)

That's awesome! I wish I had a beautiful boat to go out into a beautiful lake on a beautiful day to release my beautiful pigeons. Also it may just be too hot for your birds. Here in Minnesota, when the temp gets high my birds wouldn't route as much. Sometimes no routing at all. Just a quick loft fly. What time do you fly your birds? I've noticed that flying them in the morning or afternoon is best as the temps are low. By the way, just wanted to add that you should never take pigeons for granted because of their colors. Talk to Dennis Khun or look him and his whiteracers up on google and you'll see he takes white pigeons to another level!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

ptras said:


> Some of my young birds came from a guy who races his whites out to 600 miles. He took a second place in his combine last year with a white bird from 560 miles. His fourteen year old daughter flew three whites in a junior division one-loft race last year, and also took a second place out of 500+ birds. He keeps his white birds in with his regular racing stock, and only separates them out during breeding season.
> 
> He gave me five squeakers this past weekend (along with a blue bar which he gave to my daughter - now named Jade and being hand-fed daily). We are going back there this weekend coming up for a barbecue and a 4-H club meeting. He will be giving me two breeding pairs when we go back.
> 
> ...


that is really a cool idea. how beautiful for a sea burial. your stock sounds great reguardless of the color of them, mine were not from racing pigeons..they were from the Disney line, which Im sure were not raced in the later days of just flying them for the crowd...so they were just bred because they were white. The gizzle racing stock is a great way to get some better birds into the white flock, I have a breeding pair of race grizzles that have almost white babies..some can be solids though..but hoping to improve on what I have, just because I want the birds to be strong and fly well for my own reasons..and my first yb's were related so I need new blood.. there is a difference getting whites from say people like Dennis Khuns and the racing lofts... I may hit you up for some yb's one day.


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## scooter1989 (Jul 19, 2011)

All my white are 100% solid White. A breeder, who is a really good friend of mine, told me he got the birds from a man who only keeps the very good 100% white. My friend told me that they are rare because they came from a difference country. I believe him. Because my birds baby that came from the white parents are they best flyers. They also do a fool on the hawk. When the hawk try to grab them, they do a spin and drop move in the air, which it make the hawks miss them. The coolest thing about it that, I get hawks soaring above my house when my birds are just sitting on the roof, the hawk dont even bother trying to catch them. The hawks just soar and fly away. But when a new hawks comes around, it a game all over again.


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## ptras (Jun 29, 2010)

ptras said:


> On another note - I tossed my birds this evening from about six miles. Nothing great about the distance, but it was unique because I tossed them from Duxbury Beach. If you go to Google Maps, you can see that Duxbury Beach (Massachusetts) is a peninsula of land that sticks out into Plymouth Bay. The birds were flying over water for the first mile or two on their way home. I'm getting them ready so I can release them from a boat. There is a guy with a Burial at Sea business near me that is looking for someone to do White Dove Releases as part of the services he offers. I will be giving him a demonstration in a couple weeks.


Update: I tossed fourteen birds the other night from Duxbury Beach, and they took almost 1.5 hours to come home. I was getting really nervous, as the sun was down and dusk approaching when they finally returned. The last time I tossed them too close to dark, I lost five birds. Tuesday evening, I tossed fourteen birds, and eleven returned after 1.5 hours. The three that didn't return were Skinny (the homerXtippler mix) and two of the younger whites. I left the settling cage off of the landing board, and Wednesday when I got home from work they had trapped in. That evening I just loft flew them rather than tossing them. This evening (Thursday), I took them to the beach and tossed them again. The kids played and swam for about a half hour, so it was about an hour before we got home. When I got home, all thirteen of the whites plus Skinny were in the loft.

Tomorrow I am going to toss them from about a mile out on Duxbury beach (the area known as the Gurnet), so they have to fly over more water on the way home. If they continue to do as well as tonight, I will be tossing them from South Plymouth beach on the weekend. That will have them flying about ten miles home, with about half of that over water.


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## scooter1989 (Jul 19, 2011)

ptras said:


> Update: I tossed fourteen birds the other night from Duxbury Beach, and they took almost 1.5 hours to come home. I was getting really nervous, as the sun was down and dusk approaching when they finally returned. The last time I tossed them too close to dark, I lost five birds. Tuesday evening, I tossed fourteen birds, and eleven returned after 1.5 hours. The three that didn't return were Skinny (the homerXtippler mix) and two of the younger whites. I left the settling cage off of the landing board, and Wednesday when I got home from work they had trapped in. That evening I just loft flew them rather than tossing them. This evening (Thursday), I took them to the beach and tossed them again. The kids played and swam for about a half hour, so it was about an hour before we got home. When I got home, all thirteen of the whites plus Skinny were in the loft.
> 
> Tomorrow I am going to toss them from about a mile out on Duxbury beach (the area known as the Gurnet), so they have to fly over more water on the way home. If they continue to do as well as tonight, I will be tossing them from South Plymouth beach on the weekend. That will have them flying about ten miles home, with about half of that over water.








Your story is so similar to mine. When I do tossing for the beginners flyers they always come home the next day or two. I use to worry about losing the birds on their first toss, but now I have faith in them. When i starts with the newer flyers I only go a quarter of a mile. Then I go Half. Then up to one mile. Once I get there I jump to 5 then 10 then 20 then 30 then I go up to 50. It's like money. one dollar five dollars and so on. That's what most breeder's tell me what to do. I find it better for the birds, if they fly over water, cause birds that never seen water might freak out or be too afraid to fly over. My birds are always tossed over water first. I notice at first the young birds take the group over land and take the longer way home. After a few toss, they have no more fear and fly home really quickly.

Scooter.


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