Page 1 of 1

Lost Homers?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 7:16 pm
by CTPaul
I built the LCS pigeon loft about a month ago now and have had 6 young homers in there since. This evening I left the door open to give them an opportunity to fly out and start getting accustomed to the area. I opened the door around 5 pm and by dark I had no birds back in the loft. There were 4 birds in the trees above the loft but they would not come back down. I haven't fed them since Sunday so I felt good about it but now I'm a little concerned. I put quite a bit into the loft and the birds and they were going to be my ticket to really getting my setter trained so I'm naturally frustrated.

Any advice to get them back? If I don't get them back can I buy older birds and train them within a few weeks?

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:52 pm
by ROTTnBRITT
They should go back in the loft in a day or two. I've had this happen with some of mine.

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 3:22 pm
by Gertie
Happened to me to. They all came back after a couple days,

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 3:46 pm
by RichK
As everyone else has said. This is pretty common. It might take a day for them to return to the loft.

I'd go shake some food and put it in the loft if they're in the trees around it. This usually works for me to get the birds back into it.

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 4:20 pm
by ezzy333
If you want to stop that you need to put them out on your landing board in a cage for a few days so they can look around before they fly. Also you just need to have them hungry, in other words skip the morning feeding before releasing them. You don't need to starve them.

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:40 am
by A_LOTA_NOTA
About a year ago I had some that I had been flying for a few months. One day I let them out and for some reason they roosted in a tree, they never returned to my loft.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:08 pm
by CTPaul
Well thanks everyone. I ended up with 4 of the 6 back on the loft and the settling cage goes on over the landing board tomorrow. Hoping to be flying them a good 8 miles by September?

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:16 pm
by ezzy333
You can probably do 8 miles within a week and if you want You could do 100 miles by Sept.

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:24 pm
by aulrich
It's like the dogs , give the the opportunity and the genetics take over, once I got over the nerves to actually distance train the birds took to it easy. 8 miles in a week sounds about right with routing birds.

Re: Lost Homers?

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:54 pm
by 10Sam29
If you can find a good source of birds in your area, be sure to ask for "squeakers". These are young pigeons that are more likely to acclimate to your loft. I have the same loft, and have had good luck keeping them locked down for a week with the ability to be outside viewing their surroundings from a cage.