Young birds landing in trees

[Murray]

Cheers, mate

[Murray]

And also, Pete, you are in the same situation I was in after my shift. My new babies had no "role model" and had to learn from scratch.
Now the 12 big youngsters, the 'Young Stars' are educated and doing things right, the small ones have something to copy.
I've 4 small ones, two smokey blue bars, a red and a mealy. Devo saw them in the nests when he was here. They are starting to fly, the blues had their first proper fly with the bunch yesterday. They flew, landed on the trap and in, just like the other ones. I put a tray of feed in the sputnik, they see the others eating, in they go
Once you have pigeons trained and doing it right, it becomes so much easier.

[PeteDerby]

How much are you feeding Pete now is it nice and light ?

The older ones are getting an ounce a day, the babies all they want for 15 mins then trough taken away. Once training starts I’m planning going depurative mix, right now it’s champion mix 90% plus some safflower. They trap pretty well on the whole, so my biggest concern is the landing in trees.

So do the older ones fly well then go to the tree or just go to the tree after a short fly

There’s a couple of particular culprits - both long distance birds but not sure if that’s relevant?- who’ll go fly-about nice and high and range, then land in a tree away from the loft. A few hours later they show up, fly around a bit and then land in a tree near the loft. I’ll chase them out of the tree so they fly to another one, so on and so forth until they clear off and land somewhere else out of sight. After about 4-8 hours they come back to the loft and trap.

[PeteDerby]

I saw this and thought it very good illustration.
I try not to make my pigeons do what I want. A try to let them do what I want. Subtle but infinitely important difference.

Like that Murray.

[Trev]

I did have this a few years ago when my neighbours had an enormous pine tree in their garden, the birds loved it, they also loved using the pine needles for nesting materials.
I have alot of open fields and woodland around me, my birds all fly together, young and old, they are also on an open loft so spend a lot of time in the fields or on the roof tops. It can sometimes take me a while to get the youngsters under control, but they do eventually learn from the old birds and will trap fairly quickly once they see the wires go up as they know this means a feed or some treats.

[Murray]

The older ones are getting an ounce a day, the babies all they want for 15 mins then trough taken away. Once training starts I’m planning going depurative mix, right now it’s champion mix 90% plus some safflower. They trap pretty well on the whole, so my biggest concern is the landing in trees.

So do the older ones fly well then go to the tree or just go to the tree after a short fly

There’s a couple of particular culprits - both long distance birds but not sure if that’s relevant?- who’ll go fly-about nice and high and range, then land in a tree away from the loft. A few hours later they show up, fly around a bit and then land in a tree near the loft. I’ll chase them out of the tree so they fly to another one, so on and so forth until they clear off and land somewhere else out of sight. After about 4-8 hours they come back to the loft and trap.

As you have discovered, Pete, chasing them doesn't work. They just fly further away.
If they land in a tree, ignore them. It is better for your blood pressure. When they come in, give them a tiny feed, a quarter of an ounce. If they get nothing, they wonder why they bothered coming in.
It's a battle of wills. Reward them for doing it correctly and trapping properly, Take the reward away if they don't. To bed with hardly anything to eat.

[Murray]

Just on the same subject, I've had my young birds on a firm feeding schedule, to keep the young buggers under control.
They will land in the trees, or over the back fence.....
It's partly my fault, in Bendigo they'd all be out on the lawn of a weekend, having a bath and a lie around.

[Murray]

So they were happy to fly and trap properly and all of that.
Here I have a big patch of dirt. I discourage them from being on the ground, who knows what they are eating.
When I get the new loft finished I want a lawn in front of it.

[Murray]

Anyway, It's getting cold overnight all of a sudden. Winter is coming.
I've noticed the youngsters have been flying their hour in the morning, and trapping okay, but not brilliant, and there's been a bit of scrapping in the shed.
The birds weren't really happy.
They were hungry.
So for their second feed yesterday after their second fly I mixed 2 cups of normal mix and 1 cup of maize. Fed them as much as they wanted then took the tray away.
This morning they flew an hour and had normal feed.
This afternoon they had a half hour out, and then dropped. I was standing at the sputnik and looked up to see wings and feet descending towards my head!
They got the same again, extra maize and a little fish oil.
I suppose it's something you understand with a long time training them. I figured something wasn't quite right, so I upped the feed. They flew better, trapped better and look happier.
You can't learn that out of a book.

[PeteDerby]

All very interesting points, thank you. It’s a steep learning curve!