Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Pigeon project.......sunny and 61*

Training pigeons means letting them out of the loft via a landing board and hoping they will return. It's time to start that process with Liberty and Leslie. So to acquaint them we put temporary wire around the landing board and are letting them come out that far. When we feel very courageous and have caught and imprisoned all the cats and Walter (temporarily of course!) we will remove the wire and  SEE WHAT HAPPENS! Right after the wire installation, Leslie, Liberty and Hollywood (their dad) came out on the board to get a better view of the big wide world. Amarillo is setting on 2 more eggs, so had to stay on task. Did you know pigeons average 40 miles per hour, and can sustain that for 10-12 hours.
 
 
Well last Saturday we did get courageous and let them have the choice of going out. Only one chose to, Liberty or Leslie, we know not which. Do you know when you can tell which is the male or female? When one lays an egg! Anyway, away he or she went, in beautiful large circles around the house and landed in a tree. After awhile he or she changed trees but made no attempt to return to the coop. Late in the day when her master went out in the field she circled around but went back to the tree. Remember when we were pigeon peeking to see if eggs had hatched, well we spent the next day and a half pigeon peering trying to locate that pigeon who happened to be the same color as the trees!  Well 31 hours and three stiff necks later, we found he or she in the cherry tree next to the house. Later he or she flew to the ground and then the roof of the loft and then just as the book said landed on the landing board and went in.
Some of us are not fond of the idea of trying that again!


 

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