Hello invincible_spirit,
Thanks for reply
My wife and I live 100 yards from our local allotments and my grand kids and their friends love to sit in our garden and watch the pigeons flying around. They asked if they ever landed in the garden and I explained that they are trained to fly to their own houses/lofts. Can we have some? was the next remark. I said I would consider it.
I read various internet sites about pigeons and thought homing pigeons would be the most sensible as they could fly about and return to the garden, on occasions we could take them to the supermarket,3 miles away and release them for the kids to see come home.
I thought I had got the idea right and decided as advised on numerous internet sites to go to the local fanciers and explain my idea with the view to asking them if they had any unrung youngster that they had spare after racing back to them. I have read this is a tactic that is used by fanciers, the birds are then surplus to requirements on most occasions. I believe these are called latebreds.
Red and Mealy were chosen as the kids like these colours more in the local city centre more than the grey/white or blues. Whites were not seen in the city so the kids did not mention them. What is a grizzle please??
There are about 20 fanciers in my area and I thought it would be an easy task to gather about 8 birds. The refusals were thick and fast, as were the veiled threats of “If they land here without rings they will not be leaving”--.”We do not want strays flying about on race day” I was angry and disappointed. So much for the “approach your local fancier” advice.
I hope this brief explanation dispels any thoughts on my dishonesty in my posting.
Regards
Barrie