The training of young pigeons
(Internet Published) Jul 2001
I reckon that my own strain of high flying Tumblers that I keep now and the
3 strains of Tipplers that I used to keep many years ago had much in common.
They are, or were, typical of the general issue of highflying kit pigeons.
The Young ones can pick up their own feed at 3 1/2 weeks old, so that they
are best taken away from their parents then and placed in what I call a
Weaners section. At this time they should have started off on their loft
training and general imprinting. At that age they can't fly but at 5 1/2
weeks old they certainly can, so we have two weeks to get them imprinted
which means getting them used to the loft entrance, the surrounding area and
most of all the man which protects and feeds them.
At 5 1/2 to 8 weeks old, such pupils are at a critical stage and could very
easily get up on the wing and fly away never to be seen again. We have heard
about elastic bands, etc used to immobilise one or both wings. Well, like
all ideas this is a good idea if it works, but I've never seen it being done
on a regular basis.
A widespread idea is to keep such early trainees in a state of extreme
hunger but I don't like that idea. I've observed such young pigeons and I
reckon that they are so hungry that all that they want to see is food. On
this starvation tactic, they are not trained, taught or imprinted - they are
broken. Many men can't tell the difference between a trained youngster and a
broken one - but I can. As I've said the blind hungry ones clearly observe
nothing so they learn nothing. The less hungry trainees will take notice of
every little thing that goes on and I can see that they are learning.
I suggest moderation. I like to have my trainees with a healthy appetite and
ready to respond to a few grains of feed, not on a starvation diet. The
other extreme is to overfeed and then of course the trainees will hang about
for hours with no notion of going into the loft.