..race age?

[birdboy12]

Hey every one is their any way to tell a young bird from an old bird besides the band?also is their any way to train an 04 flown bird to your own loft?

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Hello Erik,

If you are asking if it is possible to tell the difference between a young immature bird and a mature bird, beside the band, the answer is yes. I suggest you visit a loft with some YB's and compare them to the older birds. Soon your eyes will detect the differences. Perhaps someone will attempt to post a response and try to give an explanation. I can also tell the difference between a bird a couple of years old and one that is 10 or 12, but I am not sure I can put it into words. It is experience.

Yes, there is a way to settle a yearling to your loft. But, it may only work 50% of the time. So, if you have a 50-50 chance of losing your bird, do you still want to try it ?

[birdboy12]

Hello thanks for your re-ply i do still want to try it....besides i think if they wherent to go back they would at last go back to their old loft?Also I took 15 of my own race birds 10miles from my house(my dad did) and let them go...it took them about 25 minutes to get home.....im thinking maybe their to big and dont want to fly?

[zoo keeper]

Did you get some new homing pigeons Erik?

[birdboy12]

yes.I bought 5 new race birds from a store called The Grainery.I have them on the 4-1 and bought a eye med and put that in their eyes.I will take some pictures of them.Ill also put a picture of my first 05 bird(parlor) but besides him i have another pair of parlors on eggs and another pair still building a nest and i have about 5-6 pairs of race homers building nests now...i should have some eggs in about 1-2 weeks....im trying to sell my fancy birds and stick with the race birds(better of for me becuase i dont have to lace their tail or clip their muffs and what not)so i cant wait to see what happens this year(bad luck last year due to a 3 foot goffer snake eating eggs and babies) so i hope nothing happens like that this year.Also i have unpaired birds in cages trying to pair them up!

[zoo keeper]

I have never seen pigeons at the grainery before. I wonder if a flyer had an excess of birds and gave/sold them to the store.

[birdboy12]

hrmmm...maybe so?do you go in the back where the big cage is?their are about 40 pigeons back their right now(he sells them for $5.00 a bird)and they are really nice and healthy birds....so if you want some stock birds go down their....lol

[birdboy12]

Hey i just got some new race birds(20 of them) i have wormed them all sprayed them for ticks,pigeons flyes,ect and gave them the 4-1...so now i hope they breed.Most of them are 04 birds besides the 4 that arent banded and the 2 that are 00 birds.So now i have a good stock loft to help build up a race team(will only be racing in the OB because i cant get my birds trained fast enough for the YB race team).So wish me luck!

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Erik,

How is it, you won't be flying YB's ? Most of my team have yet to be hatched. If you are flying OB's, do you have them down the road yet ? Most importantly, have you vaccinated these new arrivals for PMV ?

Good luck !