Will all my pet pigeons be prisoners in my loft?

644 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by ezemaxima, Mar 30, 2009

moonshadow

Discussion Starter · Mar 30, 2009

I'm just wondering if all 5 of my pet white homers will be prisoners when I get my loft built. I know that my 2 '07 homers (a pair) will not be able to be flown as they were from someone's YB team (that's my best guess). However, my two '08 hens were sold to me unflown and ready to be settled in a loft. I, of course, have had them in my house since then. My '09 YB was born in early February and, of course, has been inside the whole time.

So who might be able to be settled? Will any of them? And how would I go about training older birds to be settled to my new loft? I'm just curious. I'd love for them all to have to freedom to fly, but I also don't want to loose them.

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LUCKYT

· #2 · Mar 30, 2009

I suppose it could be done, but if they are pets i would just use them for breeders. It could be heart breaking if you lost them, which is always a risk. Dave

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RodSD

· #3 · Mar 30, 2009 (Edited)

You have more chances with the 09 less with 08, and probably not a good idea for the 07. Unfortunately, resettling/rehoming birds have that risk of losing them. But if you insist then definitely expose them outside either with aviary or settling cage. I also will recommend sort of a training crate where they can see all sides and put them on the loft roof or even the highest spot at your place. My experience with resettling is that if they take off to the sky right away after release, they are usually gone. But if they linger awhile say the loft roof or even the house roof and observe their surroundings say 30 minutes to 1 hour, then usually there is a chance of them coming back. I have noticed that during resettling phase if the birds stay on my house roof for 1 hour, they actually seemed memorizing the place, then they take off. If they fly and circle and drops down back to the house roof or loft roof, they are semi-settled to me. The problem is to prevent them from getting spooked. Also if they get chased with a hawk at that training stage they are usually lost or gets killed.

For your 07 which had flown probably can go back to their old place. Just breed them and fly the young. Then perhaps you can resettle those 07 if you want to take the risk. The parents can be gone though.

ps. I have resettled 1-2 years olds. The older they are, the more nerve wracking it is, and the more they get lost.

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moonshadow

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 30, 2009

You're right. If I ever dare to let my pets go a flyin' it will be nerve wracking... We'll see how it goes. I think the one I'm most attached to is the little 09 hen because she's such a sweetheart. Too bad she's the most likely to stay close.

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ezemaxima

· #5 · Mar 30, 2009

I'm with RodSD.... I have this heavy wire cage that I keep a few birds then I place it on top of our house roof atleast once a week for a few hours. I try to alternate each prisoner bird in there and keep an eye on them for too much heat or predators. There is no roof to it so I usually place a board over half of it to give them some shade but they usually just lay there and enjoy the sun. I think this method helped me when 8 of my prisoner birds got out last week and all of them came back. I have been loft flying 4 of those ex prisoners (the oldest is an 04 hen) ever since... but then it might be just my luck.

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