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Racing Pigeon Discussion

10K views 33 replies 17 participants last post by  fireman 
#1 ·
The Breed Of The Week article for Racing Pigeons is now open for discussion. Our members Becky and Matt have done an excellent job of providing us with interesting and helpful information about racing pigeons!

You can read the article here: Racing Pigeons - Part 1

and Racing Pigeons - Part 2

Terry
 
#2 ·
Very Good!!!

Excellent articles, Becky and Matt.

Most informative and well written, you are both to be commended. I never knew much about racers, since the last one I owned was more than 50 years ago. As a young bird, I took him on a short (10 mile) training flight, expecting him to be home hours before I was.

He walked in two weeks later....and I think he walked all the way! Last racer I ever owned....
 
#3 ·
Becky and Matt....thank you for providing such informative posts.


There is so much to know and so much involved in racing pigeons....I give a lot of credit to our members who engage in this sport. I'm sure it can be very rewarding, but I am also sure there is also a lot of "blood, sweat and tears" involved.

Linda:)
 
#5 ·
Its so incredable how they get home.
I agree. Most people think it's a joke when I first tell them I race pigeons. Then once they finally get around to asking how it works and how they get home, then they start to think its really cool and take it more seriously. I don't think we'll ever really know for sure just how they get home.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Thanks for the piece Matt and Becky! I never realised the racing pigeon was a combo of other breeds, I just assumed they bred some ferals together and trained them :eek: I wonder which qualities they got form each of the breeds, I would have never thought we started racing that far back.
 
#7 ·
I just assumed they bred some ferals together and trained them : .
Technically, that is exactly what racers are. In fact, all breeds are just two generations away from being "rock doves" or feral pigeons. Charles Darwin proved this over 150 years ago, when he evenly mixed four purebred pigeons of widely different breeds and colors together. Result: mostly blue feral pigeons.
 
#11 ·
Funny, that's what I've always told all my friends. They'd ask why pigeons are so great. And I'd reply that my pigeons are no less special than their pets, after all, can they let their dogs go miles away and it beat them home? :D What most people don't understand is, pigeon fanciers aren't any different from people who love horses, or dogs, or cats, or any other animal. And yet people think I'm crazy when I tell them I've had nearly 100 pigeons at once before. And they think it's a bit weird they have magazines about pigeons too. I was letting some of my friends look at one of my RPD mags last week, and they laughed. But I told them more about pigeons, and they started to realize they're just as good of pets as anything else.
 
#13 ·
Haha, yeah :) They may not talk like parrots, but you can let them go and watch them fly, without the worry that they'll fly away and never be seen again. I also agree about the colors. It's neat how many varieties there are. To most of my friends, they all look the same, but if you're around them enough you'll find no two pigeons look the same. Even in all my bars and checks, there's still those small differences in the color or personality that lets ya know who's who.
 
#19 ·
homing Pigeons

Very nicly written, There is no doubt a lot of thought and exsperance went into your very Imformitive post's. I like the part about the chips in the bands, that surly could make a differance in time when we are all counting secounds today. Makes me wonder, what next miniture I-pods that will play ther favorite coo or I just wana go hoooome, after all happy birds make for happy owners:D>>Kevin
 
#20 ·
Becky and Matt - many thanks for your well written and informative articles. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Becky - are any of the drawings in your part your artwork?

Matt- I only have a few racers that we have taken in as rescues, but your description of them being either wild or tame is so very true...
 
#21 ·
Becky and Matt - many thanks for your well written and informative articles. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Becky - are any of the drawings in your part your artwork?
Thanks Maggie :)
Nope, sadly they aren't. If you go back and click on the pictures, they link to where I found them :)
 
#22 · (Edited)
air distance

could anyone explain to me how to measure airdistance in racing pigeon.do they do it from release point?then just straight line to my house? (like would a crows fly) or they do it in different way? i'm a first year flyer....just wondering cause when i look at the map my location is farther to some of the flyer in my club....but my air distance is shorter.thanks
 
#26 ·
They're just talking about the direction the line is going in order to reach their house, making an angle.

But yes, that is how air miles are figured, in a straight line. Air miles are no different from road miles, only without the curves and such that makes roads take so much longer. So if you have a map with one of those milage keys, then you can easily measure how far certain places are by going in a straight line. That's how we made up our first training map, in 5 mile increments.
 
#27 ·
Becky,

There is actually a little problem with measuring air miles using a flat map. The earth is curved and so all "straight lines" are actually archs. The act of flattening the earth to a flat map actually distorts distances over the arch. These archs are a bit tighter as you go further north and so the distortion leads to a greater distance variance the further north you go.

There is a method of calculating the arch distance know as the "Haversine formula". I have used it in google map calculation sites. If you are interested I can post some examples and/or javascript code to help with point to point distance calculation.

Maybe i am too close to the problem, hence my "angle" confusion.
 
#29 ·
thanks guys for giving me information about air distance.....i have a simple question.we race from west to east,my airdistance from our last race is 124 miles,one of the flier in the club is 132 miles. he is a little bit farther to the east..how come we got 8 miles difference in air distance,but if i drive to his location its only 4 miles difference?is this possible?
 
#33 ·
Depends on which one you use. The point to point will give you accurate air miles. It uses a stock calculation. The standard "directions" milage that you use to get driving direction is accurate for humans traveling in a car (or by the means indicated in the type selector). So yes, google is accurate as long as you keep in mind the distance it is measuring.
 
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