how to stop roofers

[REDROCKET]

simple solution get yourself a tennis ball and lob it up onto the roof every time they land on it they'll soon get the mesage when ours are out and they even land on the loft before i want then in its hats bucket lids you name it up in the air anything i can get my hands on they all still come in when im ready to feed them. so get yourself a ball lol

[Guest Davy Fleming]

Usually practice this method of owens every year when training and find it to be very successful. But going back to vanreets question and that is if any birds are already on the roofs and picking about moss or in gutters they already have fungal probs and  this problem must be addressed first before you do anything

[vanreets]

where is the OWEN tread

[Guest kev d]

where is the OWEN tread

its on the first page mate .

 

[Guest Davy Fleming]

owens thread  ;)was posted at 5.20 pm vanreet

[mac1]

You have got the completely wrong idea about racing pigeons. You must control your pigeons and not let them control you.

Without you realising it you have actually trained your birds to sit on the roof. It is no good loosing your temper or throwing things. You must out think them. And you must keep a calm disposition because no animal understands erratic behaviour. At the moment I doubt if you could win an arguement never mind a race. Your birds are not showing that they love their home or their master.

There are two things you will need to do. Feed a measured amount into a trough a bit at a time. Allow your birds 3 minutes to get their feed and 2 minutes to eat it. Then after the total of 5 minutes you pick it up. You are not aiming to starve them. They can have all they want but they have to behave properly. Use a clicker, whistle,  a voice, or a tin with some pebbles in it to give them the signal as to when you are about to feed them. Talk to them in a calm voice as you feed.

The other way is to wait until Spring and do the following. Pick a spot about 3 miles from your loft and take your birds there for a training toss. Someone has to be home to get them in. It is best if you can be the one to get them in. As they land give them a sprinkling of seed and small grain. Let them drink, and back into the basket.

Repeat the exercise for at least 5 or 6 times that day. Feed no more that day.

Repeat the exercise every day for at least 5 days. The birds should be leaving the basket and heading for home without a curve or hesitation. They ought to be trapping like rockets and looking to you for their feed.

You have a serious problem, in my book, so you have to be able to retrain your birds.

Once the retraining is done, you can feed pretty much how you like. And when you race, they should trap like lightening and if you've done it properly they will be trapping from 3 miles out. And that will give you winners.

By the way, after you have got them retrained you can train normally but, it is worth noting, that you will not gain anything by carrying out normal training before they understand what you want.

 

 

[rick]

owen is spot on for me, at an early age i always lightly blow a whistle when about to feed. the idea behind it is to create a compulsive reaction so when ever they here me whistle they trap whether they are hungry or not, i also give a time limit to begin with and u have to be strict with them if they dont come in when i say they stay out hungry all night they soon learn whistle means in  

[Guest chrisss]

where is the OWEN tread

 

sorry mate but that explains why your birds are sitting on the roof all day for ATTENTION TO DETAILyou asked for advice on this, you should have read owens post already.its all there

[Guest Davy Fleming]

You can use anything you want  i,e, whistle.  bell.  shout can absolutely anything but you must be repetitive with it and  not one thing one minute then something else the next . I use a small bell even when they are not getting out I always use my bell when I walk into the loft to feed them  and they are not long in knowing what it is for then once they are out flying just watch them trap kamikaze stuff and fantastic to watch , but the IMPORTANT thing is you must never miss when feeding them  

[vanreets]

 

sorry mate but that explains why your birds are sitting on the roof all day for ATTENTION TO DETAILyou asked for advice on this, you should have read owens post already.its all there

 

ah sorry i though you ment a differnt tread

[Guest kev d]

hi vanreets , the best thing you can do is talk to owen on a regular basis on pm

he can be your guiding light on every thing to do with the hobby of pigeons

you wount go far wrong , if he does not want to do it i will help you all i can

cheers kev .

[Guest]

50 mm radius sponge ball thread a washing line/rope through it.But if they do not get out of the habit i would say dispose of them before they lead the young birds into the habit.Harsh i no but that is what i would do.

[Guest kev d]

nice offer

saying that chrisss, any one on here would help him as long as he takes it all on board

but he needs advice from the right people im not saying im the right or wrong person to give advice

like i said some one like owen or your self cheers kev .

 

[Guest chrisss]

saying that chrisss, any one on here would help him as long as he takes it all on board

but he needs advice from the right people im not saying im the right or wrong person to give advice

like i said some one like owen or your self cheers kev .

 

god no mate with my mum having died this year[and moving one of the lofts around] i have upwards of 25 birds that have never been out [and some of them are heavy in the moult]i could do with advice never mind give it out ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Guest kev d]

dont be so silly you are one of the few people on here who talk sense ,

so to hear about your mum my mum died in 89 and it still hurts now .

[Taylorsloft]

how can you stop pigeons from sitting on my roof all day :-/

 

try keeping them in for a day don't feed them then let them out .and give them 1oz a day  

my food gets weigh every day. if theres food left after you have fed them your giving them to much

[Guest IB]

Probably one of the hardest things for a new start to do, is to get control of his young birds, with no old birds in the loft that already know the ropes.

 

My schooling starts in the nest. I feed & water the parents in their boxes, and I call them to the gallipot each time I top it up. For me, one of the first boxes the youngster has to 'tick' is paying attention to what is going on around it. So when they are 7/10 days old I expect them to be watching me, their parents go to the gallipot when I call them, and eat. And before the youngster is 21 days old I expect it to be doing the same, joining its parents. Then. when they are shifted to the yb end, they spend the first 2 weeks in there with me instilling twice a day that same message: when I call, you come straight down onto the floor to be fed.

 

Bad habits are easily learned and just as easily broken. Like the earlier post, mine are allowed to roof-hop for the first 10-14 days after they are let out for the first time so they get a chance to see what's round about them, then they are expected to land on the loft only. For me, if they land on the house roof, and don't come down when called, then a brightly coloured rubber ball lobbed onto the roof usually does the trick, they don't go back there.

 

[vanreets]

wow thanks guys

[JOHNO DSLL]

I tie a cloth to rope wet it so its heavier and chuck it on the roof when my birds even look like they goin towards the roof i just pull the rope it works for me  

[madmaxlofts]

If they are picking the moss in the slightest can assure you they have fungal probs so will need to get anti-fungal to get rid of it because you can shout all you want it will not make the slightest bit of difference THEY will come down when THEY are ready. Extremely frustrating but this will cure the problem as seen it many times.

 

 

totally agree with this quote are you sure your pigeons arnt missing summat do you give greens in the shed? mine was doing this and going in the field opposite so i started putting broccoli and cabbage water down for them once a fortnight never done it since

 

 

[vanreets]

 

 

totally agree with this quote are you sure your pigeons arnt missing summat do you give greens in the shed? mine was doing this and going in the field opposite so i started putting broccoli and cabbage water down for them once a fortnight never done it since

 

 

right will have to start them with greens they came stright down today because they were hungery stright out for a fly then 10-15 min later they were back in eating what a charm

[just ask me]

put greens into a juicer IE cabbage lettuce carrots and  other veg i put then into the water  

[Big2bees]

What I do is I keep them hungry when flying (short toss) in the morning. Once they drop on the roof, I call them in for feeding and don't let them out again once fed. I give them a very small amount of grains that they can easily digest this time. I do this every morning, then in the afternoon at around 4pm, I'd toss them out again and call them in for a meal once they drop down. I do this everyday, otherwise they will not learn the routine.

Roofers are developed when birds are given too much freedom to roam outside the loft and mess about on their own instead of understanding that they're only given the opportunity to go outside during training and competition. It also occur when the owner keep the habit of throwing grains (feeding) outside the loft. This way, the birds will not get the idea that food is available only inside the loft, hence they'd roam outside in search of it.