The goal of my web page is to help small back yard fanciers to enjoy pigeon racing without spending a lot of time and money, try to work around the time you have, keep it simple. Follow my method outlined below, you should be able to fly competitively.
Select base on the race schedule in your area and the weather conditions of the race courses, the type of birds with regards to size, looks, body conformation, temperment and style, and what is winning in your area.
The natural way:
When the wild birds are making nests, put your birds together on a full moon.
The serious fanciers :
2 months before mating medicate for 7 days for Canker, respiratory
and Coccidiosis.
2 weeks prior to mating,
increase the daylight to 15 hours a day by having the light on.
Never mate 2 birds together with the same fault, do mate birds together with different eye colors. Don't mate 2 birds both with complete black circle of correlation. Mate birds with tail to the left to a bird with tail to the right, this way tou will breed better balanced pigeons. If the majority of young birds came out worse than their parents change the mating.
Young birds should be trained around 3 month old,
keep birds in the basket over night and teach them how to eat and drink
in the basket.
Draw a straight line of the race course, find spots that are open and have
easily identified land marks, such as streams or water tower, to toss
your birds.
Road train when birds start ranging, start from 10 miles, let birds out
in small groups about 6 birds each time, let the next group up after birds
disappeared in the sky.
When birds went straight toward the direction to home
without circling, increase distance at 10 mile increment.
After 30 miles, release 3 birds each time.
In the begining if you have problems get your birds fly straight home.
Loft fly your birds first, then call them in without giving them feed
and water. Basket your birds and take them to the training toss.
Train when weather permitting, check the weather before leaving,
when rough weather or head wind is expected decrease the distance
to no more than 30 miles.
If all the prizes are won in a few minutes, you need to train more often,
and try dusk training which you give birds just enough time to fly home
before sunset. If you have a small team, try to teach birds how to break
from the flock in a massive liberation. Find a fancier on your training
course and let your birds up while this fancier is loft flying, the birds
came home late miss a meal, they will soon learn not to circle with
other birds.
During racing season, medicate for canker every other week for 2 to 3 days in the early part of the week. 1 day before shipping remove all grits because of the salt. For overnight races up to 200 miles, on the shipping day skip the evening feeding, feed half the normal amount for races longer than 200 miles.
If you are flying against full time pigeon-man or young bird specialists, you may want to consider give your birds an edge to win. But, remember there is a price you have to pay in order to win.
