Roller Pigeon help?

[boyien03]

I have 20 roller pigeon enough for a kit. I fly them in the late evening before sun down. They fly for about 10 minutes and land on top of my loft and roof.

I need help on how to keep them flying for a longer time? Sometimes they land early, because they are thirsty... they have water and feed...

[Tennman1]

boyien03,
I have a few rollers and I fly them in the evening as a rule. When I fly them too late, they don't fly for a long time, they want to go in to their loft. But when I fly them around 5:00pm they have plenty of time to fly. If they only fly for a short time and land on my roof, I get my sons basketball and I get next to my house and I toss the ball straight up in the air so I can catch it when it comes down. I do this in a way that the birds cannot see me when I toss the ball up and catch it. I never throw the ball any where towards them, only straight up so that they see it rise above the roof line. This always gets them to fly again, and it has not scared them because I do not throw it near them or at them. I don't think you should scare your birds into flying, just does not make sense to scare them. this has worked well for me.

[yellowking]

A few things you must consider.

Are your birds healthy?
If a bird is not healthy then there is no way you are getting them to take the sky for more than a few minutes.

Are they still too young?
A lot of folks forces their birds (especially rollers) to take the sky before they are fully developed. Their muscles are not ready yet and they are still too weak to fight the air and wind.

What are you feeding them?
The standard for feeding flying rollers is 50/50 (wheat/milo). If your birds are not flying long enough or high enough you add more wheat to the mix.

But the general rule is, if your birds are healthy they will stay up even if you want them to come down. These guys are built to stay up and spend mass amount of energy spinning and flying.

How hot is it?
Cali is a torture for the birds if the birds are not well feed and hydrated. If it is too hot your birds will die, so if they are healthy and comes down early...you will kill them if you force them up.

The birds history
Some family of birds are never flown. If the birds are never flown, then you cannot expect them to take flight and start enjoying themselves. Imagine you have never been allowed to walk all your life. One day they through you on a track and force you to run! Same concept.

Now, if all these are taken accounted for and you still have a problem. Then it is that the birds are not discipline. You have to discipline them. But that is a whole different story. I don't want to give you any ideas before you make sure you are absolute sure it is not your fault before we blame the birds!