Settling a new homer pigeon to a new loft

On 3/20/2006 9:22 AM Lisa loudly proclaimed:

> How old are the birds? That would make a difference here.
>
> However, if the man you are getting them from says you shouldn't fly
> them, believe it! Re-homing pigeons does not have a very good success
> rate at all. If they're too old (even just months old), it is unlikely
> you'll have success, even though they were not flown at his loft. I
> wouldn't take the risk. But, if you decide to try it, you would want
> to wait until they've paired up and raised a few hatches of young.
> Even then, there is no guarantee.
>
> I, personally, would not take the risk -- especially if the breeder is
> the one who said to keep them as "prisoner" birds. He knows his birds,
> how old they are, etc. Consider him the expert in this matter. As one
> of my favorite mentors says, "If you want to try homing them to your
> place, make sure you take a picture of them, because it will probably
> be the last time you see them." LOL My advice is that you should let
> them breed and train their young to home to your loft. That will be
> much, much easier.
>

Thanks for the information. I am not sure how old the birds are, but
the breeder said he couldn't let them out to fly last year because of a
hawk problem. I think I am going to take your advice and just use the
first two pair to breed and raise their young.

On another topic, sort of, the breeder says he has blue bars and dark
checked birds. I am thinking of getting a pair of each colors, breed a
few, then maybe mix a blue bar with a dark checked bird and see what I
get. Any ideas what it might be? Thanks again.

--
LJ
My Best Friend Is My Wife!!
 >> Stay informed about: Settling a new homer pigeon to a new loft 

Hawks, in some areas, are seasonal. I raise and fly roller pigeons, and
this year, for instance, I have what we call late-hatches, or birds
that were not able to be flown out because the hawks migrated in before
they could. Then, if you choose to fly them when the hawks leave, they
are too strong and get lost easy. Getting late hatches to fly and kit
becomes harder to do, and more time consuming, so if possible, you try
to fly them with an already established kit, and add them to the kit
maybe one at a time.
The breeder told you right,.....that it would be best to breed from
them and fly out the babies. And the one absolute rule that all pigeon
people should always follow, is to NEVER,EVER,EVER,NEVER FLY YOUR
BREEDERS! I can ga-run-tee that Murphy's law will slap you upside the
head if you do not follow that advice.

Actually, bar and check is not a color, as much as a pattern. (Blue is
the color)You can also have checkered blu bars, etc. Two blue-bars
mated together does not necessarily mean the babies will be blu-bars.
Depends on what the dominant gene is with the parents. Each bird
carries two main slugs of genes. One from the father, one from the
mother. So you would only know what your gonna get if you know the
liniage color/pattern of the parents. Otherwise, it is trial and error.
I have had 2 dark-check barred birds give me nothing but recessive red
barless babies, because both parents carried a recessive red gene.
(Have no idea thou, what happened to the bars!lol!)
Make a difinitive choice as to what type of pigeons you wish to raise.
If you want airial performance, work towards that and try not to pay
any attention to what they look like. If you want looks, work towards
that. Nice thing about performance birds, if they start performing
great, you will start to know the possible "look" of a great performer,
and they will look good to you, AND you'll probably end up even getting
some "pretty" performers that just came out that way.%^)
Trying to get great looks with great performance is doable, but much
more time consuming, as the color genes are a whole different ballgame
than the performance genes.
And like Lisa, get yourself a mentor who you can always get advice
from. Really helps your development.
Hope this helps,
E-Man
 >> Stay informed about: Settling a new homer pigeon to a new loft 

On 3/29/2006 12:48 PM ef29 RemoveThis @drexel.edu loudly proclaimed:

> Hawks, in some areas, are seasonal. I raise and fly roller pigeons, and
> this year, for instance, I have what we call late-hatches, or birds
> that were not able to be flown out because the hawks migrated in before
> they could. Then, if you choose to fly them when the hawks leave, they
> are too strong and get lost easy. Getting late hatches to fly and kit
> becomes harder to do, and more time consuming, so if possible, you try
> to fly them with an already established kit, and add them to the kit
> maybe one at a time.
> The breeder told you right,.....that it would be best to breed from
> them and fly out the babies. And the one absolute rule that all pigeon
> people should always follow, is to NEVER,EVER,EVER,NEVER FLY YOUR
> BREEDERS! I can ga-run-tee that Murphy's law will slap you upside the
> head if you do not follow that advice.
>
> Actually, bar and check is not a color, as much as a pattern. (Blue is
> the color)You can also have checkered blu bars, etc. Two blue-bars
> mated together does not necessarily mean the babies will be blu-bars.
> Depends on what the dominant gene is with the parents. Each bird
> carries two main slugs of genes. One from the father, one from the
> mother. So you would only know what your gonna get if you know the
> liniage color/pattern of the parents. Otherwise, it is trial and error.
> I have had 2 dark-check barred birds give me nothing but recessive red
> barless babies, because both parents carried a recessive red gene.
> (Have no idea thou, what happened to the bars!lol!)
> Make a difinitive choice as to what type of pigeons you wish to raise.
> If you want airial performance, work towards that and try not to pay
> any attention to what they look like. If you want looks, work towards
> that. Nice thing about performance birds, if they start performing
> great, you will start to know the possible "look" of a great performer,
> and they will look good to you, AND you'll probably end up even getting
> some "pretty" performers that just came out that way.%^)
> Trying to get great looks with great performance is doable, but much
> more time consuming, as the color genes are a whole different ballgame
> than the performance genes.
> And like Lisa, get yourself a mentor who you can always get advice
> from. Really helps your development.
> Hope this helps,
> E-Man
>

Thanks for the reply. All of this information is really helpful. And
just for the record, I have two pairs of birds now. Two are blue bars
and the other two are red checked.

--
LJ
My Best Friend Is My Wife!!
 >> Stay informed about: Settling a new homer pigeon to a new loft