We breed our rock doves to maintain a pure white flock for the most beautiful display at releases. They have lofts specially built for their needs and safety.
These birds are truly homing pigeons, rather than the small dove that will not train to fly off at a release or to return to its home. Small white doves can create an equally beautiful display in a decorative cage at events, but will not perform for a release.
Homing pigeons recognize each other and desire to live in a flock. Maintaining an excellent loft for our pigeons and meticulous flight training creates a strong desire in our birds to return home where they know they are safe, protected from the weather, always have water and a specially blended diet, and have a bathing pool. When they fly freely, they will return to their home.
However, even with diligent training, some homing pigeons will lose their way and have difficulty returning to their loft. Young birds have extreme difficulty learning to recognize and navigate to their loft. They also have to exercise regularly to maintain and increase their flight stamina, because these pigeons prefer to race home without stopping. Often, a bird is chased off course by a hawk, one of its natural predators in the Charlotte, NC area. This can exhaust the bird, cause it to suffer injury, or easily lose its way home. For all of these reasons, it is possible to discover a lost bird.
You can recognize trained release birds by the bands on their legs. These numbers may lead you to the bird's owner. Our birds are registered with the American Pigeon Racing Union (AU) and have labeled and numbered bands that we recognize. If you find a lost bird, you can call us or use the band information to find the owner on line. We spend a great amount of time raising and training our birds. We know and care for each bird and do not want to lose any of them. We do not want them to suffer hardship or come to harm. Please contact us if you find one of our birds.
In the meantime, you may want to provide bird seeds and a bowl of water for nourishment. If you happen to capture a bird, but are unable to locate the owner, you may want to help it to get home. Take it about 5 miles away and release it in an open area so that it will fly away and hopefully gain the orientation to find its way home.
Enjoy these pictures of our doves at their loft and their happy cooing as they eat.
Click on any image to enlarge.
