UkPigeonRacing

Andy, our club secretary came in this morning to help vaccinate the pigeons. We vaccinated the stock birds first. While vaccinating them, Polly our really friendly pied hen kept on flying at the partition door. Once finished with the stock birds we went onto the race birds. The first one we done was Polly as she was the first one to come to hand. When we had done her I put her down and caught the second one. While picking up the second one Polly flew up onto my shoulder. We were vaccinating in the open door way of the store section. During the whole process of vaccinating all the birds, going in and out of the race section, picking pigeons up and putting them back down after being vaccinated, bending up and down, Polly just stayed on my shoulder throughout. She would walk down my back a bit if I was picking one up off the floor but would soon move back up to my shoulder when I stood back up. I didn’t take any notice of her apart from when she kept pecking my ears. Andy couldn’t believe that she was totally unfazed by everything going on around her.

mi ne are wild think i need to make loft more narrow it's too wide

George and Morgan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:57 pm mi ne are wild think i need to make loft more narrow it's too wide

I must say George I hate wild pigeons. I have the odd ones that don’t like being caught but generally they are all pretty quiet. I do think that a couple of wild pigeons can upset the whole loft. Partly because of the way it makes us in the loft and around the birds. It’s very easy to get wound up by wild birds and change the whole feel in the loft.

your right Morgan brought in a white one and it upset the whole loft

This might seem like a strange thing to say, but i didn't know if mine are wild or not. I very seldom handle them but they seem unperturbed by my presence, and will walk into the loft over my shoes if I am standing in the way.

So today I did a small experiment.

After the birds had had their free time and had come in for their feed, I went into the loft to take the feed trays away. I quietly picked up 10 pigeons off their perches, ran my hands (hand ) over them, checked their wings and put them down again.

This is the honest truth. 9 out of the 10 did not show any objection to being handled. They just sat in my hand while I looked at their eyes and wattles and turned them over and blew the feathers off their breasts. They could not care less.

The other is a pigeon which arrived here a week older than I would have preferred.He is perfectly fine, I still picked him of the perch, but he wriggled and was not happy at all.

I am a great believer in imprinting. When they are very small they need to learn that you are a 'Good Thing". You feed them and pick them up, and talk to them.
You take the messy papers away out of the box when it is messy and make it all clean. You pick them up when they fall out of the box and put them back.

You are, in fact, the center of their lives. I takes very little effort, if you can be bothered.

I can.

Very true Murray. I don’t actually handle mine much. But am always slow around them and give them nothing to be afraid of. I think sometimes you can over handle them and by continually catching them just make them wary. Polly has always been friendly but was hardly handled while growing up. Now I can do anything with her. I do have the odd ones that will sit on me while in the loft or just sit quietly but still don’t particularly like being caught or picked up. I do have to watch when in and around the loft that I don’t stand on any.

Good to hear you have had the birds vaccinated Andy, I'm hoping to get mine done next Sunday, they should all have laid by then.
Most of the birds bred in my loft are fine as I am constantly in and out of their nest boxes when they are babies and do like handle them as much as I can, however since starting up I have been gifted birds from other fanciers and I have got to say some of these are quite flighty and unfortunately their offspring are the same regardless of how much handling they've had, the birds I brought in last year from a couple of the Worthing members who sadly had to pack up are a nightmare, they go around the loft like spinning tops, drives me mad I want to try and persevere with them as all 3 fanciers were good pigeon men and I would like to try and keep their lifes works going.

I hope you do manage to get something decent from Roy’s, Laurie’s and Brian’s pigeons Trev. They were 3 very good fanciers that we have both known since we were boys.

Andy wrote: ↑Fri Mar 04, 2022 9:00 pm I hope you do manage to get something decent from Roy’s, Laurie’s and Brian’s pigeons Trev. They were 3 very good fanciers that we have both known since we were boys.

Yes they were Andy and amongst others certainly played a big part in setting us along our way with pigeons, we had some good nights down the club with them over the years as well
I'm hoping to send you some of their youngsters for the Barcelona loft bruv.

Trev wrote: ↑Fri Mar 04, 2022 8:08 pm Good to hear you have had the birds vaccinated Andy, I'm hoping to get mine done next Sunday, they should all have laid by then.
Most of the birds bred in my loft are fine as I am constantly in and out of their nest boxes when they are babies and do like handle them as much as I can, however since starting up I have been gifted birds from other fanciers and I have got to say some of these are quite flighty and unfortunately their offspring are the same regardless of how much handling they've had, the birds I brought in last year from a couple of the Worthing members who sadly had to pack up are a nightmare, they go around the loft like spinning tops, drives me mad I want to try and persevere with them as all 3 fanciers were good pigeon men and I would like to try and keep their lifes works going.

They do drive you mad, when they are wild like that.
Some strains seem to be a bit wild, there were a strain called the Harrisons in Australia, which I hear had a reputation for being wild.
The Jansen type pigeons and the modern Euros I find are usually pretty tame.