[aarongreen123]

gang,
i am going to be helping a person new to the pigeon world by setting them up with some birds. she is not ready for them until june 1st or so. i have a couple birds that are just under a month old now. if i keep them locked up without a view to the outside world, will these still be good birds to set her up with three weeks or so from now or will they be too strong on the wing? i want her to have every chance at success and don't want her to have any fly aways! also, at what age can i remove the babies from the rest of the flock and keep them separated? i want to get them asap but i want them to be able to feed ect... they are about to fly down to the floor any day now, as i saw them perching on the front of the nest box for the first time today. help me help this person!
please and thankyou
aaron

 

[Lovebirds]

gang,
i am going to be helping a person new to the pigeon world by setting them up with some birds. she is not ready for them until june 1st or so. i have a couple birds that are just under a month old now. if i keep them locked up without a view to the outside world, will these still be good birds to set her up with three weeks or so from now or will they be too strong on the wing? i want her to have every chance at success and don't want her to have any fly aways! also, at what age can i remove the babies from the rest of the flock and keep them separated? i want to get them asap but i want them to be able to feed ect... they are about to fly down to the floor any day now, as i saw them perching on the front of the nest box for the first time today. help me help this person!
please and thankyou
aaron

For what it's worth, I personally wouldn't give a new person babies that old. They will be SO much older than any other babies she gets and by the time she gets the youngest ones settled and trap trained, etc...the older birds will be even older..........
Do you have food in the nest boxes where these young pigeons are? If so, you should easily be able to take them at 30 days old.......I move my babies at 28 days old.
If they have access to feed and watch the parents eat, they are eating easily by that age.
It really depends on your set up.
A baby in a nest box where the parents feed it all the time and don't SEE them (the parents) eating, doesn't learn NEAR as fast.......

 

[ace in the hole]

gang,
i am going to be helping a person new to the pigeon world by setting them up with some birds. she is not ready for them until june 1st or so. i have a couple birds that are just under a month old now. if i keep them locked up without a view to the outside world, will these still be good birds to set her up with three weeks or so from now or will they be too strong on the wing? i want her to have every chance at success and don't want her to have any fly aways! also, at what age can i remove the babies from the rest of the flock and keep them separated? i want to get them asap but i want them to be able to feed ect... they are about to fly down to the floor any day now, as i saw them perching on the front of the nest box for the first time today. help me help this person!
please and thankyou
aaron

Have her wait for the next round!!!!! Get them to her at 30 days old!

Ace

 

[aarongreen123]

ok i just checked my notes, the first baby hatched on april 8, the second april 10th, and the 3rd on april 20. all three of these disqualified? is there an acceptable range that i should try to stay in going forward if for some reason 30 days exactly isn't possible? thanks for the replies!

 

[Lovebirds]

ok i just checked my notes, the first baby hatched on april 8, the second april 10th, and the 3rd on april 20. all three of these disqualified? is there an acceptable range that i should try to stay in going forward if for some reason 30 days exactly isn't possible? thanks for the replies!

IMO, the first two for sure.......the second is "iffy"........but what's she going to do with one bird?
No the babies don't have to be exactly 30 days old........I would say no older than about 35 days old.
I think an older bird is a little easier to settle if it's added to a group that is already settled to the loft......they learn and pick up stuff easier and have a better chance of sticking around. But to put an older bird in a new loft, with a new pigeon handler...........just ups the odds that it won't go quite right.........

 

[aarongreen123]

ok i'll see what i can put together for her between now and then, she may just need to wait a bit longer for the timing to be right. thanks again renee

 

[g0ldenb0y55]

First off how far away do you live from this person. If it's only a few miles then I would go ahead and give her the ones you've already set aside for her. If they fly back to your place then you can just give them back to her. I think that at 2-3 months you still have a good chance in settling them to a new loft. In any case fly aways are bound to happen even if you hatched the babies at your loft. It hasn't happened to me personally but I've heard stories about young birds getting freaked out by a hawk or something else and never return home. There really is no 100% in pigeons so I've heard and from my own experiences.

 

[aarongreen123]

she is about an hour away. i don't want to discourage her in any way. i was hoping that she could try these birds and worst case they would end up back my way, then i would slowly give her more throughout the season. i see both points of view for sure. i've had good luck with older birds, and i've had a few take off. i settled a few last season that had even flown at the previous loft, 6 of 8 are still with me, but i understand the risk. thanks again to all.

 

[Lovebirds]

First off how far away do you live from this person. If it's only a few miles then I would go ahead and give her the ones you've already set aside for her. If they fly back to your place then you can just give them back to her. I think that at 2-3 months you still have a good chance in settling them to a new loft. In any case fly aways are bound to happen even if you hatched the babies at your loft. It hasn't happened to me personally but I've heard stories about young birds getting freaked out by a hawk or something else and never return home. There really is no 100% in pigeons so I've heard and from my own experiences.

Henry, if the birds are broke to his loft, they won't go back there (most likely).....if the person he's giving the birds too wasn't a newbie......I'd offer different advice. A new person needs all the help they can get, and giving them wing strong youngsters isn't going to help the cause. It's best to start with the youngest birds possible and go from there, IMO.......
If you start with young birds and trap train and get them out at a young age and have fly aways.....well, that's just what happens sometimes.......but if you start with an older bird and it flys away, the FIRST thing you think is "well, it was really too old and wing strong"..........you don't want to do that do a new pigeon person.

 

[g0ldenb0y55]

she is about an hour away. i don't want to discourage her in any way. i was hoping that she could try these birds and worst case they would end up back my way, then i would slowly give her more throughout the season. i see both points of view for sure. i've had good luck with older birds, and i've had a few take off. i settled a few last season that had even flown at the previous loft, 6 of 8 are still with me, but i understand the risk. thanks again to all.

If you don't mind the drive to give back any of the birds she might lose then I say let her have the birds! I wouldn't make the poor girl wait. I know how excited I was when I got my first set of birds. Just guide her through the basics, I'm sure she'll get the hang it and hopefully with patience she won't lose any birds. For me there was nothing more fun than learning the basics!

 

[g0ldenb0y55]

Henry, if the birds are broke to his loft, they won't go back there (most likely).....if the person he's giving the birds too wasn't a newbie......I'd offer different advice. A new person needs all the help they can get, and giving them wing strong youngsters isn't going to help the cause. It's best to start with the youngest birds possible and go from there, IMO.......
If you start with young birds and trap train and get them out at a young age and have fly aways.....well, that's just what happens sometimes.......but if you start with an older bird and it flys away, the FIRST thing you think is "well, it was really too old and wing strong"..........you don't want to do that do a new pigeon person.

I see your point Renee....I just feel that with the proper guidance and a whole lot of patience with the training she can be successful in settling those yb's. IMO...

 

[Big T]

My Mentor cut me this deal and you can do the same. Whatever Birds you give her replace any that get lost during loft flying. I got six and lost three the first time flying because they got scared. He replaced them. So come up with a set number and that is what you build her up to.

Godd Luck,
Tony

 

[aarongreen123]

thats a great idea, hadn't thought about it that way.

 

[Pigeon0446]

We have alot of yb auctions here and there's always birds coming in from all over the country that are pretty old and strong on the wing when they get here to be auctioned off. But the thing ppl do is clip the last 2 tips and then pluck them after about 10 days. With the last 2 tips clipped the birds are less likly to take off. Another thing that ppl do is soap all the tips down with dawn dish washing soap. I have never done it myself but I've seen ppl do it and it makes the tips so they have no lift then when it washes out after a bath or 2 the tips go back to normal. I bought 3 from Florida at an auction that molted tips already I let them out for the first time today I was gonna clip their tips but since it's been so rainy here this week I just let them out in the rain and that kept them down. I know she's a newbie but if she learns a few tips on how to stick and older bird right off the bat she'll be set for the future. And whats the worse that can happen she loses a bird or 2 or 3. Thats a part of sticking pigeons.

 

[Revolution Lofts]

The younger the birds you give, the better. Now I started off with 4 year old rollers....that I let out 4 days later cause yes....I was 8 lol! They came back cause they're rollers and saw their friends and flew back. With homers...when they're born they have like a special homing missile type of characteristic in them. They'll land straight down on their house only if they're old.

Seeing she is young, its best to wait for youngest possible birds to give. It was around 4 years ago when I was 11 and a pair of my pigeons didn't come back and lets just say I wasn't a very happy cowboy ! lol

 

[RodSD]

Give the person those pigeons and tell her not to release for now and give her another one later that are 30 days old or something. She might learn to take care of those older birds now.