PIGEON RACING - Early History

Carrier Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The racing Homer is a descendant of the Wild Rock Pigeon which once prominently populated the continents of Europe and Asia. Although the history of the racing pigeon is fragmented the history of pigeons as message carriers go back over 4,000 years.

One of the earliest recorded pieces of history on the bird and sport can be traced back to 1350 B.C. which shows an Egyptian Bas-relief releasing pigeons from their cages. By the middle of the twelfth century A.D., a pigeon post with postmasters and post offices were successfully being maintained by the Caliph of Baghdad. During the historic Olympics of the Golden Age of Greece, a well-developed system of pigeon communication was being used to rush news of the events to surrounding cities. Since pigeons were fast and able to cover large distances through all sorts of weather, leading newspapers of many countries used them to carry important news and stock exchange quotations.

Although pigeons were being used quite successfully to deliver messages, the ancients knew very little about breeding, but they were thoughtful enough to keep breeding the young of the pigeons whose homing instinct were more prominent than others. As progress in breeding developed, breeders began to look more closely at carriage form, feathers, eye care etc as well as speed, endurance, and vitality when breeding their stock. From this bird, the Antwerp and Liege types were developed in Belgium which are the ancestors of most of the present day homing pigeons.

Through the advances in breeding, pigeons began to be able to fly further and faster and by the eighteenth-century pigeon racing began to grow in popularity and was extended into Belgium. In 1818 the first classic concourse in Belgium was held in Toulouse, France with thousands of birds competing. This was the predecessor of modern-day concourses in which thousands of the best birds in several states and clubs compete in the U.S. Since the object of these concourses was to see whose pigeon returned home first, the name was shifted from the "carrier" pigeon to the "Homer".

By Christopher Guardino - Article Source: EzineArticles

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An Insight to Pet Keeping - PIGEONS As a Case Study

Pigeon - Photo by Flickpicpete (Thanks for 740,000+ views) 

What are pets? As explained by the Oxford dictionary "an animal, a bird etc that you have at home for pleasure, rather than one that is kept for work or food". From the above definition, it will right to say: any animal that eats sleep and breeds inside your home can be referred to as a pet. These animals could be dogs, cats, monkeys, parrots, rodents like hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs etc; in extreme cases snakes, eagles, raccoons, swallows, crocodiles etc. however, I am here to discuss just one of these pets- PIGEONS

As you all know, pigeons belong to the avian family (birds). They can be referred to as social beings. But one stunning thing about these creatures is their humility and the general slogan for which they are noted for "live and let live" a term that sounds ironical to other community of animals, to me this is the quality that makes them the most unique creatures to ever walk the surface of the earth and fly over the skies, and as they flap their wings in humility and in unison spread peace, prosperity and love all over the length and breadth of their habitation.

Now, I got hooked on pigeons a couple of years back, 1996 to be precise, I was still in my early teens at that time, looking back now I find this experience very nostalgic each time I reminisce. Like I said earlier, I got to know about these loveable avian creatures through a friend through many years my senior, however, we were brought together as friends as a result of the common thing we shared: being the passion for pigeons. I visited his place regularly just to study the life pattern of these unique birds and each time I look at them, they got more endeared and fascinating they become to me and my longing to have my own community of pigeons increased, until I satisfied this desire by acquiring two sets of pigeons; two males and two females respectively from whom I built a community of pigeons so large, that I became the envy of many.

On the contrary, I am not writing this article to narrate my personal experiences as a former owner of these pets, rather to present to you a comprehensive documentary on how these animals live, eat, breed and interact with themselves as well as their owners, however, I will narrate most of my personal experiences with these birds. The community is made up of males and females, each male pigeon has a wife, funny it sounds but it is true, the get married just like we humans do, more so infidelity of either of the partners is intolerable. The widely held belief among them is one man, one wife, but most males stray occasionally and their target, young unattached females, another common feature in human societies, the difference being that divorce is the last thing to be considered in this very complex yet organized society; contrary to this assertion, in all my years of rearing these birds as pets I recorded a typical case of divorce. Please read on: a certain pigeon female to be precise was being ostracized for mistakenly falling into hot oil my mum left outside her kitchen, fortunately for the unfortunate pigeon, my senior sister saved it before it was fully consumed by the hot oil.

But with this development, this pigeon became a recluse of some sort as it was avoided and treated with disdain by other pigeons in the community. Now a certain male pigeon finding this situation rather appalling decided to do the unthinkable by interacting with the dejected pigeon a relationship that ended in both pigeons hooking up. Sadly, the female eloped with another male is thought to be finer which led to my banishing this heartless pigeon a decision my family supported, as everybody in my house from my father to my mum loved and adored these birds. So I banished the said pigeon for leaving not only the husband but also the kids it bore to be catered for by the male alone, a responsibility this male pigeon carried out effectively to the latter.

Now, pigeons are a very interesting lot to study, their complexity of character and simplicity is one quality hard to find in any other society of animals from avian to reptiles, from amphibians to Aquarian creatures and even mammals and apes, a community that after a male and a female pigeon hooks up, they start making plans for having a family. They commence mating like every other animal in their care, but one unique thing about how they mate is prolonged foreplay, incredible?! Well, pigeons are similar to humans in many aspects and this is one of them. They kiss with the male putting its head in between its wings occasionally, after this prolonged foreplay the female bends down for the normal copulation which takes place with the two birds joining their organs found at the base of their tails.

Gradually, the female's eggs are developed and ready to be laid, that is when the male starts getting the pen ready for the female to roost. The male starts picking up sticks, straw, feathers to make the place cozy for its wife. During this period it chaperons the wife from place to place and pecks it roughly at times on the neck signaling other males of the danger posed if they ever disturb the wife who is ready for roosting. The eggs after being laid, two maximum, and the two pigeons now take turns to sit on the eggs. Funny enough, they make a roaster for sitting on the eggs. The female sits on the eggs from night till morning, at about 12pm of the next day or so, it leaves for the male to take over from that time to maybe 6pm after which the female comes back and takes charge till the morning of the next day; while the male keeps watch at the entrance of the pen to ward off other impending males that might disturb the female while she sits on the eggs: as rearing a family is a collective responsibility between the male and female pigeons respectively.

Roosting might take an average of seventeen days depending on the prevailing conditions, immediately the eggs hatch into young pigeons; another roaster is drawn between the two parents. This time for feeding their young, with the male playing a dominant role, a role he plays till the female is ready to lay another set of eggs. Now while the female gets prepared for laying another set of eggs, the males continue to feed their young till they get ready for their first flight. Their feeding technique, another delight to watch, the parents after taking insufficient food and water, the two substances dissolve and serves as food to the young who get their nutrition by putting their tender beaks into the beaks of their parents who in turn send the food by vomiting it out into the bodies of these young ones.

Amazingly in all my life, I have never seen any animal be it mammal, reptile, or even birds that their young ones develop as rapid as young pigeons. I have seen young chickens, goats, cows etc tended by their mothers develop, but for pigeons, as soon as they are brought into the world, within a short period of time say two weeks it is ready to join other matured birds in the community for its first flight

Generally, pigeons live a life of equity. Every pigeon regardless of age or color is respected by the other. They do everything in common: from eating, taking their bath, flying and sleeping. Note here that the issue of borders and territory are respected. Every male point and mark out areas and spaces for domination. The other pigeons respect these boundaries and borders. In all my life I have never seen any community be it human, plant or animal as organized as this community. If we humans can take a clue from these creatures, the world will be a better place to live in; devoid of crime, corruption, and domination. As witnessed by the way in which big and strong nations bully the weak ones with many human societies going into extinction, but if we mimic these wonderful birds, the world would be a wonderful sphere where every race, tribe, and the region will live in equity, justice, peace, and prosperity. The world of pigeons!

Chinemere Onuekwusi is a young Nigerian with a drive to set new heights and sights for his generation; you can read more about him at his blog http://www.chinemeremz.blogspot.com Article Source: EzineArticles

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Things Everybody Should Know About Carrier PIGEONS

Carrier Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Homing pigeons have a natural ability to find their way home, even from very far away. People recognized this skill early on and used it to their advantage in communicating with others. This was common long before such conveniences as email, telephone, and even a reliable post service. When these homing pigeons were used to carrying objects they picked up the nickname of 'carrier pigeon.' 

You may picture them carrying messages between secret lovers and aiding in espionage, but this is not all they are used for. In the past, they have been used for some very important tasks such as sending orders for military officers, snapping aerial photographs, and even delivering fragile medical items between two hospitals. They even once made themselves useful by carrying the film from photographers in the field back to their photo labs to be developed when the time was of the essence.

When homing pigeons are used for sending messages, they are called 'messenger pigeons.' Since homing pigeons have the ability to find their way back home across incredible distances people developed a system called 'pigeon post.' This works by trading pigeons with each other so that the owner's pigeon can carry the message back to them.

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For example, two people might trade three pigeons with each other and go their separate ways. They then have the ability to send three messages to each other via pigeon post. Once they have sent three messages each, they would need to meet again to trade more pigeons. This minimized the amount of traveling they would need to do which was a very nice convenience when traveling was more costly and dangerous than it is today.

Along with the many wonderful stories about these birds come many misconceptions. For one, they are often thought to be extinct, but they are not. The passenger pigeon is the one that was driven into extinction. Yet another common misconception is that a carrier pigeon is a breed of pigeon. A homing pigeon is a breed that is mostly used as a carrier pigeon. Carrier pigeon is just the 'job title' of some homing pigeons. Similarly, someone wouldn't say that the breed of a guide dog was 'guide dog.' No, you would call the dog by its actual breed, such as golden retriever.

How to Train a Homing Pigeon

A Homing pigeon's instinct is to always fly back to where they live, especially if they have a mate or squabs. Using this knowledge, the first step to training a homing pigeon is to have it learn where its home is. To do this, the owners will keep the pet pigeons in their enclosures for several months. Usually from the time they are young until they are they are grown. This is more difficult with adult pigeons because they may already have a place they call home. During the months of keeping the birds in a cage, they should be kept well fed with a proper diet of pigeon feed. 

After their stay in the cage, they will know where their home is. From now on, most pigeons will always return to this spot and when let out to fly. A very small percentage of pigeons will leave and not return. They then go and live elsewhere, becoming feral pigeons. Once the pigeons home is established, they will slowly be able to find their way back home longer distances. This homing skill can make them useful as carrier pigeons.

By Zach Varnell - Article Source: EzineArticles

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Speckled PIGEON - Columba guinea

Speckled Pigeon - Columba guinea

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Diamond DOVE - The Pet Bird That Doesn't Talk Back (Or Bite!)

The popularity of keeping parrots as pets has overshadowed the other available pet bird species, species that make endearing pets that are often simpler to care for, and can be highly entertaining when given the opportunity.

The Diamond Dove is one such bird.

Diamond Dove (Geopelia cuneata)  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Diamond Doves are the size of parakeets or budgerigars for those of you in Britain. These birds can live anywhere from five to twenty years old.

The beautiful wild color variation is the most commonly found, with the males bluish-gray on the heads, necks, back, and wings, white tails, white spots on the wings, and a well-defined orange ring around each eye. The female of this color variation has more brown on her head, neck, and wings, and a less well-defined orange eye ring, but is beautiful none the less.

Diamond Doves come in a wide variety of color variations, from the wild type to cinnamon, silver, silver-blue with white tails, soft yellow, to a gorgeous pure white.

The sound the doves make is a gentle 'coo-coo' with the male being somewhat louder during courtship. My female dove Emma's 'coo-coo' is somewhere between a coo and a beep. Diamond Doves are never obnoxiously loud, as so many parrot species are.

Diamond Doves are highly sociable birds always happiest when in the company of their own kind. But these birds are also highly prolific. If you do not want a flock of tiny doves, then purchase only one bird. Be patient and the dove will bond with you in a few weeks' time.

My dove follows me around the house each morning. When she can't find me I hear her coo-coo. I call her name and then mimic her too. I soon hear a flutter of wings as she arrives. I have to be careful not to step on her when she follows me around because Diamond Doves are ground-feeding birds. They spend a lot of time poking about the floor or the bottom of their cage.

The best cage for Diamond Doves should be long rather than high so the birds can fly from perch to perch. A cage two feet by two feet can house a single pair of doves. The birds will even breed in a cage this size.

Remove any wire mesh on the floor of the cage. Your bird or birds will want to pick after fallen seed or grit, or simply sit on the floor from time to time.

Diamond dove  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feeding a Diamond Dove is simple. A diet of mixed Finch seed with plenty of millet mixed with a vitamin powder will do, with the occasional treat of greens or egg crumbles. Be sure to provide a bowl of grit because doves need the grit to crush seeds. Fresh water should always be available. You can also provide a cuttle bone for calcium, but I find doves get plenty of calcium from their grit. The choice is yours.

Diamond doves have individual personalities best seen when the bird is kept singly in a cage and when bonded with you, much like house cats. He or she may be a fussbudget, a mother hen, aggressive, noisy, laid back, always on the go, or any combination of the above.

Diamond doves can be trained to step onto hand-held perches and even come when called. My dove Emma knows her name and even her nickname ('munchkin bird'). She knows how to nag me into opening her cage and, once out, will often perch on the edge of my laptop while I write, if not on my shoulder. When feeling demonic, she pecks at the keys while I am trying to work. I shoo her off and then she retreats to the houseplants, where she pokes about in the dirt.

Parrots are wonderful birds. But if you are looking for a smaller, quiet, and easier to care for feathered companion, but still a lot of fun, then you owe it to yourself to get better acquainted with the lovely Australian charmer the Diamond Dove.

By Jennifer Harker Jennifer Harker is a freelance writer experienced with writing nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and fiction.  Article Source: EzineArticles

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Breeding For The Best RACING PIGEONS

Racing pigeons are a great wonder especially for individuals who have a passion for animal cognition. The ability to return to its owner after traveling thousands of kilometers by flight is certainly an amazing quality especially for a bird. Let alone migratory birds fly the really long distances. But whenever pigeons lovingly return to the arms of their owners, the feeling of elation is just unavoidable.

Racing pigeon photographed near Barkby, Leicestershire
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Amazing as they are, pigeons who are made to race are not as easily cared for like ordinary pets. Breeding pigeons that can win race competitions is not a joke. Any racing pigeon fancier must be ready to invest a huge amount of attention to the pigeons as well as understand that time and money are involved. And certainly a great deal of passion will tremendously affect your success in raising and turning your special pigeons to real winners.

There are basically three types of breeding methods that you can adopt to make sure that you get the best possible pedigree for a racing pigeon: cross-breeding, line-breeding, and in-breeding.

In cross-breeding, unrelated pigeons (or which are five generations apart) are made to mate with the hope of giving birth to better pigeons – better than their parents. This breeding method is more expensive than line-breeding because of the generation gap (the bigger the generation gap, the more expensive) but relatively more effective than in-breeding.

Line-breeding allows the mating of pigeons with smaller generation gaps (ex. grandchild to grandparents or cousin to cousin) than those for cross breeding. Although less expensive than cross-breeding and a lot safer than in-breeding, this method may take a long time to establish the traits that you want in your pigeon.

In-breeding is the riskiest but may also be the most successful method provided that you have really ideal pigeons. In this system, the mating happens between a parent pigeon and its child or between a brother and a sister pigeon. Because of the closeness of the generation, any trait from any of the pigeons can be easily passed to the resulting offspring – both good and bad traits. Add to this, any bad trait found on one of the partner pigeons is likely present on the other too because of their close generations. 

So while in-breeding can magnify the good traits of your pigeons, the risk is that it can also equally magnify their weaknesses. You may even end up with a pigeon that has both the best and worst traits from its parents – what a waste that will be! Also, while in-breeding does not have to spend that much money for bigger generation gaps (because the mating pigeons are IN the same generation), it may however end up becoming more financially-challenging because of the need to eliminate pigeons with non-ideal traits. Not to mention that you should be capable of culling.

The secret to breeding the best racing pigeons lies in thoroughly learning as much as all of their traits. Learn the rules of compatibility – and some genetics too. And be as passionate as you can be in caring for your pigeons.

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Feeding RACING PIGEONS

Just like human beings, racing pigeons also have the need to be well fed in order to grow it. Proper nutrition is vital for them to maintain the level of energy throughout the day, much more if they are racing frequently. 

Racing Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Strict Diet 

Racing pigeons adhere to a strict diet, which comprises mostly of grains, grits, and water. Wild pigeons eat breadcrumbs and food scraps, but they are a no-no to racing pigeons. If you want to raise quality racing pigeons, then you have to provide them with food that is fresh, clean and of the highest quality.

Grains that are dirty will gradually affect the performance of the pigeons while they are racing, as toxins and poisons present in unclean grains will bring forth illnesses that would lead to the pigeon's poor racing performance.

Grits are also essential to the racing pigeon's diet. Mixed grains are a perfect source of energy and protein, but they are very low in vitamins and minerals that are required to raise top-caliber racing pigeons. Grits, on the other hand, supply the pigeons with a sufficient amount of salt, calcium, and minerals that they need.

Vitamins for Extra Energy 

Racing pigeons can actually survive on grains and grits alone, but if they are being led to racing most of the time, then they have to be fed with food having an extra amount of vitamins. Without vitamins, the racing pigeon might not be able to sustain itself from the pressures of racing and competition.

Vitamins supplements must be given along with food and water to increase the pigeon's level of health. Not all of the vitamins, minerals, and trace elements are present in grains; therefore, these should be given to the pigeons in some other form. Some pigeon owners give spinach and shell grits, but these are still not enough to meet the nutritional requirements of a racing pigeon. They now add vitamins to water once or twice a week for added energy.

Feeding Practices during the Racing Season 

Food, and balancing it, is most important during the racing season. It's not all about giving the racing pigeons all of the food that they need, but how these foods can be properly distributed to the pigeon's daily food intake.

First off, a healthy bowel is required of the pigeon. If bowel diseases are present, the nutrients that are found in quality grains will be decreased, and not all of the energy and protein present will be maximized fully by the racing pigeon.

A healthy mix of quality grains must also be prepared. Use at least eight different grains to achieve a good balance of protein. This would ultimately fuel the racing pigeon's flight to success.

Be careful, however, of overfeeding your pigeons. Excess energy will be stored in the pigeon's body as fat, thus making the pigeon feel heavier and will slow down his pace while flying. Meanwhile, underfeeding your racing pigeons mean that you're providing them with food having low energy values, thus, resulting to the exhaustion of energy reserves in the pigeon's muscles.

For you to know if you're overfeeding or underfeeding your racing pigeons, feed only what they will eat in 10 minutes. If they are leaving pieces of food, then it just means that you're already feeding them too much.

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