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Howdy Keith, great information. Ive been meaning to ask you a question on "Rollers?" Not sure if that's the proper term, but was wondering if you had any experience with them? Know of someone? I think they'd be a hoot to have around. I imagine i could section off an elevated roost for them in my chicken shed so they cant mess below but,...now im thinking out loud.
Didnt mean to hijack but thought 2 pigeon threads may be redundant. My bad...
No problem. I raise mostly homers and Birmingham rollers. Rollers are fun. They are easy to rehome to a new loft at any age. They are a small pigeon. Most weigh 6 to 8 ounces. They come in lots of colors. There are probably hundreds of different families or strains of Birmingham rollers.
They breed best on a 16% to 18% protein diet. They roll best on a 9% to 11%, restricted diet that is high in carbohydrates. Just like a fat guy isn't going to run a marathon, a fat roller flys poorly and rarely rolls. Rollers need to be slightly thin on the keel bone to fly well.
Birds of prey, in particular, Cooper's hawks in my area, are the biggest threat to flying rollers. When the rollers come out of a roll, they are lower down, dizzy and tired and hawks and falcons easily catch them. Flying later in the day, after most birds of prey have eaten, can reduce your losses. During the Fall and Spring Passage Flights of birds of prey, it's best to keep your rollers locked in their loft.
Most of my rollers will roll about 30 feet.. I do get occasional roll downs.
What would you like to know?
Keith
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: ]
#7128856 01/09/2109:00 PM01/09/2109:00 PM
My mom had a half dozen or so homing pigeons when I was a kid as a hobby. Different types, different colors, different sizes. I have no idea what breeds. We would take a few in a box in the back of the car if we went anywhere and let them go. Most trips were only across the county. A few trips across the state. The only long trip was on a vacation to WV. When we arrived we opened the box and let them go. They circled the car several times trying to get their bearings and then they all flew off toward the east heading home. We got home a few days later and they were waiting for us. Probably only 200 miles, which is apparently nothing amazing for a pigeon. It seemed impressive to me that they got to WV packed in a box and could find their way home flying across 200 miles of land they had never seen before.
-Ryan
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: maintenanceguy]
#7128877 01/09/2109:08 PM01/09/2109:08 PM
My mom had a half dozen or so homing pigeons when I was a kid as a hobby. Different types, different colors, different sizes. I have no idea what breeds. We would take a few in a box in the back of the car if we went anywhere and let them go. Most trips were only across the county. A few trips across the state. The only long trip was on a vacation to WV. When we arrived we opened the box and let them go. They circled the car several times trying to get their bearings and then they all flew off toward the east heading home. We got home a few days later and they were waiting for us. Probably only 200 miles, which is apparently nothing amazing for a pigeon. It seemed impressive to me that they got to WV packed in a box and could find their way home flying across 200 miles of land they had never seen before.
The circling behavior your pigeons made around your car is called routing. While routing, pigeons determine where they are on the earth's magnetic field, look for visual cues and listen for and detemine their orientation to low frequency sounds they know from home.
Some years back a scientist blindfolded 100 homing pigeons and released them 100 miles from their loft. They all made it back, though they had trouble landing. He tried it again and all the same pigeons were lost, likely due to increased solar activity that temporarily changed the earth's magnetic field.
Keith
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: KeithC]
#7128890 01/09/2109:14 PM01/09/2109:14 PM
Howdy Keith, great information. Ive been meaning to ask you a question on "Rollers?" Not sure if that's the proper term, but was wondering if you had any experience with them? Know of someone? I think they'd be a hoot to have around. I imagine i could section off an elevated roost for them in my chicken shed so they cant mess below but,...now im thinking out loud.
Didnt mean to hijack but thought 2 pigeon threads may be redundant. My bad...
No problem. I raise mostly homers and Birmingham rollers. Rollers are fun. They are easy to rehome to a new loft at any age. They are a small pigeon. Most weigh 6 to 8 ounces. They come in lots of colors. There are probably hundreds of different families or strains of Birmingham rollers.
They breed best on a 16% to 18% protein diet. They roll best on a 9% to 11%, restricted diet that is high in carbohydrates. Just like a fat guy isn't going to run a marathon, a fat roller flys poorly and rarely rolls. Rollers need to be slightly thin on the keel bone to fly well.
Birds of prey, in particular, Cooper's hawks in my area, are the biggest threat to flying rollers. When the rollers come out of a roll, they are lower down, dizzy and tired and hawks and falcons easily catch them. Flying later in the day, after most birds of prey have eaten, can reduce your losses. During the Fall and Spring Passage Flights of birds of prey, it's best to keep your rollers locked in their loft.
Most of my rollers will roll about 30 feet.. I do get occasional roll downs.
What would you like to know?
Keith
Thats a pile to digest in itself. Thanks a bunch. Im gonna get some at some point. I do have a peregrine around, and some kestrels, along with the redtails, but no chickens lost to a B.O.P. yet. The chickens are fenced in with a large run and high fence, but pigeons would be a different story. I had no idea you could fly them at certain times. Never wouldve id have known about their diet and "performance." Very interesting stuff. How big of a roost box would say, 12 rollers need?...just for an idea.
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: ]
#7128916 01/09/2109:27 PM01/09/2109:27 PM
Rollers are typically housed diffently depending on whether you are flying them or breeding them. Kit boxes for flying rollers are typically 4' high, 4' wide and 30" deep and will hold 25 to 30 rollers. For breeding rollers 2 square feet per pair is plenty. All additional levels, shelves and perches in a loft add to the total square feet. You can fly them out of your chicken coop too. It's typically better to fly adults separately from young birds because of the difference in their abilities.
Red tails and kestrels are of little threat to your rollers. Peregrines are bad. If you can get the kestrels to nest near your coop, they will protect your rollers from the Peregrines, while their young are in the nest and first learning to fly and hunt. Kestrel nest boxes are easy to make. My friend James had kestrels that lived in one barn and a red tail in a weathering pen, right next to two lofts I had pigeons in to train dogs with. I never had a single issue with a bird of prey there.
Keith
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: ]
#7129058 01/09/2110:26 PM01/09/2110:26 PM
Keith, could you describe for me, what the Rolling you are talking about. I assume thats where rollers get their name. I have never heard of them before.
YOU CAN IGNORE REALITY, BUT YOU CANNOT IGNORE THE CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORING REALITY.
Keith, could you describe for me, what the Rolling you are talking about. I assume thats where rollers get their name. I have never heard of them before.
Lee, Birmingham rollers do a series of backflips in the air, while dropping in height, that's called rolling.
Not my birds.
Tumblers, another type of pigeon, do mostly single flips in the air, while going forward.
A few other breeds, such as doneks, spin sideways, while going forward.
Parlor tumblers do one to a few backwards flips on the ground.
Parlor rollers do lots of backwards flips on the ground. To certify they have to roll 70 feet or more down a 10' aisle way in competition. I bought out the 4 time world champion last summer. He had birds that rolled over 1100 feet. The best I can get out of them in my rougher ground is a little over 600 feet in a not very straight line.
Here's a video of some mediocre parlor rollers. Not my birds.
I export more parlor rollers than any other breed of pigeon.
Keith
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: ]
#7129135 01/09/2110:58 PM01/09/2110:58 PM
Thanks Keith, boy, I get dizzy watchin them! How do they get their wits back after doing such antics?! some of those are very pretty marked birds! Never been around any tame pigeons.
YOU CAN IGNORE REALITY, BUT YOU CANNOT IGNORE THE CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORING REALITY.
Thanks Keith, boy, I get dizzy watchin them! How do they get their wits back after doing such antics?! some of those are very pretty marked birds! Never been around any tame pigeons.
Lee, they get very dizzy. Sometimes Birmingham rollers will roll into the ground. Parlor rollers will sit with their head lulling around after they stop rolling.
There are lots of expressed colors in pigeons, made from a few color genes, lots of modifiers and some patterning genes. I have over 60 apparent different colors in homing pigeons.
I have around 40 apparent colors in coturnix quail.
Keith
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: ]
#7129206 01/09/2111:42 PM01/09/2111:42 PM
I have a neighbor that races his birds some. He seldom gets beat. However he sent some birds up north to a loft this year and they all got hit by paragons. I have seen him turn down some huge money for his birds. I am talking tens of thousands for a bird. His wife gets rather upset with him from time to time. LOL
Furstroker, I had both "rollers" and "tumblers" when I was kid. They are a hoot to watch. Most folks think they are sick or they are getting hit by something.
That was many years ago but if memory serves me, they are short beaked birds and have lot of trouble feeding their young. I used to keep feral pigeons and swap eggs to raise the young birds I wanted.
Re: Keith C: Conservative Political Platforms?
[Re: ]
#7129215 01/09/2111:53 PM01/09/2111:53 PM
Birmingham rollers are very prolific breeders and have long beaks. They are great parents.
There are a few types of tumblers and a lot of other breeds of pigeons, whose beaks are to short to feed their young. People use other breeds of pigeons, called pumpers, to feed those short beaked pigeons' babies. Pumpers get their name because they make a pumping motion when filling the babies' crops. Homing pigeons, Birmingham rollers, New York Flying Flights and feral pigeons are commonly used as pumpers. The eggs or just hatched babies are put in place of the pumper's eggs. They can't tell the difference.