training-racing-pigeons

What’s better than drinking your morning coffee in a summer morning seeing your flock loft training like crazy? There are so many theories about how long the loft training should be…

The first and most important issue is health: having healthy pigeons is a must, no doubt about it. Then, the weather, momment of the day and pigeon’s motivation come into play:

  • a mature pigeon on widowhood will train much better than a mature pigeon on natural
  • a young bird will train much better than a mature bird
  • on a cloudy dark day pigeons might fly less than on a sunny day
  • any pigeon will fly more during a morning training than in the afternoon or evening
  • a smaller flock will train better than a bigger flock
  • a flock with all birds fit will train better than a flock in which we included tired or sick birds


How long should the birds fly at home during a loft-training session? So many fanciers, so many answers. Some fanciers don’t even care, they liberate the birds and leave, others use the flag to keep them up for one hour or even more. By the way, I never use a flag, the pigeons must love their home, I would never scare them when they want to land.

The young birds use to disappear far away and fly more than an hour – this is ranging and I love it when it happens. It shows that the birds are healthy and fit. However, I never saw my mature birds ranging and if they do, it doesn’t last long, they get back in my sight soon.

Do the mature birds on natural EVER range?