Training
Racing pigeons are housed together in a specially designed dovecote or loft. From about 4 weeks of age until the end of its racing career, the racing loft is the pigeon's home and is where it returns to on race day.
After 22 to 28 days in the nest (depending on the owners preference) the young birds are removed and placed in a section of a large loft or in a smaller loft built for the purpose. After a few days of learning how to locate the water and eating by themselves they are allowed to wander out of the loft and peck around in the garden, while doing this they are constantly observing their surroundings and becoming familiar with them. At about age 6 to 7 weeks the birds will begin taking off, flying in very small circles around their loft and owners house. As their confidence grows they gradually wander farther and farther from home until they are out of sight and can remain so for as much as 2 hours before returning. When a few trainers fly their pigeons in the same area, these flying "Batches" (as flocks of pigeons are called) can number in the thousands. It does not, however, help them much in relation to finding their home from long distances away, a fundamental of pigeon racing. As confident flyers, the young pigeons are taken on progressively longer 'training tosses', driven a distance away from their home and released. This is like the format of a real race, however on a much smaller scale and it is usually not timed in the same way as a race. This practice of loft flying and tossing continues throughout a pigeon's career.
Training methods are as varied as the pigeons themselves. Some fanciers believe their system is the secret to their success and guard these hard learned lessons closely. Most fanciers will explain their basic strategy but some may be reluctant to share the details of their success. One of the most popular systems is widowhood. This system uses the birds desire to reproduce as motivation to try to give the bird a sense of urgency on race day. The use of widowhood is usually begun by first allowing the racer to raise a baby in their nest box. After the baby is weaned the hen is removed and often the nestbox is closed off, from then on the only time these birds are allowed to see their mate or enter the nest box is upon returning from training or a race. This conditioning is one of the key elements in a lot of racing programs.
Due to advancements in technology researchers have been able to use small Global Positioning Systems to track the flight paths that their birds follow. Jan Van Stalle, began using small GPS devices to document the flight patters of high flyers in 2009 and is expecting to publish a full report on the subject in early 2012. Small GPS systems have recently began to hit the consumer market. Companies like PigeonTrack and GEM Supplements currently sell GPS units for novice to advanced race trainers to use to gather data.
Read more about this topic: Pigeon Racing
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