Pigeons homing training
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:32 pm
Hey everybody,
Seeking some advice from some more experienced homing pigeons keepers.
I have a small flock of pigeons. I have 6 homers that I bought from a local dog trainer in November 2019 as young birds that had never been flown before. Plus I also have a male regular pigeon (non-homing blood line) that I have acquired from somewhere else in the summer of 2019 that appears to have some homing instinct (I actually lost him one time while I was training my dog a few miles from my house and he came back). Since I purchased them, the birds have been in my chicken coop modified to a pigeon loft. Over the spring they bred and I now also have 3 almost fully feathered squeakers from 2 different nests, and I have a third nest with 3 eggs being laid on right now.
I installed a trap door and a landing platform in front of the door a few weeks ago. I started training all the adult birds to use the trap door by either catching them in the coop and holding them in front of the door until they go in. I then started putting the birds in a small cage placed against the side of the loft where the trap door is so that they have the ability to go in if they choose to do so. Lastly I started to release a couple of birds at a time in the yard and so far of the birds I released they all have come back and used the trap door. I have not withheld food so far, so when I released them they took 1 or two hours to land on the platform and go through the trap door (plus they see the other birds in the coop run so they get a bit "distracted") but so far, knock on wood, they have all gone back in. Each birds has done the little "flight around the yard and go through the trap door" game at least about two times now. I have not trained the 3 squeakers/young birds, as I want to wait for them to be fully feathered.
So I guess my question is, what is the next step? Do I continue to let them out in the yard or can I start to move in distance? If I continue to let them out in the yard, how many times is enough? When I start to go to distance, at what distance should I start? What would be the progression in distance? How many times for each distance should I train them?
Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Seeking some advice from some more experienced homing pigeons keepers.
I have a small flock of pigeons. I have 6 homers that I bought from a local dog trainer in November 2019 as young birds that had never been flown before. Plus I also have a male regular pigeon (non-homing blood line) that I have acquired from somewhere else in the summer of 2019 that appears to have some homing instinct (I actually lost him one time while I was training my dog a few miles from my house and he came back). Since I purchased them, the birds have been in my chicken coop modified to a pigeon loft. Over the spring they bred and I now also have 3 almost fully feathered squeakers from 2 different nests, and I have a third nest with 3 eggs being laid on right now.
I installed a trap door and a landing platform in front of the door a few weeks ago. I started training all the adult birds to use the trap door by either catching them in the coop and holding them in front of the door until they go in. I then started putting the birds in a small cage placed against the side of the loft where the trap door is so that they have the ability to go in if they choose to do so. Lastly I started to release a couple of birds at a time in the yard and so far of the birds I released they all have come back and used the trap door. I have not withheld food so far, so when I released them they took 1 or two hours to land on the platform and go through the trap door (plus they see the other birds in the coop run so they get a bit "distracted") but so far, knock on wood, they have all gone back in. Each birds has done the little "flight around the yard and go through the trap door" game at least about two times now. I have not trained the 3 squeakers/young birds, as I want to wait for them to be fully feathered.
So I guess my question is, what is the next step? Do I continue to let them out in the yard or can I start to move in distance? If I continue to let them out in the yard, how many times is enough? When I start to go to distance, at what distance should I start? What would be the progression in distance? How many times for each distance should I train them?
Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks