ezzy333, that is an obvious and fantastic question! Probably the reason you have not received an answer is because there is much that is not known. You can get a variety of answers to similar questions like, 'How do they know how to find their way home?' I would venture to say most if not all the answers to that question would leave you asking more questions and not be satisfied with the first or any of the answers.
I would like to believe there is a connection between the two... that is to say the make up of the eye has a direct correlation on the speed and accuracy of the homing ability.
There are a few "givens", one must subscribe to when going down this path. Namely horses and dogs are not pigeons and though they all race the similarity stops there.
The argument has been used, "what about the eye of a dog or a horse there is no credecnce given to their eyes make up when selecting racing or breeding stock." That is true and comparing dogs and horses to racing pigeons in that vein is like comparing apples and oranges.
Yes they are all three used for racing...but the dogs must have something to chase, and the horse must have a jockey kicking and whipping him to race.
Our pigeons require neither. Horses and dogs run around a "track" they do not "HOME". So if we can agree we really cannot compare the homing abilities of dogs and horses to Racing Homing Pigeons, then we can advance in our understanding of why the eye is an important tool when selecting brreding stock for next years hopefuls.
To further this point and drive it home let me expound.
The next part of the puzzle is the eye itself. If you look at a dog or a horse, 99.9% of them have plain dark eyes. Much like the bull eyes seen on many splashes in our birds. In other words there is not any variation from one eye to the next which is plainly visible.
Our birds like people, have incredibly diverse eyes, from nearly white to dark red, green, yellow, orange, and many variations and combinations of these colors. The color is not important.
Let me repeat that, THE COLOR IS NOT IMPORTANT. What is important is all the things you see in an eye, the variations in color and structure from the pupil out to the health ring.
The more DIFFERENT things which look like mountain peaks and valleys, cracks, crevises, black spots, color variations etc. the better.
It is important to keep in mind there is no 100% sure fire way to success in any venture. Instead we must look for ways to increase our odds on race day. Increase the percentage of offspring capable of racing, and homing in as direct a path as possible in race time.
So what does "eye sign" tell you (me)?
First let me qualify a few things. Any pigeon with the physical make up and adequate muscle which is healthy and well trained can win a race on the right day. We want to find a way to increase our percentages of winning on race day.
Here is a quick "tortiose and hare" story.
I was present at a one loft racing event a number of years ago. The loft location was steller. Up on a knoll with 360 degree views, you could see the birds a long way off.
As all the participants watched with much anticipation for the first glimpse of the winning bird, someone yelled, "here they come, look over there!" Sure enough a flock of about 30 - 40 birds (out of over 300 sent) was seen flying at an incredible speed off to the northeast heading straight south.
The crowd watched in disbelief as the birds never broke toward the loft. They continued on a line a half mile or so east of the loft, straight south until they disappeared on the horizon. Five minutes went by, then ten, then fifteen. Finally a lone bird appeared from the north and homed true to the loft, hit the landing board and clocked. Then someone yelled, "here comes one from the south!" Then another appeared from the south, then another and within 10 minutes after the first bird clocked there were a dozen more in the trap. Then birds seemed to be raining in from every direction.
Now if fifty on lookers had not seen the first group overfly the loft, it would have been assumed the first bird in the trap would have been the fastest one in the race that day...she wasn't. True she was the first one in the clock but not the fastest bird.
BUT also SHE was the one which homed true, straight to the loft.
This is an indication that speed is not everything and the birds are like a bunch of teenagers when in a flock, meaning you cannot be sure what they will do.
So back to what eyesign can offer you. When you understand different characteristics in the eye seem to appear over and over with the first birds back to your loft, with everything else being equal (training health, loft, bloodline) a prudent fancier would investigate these similarities and use them to his advantage.
For most this sounds like work and most people really do not want to learn, it is easier to make excuses and complain.
Here is the hard and fast rule which is seldom if ever talked about. Pigons home in a zig zag pattern. As they get closer to home the zigs and zags happen more frequently causing the effect of a straighter trajectory the closer they get to home. They are "feeling" their way home through maybe the magnetic fields in the atmosphere, we really cannot be 100% sure. So the birds which "straighten out" the quickest are the first ones in the clock. We need to be breeding birds based on the consistancy of this and this alone, NOT PEDIGREES!
Why not pedigrees? As with the eye, the pedigree is only a tool as much as the eye. The man who flew the birds in the pedigree you are looking at is not there to mate your birds for you, train or care for them, or pick the right ones to send on race day!
The pedigrees are simply an indicator of what may be possible if you do your part. Oh and if you are looking at a pedigree which has NO VERIFIABLE RECORD OF WINNING on it, that is what you can expect as well!
I believe the eye can provide the discerning fancier an invaluable tool if he is willing to learn how to use it. I believe it is more valuable than a pedigree, mostly because a pedigree is only as good as the person who wrote it, and in an open loft breeding situation can you really be sure?
I would also like to mention here that most if not all of the TOP feather merchants today, before they were well known, (yes I was around when they started selling birds)were eye guys. That was the one thing they had in common, the one thing that helped seperate them from the pack. The one thing they themselves could point to which gave them the "winning edge" and allowed them to make a big enough name for themselver to be able to sell birds.
Well NONE of them now will publicly admit the eye is of any more value than they need two. Why? Because they sell every healthy bird they can!
No I am not jealous, I am sad, sad for the sport because so many people look for the quick fix to be first on race day. To much of the sport has become about making money (which there is nothing wrong with if you do it with integrity). They are not students of the sport, they cannot develop their own family of birds. Even if they happen upon a hit pair in 2 or 3 years they must buy new birds because they cannot duplicate past the current generation.
The feather merchants are the best and worst things that has happened to this sport, and are in my opinion one of the main reasons for its downfall. The best part because they have imported some incredible birds and families over the years. And the worst because they have also imported pure junk knowing that with that European band they can get top dollar regardless of the true quality.
Yes I am sad as I watch something I love die a grueling death all in the name of making money, not nurturing the next generation of fanciers. |
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Eye sign
