Showing posts with label Carrier pigeon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carrier pigeon. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Flight of the CARRIER PIGEON

Engraving of "carrier pigeons" (actu...
Engraving of "carrier pigeons" (actually probably homing pigeons), with messages attached.
(Photo credit: 
Carrier Pigeons Discovered
Pigeons were used during the Roman Empire and by the Egyptians as far back as 2900 B.C. when incoming ships released pigeons to carry news of important guests arriving. Ancient Greece used homing pigeons to carry news of winners of Olympic competitions back to hometowns. During the 11th century in Baghdad, the one-way message system of carrier pigeons was developed. Until 1844, upon the invention of the telegraph, carrier pigeons were the fastest and most reliable form of message-transmission. Pigeons can reach top speeds of 45 miles per hour.

Carrier Pigeons Save the Day
During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, occupying forces cut the telegraph wires of Paris. City residents sent carrier pigeons out of the city via hot-air balloon, releasing one pigeon after the balloon made it safely out of the city, to alert residents that the pigeons had made it out. The pigeons, with messages attached, were released back into the city, carrying their messages between dwellings. From that war, on, military commanders were outfitted with regiments of carrier pigeons, trained to fly back to lofts beyond the war front. The messages they carried could then be read and utilized by military commanders.

During World War I, the most famous homing pigeon of all, Cher Ami which is French for 'My Friend', saved the lost battalion of American soldiers from being surrounded by the Germans and fired upon by friendly fire of fellow American soldiers aiming for the Germans and missing them. The pigeon flew through a torrent of bullets to deliver its message to a military post away from the front, alerting commanders that the battalion needed help. For its honorable and brave deed, Cher Ami was awarded the French Cross of War medal. Upon its' passing, the bird was stuffed and put on display at the Smithsonian Institute. Military personnel also used carrier pigeons during World War II and the Korean War. Many pigeons from each war earned military honors for their contribution.

Carrier Pigeons are One-Way Messengers
Carrier pigeons, or homing pigeons, are trained to return back to a specific pigeon loft. Therefore, message sending and receiving only works in one direction. The message sender must have a pigeon that will fly back to the message receiver. Messages are written on very light paper (cigarette paper) and rolled into tiny canisters affixed to the bird's legs. This method of communication is called Pigeon Post.

Research indicates that these birds use a variety of mechanisms in order to home in on their destination. Magnetite, a substance in the bird's beak, works via the trigeminal nerve to sense magnetic fields in the earth. Recent studies also indicate that olfactory senses help the birds navigate. Once they get close to their home destination, it is hypothesized that carrier pigeons also navigate by sight, recognizing familiar landmarks.

Modern Uses of Carrier Pigeons
Homing pigeons are no longer routinely used for message delivery, with the last official military regiments in India retiring a few years ago due to the rise of internet communications. Carrier pigeons first lost their jobs with the invention of the telegraph but were widely used again for about 75 years in military services around the world.

Carrier pigeons have even been used to transmit internet signals! The IP address IPoAC (Internet Protocol over Avian Carrier) was created in the late 1990s. Until April 28, 2001, nobody had used this IP. The Bergen Linux User Group decided to transmit data via the IPoAC and, with the help of a local Carrier Pigeon enthusiasts club, successfully transmitted several packets of data. Unfortunately, some of the data was lost, as some of the pigeons did not return to their home lofts!

Now that the internet has taken over as the fastest means of communication, homing pigeons are mainly used for pigeon racing. The sport is huge in Belgium, with daily pigeon weather reports broadcast over radio stations. In the United States, the American Racing Pigeon Union regulates pigeon racing and keeps a registry of pigeon band numbers. All domesticated homing pigeons are outfitted with a band at the age of five weeks, which contains a number and a chip that is scanned when the pigeons return home during pigeon races.

Raising and Training Carrier Pigeons
To raise a successful flock of carrier pigeons, you must create a pigeon loft. The loft should be composed of indoor and outdoor space. Pigeons need places to rest or roost, food and sources of water to drink and bathe in.
Pigeons mate for life. When pigeons are born, they are covered in yellow down. They grow their grey-colored feathers soon after birth. At the age of four weeks, the chicks will begin flying around the pigeon loft. At six weeks, they can fly outside of the loft, and at two months can begin road training. Pigeons fly one way, and that is home. When training a homing pigeon, take it further away each time you release it. Once it has successfully returned home 40 times, it is ready to race.

Carrier pigeons are the unsung heroes of military conflicts past. They were the first official sports announcers and kept war-weary citizens in touch with each other. Now used for racing, and, in some parts of the world, message-sending for special occasions, pigeons continue to be part of world culture.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018


Carrier Pigeon

Pigeons have an uncanny homing instinct. In fact, they were used as mail carriers as far back as 5000 years ago. In the early 1800's, a sport has been developed using these magnificent creatures as racing animals. The pigeon's disposition to fly home even after long flights has made the sport a favorite hobby among pigeon lovers. Pigeon racing competitions abound all over the world, with most of them involving big money.

Being a successful pigeon racer requires discipline, constant care and a penchant eye for detail. Here are some important tips that will help you become a winner in this sport:

1. Set up a loft in your backyard and ensure that the pigeon is basket trained as soon as it learns how to fly. Pigeons have a deep sense of home. Once they recognize the loft as their humble abode, they will be attached to it for life. Despite long flights, a pigeon has a specialized mechanism that allows them to track the coordinates and be able to fly back to their home. 

2. Observe proper feeding as you raise the pigeons. It's also very important that the pigeons be fed at home in order for them to get attached to their loft. Doing this can increase the motivation of your pigeons to fly home as quickly as possible and as a result improve your chances of winning the competitions. 

3. Set up a training loft and always keep it open during training sessions. Also, ensure that there's sufficient space for the pigeons to enhance their flight skills. Everything else comes easy once this is done since the bird themselves are always eager to flex their flight muscles. Remember that the loft they were raised in is not the same as the training loft, but it's completely acceptable to set a single loft that can serve as both.

4. A pigeon trap can be set up to enable the owner to record behavioral patterns and tally the amount of time a pigeon takes to fly home. Placing treats inside the pigeon trap will also encourage the pigeons to always return to it. This should make training much easier.

5. As with the pigeon trap, treats can be used in training the pigeons to enter the release basket. This basket is where the pigeons are placed and released at the start of a racing competition. 

6. This is where the training proper starts, not to mention that it's the fun part. Train your racing pigeons to fly home from a long distance by placing them at a definite spot. Just make sure to make an estimate of the distance before doing this since it's recommendable that you tally a graphical data in order to monitor performance and trends. The first training usually sets the distance from the home at a mile or two. 

7. Increase the distance from home at reasonable increments during the course of the training program. At its peak, a racing pigeon should be able to fly home efficiently at a distance of 20 miles or more.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

PIGEON RACING - Early History

Carrier Pigeon
Carrier Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The racing Homer is a descendant of the Wild Rock Pigeon which once prominently populated the continents of Europe and Asia. Although the history of the racing pigeon is fragmented the history of pigeons as message carriers go back over 4,000 years.

One of the earliest recorded pieces of history on the bird and sport can be traced back to 1350 B.C. which shows an Egyptian Bas-relief releasing pigeons from their cages. By the middle of the twelfth century A.D., a pigeon post with postmasters and post offices were successfully being maintained by the Caliph of Baghdad. During the historic Olympics of the Golden Age of Greece, a well-developed system of pigeon communication was being used to rush news of the events to surrounding cities. Since pigeons were fast and able to cover large distances through all sorts of weather, leading newspapers of many countries used them to carry important news and stock exchange quotations.

Although pigeons were being used quite successfully to deliver messages, the ancients knew very little about breeding, but they were thoughtful enough to keep breeding the young of the pigeons whose homing instinct were more prominent than others. As progress in breeding developed, breeders began to look more closely at carriage form, feathers, eye care etc as well as speed, endurance, and vitality when breeding their stock. From this bird, the Antwerp and Liege types were developed in Belgium which are the ancestors of most of the present day homing pigeons.

Through the advances in breeding, pigeons began to be able to fly further and faster and by the eighteenth-century pigeon racing began to grow in popularity and was extended into Belgium. In 1818 the first classic concourse in Belgium was held in Toulouse, France with thousands of birds competing. This was the predecessor of modern-day concourses in which thousands of the best birds in several states and clubs compete in the U.S. Since the object of these concourses was to see whose pigeon returned home first, the name was shifted from the "carrier" pigeon to the "Homer".

Friday, September 29, 2017

Things Everybody Should Know About Carrier PIGEONS

Carrier Pigeon
Carrier Pigeon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Homing pigeons have a natural ability to find their way home, even from very far away. People recognized this skill early on and used it to their advantage in communicating with others. This was common long before such conveniences as email, telephone, and even a reliable post service. When these homing pigeons were used to carrying objects they picked up the nickname of 'carrier pigeon.' 

You may picture them carrying messages between secret lovers and aiding in espionage, but this is not all they are used for. In the past, they have been used for some very important tasks such as sending orders for military officers, snapping aerial photographs, and even delivering fragile medical items between two hospitals. They even once made themselves useful by carrying the film from photographers in the field back to their photo labs to be developed when the time was of the essence.

When homing pigeons are used for sending messages, they are called 'messenger pigeons.' Since homing pigeons have the ability to find their way back home across incredible distances people developed a system called 'pigeon post.' This works by trading pigeons with each other so that the owner's pigeon can carry the message back to them.

For example, two people might trade three pigeons with each other and go their separate ways. They then have the ability to send three messages to each other via pigeon post. Once they have sent three messages each, they would need to meet again to trade more pigeons. This minimized the amount of traveling they would need to do which was a very nice convenience when traveling was more costly and dangerous than it is today.

Along with the many wonderful stories about these birds come many misconceptions. For one, they are often thought to be extinct, but they are not. The passenger pigeon is the one that was driven into extinction. Yet another common misconception is that a carrier pigeon is a breed of pigeon. A homing pigeon is a breed that is mostly used as a carrier pigeon. Carrier pigeon is just the 'job title' of some homing pigeons. Similarly, someone wouldn't say that the breed of a guide dog was 'guide dog.' No, you would call the dog by its actual breed, such as golden retriever.

How to Train a Homing Pigeon
A Homing pigeon's instinct is to always fly back to where they live, especially if they have a mate or squabs. Using this knowledge, the first step to training a homing pigeon is to have it learn where its home is. To do this, the owners will keep the pet pigeons in their enclosures for several months. Usually from the time they are young until they are they are grown. This is more difficult with adult pigeons because they may already have a place they call home. During the months of keeping the birds in a cage, they should be kept well fed with a proper diet of pigeon feed. 

After their stay in the cage, they will know where their home is. From now on, most pigeons will always return to this spot and when let out to fly. A very small percentage of pigeons will leave and not return. They then go and live elsewhere, becoming feral pigeons. Once the pigeons home is established, they will slowly be able to find their way back home longer distances. This homing skill can make them useful as carrier pigeons.