Why I raise pigeons

ef29 DeleteThis @drexel.edu (E-Man) wrote in message news:<e48ef388.0405210314.43d56768 DeleteThis @posting.google.com>...
> jetdove DeleteThis @hotmail.com (Jet Dove) wrote in message news:<f9b91ea.0405202226.40e8a2c2 DeleteThis @posting.google.com>...
> > For the wonder and beauty of flight. That's why I raise pigeons. On
> > any afternoon when the weather is nice(and it usually is here in
> > coastal S. Cal.) I can go out into my garden and decide which of my
> > athletic beauties I want to send up to claim the airspace above my
> > property. When released they climb rapidly to altitude in a powerful
> > swirling tornado of joyful flight. Once they are up in their element,
> > clean air, a blue sky with perhaps a few
> > misty white clouds rolling in from the ocean, they cruse, they dive,
> > they bank, they circle, or fly figure eights. At times they fly so
> > high I can barely see them. At times higher than that! Often after an
> > hour or so of flying they will descend to a couple hundred feet and
> > make a few passes to check out their home and then fly right back up.
> > Watching them leaves no doubt as to their love for flying (or mine).
> > Some late afternoons when
> > sea gulls by the hundreds are headed for the ocean the near
> > collisions with my birds are fun to watch. When the sun gets low in
> > the sky I start to worry about my birds coming home. When they decide
> > to come home they descend rapidly often doing backward flips(tumbling)
> > to speed the process. Suddenly they land on the roof of the loft,
> > strut around proudly and quickly jump back into the loft. I feed them
> > and lock them in for the night.
> > It makes sense to me!
>
>
> Yo Jet,
> my sentiments exactly!
> I raise rollers, and the sight of 10 or more birds rolling 30-40 feet at the
> same time STILL takes my breath away!
>
> (Not that it's a problem for you, but you can control, to an extent, the
> height at which they fly, by what and how much you feed them?!)
> E-Man
E-Man - What's the deal on that? Different grains provide different
energy levels? I have only fed the commercially available pigeon feed
available at the local feed store. My birds have all remained
amazingly healthy and most fly very high (they are Persian highflying
tumblers) A few prefer to sit on the roof of their loft so I don't
breed them but they do seem to be healthy. -Jet
 >> Stay informed about: Why I raise pigeons 

> E-Man - What's the deal on that? Different grains provide different
> energy levels? I have only fed the commercially available pigeon feed
> available at the local feed store. My birds have all remained
> amazingly healthy and most fly very high (they are Persian highflying
> tumblers) A few prefer to sit on the roof of their loft so I don't
> breed them but they do seem to be healthy. -Jet


Yo Jet,
it used to be quite common for rollers to fly like tipplers, and stay
aloft for hours. When I was a kid, I thought they were SUPPOSED to do
that! But after talking to a guy who amazed me with birds performing
"in my face," I found that it didn't have to be like that. I mean, my
rollers were rolling like heck, .....it's just that you couldn't see
them without a pair of binoculars!
For me, peas and small canary seed, mean up, wheat, milo mean down.
If you notice when you feed mixed grains, the birds have a tendency to
"sort" what they want, and leave the rest. But different birds prefer
different seed, sometimes causing different results among different birds
in the same kit, taking away from a uniform performance.
With my rollers, I cannot have a situation where some feel like flying, and
some don't. They ALL must perform with as much unison as possible. So
everybody gets the same thing. To start my flying season, I must first gain
control of the kit. This starts with 2 days of "no food" so I have their
undivided attention. I try to fly them as often as possible, to get them in
shape and lose their winter fat, from being locked down all winter.
When they trap in I feed them straight wheat. On wheat, they have a tendency
to go no higher than 200 feet. (Usually lower.) However, they are usually not
that active rolling wise. By the time they have lost their winter fat and are
flying strong, every 3rd or 4th day, I feed them mixed seed with lots of peas.
(Still, basically only a tablespoon per bird.) Next day after feeding the mix,
they sky out at about 500 feet, and unison-roll their way down to 150-200 feet,
and go up and do it again. Then, back on the straight wheat, they seem to max
out at about 150-200 feet and stay there. Even on high barometer days, they
stay at a decent height.
Anyway, if I need them to fly at a higher average height, I feed more mixed
grain, or peas. If I need them to stay lower, I feed straight wheat.

This is just a simplistic explanation, and there are many other factors
involved. Barometric pressure STILL makes a difference, family of birds,
feed, temperature, humidity, predators, all still play a major roll (nice pun!)
in how our birds perform. But trying to maintain control of what they eat
has made a significant improvement on performance. Especially on the height
of the performance.
E-Man
 >> Stay informed about: Why I raise pigeons 

ef29 RemoveThis @drexel.edu (E-Man) wrote in message news:<e48ef388.0405240359.69ce6f29 RemoveThis @posting.google.com>...
> > E-Man - What's the deal on that? Different grains provide different
> > energy levels? I have only fed the commercially available pigeon feed
> > available at the local feed store. My birds have all remained
> > amazingly healthy and most fly very high (they are Persian highflying
> > tumblers) A few prefer to sit on the roof of their loft so I don't
> > breed them but they do seem to be healthy. -Jet
>
>
> Yo Jet,
> it used to be quite common for rollers to fly like tipplers, and stay
> aloft for hours. When I was a kid, I thought they were SUPPOSED to do
> that! But after talking to a guy who amazed me with birds performing
> "in my face," I found that it didn't have to be like that. I mean, my
> rollers were rolling like heck, .....it's just that you couldn't see
> them without a pair of binoculars!
> For me, peas and small canary seed, mean up, wheat, milo mean down.
> If you notice when you feed mixed grains, the birds have a tendency to
> "sort" what they want, and leave the rest. But different birds prefer
> different seed, sometimes causing different results among different birds
> in the same kit, taking away from a uniform performance.
> With my rollers, I cannot have a situation where some feel like flying, and
> some don't. They ALL must perform with as much unison as possible. So
> everybody gets the same thing. To start my flying season, I must first gain
> control of the kit. This starts with 2 days of "no food" so I have their
> undivided attention. I try to fly them as often as possible, to get them in
> shape and lose their winter fat, from being locked down all winter.
> When they trap in I feed them straight wheat. On wheat, they have a tendency
> to go no higher than 200 feet. (Usually lower.) However, they are usually not
> that active rolling wise. By the time they have lost their winter fat and are
> flying strong, every 3rd or 4th day, I feed them mixed seed with lots of peas.
> (Still, basically only a tablespoon per bird.) Next day after feeding the mix,
> they sky out at about 500 feet, and unison-roll their way down to 150-200 feet,
> and go up and do it again. Then, back on the straight wheat, they seem to max
> out at about 150-200 feet and stay there. Even on high barometer days, they
> stay at a decent height.
> Anyway, if I need them to fly at a higher average height, I feed more mixed
> grain, or peas. If I need them to stay lower, I feed straight wheat.
>
> This is just a simplistic explanation, and there are many other factors
> involved. Barometric pressure STILL makes a difference, family of birds,
> feed, temperature, humidity, predators, all still play a major roll (nice pun!)
> in how our birds perform. But trying to maintain control of what they eat
> has made a significant improvement on performance. Especially on the height
> of the performance.
> E-Man

E-Man, Thanks for the interesting info. It may be useful to me as I
prefer my birds up high out of neighbors consciousness. Regs are
unreasonably tight hereabouts. No problems and trying to keep it that
way. - Jet
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