Keeping them in the air

[lostflight]

I'm a novice in this hobby, so I will have a lot of questions, and would appreciate all the help I can get.

I have heard that some people train their pigeons to stay off the roof by controlling their feed. Is it possible? When I withhold their feed after they've been sitting on the roof all day, I feel like they think I just want to kill them, and the next day they are on the roof again.

Can someone give me the correct procedures in this kind of training?
I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by lostflight

I'm a novice in this hobby, so I will have a lot of questions, and would appreciate all the help I can get.

I have heard that some people train their pigeons to stay off the roof by controlling their feed. Is it possible? When I withhold their feed after they've been sitting on the roof all day, I feel like they think I just want to kill them, and the next day they are on the roof again.

Can someone give me the correct procedures in this kind of training?
I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

We probably need a little background. How old are the birds. How long have you had them. What's your daily routine as far as flying/feeding?

[lefty1991]

i need a little help with this to but with some oldbirds

[MaryOfExeter]

A lot of people use a pole/flag or something to scare them into flight. I've got this long stick I use but I don't try to give them a heart attack. If I've got one sitting on the loft when I know he can fly and could be flying, I just slowly move the stick along the roof until it gets too close and he flies. Of course now most of my birds are so used to it that some of them I can actually poke with the stick and they just look at me like I'm stupid
Just don't scare them to pieces, and it should be okay. After a few times they should learn, if not, I wouldn't do it too much. After all the loft is supposed to be a comfortable place for them to be. I would think after a while the birds may be too scared to land from doing that

[lostflight]

my birds are just squeakers. They're my first batch of birds born in my coop, and I have 6 of them. I do use a fishing pole with just a bobber at the end and cast it into the roof, but they'll just fly over to the neighbor's roof. If I can't stop them, I might end up losing them. I also don't want to run around the block with a fishing pole. So I want to use the feed control method.

As far as feeding goes, I just leave the feeder in the coop, but when I'm gonna let them fly, I usually withold the feed. They don't seem to get the point that if they don't come down they won't get any food.

[MaryOfExeter]

Having neighbors around never helps anything with pigeons If they're still that young, it may take them a little while longer to get to where when you use the fishing pole, they actually fly and not just switch houses. Also it may help if you get them on a regular feeding schedule. They only need to be fed twice a day. Then they'll know when it's time to eat. What I do is I let them out in the morning before I feed them, put a little food in the loft, and once they're done outside I call them back in. If you can't get them to fly, just call them back in. The longer they stay on someone's roof, the better of a chance something will attack them. Then in the evening around 4 or 5:00 I do the same thing, but feed them a little more for the night. Works for me but everyone's birds are different.

[samuri_spartan]

I dont ever just let my birds out. I catch them and put them in a release box. They hav to be hungry. I start by releaseing them from the end of the yard. THen i get further when i feel they know where they are. I fly mine like this everyday. It gets them use to the box and from being released. ANd if i releases them from across the yard the fly till they tire then trap. No loitering on the loft.

Hope this helps a bit.

Chris

[Matt D.]

Okay. First off it sounds like your birds are late late hatches, they need to get the feel of outside before they are forced to fly. Good, healthy, happy pigeons want to fly, especially young birds. Sometimes they are a little slow out of the gate but when they get up mine fly for over an hour. I made a video for you. I left in my little coaxing so you can see how little it takes to get them to spread their wings. After that I took videos every 13 or 15 minutes after that. As you can see all the birds are still flying. I wasn't planning on being in the video so don't pay attention to my hair or my comfortable pants. But if you give them time and let them mature then they'll be great loft fliers you want to fly them twice a day and as close to the same time as possible. I am strong when it comes to the loft (in my opinion; calling down, breeding, feeding, loft flying) and if you are consistent that is a huge part of having not only happy pigeons but a happy pigeon fancier. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOqKv0j1n5I

[Lovebirds]

Cool video Matt. I've been trying to upload a video for 2 hours. Says it's "processing"...............

[Jay3]

Loved the video. Thanks.

[lostflight]

Those are all great suggestions, and I love the video Matt. I'll try'em and let you all know how it goes.

[lostflight]

Hey everybody, it's me again. Thanks for all your tips, but I have some bad news. The good thing is that my pigeons no longer sat on the roofs, so your suggestions worked perfectly.

The bad news is that I had just thrown them off a fifty mile toss, and they didn't come back.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by lostflight

Hey everybody, it's me again. Thanks for all your tips, but I have some bad news. The good thing is that my pigeons no longer sat on the roofs, so your suggestions worked perfectly.

The bad news is that I had just thrown them off a fifty mile toss, and they didn't come back.

OH man..........sorry to hear this, but honestly, I'm not surprised. You just posted 9 days ago that they were sitting on the roof and you took them 50 miles?? Did someone TELL you to do that? You don't toss birds the first time from 50 miles and you ESPECIALLY don't toss birds that aren't even flying around you house yet, that far. Actually, they shouldn't have been put in a basket at all. How many birds was it? Were they banded? Do you have the band info on all of them? SOME of them MIGHT be found by people..........

[spirit wings]

Originally Posted by Lovebirds

OH man..........sorry to hear this, but honestly, I'm not surprised. You just posted 9 days ago that they were sitting on the roof and you took them 50 miles?? Did someone TELL you to do that? You don't toss birds the first time from 50 miles and you ESPECIALLY don't toss birds that aren't even flying around you house yet, that far. Actually, they shouldn't have been put in a basket at all. How many birds was it? Were they banded? Do you have the band info on all of them? SOME of them MIGHT be found by people..........

Aug 19 post, they are just sqeakers,....50 miles! yikes

[lostflight]

But they've gone about 30-40 miles before, its just that they dont trap when they return. I've tossed them for quite a while now. I only lost three, and i didn't buy any bands, I couldn't get a hold of any.