I own my own breed of high fliers, and so I have no experiece with IHF, but I don't know of any breed of pigeon which does a whole lot of flying at only six weeks of age !! Give them some time to mature a bit, and I personally would not be chasing them off to fly, as they are still imprinting at this point in their lives. Let nature take it's course and relax a bit.Hi
I was wondering if someone could advise me. i have just startd with some IHF tumblers. I have managd to breed 2 youngsters but I find that they do not fly. They are about 6 weeks old. They just sit on the top of the house if I chase them up.
I feed them in the evening a few ounces of food. The most idal time I can let them out is in the evening aftr 6 pm and I am in the UK
Any advice as to how I can get them up and alight?
Any help will be appeciated.
Your probably right. I used to have some great Birmingham rollers which prformed very well. I just keep seeing IHF sites where thy say thir pigeons are usually flying an hour or so at 6 weeks.I own my own breed of high fliers, and so I have no experiece with IHF, but I don't know of any breed of pigeon which does a whole lot of flying at only six weeks of age !! Give them some time to mature a bit, and I personally would not be chasing them off to fly, as they are still imprinting at this point in their lives. Let nature take it's course and relax a bit.
for your For your information I let them out this morning and thy wre sat on the roof when I left home. I left some dari insid the kitbox in case they came in. My wife phoned me at work to say she saw them flying aroud 3 o clock pm. I let them out again at 6 pm and watchd them circl the loft a 5 - 10 mins but wantd to come down when thy saw me probably because they were hungry. Anyways i gave them approx 2 ounces of feed once they came in..Just wondering what the next step is and if I could learn anything from this.1 How much to feed and when.
If I am going to be flying them that day. (Make the tips of your thumb and index finger meet to make a circle) I gave each pigeon that much feed and just a little more. Do not over feed them because high flyers need to be light to be able to fly high for a very long time. Let water be available all the time.
2 what you recommend for feeding the flyers
I gave mine chick peas, sunflower seeds, and a mix I bought. Give them a bit more protein. The thing you have to keep in mind is try to feed them at the same time everyday so that they are hungry at the same time as well.
3 the best time to fly them...
It all depends on how long they are capable of flying. My Pakistani High Flyers flew for 6-8 hours straight so I only flew them on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and let them out at about noon time, and they came back inside the loft at around 6-7 PM. A lot of people fly them early in the morning at around 5 or 6 AM so that they are back around noon time. But for this to happen you're going to have to change their sleeping habits. (Cover up any source of light about 2 hours before the sun is supposed to set the day before so that they get enough rest)
It also depends on if you have hawks in the area. Find out if the hawks attack in the morning or afternoon first and then make a schedule.
4 Any other tips you might like to share
What I needed to do with my high flyers was because they flew for long hours and sometimes I needed them to come down. Whistling/shaking seed or anything like that sort rarely ever works for high flyers when they are so high up in the sky that they are only specks in the sky. I bought a couple of pigeons that were not good at flying at all. (They flew for 10 mins and then sat on the loft). when my high flyers saw these pigeons they started to decrease in height and soon they were sitting on the loft. Just make sure you don't make the pigeons that don't fly good breed.
Thank you Gurbir I have made a note of all your suggestions and tips. i will be writing them all down in my "pigeon diary."Most likely your pigeons were hungry thats why they came inside. Also could you ask your wife how long they were flying for if she knows?
I feed my pigeons either 5-6 hours before they fly or I feed them once they have flown.
Try feeding them before they fly though. Like a few hours before, also have water available all the time. Good ventilation in the loft, don't over crowd, how many pigeons do you have all together?
If you have an msn account, my email address is [email protected] feel free to email me anytime.
Thnks for your ADVICE. I guess maybe I m expecting too much.I own my own breed of high fliers, and so I have no experiece with IHF, but I don't know of any breed of pigeon which does a whole lot of flying at only six weeks of age !! Give them some time to mature a bit, and I personally would not be chasing them off to fly, as they are still imprinting at this point in their lives. Let nature take it's course and relax a bit.
I allow good breeding and nature to take it's course. IMO, healthy well fed birds should want to fly well on their own. Now, keep in mind, my main focus is on my racing pigeons, and so my high fliers are fed the same diet and given the same loft flying at my YB racers.Thnks for your ADVICE. I guess maybe I m expecting too much.
How do you train your youn birds to fly. Any tips?
I am happy you have confirmed they are high flyers. Hopefully with the right conditioning they should want to fly by themselves.Ok the chicks and the parents are pure high flyers, I can tell from their posture. (Should be lean for starters).
So the problem might just be that they are too young. Let them out in another week or two. High flyers have it in their blood to fly very high so its just a matter of time until they start too.
Some of my hens only lay 1 egg too for some reason, but the babies from that one egg fly great so thats not a problem. Just make sure your rollers and high flyers don't breed with each other. Keep both breeds pure. Also keep track of which pair are the parents to which pigeons as they might come in handy in the future. Also if you haven't already get bands for your coming pigeons because high flyers tend to get lost when they fly too high. I've had about 20 lost last year and 14 of them were returned thanks to the bands.
You can feed the pigeons one day. And then check in a few hours by feeling their crop, if there is a bulge then you will see that they still have seeds. Time how long it takes for the seeds in the crop to go, I am guessing 4-5 hours but I haven't tried this myself. Once you know how long the seeds stay there, feed them those many hours before you let them out.
could I ask you what your feeding habits with the pigeons are? Times, quantities and types of feed.I allow good breeding and nature to take it's course. IMO, healthy well fed birds should want to fly well on their own. Now, keep in mind, my main focus is on my racing pigeons, and so my high fliers are fed the same diet and given the same loft flying at my YB racers.
