How to Train a Homing Pigeon

Pigeon enthusiasts specially train and breed homing pigeons to find their way back home when traveling for long distances. Pigeons have a natural ability to return to their nest all on their own, but you can train them to sharpen this natural ability and race against other homing pigeons. When you train homing pigeons, begin at a very early age and be very consistent to get the best results.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Start training your pigeons when they are around 3 weeks old and still unable to fly. Put the pigeon in an open cage on a terrace in front of the pigeon loft so he can begin learning his surroundings and landmarks.

2. Encourage the pigeons to walk and fly around the terrace when they are around 1 month old. They won't fly very far at this age, but give them enough freedom to explore the terrace area more as they experiment with learning to fly.

3. Allow the pigeons to fly away from the terrace. At around 2 months old, the birds will circle around the terrace to increase their range of distance before returning home.

4. Take the pigeons about 1 mile from the house and release them, tossing them toward home when the birds are around 3 months old.

5. Increase the distance gradually until you train the homing pigeons by tossing them toward home from about 2 miles away from so they can practice returning home.

Tips & Warnings

• Select a clear landmark when you train homing pigeons. It should be a landmark easy to recognize from a distance.

[arther]

on 5/29/2009 why is it when i let my young homing pigeon's out of the loft, they fly up a little an then on the roof of my house and it take's a while for me to get them back down and they don't fly into the loft?