lost 5 out of 7 what went wrong?

[adamant]

a guy from the club offers to road train birds for members and takes them out on a route of 10 miles,20 miles etc,,,, Wednesday he released them along with his birds 15 min. apart from a new area across the river and only 2 of mine came back and a few of his are missing also.
what could have went wrong?

[whitesnmore]

It may not necessarily be any one specific thing but a combination. I have been talking with alot of individuals who I consider to be some of the best flyers around the US and have been informed of unusually high losses of YB's this year. I know of one guy that lost 50 birds on one training toss at only 2 miles. He is no slouch of a flyer and has been at the top of the sheets almost every week at combine level.
Possibilities include: hawk attack, sickness, too high K factor, solar flares, wire hits, etc. There are just more things that can go wrong than we can imagine. You just have to hope some come home later and some times they take 2-5 days or even longer.
I wish you luck getting them back as I know the pain of losing good birds.
Ken

[george simon]

Originally Posted by adamant

a guy from the club offers to road train birds for members and takes them out on a route of 10 miles,20 miles etc,,,, Wednesday he released them along with his birds 15 min. apart from a new area across the river and only 2 of mine came back and a few of his are missing also.
what could have went wrong?

Well you trusted someone else to train your birds. Now when I was still racing I never let someone else train my birds. Second I always released all my birds together from a new release point at leased two times,after that would would release in small groups of 5 or six birds and the hens would be released first and the cocks 15 minutes later.It sounds like your friend single tossed the birds. In all reality will you never know what went wrong as you were not there when the birds were released and we who you are asking what went wrong were also not there at the release point. ..GEORGE

[ohiogsp]

Alot of people are training around here right now and I am getting mixed up with other birds alot. Mine have been bringing other peoples birds home with them. I am on the long end and these birds really have to fight a nasty head wind somdays to get back to their loft and my guess is some don't make it.

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Originally Posted by adamant

a guy from the club offers to road train birds for members and takes them out on a route of 10 miles,20 miles etc,,,, Wednesday he released them along with his birds 15 min. apart from a new area across the river and only 2 of mine came back and a few of his are missing also.
what could have went wrong?

You trusted someone else to train your birds. That in itself, has been in years past, a source of lost birds for many fanciers. All kinds of horror stories I have heard, birds left in car until 2 in the afternoon etc. Plus, this person was out experimenting with new locations. Then there are the other 27 different things that could have been at play. Your birds were sick, out of condition, too young, not experienced enough for the distance, etc. etc.

Bottom line, is you will never really know.

[Airbaby]

I have a club member who in fact just e-mailed me yesterday about how he has had YB's not want to cross the river or any body of water, he says he has had them try to fly around it, he says he has had YB's in the past end up lost at lofts several miles north or south of the release point along the river (which is the way the river runs) and this is what he says supports his theroy. I am not sure how much weight I would put on this theory, but this club member has been racing 25 yrs so who knows. Our first toss we take them 8 miles away and make them cross the Missouri river to get home, we have had no issues. It is just like Warren said, you will never know.

[plamenh]

Historical example:
Quite bizarre disaster, befell tens of thousands of racing pigeons released from Nantes in France as part of a race held to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Racing Pigeon Association in England. 60,000 pigeons were released but only a few birds ever arrived back at their lofts throughout southern England. One theory suggests that the sonic boom created by Concorde as it flew over the English Channel, at the precise time the pigeons would have been at the same point, completely disorientated the birds, compromising their inbuilt navigation system.

[george simon]

Originally Posted by Airbaby

I have a club member who in fact just e-mailed me yesterday about how he has had YB's not want to cross the river or any body of water, he says he has had them try to fly around it, he says he has had YB's in the past end up lost at lofts several miles north or south of the release point along the river (which is the way the river runs) and this is what he says supports his theroy. I am not sure how much weight I would put on this theory, but this club member has been racing 25 yrs so who knows. Our first toss we take them 8 miles away and make them cross the Missouri river to get home, we have had no issues. It is just like Warren said, you will never know.

There is a lot of truth in the fact about young birds not liking to cross water in the case here I feel that these birds should have been released 2 or 3 times on the near side of the river and then taken across to the far side that is what I would have done. .GEORGE

[Glyn]

Glad This Is On Ive Let My Ybs art And Only one Will Fly For 5 Minz Hes Been Gone For 20 I THink There Must Be SOmething Wrong or hes joined another racer when loft flying But a fraind off mine has let his birds out so it might have gone and followed his birds im going to check if hes there or not

[Alamo]

Living in NYC as a youngster,I went with my dad many times on the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island...We would eat lunch on the OTHER side,and take the ferry back to Manhatten...When we were in the middle of the ocean,he would release the birds...They would be scared stiff,but he never lost any...The next toss would be from the Staten Island side... I don`t remember how far the distance is from one side to the other...But I would guess it`s a few miles...I don`t think the RIVER theory holds WATER,in this case..#1...How wide is the river from 1 side to the other ?? 1/8 mile ?? 1/4mile ??
My birds will have to cross the OHIO river,and I have never trained them on the other side,or even close to the river....Down here in the WVa/Ohio/Western Pa/Md area,fog is probally the biggest problem.....In my area also,there are not more then 6 pigeon lofts,and all except one loft is 40 miles from me...So yesterday,I trained my birds,(40)miles,and let the 12 hens out first,then 9 cocks,then 5 cocks....Hens made it in 52 min...9 cocks in 47 min,the 5 cocks 1hr 40 min......Why ?? They probally hit other birds,since they came out of the West direction,instead of the SSW,the direction they should have come from....in training YB`s,anything can happen...If you want to be real carefull,you will check the K-Factor,and the sky should have some clouds etc...Try to train at a time you think others in your area are NOT training,to lessen the chance of a clash with other birds going in another direction...Check with other clubs near where you train from,to see if they know of anyone training the other way,or any races still in progress on the weekends...I saw about 30/35 race birds last week,at one of my training spots...I e-mailed the 3 lofts in that area..Everyone said the birds were not there`s...I wonder who`s birds they were...But nobody else has birds going NE from the spot I train from but me...The closest lofts that could train from this location is either from Maryland,which is probally a 100 mile toss,or they are going up to Western Pa,which is a 75 or more mile toss...Trying to get some truthfull answers from some pigeon flyers is PRICELESS....hahahahaha!!!!.....Alamo

[yellowking]

Sorry to hear your lost. Hope they find their way back. I am no expert in homers, but I wish you the best of luck. Sometimes they are closer to home then you think.

I lost a roller a few years back, and I noticed a few young feral tail riding by a bridge not far from my house. Turns out my roller was breeding some nice little youngs with the feral. I saw him a few months back, he still has my personal band on him and he hasn't lost a touch in is rolling style too!

[adamant]

well 4 are still out.. thanks for your replys... i could remember him telling me sometime ago that the training /race route crossed the river that was about 1 mile wide and there was problems with the birds crossing that water..

[whitesnmore]

We had our first YB races this weekend and they had to cross 2 rivers to get home to my house. We shipped 31 birds between my daughter and I and we got back all 31 birds. This is a first for us to not have lost a single bird the first race of the season.

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Originally Posted by adamant

well 4 are still out.. thanks for your replys... i could remember him telling me sometime ago that the training /race route crossed the river that was about 1 mile wide and there was problems with the birds crossing that water..

Back in the "Good Ole Days".........when I lived about maybe 16 miles east, air miles, and flew with the Red Rose Pigeon Club back in the 1960's. My wise mentor, the WWII Pigeon Corps guy, Earl Ressel, he took very measured and careful steps to train the birds to "Cross the River". At least he believed that the river did cause some stress for the birds. Just to place you on Google Earth, I am talking about the Susquehanna River, which gained fame in 1979 for Three Mile Island. If you follow the river south from Three Mile Island, and Harrisburg, Pa. to the Wrightsville bridge, and home of Fred Smelzer, we would release the birds in Sam Lewis State Park. There is one of those perfect little mountain tops, where on a clear day, maybe you could see for 10 miles or more. And we had a 110' water tower very near our lofts, (which I once climbed up on and darn near gave my Mother a heart attack, I was like 14, but that is a different thread). We could see our tower from Sam Lewis Park and this would be about a 7 mile toss. In those days, a few tosses "Across the River" was our longest training flight.

My point is, perhaps in your case, this body of water should be given great care in your training plans. I did not want my previous post to be misunderstood. Once you have taken all the right steps, and the birds are trained, then crossing a mass of water, should not prevent you from becoming successful. Don't allow some challenge or obstacle, prevent you from trying. If you wait until all the stars are aligned, and all your little ducks are in a row, and you have everything in your advantage, well you will never make it to the 1st race. So, don't sweat the small stuff, put your helmet on, and get in the game !! You might get knocked around a bit, but if this were easy, would it really be any fun ?

Here was our training spot,
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?name=Sa...&id=1031875263

my home loft back then was at 19 Landis Ave, right next to Lafayette Tower Park. which was not a park and houses nearby, it was corn fields and cow pasture and farms, now most is development and what remains is this small field, which is now a park. http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=La...:::::f:EN:M:/e

So, all our efforts back then, was to get them "across the river". The theory back then, was that the huge York Homing Pigeon Club back then, would drag all the birds up and into York County. So, we never trained beyond 7 miles, right, wrong, or indifferent.

[parrisc]

Funny this river idea came up now. I made my 1st toss on the other side of the Mississippi on the Iowa side, about a 60 mile toss on Sunday. I make this toss every year and have not loss a bird yet. Like it was stated ealier there are many reason why your birds got split up. One mistake I mad once was that I didnt let my birds set for about 15 minutes before releaseing them. You might want to mention that to the guy releasing them.