Advice please

[beausmammy]

Hi all, My pigeons are a mixture of strays, ex racers and tumblers with the odd fantail. They are presently living in an 8 x 6 'loft' they have an enclosed platform which they feed on from which I open a large hatch every morning and they spend the rest of the day doing there own thing, coming and going, feeding, bathing etc.. as they please...they usualy spend the sunnier days on the roof of my house and out buildings. I would say half of them are really lazy, just eat and go back in!!! The thing is, in early February last year I had a hawk problem and lost 3 birds ( I have about 35) it hung about for about a month and I was forever out chasing it, but once my pigeons were out I couldn't for the life of me get them back into the loft until there usual bed time (depending on dusk) I really want to avoid this this year...so I wanted to know firstly, can I train them to go out have a quick fly and come back in? secondly will it do them any harm being inside most of the day? (obviously better than being pulled apart by a hawk) and are there any special requirements they will need. I really need to get on top of this now so your help is greatly appreciated.
thanks as always
Jayne

[TheSnipes]

Jayne,

Any chance you can build them a flight pen or aviary attached to your loft, so they can get some fresh air and exercise during the day even if they're not out flying around? As you said, they spend most of their time lazing about anyway

As for training them to fly and come back, the way you do that is fly them hungry. Don't let them eat till after they've gone out, whether it's early or late. For that to work they have to recognize that feeding is imminent, like with a whistle or some other signal...but they're very quick to pick up that sort of thing. Once you have a way of letting them know dinner is on the table they should rush home to eat - assuming they're hungry.

It might sound a little mean but once they are trained to the dinner bell you can skip feeding them for 1 day before letting them out to fly then luring them back for mealtime the first few times. They'll figure that pattern out right quick and then you can let them out to fly but they'll return home to eat and can get on a normal daily eating schedule.

[Roxy]

The man I am getting my baby from does rescue and has about what you do, he doesn't allow them to free fly anymore because of hawks. He has a area for them to go out attached to the loft. If I had or get more pigeons it's what I would do too.
Good luck with that, I know it isn't a easy decision to take away their freedom.

[TheSnipes]

Mine have to make do with their flight pen too. Cooper's Hawk has found them No more flying, at least for a while. Maybe in spring!

[maryjane]

I have a mix of fliers and non-fliers so no one gets to free-fly. They have large aviaries where they can take a couple of turns around inside them and get their exercise that way. It's not the same as flying free, but it is much safer and I can thankfully say I've never lost one to a hawk. If you can build them a wire enclosure (use 1/4 hardware cloth, as I'm sure you know ), that should be fine for them. It doesn't sound like most of them are big fliers anyway so it shouldn't be too hard of an adjustment. I have taken in pigeons that are used to free-flying and they have adjusted almost immediately to the enclosed aviaries. I have only had I think two pigeons over the years that didn't adjust well and they went to a friend of mine who does have free-fliers. You can always try it and see how they do. Good luck!