It is now springtime and I noticed that my homers had started laying eggs on the floor of the loft. I have been so busy working on customer projects that I have neglected to build my own birds some nesting boxes. Not to worry, the pigeon has raised many a clutch without the luxury of its own private nestbox. I had some paper mache nest bowls in stock and placed 4 or 5 on the floor of the loft. Next I placed a couple of handfuls of sand in the bowls to encourage nesting and to anchor them in place. I also placed a block of coastal hay on the floor and the rest is up to the birds. Within a few days several birds had made nests and began to lay. Some of the birds used only the sand while others had their nest overflowing with hay. Within a 7 day period I have 4 pair sitting on eggs. To my surprise the birds I had planned on mating paired up naturally together. I raced these birds last fall in a local club and my 300 mile 1st and second place birds paired up and are sitting on eggs. On the other end of the loft some of my 200 mile and 300 mile leaders were also paired together. These should be some really great birds.
While it is not necessary to have racing homers for bird dog training, it does give you more training options down the road. These birds have been selectively bred and raced to prove their homing ability. The 300 mile winners in my loft made the trip in a little less than six hours and sized up some pretty stiff competition. If I decide to have a training weekend with some friends that are 40-50 miles away, I will have no fear of losing my birds as they can make this trip in less than an hour.
I have plenty of birds for the next season, so I am helping out a fellow bird dog trainer with this first round of youngsters. Last year I set up a young friend of the family with a new pointer pup and a pigeon loft. He came in and stayed with his grandparents for the summer and spent many evening in my backyard learning how to put the yard training on his new prospect. He is now ready to stock his loft and I am going to get him some foundation stock to train his new pup with. After this round I am going to put in some nest boxes and raise a round for the some youngsters interested in pigeons for a 4-H project.
Stay tuned for the hatch, banding, and weaning of these squab.