I’m pretty new to homing pigeons. I’d been letting my birds loft fly for about a week and they hadn’t really been flying a lot. Just a little. But not routing. I did have one get scared off by a coops and the bird still came back an hour later.
I was kinda worried about them getting lazy. I’ve had the birds since December ish, all young birds, and they had the settling cage from Dec-mid Feb. Then loft flying for the last week. I had put off loft flying due to cold weather and more hawks around for winter.
Anyway I tried to push them a bit into flying today. Several of the birds flew really well and circled the loft several times. It was nice to see. After a few minutes of this I tried to call them in for food, however they did not come down and eventually flew out. I hoped they were routing and would come back.
Unfortunately they did not come back. I waited until dark. I am hoping they will come back tomorrow. I’m really bummed and mad at myself because the three that flew off included two of my best birds. I shouldn’t have pushed them. I did it only because I’d been struggling to find info on how long it takes birds to start routing, if they do it on their own naturally, and how one might encourage it vs them just hanging out on the loft.
As far as feeding and routine goes, I’ve been feeding them around 5pm. I had started loft flying around 4:30 and was letting them out a bit earlier each day. Last two days they were let out around 3pm.
They all trap though not as quickly as I’d like. For food I typically feed them only 1x per day and let them eat as much as they can in 8-10 minutes. If I skip a day (which I did once or twice to try and get them more motivated to trap), they don’t fly much at all except to fly to me in the yard (clearly hoping for food).
Guess I’m just posting here to find out what my chances are at seeing these birds again. I’d hate to think I lost my best birds one week into loft flying bc I made a stupid decision.
If they do come back, anyone have any advice on how to handle things going forward? I’m trying to train them like racing birds (though at the moment I am not planning on any races).
I was kinda worried about them getting lazy. I’ve had the birds since December ish, all young birds, and they had the settling cage from Dec-mid Feb. Then loft flying for the last week. I had put off loft flying due to cold weather and more hawks around for winter.
Anyway I tried to push them a bit into flying today. Several of the birds flew really well and circled the loft several times. It was nice to see. After a few minutes of this I tried to call them in for food, however they did not come down and eventually flew out. I hoped they were routing and would come back.
Unfortunately they did not come back. I waited until dark. I am hoping they will come back tomorrow. I’m really bummed and mad at myself because the three that flew off included two of my best birds. I shouldn’t have pushed them. I did it only because I’d been struggling to find info on how long it takes birds to start routing, if they do it on their own naturally, and how one might encourage it vs them just hanging out on the loft.
As far as feeding and routine goes, I’ve been feeding them around 5pm. I had started loft flying around 4:30 and was letting them out a bit earlier each day. Last two days they were let out around 3pm.
They all trap though not as quickly as I’d like. For food I typically feed them only 1x per day and let them eat as much as they can in 8-10 minutes. If I skip a day (which I did once or twice to try and get them more motivated to trap), they don’t fly much at all except to fly to me in the yard (clearly hoping for food).
Guess I’m just posting here to find out what my chances are at seeing these birds again. I’d hate to think I lost my best birds one week into loft flying bc I made a stupid decision.
If they do come back, anyone have any advice on how to handle things going forward? I’m trying to train them like racing birds (though at the moment I am not planning on any races).