The new racing pigeons are OUT!



The weather this week has finally broken. It's taken until the third week of March to get some much needed sunshine, although the wind has rarely dropped below moderate.

I've now got the two young birds taking food from my hand, so I decided this week I would let them out. 


Releasing young pigeons is the first rush of adrenaline I've had since starting out. Adrenaline is not something I ever associated with racing pigeons, but I'm quickly finding out that is why so many people have done this, for so long. It's very similar to striking when fishing. When your float starts bobbing, perhaps a little tap, or the quiver tip shakes, something primal takes over and you become hyper focused on the strike to hook that fish. This will be something our ancestors used as hunters. Well I got a similar sensation when I let the birds out. Within a few minutes they were up in the air and I thought, flying away!

Luckily they circled once and landed on my garage roof. They flitted around a little, then hopped up onto next door's roof and then my own. All the time I was watching the hedgerow for the dreaded sparrow hawks that I know visit our garden. It was a bit like watching my dogs go for a swim in an ocean I know has sharks in it. Or to revisit the fishing analogy, the hawks are the fish, my young birds are the maggots.

Thankfully their first foray out of the loft and into the wider world passed without incident and I was very happy to see they came straight back and into the loft as soon as I whistled and shook the tin full of corn.

A few thoughts on this for anyone else in the same boat. I let them out about 1 hour before they were due to be fed. I know they associate me with food in the way they behave. I'm quite sure that using food is the only way to exert any control over them. They didn't want to go too far in the same way that my kids are never far from the kitchen when they know chicken nuggets are in the oven.

I would have liked to give them a bath before I let them out, but they just weren't interested. In hindsight it wouldn't have been a good idea because I feed them quite late in the day and as we still have frosts, they may catch a chill being so young and not fully grown.

As I currently only have two young birds they are quite easy to keep an eye on. I'm aware that as the numbers increase I'm likely going to find it more difficult. I'm not sure if having a pair of birds slightly older than the others will help. I like to think they will 'guide' the new young birds when they get here.


You can watch what happened in the YouTube video above. Please (yawn) like and subscribe...


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