ElliottLang

It depends, if they're flying for anywhere up to an hour from the loft and ranging for around 20 minutes like the others have said, then I'd say you're safe with tossing them from a bit further afield. I normally only start tossing at a mile for my birds on the darkening system because they haven't usually had as much experience because they're younger.

If you can get young birds all from the same loft and line then I'd say that's the best option of the two. If you're planning on breeding then I'd shy away from getting a mixed family loft because it'll be a real pain in the *expletive removed* when you come to breeding because you'll never be able to predict what kind of offspring a pairing will produce.

Yeah, I agree with starving them, it's the only way to control them and get them to come back and it doesn't do them any harm. I've got an air rifle that I use for those times when wild birds are constantly distracting my birds. I wouldn't worry about having to take a seemingly drastic course of action. I had a similar experience to you once and I left them alone, hoping they'd just come back naturally, and I ended up losing two of my favourite birds after a training flight one day. I can't be 100% but I'm pretty sure that the bloody wild pigeon they were hanging around with had something to do with it

Hi everyone, My name's Elliott, I've been racing pigeons for a very long time and I found this forum and thought I might be able to offer advice and pick up a few tips along the way! Anyway, that's me, thanks for having me!

I agree with OldYellow, you should get involved with your local clubs as soon as possible. This way you can get to know the local fanciers so you can find out what kind of birds you need for the courses they fly locally (do you need strong, heavier birds or lighter, faster birds). See if you can get hold of your local race records for the courses your birds will be flying (the club secretary should be able to give them to you, or at least point you in the right direction). When you have the results, sort them by liberation point (where the birds were released from) and direction of flight for both old birds and young birds (i.e. east to west, north to south etc.) then work out the average speed ranges of the top 10 birds in the races on each course over the years. If the average speed for a course is, say, over 1600 yards per minute then you know that for that course you will need to enter fast pigeons to win. If you see the winners have speeds of below about 1400 yards per minute then you know that the course is tougher and will require stronger birds to cope with the harsher weather or tougher land conditions. Hope this is useful for you!