Homing Pigeons

Homing Pigeons

If you own homing pigeons and you’re a pigeon fancier, you might want to pay attention! It’s not all top pigeon what is advertised as a top pigeon. As a pigeon fancier you’re probably interested in owning strong and beautiful homing pigeons. Homing pigeons can be used for a variety of things:

• Participate and win pigeon races. Homing pigeons are often used in races. Sometimes a big prize can be won with these events.
• Breeding! Pigeon fanciers want to have the best pigeons and are willing to pay for it. Pigeon fanciers want to have the fastest and the strongest homing pigeons to increase the chances of winning a race. Pigeon breeders can earn quite some money with breeding. Pigeon fanciers might also want to have beautiful pigeons for pageant competitions;
• For fun. Some pigeon fanciers don’t need to participate in exciting races or attend fancy pageant shows. They just want a hobby and found it in having pigeons.

Actually, in some parts of the world homing pigeons are even still used for messaging!

Good homing pigeons

Like I said, not all that is advertised as a top pigeon actually is. There are many theories about what characteristics a top homing pigeon should posses. Some say you can see it in the eyes, others point at the skin or the pointiness of the beak… There are actually some weird theories out there!

That is why you should pay attention. What is a good homing pigeon cannot be determined by just one or two characteristics. There is a lot in play, even a pigeons’ happiness! Just as with humans, there are many factors to the performance of a homing pigeon. What food they ate, how much training they had, their genetics and even their emotions. If a pigeons doesn’t feel happy, for example because it lives it life in a cold, dark loft, you can’t expect it to have a lot of energy. We humans have more energy if we’re happy and less energy and motivation if we’re sad.

There you have it, there is no one factor that determines what is a good homing pigeon.

How to determine a winning homing pigeon?

You can’t! Even if a homing pigeons physique is the best, if it’s motivation is bad, or it lacks happiness, it will not give its top performance. There are, however, some factors that can point out if a homing pigeon is not a winner, which are:

• Dry or stiff feathers;
• Wings with large gaps between the pins;
• Secondary feathers where you can pierce through;
• An open encounter;
• A large trachea opening;
• Large pupils;
• Poor muscles;
• A poor back;
• A broad tail;
• Above all: a poor health.