Gun Dog Forum

I've recently gotten Homing Pigeons from a couple of different flock. A mix of young birds and older ones. I have banded the older ones as prisoners and will not let them fly. How long do yall usually leave the birds in your coop before teaching them to enter the door and eventually let them fly?

six months if they are truly homeres.

Real homers need to stay till they have mated with a partner and raising young in your loft.

Give the young birds a week, then put them in a cage on your landing board. This will allow them to observe the area and get used to the trap.

A week of that and they should have the trap figured out. Let them out to free fly, don't release them from any distance, just let them sit on the shed or house if they want. They will probably do some close laps around the neighborhood.

After a week of that you can take them out and release them, slowly building distance.

The other thing I like to do is whistle when I feed or shake a can with some peas inside it. This is an audio cue to the birds it's feeding time. ALWAYS fly your birds hungry, then whistle or shake your can and they will dive bomb back into the loft.

So its not a good idea to leave food in the feeder?

Always fly them hungry. They come back alot faster and no screwing around when they get home.

Make sure there is food waiting in the feeder when they get home.

personally, I have not had real good luck getting young birds to stay around. Especially if they have flown any from their first loft. I have always lost some. Sometimes they hang around for a few weeks and one day they are gone.
I assume you have the young birds in a separate loft. If you have an aviary let them go out in that and look around as soon as they want to. Follow Ryan's directions.
You should only feed what the birds will clean up in 10 minutes. It just attracts rodents and the birds get fat.
With birds I hatch I separate them from the parents as soon as they are eating and drinking. they can go in the aviary as soon as they want. I open the flight door when they are ready to fly and let them go out on their own. They will sit on the roof for a few days and then start flying. I drop a bob every day so they learn to go through them. Eventually they will be gone for a few hours. That is when I start training. I don't fly my training birds hungry because I feed at the same time every day and train them when I get the time. As long as they are not racing I don't care when the go in.
Hawks are a big problem where I live and young birds are easy pickings for them.
Birds that don't start flying young never fly well. Good enough for training though....Cj