During the last decade it seems there has been a decline in long distance pigeon racing. Long ago, there was great pride in winning a 500 mile race and having a 500 mile day bird in your loft. Slowly,…
Pigeon Racing Partnerships: the good, the bad, the just plain ugly!
Pigeon Racing Partnerships: the good, the bad, the just plain ugly! Overview Pigeon racing can be enjoyed by anyone. Competitive pigeon racing takes dedication, skill, the ability to adapt, learn, improve and hopefully strive to achieve success. It takes…
PETA at it Again – Investigation Exposes Pigeon-Racing Cruelty
In April 2012, PETA released a 15-month undercover investigation—spanning five states—into some of the largest pigeon-racing operations in the U.S. PETA documented massive casualties of birds during races and training, discovered rampant killing of unwanted birds and abusive training…
Pigeon Racing – The Pro’s and Con’s of Combines
This section is intended to define pigeon racing at the combine or federation level. What is a combine and how is it organized? A combine is a coalition of clubs that come together to compete in the same race…
Pigeon Racing – The Pros and Cons of Average Speed
What is average speed? Average Speed is a loft award for overall performance in pigeon racing. It is sometimes broken down into short average speed and long average speed, the computation for average speed is the speed of the first…
Quarantine Late Birds
What is a late bird? A late bid is any bird that has been out for more days that race time. An unfortunate but necessary assumption is that birds that fly long distance will occasionally be out a night…
When the race is over, After the Return.
“The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is…” You prepare for the next race while this week’s race is in progress. Heh, wait a minute!!! Shouldn’t we take things one race and one week at…
Trapping Racing Pigeons – “The race isn’t over until the bird is clocked.”
“The race isn’t over until the bird is clocked.” What is trapping and clocking? “Trapping” is a term that I think stemmed out of the used of the word stall trap. When a bird came home from a race it…
Pigeons are more living helicopters than flying rats…
The humble pigeon could provide the unlikely inspiration for a flock of small military drones that can navigate enclosed spaces. It turns out the common birds can redirect their flight path with the agility of a helicopter. Ivo Ros of…
Brilliant Beasts: Pigeon Genius Part 4/4
Brilliant Beasts: Pigeon Genius Part 4/4 This is part 4 of a brilliant series from National Geographic called Brilliant Beasts: Pigeon Genius. This series showcases how amazing these creatures are and why they are one of the most successful animals on…
