racing!?!?

[elvis_911]

Im am an owner of 2 racing homers orginally 5 ..but they were lost\stolen , and a paid lot of money , most of my summer work money was gone. Anyways heres my question, how would you race if your bird comes back to your house anyways? or does everyone bring 1 baby to a loft wait for them to grow up a bit and then they all race from there? I would understand how they would race with 30-40 pigeons , but not 500. and how is there a grand prize? everyone pays a bit for each bird? or something?

[SmithFamilyLoft]

Elvis,

You ask some good questions, it is hard to know where to start. Your one question is concerning what is known as a "One Loft Race". Under this concept, fanciers from all over the country, or in some cases like the famous $1,000,000 race, from all over the world. As you can imagine, there is normally a pretty hefty entry fee and so called perch fees. Under this system, hundreds of birds from different breeders are raised to fly only a single race, or in some cases just a very few.

They are taken to the race location and released, the prize money is distributed based on the order in which the birds arrive. Often time, the breeders will be holding a party while they wait for the birds to return. The top birds can collect hundreds of thousands of dollars !!

I don't have the space to do justice to how a regular race is conducted. Perhaps giving you an internet address is better.
http://www.pigeon.org/index.html

[re lee]

A bird in club racesfor instance. The race secatary Will get your loft location. From there and the different release points The miles from the release station will be figured. Say for instance to your loft is 256.67 miles. Now racing clocks either computer clocks or counter mark clocks. They are set to green wich time for your area. The birds are taken to a realease point turned loose at a set time. The realease person should also note the weather conditions. The bird flys back to your loft. it is clocked. The speed is figured in yards per minute. The bird flying the fasted yards per minute in that race race is first. To figure yards there is so many yards in a mile. and then the release distance is so many miles. and the time in flight figured by distances find the speed in yards. So yes the birds race back to the loft. And if a one loft race the bird is sent as a young bird settled to that loft and raced to it. A pretty fare way to figure the winners. Hard to cheat.

[relofts]

My 2 cents worth here:
First of all let me advise you with just starting out I highly suggest that you have a mentor to assist you that is local if you plan to fly racing pigeons, you can contact the American Racing Pigeon Union and speak with Deone at 1-800-755-2778. There are many steps to getting started.
1. Figure your loft arrangements out, you will need a secure loft for breeders, a flying loft for training your racers.
2. Obtain some descent breeders, there are many beginner flyer programs to assist.
3. Get into a breeding program, and obtain bands that are registered to the authorized Organizations for racing Pigeons, contact your local club and see when they are doing their breeding, breeds they have found to do best in that area.
4. Once you have your youngsters you will need to train them to trap into the loft through a oneway trap, you will need a way to release as well. Once the birds are trapping, flying, and then start ranging they are ready to road train, you will then train the birds out to 75 to 100 miles at short jumps, this takes about 6 weeks
5. Then you will want to join your local club.
6. You will need an approved clocking unit to clock your pigeons in.
7. You will want to have your loft survey done, or a GPS done to figure your exact location in geographical location, the race station that the birds are released from is also surveyed for the location, the 2 are figuered down to approximately 3 to 5 feet for the exact mileage.
8. The birds once trained are taken to the club house from all club members lofts, they are then clocked in placed in baskets with other members pigeons.
9. They are driven to the release point and the mileage has been figured to each loft.
10. The race is calculated at the exact number of miles versus the exact hours, minutes, and seconds the birds are flown to decide on the speeds of each competitors birds, the fastest bird is the winner.

The one loft races are similar except that the birds are sent as youngsters about 7 to 10 weeks old and are trained from the location of the one loft race, once the birds have been let out of the loft and flown from that location as a youngster that is where they will home back to.

Ellen

[Lin Hansen]

Hi Ellen,

Wow. That is alot of useful, precise, detailed information to anyone interested in getting started on racing pigeons. Thank you so much for taking the time and care to post such such a great outline for success.

Linda

[elvis_911]

thanks a lot for the help. I have 2 racing pigeons already and they havent breeded , not even yet attempted and its been 8 months so im guessing they are the same sex. I have to spend another 600$ on a male or female and it will be a long while before i have that much. And when i want do get another youngster it will be months before he is mature Oh well i gotta be patient.

[relofts]

Elvis,

I noticed now that you are in Canada, the American Racing Pigeon Union is in the USA of course so I have another link for you at the Canadian Racing Pigeon Union here it is http://www.canadianracingpigeonunion.com/index.html please contact them and see if they have a beginner flyer program similar to the one in the USA, also see what racing pigeon flyers there are near you and contact some of them to see if they can assist you with the startup. Many Pigeon Flyers are willing to help a beginner flyer so please give it a shot.

Best of luck to you,
Ellen

[elvis_911]

yeah , and friend told me to join the club of calgary. I emailed them and they told me to phone this man ..and the phone number is incorrect or something and they keep telling me the same thing its funny..so i decided to go to the club house and i cant find it! RARW but ill ask my friend to drive me there again and ill make a more prescise search. thanks for the help

[relofts]

Elvis,

Is these the contact they gave you?
CALGARY R.P.C
R. Coupal, 270 Carragana Cres. NW., Calgary,
403-282-3196

CHINOOK INV. R.P.C.
E. Demmers, 4632 Montana Rd. NW., Calgary, AB
403-288-5351

B. Czibi,
4307 Dovercrest Dr SE., Calgary, AB T2B 1X6

W. Turski,
2436 Elmwood Dr SE., Calgary, AB T2B 1T3

[relofts]

Here is another, their club is a member of the American Racing Pigeon Union.

Up North Pigeon Racing Combine
Mike van der Jagt
705-326-5812
mrvanderjagt@yahoo.com

Hope these help,

Ellen

[elvis_911]

WOW , thanks a lot ellen ... im ... im amazed their is so many of them.. and here i thought there was only one ... Thanks again Ellen you've been so helpful

[elvis_911]

And The Club House is no where near those addresses my dad phoned the club owner and he said im interested and he asked about my pigeons and told him about my situation and he told me to come over he as over 700 pigeons most are dragoons but he has over 300 hundred Racing pigeons and has many champions he said to give him a call when we want to come over and he'll help me out They live about 100 km from calgary Im going in april