Wanting to return pigeons quickly and remotely is something that every fancier wants. But there are too many factors that restrict the return of carrier pigeons, in addition to the terrain, weather, natural enemies, and human factors that we often say, are there any other factors for a carrier pigeon that has the ability to return to the nest without returning?
In 1984, I participated in a large-scale bird survey activity, and among the rock pigeons hunted in the Qinling, Longnan and Minshan areas, the investigation team was surprised to find that almost all the samples, their eye sand and feather color, were different from the rock pigeons of decades ago.
The reason for this is the result of hybridization with domestic pigeons. How is it possible for domestic pigeons to hybridize with rock pigeons so that the morphology of a large number of rock pigeons changes? Among the pigeons hunted, we found carrier pigeons.
The pigeons are released (or left home) and are willing to be in the rock pigeon community, which is probably unexpected by fanciers.
In fact, in many subsequent observations, we have also found several pigeons in a group of silver-gray pigeons with raindrops or dark colors and white stripes.
With the increase in pigeon racing in the western region in the past one or two decades, the number of carrier pigeons in the rock pigeon community has also increased significantly. Once, in the market, I saw a farmer selling mountain goods in hand, and three of the nineteen pigeons had ankle rings.
One fancier told me that he had reformed the method of breeding pigeons, so that a shed of twenty carrier pigeons would not be fed all year round and would be allowed to go out to hunt for wild food. At first, he seemed very happy, saying that the pigeons came back and ate swollen and swollen, and hatched the young pigeons, but after about ten months, he heard him lose money, and only a few of the twenty carrier pigeons ran.
One of my own flocks of pigeons, which had been moved to the roof of another building the year before, was given a full week's worth of water at a time due to the inconvenience of going up and down, but after two years, there was only one pigeon left in the whole shed.
A large number of facts tell us that under certain environmental conditions, carrier pigeons may escape their dependence on humans and completely return to nature according to the original characteristics they have retained. Originally, this is not surprising if we look at the characteristics of the carrier pigeon's service.
Although the ancestors had gradually "domesticated" the original pigeons and rock pigeons when they trained them, they had little change in their characteristics of "returning from a different place", "living in the community", and "having to adapt to nature when flying", and the carrier pigeons also inherited the ancient inheritance of the ancestors from generation to generation, were used by people, or only developed in a small aspect.
Today's carrier pigeon, if it does not make the flight or is not used for long-distance flight, all day long there is food, water and nests and people to take care of, then of course it is not happy, relying on people is better than fighting for life.
But such a carrier pigeon, with a long-term perspective, I am afraid it is no different from the ornamental pigeon. Since the purpose of raising carrier pigeons is to race and let them return to their nest through the fight against nature, there is a question of certainty.
On the one hand, the carrier pigeon must love the nest and have dependence on the owner; on the other hand, it must be able to adapt to nature as much as possible, maintain a certain degree of wildness, and be vigilant against others and bystanders, which is indeed a set of contradictions.
Some people say that the highest state of pigeon breeding is to correctly grasp the relationship between people and pigeons, which makes some sense. However, many of our fanciers fall into the following categories:
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- Conditional, the pigeon is absolutely good, and the reason for the lack of return is due to the weather, transportation, and unfavorable terrain.
- In synthesis, pigeons may be good or bad, conditions may be good or bad, good pigeons are good when they meet good conditions, good pigeons meet bad conditions or bad pigeons meet good conditions, and bad pigeons are the worst.
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Of the above views, there is no doubt that only the last one has the potential to grasp the contradictory relationship between the domestic nature of carrier pigeons and the wild nature. There is no fully mature experience here, and I would like to provide a few suggestions for your reference.
(1) As far as possible to establish the dependence of pigeons on people, feed regularly, clean the loft, avoid disturbing the carrier pigeons in the shed, and do not indulge the habit of riding pigeons at any time and spending the night outside the house.
If you purposefully train the carrier pigeons in the field, you must grasp the pigeon situation, and must not let it become a habit, resulting in the habit of not thinking about returning or not returning for a few days.
(2) The training and release must be moderately increased, aimed at enhancing the confidence that the carrier pigeons will be able to return home at a certain distance through efforts.
Of course, training can also choose some complex weather, terrain topics, but be sure not to exceed the ability of pigeons to carry out large-span training.
It is best not to train too frequently, in order to rush to compete, it is most undesirable to arrange the training schedule before the pigeons are mature, which can only increase the fatigue of the carrier pigeons to the owner and the return to the nest.
(3) Always pay attention to the emergence of pigeons in the pigeon loft and wild overnight pigeons, if not by accident, this pigeon should be closed in time to avoid the anti-ancestral syndrome of this pigeon from harming the whole shed.
(4) In daily training and racing, pay attention to the homing rules of single pigeons; whether it is the purpose of the competition or the nature of the carrier pigeons, the "tractor" type pigeons do not meet the requirements.
Especially if a pigeon that has been captive during the release accidentally returns to its hometown, it must be willing to be eliminated, because it will still be attached to the pigeons it encounters in the future release, and there will be no big success.
(5) For wild pigeons, further careful observation is required, and it may not be a bad thing if the wild nature is only out of the pigeon's high vigilance against things outside the house.
But when a pigeon is very wild in the shed, and once out of the shed or released, it is always tending to its flock.
(6) Pigeons with a habit of touring the shed do not retain value, because when participating in the competition, the off-site pigeon flock always has a great attraction for it. The so-called tour shed is not to love its own nest, what is the use of such a carrier pigeon?
Of course, because it has a certain degree of selectivity for the new group, sometimes the solo flight is far away from the shed or even dozens of miles away to find a partner, this pigeon is not easy to be found by the pigeon owner, and it is often called solitary, and it has lost its competitive potential.
(7) The situation of pigeons with injuries is very complicated, some may be beaten by pigeon breeders on the way home, some may have been with wild pigeons and beaten by hunters as wild pigeons, and some may be attacked by eagle harriers.
In another case, when the carrier pigeon joins the team of wild pigeons, it is not adapted to the wild pigeon flying in the morning and evening under weak light and through the trees in a roundabout and sudden flight, often crashing into the tree strip, so the injury is limited to the front chest, and there are large hairs falling off (the author has observed this situation many times).
In either case, the carrier pigeons will escape by chance at a loss, and if they are cured, they may have an increase in their speed in the future.
(8) Generally speaking, a certain characteristic of the original trait of carrier pigeons is that it is hereditary. Therefore, this is another basis for our breeding of carrier pigeons, but the main point of grasping is still that we must be very familiar with the habits of the pigeons.
There are many elaborations on the original characteristics of carrier pigeons, aiming to fully understand the carrier pigeons and grasp the breeding and training methods of carrier pigeons.
The pigeons are used by us to compete, in fact, the use and development of its original traits, and if we talk about appearances, it is difficult to reach the upper echelons of pigeon breeding.
Probably you won't believe that the original rock pigeon also has the ability to homing - a rock pigeon caught in the nest is marked and taken hundreds of miles away from the nest to fly, and it can also return to the nest.
On the contrary, our carrier pigeons appeared "tractors" and went wild for a period of time on the way: the shed pigeons and the fallen pigeons went out to find colonies and feeding grounds out of primitiveness; even long-distance releases did not return, completely returned to the original, what is not to understand.
In pigeon breeding, we believe too much in the subjective, too much emphasis on the humanization of the carrier pigeon, too much repetition of the theory of the point of generalization, and as a result, the loss rate of the carrier pigeon is too much higher than the homecoming rate, and the fog of the carrier pigeon will become thicker and thicker.
Through the analysis of the original characteristics of carrier pigeons, I would like to say that carrier pigeons are grasped by people, and it is people's understanding that determines the use, enlistment, breeding and domestication goals of carrier pigeons, and all this should include an understanding of the evolution of carrier pigeons and an accurate understanding of the original characteristics of carrier pigeons.
What the winning pigeons that fly back show: it shows that man's accurate grasp of the pigeon and the conditions (some are accidental coincidences), so the highest state of pigeon breeding is the realization of the relationship between man and pigeon.
At the end of the article, I will leave you with a thought question: Why do the Jensen brothers clean the loft five times a day, feed the pigeons three times a day and almost count the feeds, and only play the short distance races of the day? You can write the answer in the comments section.
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Wen | resist Vincent
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