Looking for Homers in WI

[almond]

Hi all

We are new members and came upon your site throughout our search.

We are looking for economically priced homing pigeons for sale in WI - approximately 12 or so. We are in need of females more so than males.

They need not be anything fancy, we have grays, whites, browns and bits of red at this time. Do not know the proper names although they each have a pet name.

We had purchased 12 from a bird show this past August, however they were used as previous racers. We recently let them extend to the outside of their home and they flew away taking some of our original ones with them. (Supposing they are making their way back to their original home as I type)...although have not any idea where that may be as we purchased them from a show.

With this being said, we are not looking to purchase other pigeons that have previously raced as most likely when we let them out they too will not stay nearby and possibly fly again back to their original homes.

We would rather purchase young un's that will get used to growing up here and hopefully stay around when let out. We never had any complications with them coming back home until now.

Well, thanks in advance for any help.

CJ

[Lovebirds]

Hi CJ

Welcome to Pigeon Talk.

Yep.........that's why their called homers......that's what they do (or are SUPPOSED to do) is go home.
Unfortunately, novices are not told this. The sellers just want to make a quick buck and a lot of them don't care what happens to the birds once they are sold. If there's no record of who bought them and they DO return home, they will just turn around and sell them again. Sad but true.

Young homers won't be impossible to find this time of year, but it will be a little tougher because most racing people have stopped breeding for the year.
So........you may have to wait a while to get some youngsters or go ahead and find some older birds, but know that they must be kept prisoner, and raise your own babies. And, if you do find some youngsters, they will be to young to sex so there's no guarantee that you will wind up with all hens.
It's not impossible to re-home a bird to a new loft, but it's sure ain't easy!! LOL
Good luck with your search.

[almond]

Hi Renee

Thank you for your warm welcome and kind reply.

This site is absolutely magnificent and packed full of useful advice from so many knowledgeable bird owners and enthusiasts.

We have been homing pigeons since 2000 although this is the first time that we ran into any complications at all with them not returning home. It would not have been so bad, although when they left the 12 in which we recently purchased along with 7 of our originals including 2 new dearly beloved additions (babies) also chose to follow the runners on their journey. Our son was completely devastated as these were his pride and joy. He is an autistic young adult who has so much joy in just sitting, watching and caring for his birds. It has been such an amazing experience.

We will continue to check back periodically. At this time, he only has 5 birds left, so perhaps, in the meantime, we will put an ad in our local paper and broaden our search to older birds also.

It has been nice to meet you and again thank you for your reply.

With warm regards

CJ

[Lovebirds]

Well, you tell your son not to give up hope. We've all got stories to tell about birds returning home long after we've counted them gone.........LOL
Just real quick........we had 2 babies last year that had flown around the loft but had not been trained. We took them with 10 of our other birds, 1 mile, hoping they would follow them home, as we didn't want to take just 2 birds on a training toss. The 10 came home but the babies didn't. 7 weeks later, I looked out and there was a bird sitting on our loft. When I went out to check, it was one of the babies. They do show up at strange times.........

[Maggie-NC]

Hi CJ and a warm welcome to this great forum.

I'm very sorry about your birds not returning but as Renee said (and boy does she know birds) some of them may come back. I do hope for your son's sake that they do.

Since we are rehabbers and don't race I don't know a great deal about homing pigeons but thought I would mention that if you have banded your birds they may be picked up by a kind soul and reported to the 911 pigeon alert site. Our super (dooper ) moderator Terry Whatley is a member and if she sees this thread can possibly be on the lookout for you.

Again, welcome.

[Lovebirds]

Thanks Maggie.......I didn't even think to mention the bands being traced, but CJ said they have had homers since 2000 so I guess I just "assumed" that they knew........but there's a good chance that someone could find some of these birds. Especially the 2 younger ones.........I sure hope so.

[scubaklook]

I think I sent you a message, I am kind of new at this. But I have to young homers who would be ready for a new home in a few weeks. I am in Minneapolis, MN. I have a thread in the adoption forum if you are interested.