Lance

I will be contacting Bob Smith soon with the band. Holiday weekend here and all. It's been interacting quite well with my pigeons, too. Flies high so they don't fly together. It's tail feathers are quite chewed up as well. It's looking better already though. If i had my guess, it's been in the wild for a while now.

Yeah I did mean which breed. And no it's a tiny little thing. Smaller then my month old racers (I have fairly large racers) It's a CPFA banded bird, and by the looks of his physical condition it's been out in the wild a while. One toe is missing and it's been fully healed. Iranian tumbler you say?

Found this pigeon in my racer loft yesterday, banded and all. Looks to me like an archangel, but i'm not sure.

So that during a race, the birds don't just hang out on the roof, as they can't be clocked until in the loft.

http://www.uplandbirddog.com/training/loft.html Seems to be something along the idea that you described.

Well first I'd like to thank all the compliments I've gotten about the bird. Today I locked it in a nestbox with a unpaired cock I have. He beat it up pretty bad in about an hour. Which makes me lean towards it being a cock. As for not being mature yet, it is at least 10 months old. Seems you guys have the same confusion when it comes to this bird as I do. My mother, when told about my problem put forth that it may be a mix =P

I'm having trouble determining the gender of yearling (or close enough to) bird. It was sold to me as a male, but with no guarantee. So far it has never cooed like my other males, and it has a similar head and body structure to a yearling female i have, but that white nose thing (can't remember what it's called) resembles more the males I have, and the other males tend to attack him more then they do the females... Though i DO think i saw one of my males try and flirt with 'em. here's a link to the picture if it helps http://www.tourdesmaritimes.com/Auction/Auction06/RH15480.htm So uh... What do ya think?

We're having a bit of a blizzard here in southern Ontario. And one of my stock birds got out. (I've had her for about 2 weeks) She flew easily out of visibility, and within 20 minitues came back. (storm is really snowy so you can't really see far) She had just eaten and it was about 6pm when she got out (getting dark) What would the odds be that if i let her out on a good day, unfed that she'd return?

I'm not sure what breed they are. The parents weren't banded or anything. I got them because i really liked the male. I've tried to feed the babies by hand, but they only seem interested in their parents crop so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5rWWXpJyOs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuu8-Hiqfcs

I would have to think that reseraching your stock birds pedigree would probably be the best indicator of how good a bird they are. Granted i'm only starting.

Well I do plan on racing in 2008. The for fun pair consists of the cock, who's a homer, and the hen who's a tumbler of some sort. Was given to me:P. I'm curious as to what's going to happen with those babies. Plan on letting them have their first round, then using them as foster parents as i don't have a pedigree for the homer anyways. Thanks for the advice though, Now i only need to find a place to keep my hens while the cocks choose their nest boxes. How long should this take?

I have a troublemaker too. I have 3 big nest boxes plus a shelf i put in that could be used to nest, so in total, about 8 boxes. And i have 3 cocks. 1 i got already paired, the other just picked up a mate on his own (just a couple "for fun birds" nothing worth trying to race) And an unpaired cock that i really want to pick a box... but he seems content not to. Maybe he's not a cock after all. But anyways. The one just keeps pushing them all out of the boxes. I think he figures he's claimed the whole loft. Is there any way to deal with this?

Hello there. Hamilton Ontario here. You actually started exactly 1 month before I did. I bought some white pigeons as well, and I'm working on getting a loft full of race winners for my stock. I've bought the 6th place bird from the Alberta classic, and a bird that flew the equivalent to 3rd in le tour marintime, and was in the first drop 6 out of 9 times. I'm planning on buying some more good racing stock soon, probably in spring when I move from my temporary loft to the perminant one.

I live in southern ontario and I let my pair that started incubating on January 1st keep them. I now have two 18 day old happy, energetic (running around the loft chasing dad. lol) pigeons. My first babies EVER. I couldn't even think about throwing away those eggs lol. Though i have a question. Why would it be too early? And another one. Does anyone have a picture of "fully feathered under the wing" ? You can describe it all ya want to me, i wont understand until i see it

Interesting Roland. Unfortunately i only have disposable nest bowls. I'm just gonna have to get some nest box fronts that can lock. Someone else gave me a method they use which is to wait for the cock to jump into the nestbox then pull him out as he starts to fight with the other cock. The object would be to make him think the other cock is stronger. I tried that, but I think my bird's a bit too smart for that. Just gives me dirty looks. lol. Oddly enough it only seems to be that one pair he doesn't like. He'll even let some other birds (not his mate) into his nest box with his 2 week old babies, and doesn't have a problem.

LOL. You and me both. Infact my white homer cock wont even let the other cocks in the nest boxes if he sees it. He's a problem, but also my favorite bird.

Wow, can sure pack them in there huh? =P

It stings, losing birds you liked. I lost 3 a few weeks ago. One a day, and then on the 3rd day i noticed something. A hawk, circling my house....

How much room does your standard homing pigeon need in the loft? Trying to get a good cut off number for my loft.

I have a good white breeding pair. If you live near southern Ontario we could probably make some sort of deal.

Haha i like that. I think i'll just keep him locked in the box. They got mad at feeding time today, i put the food down before i let them out, i nearly got pecked O_O.

Great advice, I'll keep that in mind. My cockbird, one that no other bird in my loft will even bother fighting has taken over nearly every nestbox and wont let any others in them, so i've decided to lock either him or my other pairs into the nest boxes and was wondering how when and how long daily i should keep them/him in there.

Okay sounds good, do i let them out at feeding or just put a special bowl in or something?

Hey everyone. When you lock a male and female into a nest box for the purpose of mating, how long do you leave them in there? When do you do it and all that stuff?