# Homer vs High Flyers



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

I have been raising and flying homers and high flyers since last 3 years, I let most of my young birds (homers and high flyers together) fly with the older birds. In my experience none of homer got lost when i let them fly but on an average every 1/2 of my 10 high flyer young birds in their initial flying never returned

This year the same thing happened again when i lost 2 of my High Flyer ybs, others are doing very well. My rest of the High flyers are doing just fine in flying and i have problems in traping them either. 

I have no idea why these ybs do not return while they are provided with good quality seeds and enough space. 

Is this normal to loose high flyers during training or am i missing something in my training??


----------



## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

maybe they flew off to far and got lost.? the homers are supposed to return home.


----------



## sdymacz (Aug 30, 2010)

Train them with whistle by calling them every time you feed them, place them in the settling cage on the roof of the loft o they can see the area for at least a week before releasing, release them hungry with older homers since they don't fly as much as young, release on a calm day, preferably sunny and not windy.


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

sdymacz said:


> Train them with whistle by calling them every time you feed them, place them in the settling cage on the roof of the loft o they can see the area for at least a week before releasing, release them hungry with older homers since they don't fly as much as young, release on a calm day, preferably sunny and not windy.


Thanks for the help

i always try to make them used to the place before releasing them and thats more than a week, what i have missed here is the weather conditions, the first day they were released was cloudy and windy 

In my experience the homer YBS dont fly as much or go far in their initial flying so they dont get lost that easily while these high flyer YBS fly in excitement and try to go high in air, thats why in the same conditions homers got home but high flyers were not able to make it


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> maybe they flew off to far and got lost.? the homers are supposed to return home.


Yes you are right they flew too far, i was just trying to find opinions what makes them get lost

I never pushed them out to fly so they dont get frightened and try to land somewhere else, on a safer place

What my concern is, i have seen an *steppe eagle *which is common here was sitting a few yards away from the loft. This bird is not a pigeon predator but sometimes dives towards them, i dont know what is the reason but it makes the pigeons frightened and they fly wayward. The older birds are used to it but when these YBS face the same situation they could fly in any direction and finally get lost.

So i guess if they fly too far, may be its just excitement or this eagle could be the reason


----------



## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

High flier pigeons do get lost more than homers, I had one yesterday go on its first flight and it went a long way up the road, I saw it about 2 miles away on a rooftop last night when I was going to the mall on sundown, It came in this afternoon so this time I was lucky, Generally they are the best birds.

You need to be prepared to loose high flying breeds, No matter how well you settle them and handle them some will get lost, you can limit the losses but it sounds like you are doing everything you can so keep your chin up and enjoy the birds that stay around and fly well, Its an unfortunate part of the game but all things in life have their downside.


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

NZ Pigeon said:


> High flier pigeons do get lost more than homers, I had one yesterday go on its first flight and it went a long way up the road, I saw it about 2 miles away on a rooftop last night when I was going to the mall on sundown, It came in this afternoon so this time I was lucky, Generally they are the best birds.
> 
> You need to be prepared to loose high flying breeds, No matter how well you settle them and handle them some will get lost, you can limit the losses but it sounds like you are doing everything you can so keep your chin up and enjoy the birds that stay around and fly well, Its an unfortunate part of the game but all things in life have their downside.


I breathed a sigh of relief after reading that, but still isnt easy loosing your birds this way, really very unfortunate

Does this means that homers have better homing abilities than high flyers?


----------



## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

Um, I think the answer is in the name... Lol.

I hate it too, When I saw my young up the road last night I thought it was the last I would see of the poor wee thing, But its safe and sound tonight, You win some, you loose some I guess.


----------



## boneyrajan.k (Jul 15, 2010)

From what i have heard High fliers get lost very much more than homers during loft flying,HF are prone prone to BOP's.Homers are more like ferals,they are born to survive and return to home under tough conditions and weather,its in their blood .Even crows attacks young High fliers,but they dont seem to attack homers ,i dont know the reason


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

NZ Pigeon said:


> Um, I think the answer is in the name... Lol.
> 
> I hate it too, When I saw my young up the road last night I thought it was the last I would see of the poor wee thing, But its safe and sound tonight, You win some, you loose some I guess.


You are right....lol
roller is to roll & Homer is to home

But these HF's are so agile and enthusiastic and i just love the way they fly, on the other hand homers are steady, they can be easily trained


----------



## hamza syed (Jun 22, 2012)

its all because HF's fly high above their loft and when u release them with ur homers, they(homers) take the HF's away and they get lost.. this is the problem according to me..


----------



## satinette tippler (Jul 7, 2012)

agreed with you hamza...
u can train them separately and when they fully trained release them together..


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

Just curious

But have you ever experienced it or heard it that homers will take the HF's away and they get lost

Or its just what you think

I am asking Because separating these two will be not easy easier for me as i have to make more space for them

Thanks


----------



## logangrmnr (Jul 14, 2010)

I have had mixed flocks homers and high flyers. As long as everyone is fit there should be no problem. It also has to do with which type out numbers the other. Even if the homers go out the high flyers will stay with them. If your HF have been flying long then they will find there way back. In the air they can see a lot farther then you think they would. But like any bird homers get lost also. Just picked up a racing homer today that's from the west coast of Florida Tampa and I'm on the east coast of Florida Melbourne. I have had homers fly like highflyers and highflyers fly like homers. Hope this helps.


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

*Good news*

What i am getting here is that with better training you can minimize the losses and it is possible to fly them together, but that is true that both fly in a different manner and could be confusing for the young wees.

*Good news is that* one of my HF came back this morning, went straight into the loft and was really hungry and thirsty and it was after 3 full days. Is there a possibility that the other remaining will return after 3 days?

I have read that the lost birds mostly return within 3 days


----------



## Pijlover (May 5, 2010)

logangrmnr said:


> I have had mixed flocks homers and high flyers. As long as everyone is fit there should be no problem. It also has to do with which type out numbers the other. Even if the homers go out the high flyers will stay with them. If your HF have been flying long then they will find there way back. In the air they can see a lot farther then you think they would. But like any bird homers get lost also. Just picked up a racing homer today that's from the west coast of Florida Tampa and I'm on the east coast of Florida Melbourne. I have had homers fly like highflyers and highflyers fly like homers. Hope this helps.


Do you have Pakistani high flyers?


----------



## hamza syed (Jun 22, 2012)

Pijlover said:


> Just curious
> 
> But have you ever experienced it or heard it that homers will take the HF's away and they get lost
> 
> ...


i never experienced it (cuz i only have PHF) but a friend of mine used to have the problem when he rescued a young homer and kept it with is young HF's and when ever he would release one/two birds where gone, so he decided to train separately and after 2-3 weeks of training he would release them all together and they would fly high and far and come back.


----------

