In going along with the pigeon racing promotion theme in this weeks discussion of the week we would like to know,
How did you get involved in pigeon racing or pigeon keeping in general?
You see, if we could figure out what got you interested in pigeon racing or pigeons in general for that matter we might be able to duplicate that to get more people interested in the sport and hobby. What worked for you should work for others right?. You already know my story you can read it here (About Me), I didn’t know anything about pigeons but when I realized how interesting and amazing they were I was hooked.
So go ahead and post your comments I’m looking forward to reading them! and see what we can do to help promote this great hobby of ours.
Discussion of the week, How did you get involved with pigeons?
The Leading Online Pigeon Racing and Racing Pigeons Magazine – The Pigeon Insider
My Father has always kept pigeons. All my life there has been pigeons in the garden. I like racing pigeons and kept the sport going. Followed on in his footsteps if you like.
I was brought up in a border school, my friens there used to keep pigeons. When they got fed up with pigeons i started taking care of them but I was not interested in racing pigeons until I went to a friend’s house and he told me that the day before he raced pigeons from 570km and it was a bad race and few pigeons returned. I asked him if I could go to the roof and see if any pigeon would come back. So he made me a cup of coffee and I went to the roof. About ten minutes later I saw a pigeon struggling in the wind and he fell about 4 meters in front of the loft and he walked the last bit as he had no strenght to fly.Although I am not much of a winner but I like pigeons very much and I always remember that pigeon struggling to return HOME. AND I WAS HOOOOKED
well my partner started off with the birds in 1986,did not do any racing after the first year due to working all hours. Then in 1994 I had lost my job and took over the birds and got hooked. my first year with the youngsters, we took them training a few times then one day we took them and never had one bird home.I went to bed crying very upset that my babies were all lost.In the morning most of them were on the roof.That year I took 11 prize cards in the club.I just love my birds and my partner don’t have much to do with them now that I am loft manager lol.
I was 6 years old when I got hooked. My older brother had racers and quit. One day a bird came back and I wanted to take care of it. He had no mate so I went town by the brides and cought a few to keep him company. Then one day a Ed Schmidt came to my house and gave me a beatufull B. Ck. Spl. Hen. I was hooked. He gave me a names in the club that were in my bicyle range and away i went visiting. I formed a jr.club of about 8 kids and we had a blast. I recently talked to one of my friends from 40 years ago and he rememberd not only his best birds number but also mine. After 40 years of not seeing one another. What these pigeons can do for the young is amasing. I started back into pigeons after the vietnam war and got married. We had our first child and decided to get a few birds. That was 37 years ago and our club in a very remote area of Wisconsin is doing great.
A great backyard hoppy. Bill Lind
I was about 6 years old when I first saw, and fell in love with the pigeons. The beautiful colours on their necks and everything about them, I was hooked. My father built me a tiny loft when I was 11 and I got cull racers, tumblers, anything with wings, they were all fabulous to me.
I left school and home at 15 to become an apprentice jockey. It was many years later when I had retired from horse racing and re married that I found a young bird that had been forced down by a storm. The owner said I could keep her, and she was the beginning of 10 years of great enjoyment racing pigeons. I developed a small widowhood team, just 9 cocks, which raced very well. I am great fan of small, quality teams rather than huge mobs and survival of the fitest.
My wife and I moved from New Zealand to Australia 7 years ago, and I dispersed my pigeons. For the last year or so I have been helping a friend with his racers, and am starting to get a few of my own again. A very good friend is breeding me a couple of pairs of exquisite Jannsen-Van Loon youngsters, which I hope will be the foundation of a new family.
I think being a top pigeon racer, as opposed to a pigeon keeper, is a gift. All the money in the world, the best loft, the most expensive pigeons, the most modern drugs, none of it matters if you cant think like a pigeon, if you cant see them communicating with you.
Pigeon racing is a great sport, but I fear it will die out unless steps are taken to make it more suitable for today’s fast paced time poor world. That is a subject for another thread.
I got into pigeons when i was only 8 years old. I lived on a farm and we had pigeons in an old grainery. I had always enjoyed watching them one day i noticed a bird with a band. My younger brother and i went out that night and caught it. My father knew some racing pigeon men at his work he said that we had to get it back to it’s owner. And we gave it to these men. We later caught more wild pigeons had them for several years. Later we moved to town and a man moved in a few houses away. And he got us into fancy pigeons. Two years later my dad took me to see the men who had the racing pigeons. One of them only lived a few blocks away he talked with me almost every day. I went to watch them come home from the races and i was hooked on then. After 30 plus years i still love them.
Hi all i got involved in pigeons when i was 17 years old i started off with roller pigeons then one day went to a guys house that had racing pigeons that is when i changed over to racing pigeons been in the sport for 4 years now and loving it
Hi I got involved with racing pigeon when I was 5 years old. My dads uncle had racing pigeon but the loft was above an outer building, I was only allowed to see them when he was there. this meant that i could seldom see them. Across the road from where we lived
was a Dr who also had racing pigeons and i would spend time watching the pigeon fly almost everyday I watched the birds fly, on some occasions he would see me and asked if i had pigeons and I would say i no i do not have any pigeons. A couple of weeks later he saw me watching his pigeon fly again, he called me over and asked if i would like some of my own, I immediately said yes. However my father had gone to South Africa looking for a better opportunity so i had to ask my grandfather if i could keep the pigeons in this garden. he agreed and I went back to the Doctor and said yes i can keep some pigeons, he gave me 6 young pigeons new born, this was in March 1961 I have had pigeon ever since. In 1964 we moved to South Africa and a year later got pigeon from a fancier across road from us and my father help me build a wooden loft back them he also enjoyed watching me have so much fun I would spend hours in my loft mating my pigeon, catching them a put them in my home may baskets put the basket on my bicycle and riding for about an hour and releasing them i would ride home as fast as i could so that i would see them come home. I was never lucky enough to see them arrive because they alway beat me home. We then moved to Westville in Natal where the Jones brother live 2 house away from us. I had liquorice all sort of pigeon by then. I love watching the Jones pigeon flying around so i started talking to them and told them that loved watching their pigeon flying they asked me if i would like some pigeons I said yes they said to me that i must clean the loft once a week for 6 months and train the pigeon in the afternoon then they would give 12 babies, by this time i was 13 years old and immediately agreed to do as they requested. this was 1969. in 1970 I raced pigeon as a junior in the Pinetown racing pigeon club. and have raced ever since in Gauteng and now in Florida Roodepoort.
I think a common theme is that most who now have pigeons, got a start with them as kids. So to my way of thinking, the more kids that can be exposed to pigeons the better will be the future of our sport and the fancy in general. The future is theirs and so it is with our future as well.
i agree with you 100% i hope my grandchildren will get hooked as well im trying my best
Hi all I live cape town south africa and when I was a boy everybody had pigeons all the kids. It wasn’t long before I had some too. All of us use hang out together to see how had the best birds and the coolest lofts that was made completely from old wood found around the neighborhood. And most of us had a daily task of cleaning a loft from one of the fanciers in our city and today I race againts some of those great names.
Hi Chris ,I dont have pigeons but friends of mine have and i like the sport.I work for a company that manufacture animal supplements,i am the head manufacturer for 12 years now and my friends kept asking me do we do anything for pigeons, which we did nt so after a while i decided to set up my own business doing pigeon supplements and have started with 3 products which are of very good quality and very reasonably priced.I am based in Dublin Ireland and pigeon supplements seem to be all imported into Ireland so my employer kindly gives me the manufacturing facilities, and the Q.C. lab sample and test each product for me,so he has been very helpful and generous in helping me get started.The products are now in 3 shops in Dublin and have just recieved an order from South Africa for the start of the new year.I registered my company in October and started in November at the Dublin pigeon show and we are doing very well to date.
hi i got interested is pigeons when i was a teenager i had my coop on the apartment building where i lived in ny i had my pigeons trained so much, that when i had to tear the coop down the pigeons kept coming back. how do u sex a pigeon ?
One way of sexing pigeons is the hen bird has a short toe. When you hold the 2 toe back on the left leg you will see that 90% of the time hens have a slightly short toe. Cock normally have the some length.
Kind regards
Richard