Confused racing Pigeon

Here is a picture of "Pearl"

The rabbit hutch will do fine, but depending on the weather it is best that at least 2 sides are covered. Some European fanciers "weathered" their bird on an aviary during winter.

Because you are moving in 50 days, it is best not to rehome now. I have read somewhere that you can only rehome a homing pigeon 3 times (probably one of those scientific experiments). After that they get confused and they don't know where to go.

Unfortunately rehoming is risky. It is literally 50/50. If they return to you they are rehomed. If not, they are gone the same day you release them.

When I rehomed my birds ranging from couple of months old to 2 years old breeders, one of them disappeared the same day. It just took off somewhere. It is the one in my avatar. But she came back the next day. I found out that she was really smart bird--the smartest bird I have had thus far.

I do notice that those white homing pigeons have less homing ability than those racing pigeons. When I check our local animal shelter I see those white homers.

I have rehomed most birds I have. Only the unprepared sudden takeoff or escape caused them to disappear. I have written my rehoming/resettling process somewhere, but I don't remember which posts.

My rehoming/resettling method is simple.

First day I got the birds they are on some form of settling/training cage/crate which I put in front of my loft for one hour. I obviously watched them there. Then after one hour of them there, I put them on top of my loft roof for another 30 minutes. Then I put them inside the loft still on that training crate. I give them food and water inside the training crate and they spend the night there.

The next day I do the same thing, but I add another 1 hour of putting them on top of my house roof. My goal is for them to observe and memorize their new surroundings. Climbing a roof is dangerous though so be careful. Once they calmed down and start preening themselves, then I bring them inside. I feed and water them inside the crate.

On the third day I release them inside the loft. For the next seven days (one week) I just let them be. I always whistle before giving them food. The second week I try to "bond" with them by feeding them by hand half of their ration. Then I whistle and give them the rest of the food. The third week is trap training. I catch them one by one and put them on the trap before feed time. I locked them there to see the outside for 30 minutes. They can't escape because it is lock inside and out. During feed time, then I open the door, whistle and let them come inside. If they hesitate I just grab them from the inside and pull them in. It only takes them 3 days to learn trapping. Once they respond to food whistle and knows how to trap I feel they are ready, but within those third week ,I allow them to go in and out from the trap voluntarily. The fourth week is the release date. I pick late afternoon and to make sure there is no hawk or something that can scare them. If the weather is bad, then obviously I don't release them. I open the exit door from the trap. The birds are not yet feed. I stand near the trap and I just let the bird come and go. Most of the time, they go to the ground, then the loft roof. Remember the first day training where I already introduce them the loft roof? That will help them remember. After 30 minutes or so I just whistle and by then they will respond to the call and trap inside. I do this for the whole week increasing their freedom time outside to a total of 1 hour. The goal is not startle them and let them explore the area. If they suddenly takes off at this time most likely they are lost. They will go to my house roof. I just let them be. They are remembering the second day of training and still memorizing the whole area. Once they take off, make circle and land on the loft to me my resettling method is a success. That is my technique and I only lost one bird because I was stupid when I suddenly scared it with slamming screeching door.

Other methods will work. That is how I do it. And if you know me I always experiment and do crazy stuff.

rod