how old are the homers? and where are you located?
I bought my first 2 pairs of pigeons
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the homers may not stay if let out as they are too old, if you want to fly homers best to get squeakers which are young birds 35 or 40 days old, and train them. the rollers can be settled to your loft, but not sure how long they need to stay locked up, perhaps a month or more.
the rollers can be resettled, the homers may just try to fly back to the pre owner, that it why the call them homers, so they may leave the second you let them out or decide to leave in a month or more, but chances are good they will try to go back "home". only train young that you hatched at your place or get young birds 30 to 40 days old and train them to your loft.so that means even if i train them longer they will not come back
When the breeder told you he never "took" the birds out, he may, in theory, have been telling you the truth. However, if his loft has any type of aviary or windows, then the birds were "out", whether he took them or not.
Bottom line is, you were hoodooed..........any reputable pigeon person who raises/sells homers would not tell you that birds this age can be homed or rehomed...........
If you let them out, the chances of them staying are slim to none, IMO. Is it POSSIBLE? Yes.......anything is possible, but once they are out, if they DON'T stay and DON'T know where home is, whether it's your home or the one they came from, then they're on their own. Never having had to "find" a way to survive, within a few days, they'd probably starve to death.
The rollers however, are a different story. They don't "home" like homers do. Homers are called homers for a very good reason.
It's now about how devastated WE are.......it's about what it does to the PIGEON, when they get out in the big world and have no clue what to do or where to go and the slow death from starvation that is a real possibility. WE get over it. THEY don't.
Pigeons get lost every day. I loose pigeons every year. However, I do all I can to train them and take care of them and prepare them for what I want them to do. And I do all of that at the appropriate age and 9 months isn't the appropriate age.
As far as breeding..........again, IMO.........a bird needs to be at LEAST 9 months old and preferably, 1 year old before allowed to breed. Keeps the breeder healthy and you'll get healthier babies.
Once these new birds settle in, it wouldn't hurt to let them raise a few babies. By that time, they will be 10 or 11 months old anyway.
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