How do you program a pigeon to fly in a westerly direction?

Question

I need to know about homing pigeons - how do they know which way to go?

Answer 1

WARNING - Looooong post and a lot of info.

You cannot 'program' a homing pigeon to fly in a certain direction.

Alright. Homing pigeons are able to come home from a magnetic chip in their brain that allows them to sense the Earth's magnetic fields. Once a pigeon has been in the same loft for a certain ammount of time, its home is programed into its brain so when it is taken off and let go, its brain senses which way home is kinda like a map. When you have homing pigeons, you'll need to 'train' them before you take them too far off. To do this, you must let them out of a trap door everyday and then close it. Trap doors are designed to let things push through the bars to get in, but cannot push back out. When you let them out, put food in the loft and close the trap door. They'll fly around the loft, then come back in to eat. This is the actually 'training' part. They'll soon figure out that when you let them out, they need to fly because once they go back in, they can't get back out to excersise. As long as they have figured out how to get in the loft from the trap door, you can start the next part of the training. Start taking your team across the yard and letting them go. Then try going just up the street....Then a bit further....and further until you have taken them out about a mile from the loft and they have returned. We have about a 5 miles radius around the house that my pigeons are used to flying back from. This makes me feel a bit more comfortable about taking them long distances. Some pigeons' homing ability isn't as good as others, so they may not be able to come back from too far. Almost everytime a homer gets lost, it is because the owner didn't release them properly. Sometimes when you take a flock of homers out and release them at the same time, a few from the flock will just follow the rest home instead of using its own homing ability. If those pigeons get used to just following, they eventually loose their homing ability because they don't use it. To prevent this all you have to do is let your pigeons out one at a time, at least a minute or more between each release (I prefer about 5 minutes, but it all depends on how much time you have). A well trained/excersised homer with at least a few miles of familiar land around the loft (remember, what may be 13 miles driving could only be 5 on the wing) should be able to finish a race easily. Most pigeon owners prefer taking their pigeons to long distances before a big 500 mile or so race to build their homing instinct. If I were planning on racing my birds in a 500 mi. race, I'd probably make sure they were used to flying back from our place in the mountains first before ever thinking about putting them in the race (our place at the mountains is about 75 miles away on the road, which is probably about half the distance for the pigeons to fly back). My suggestion is just take your pigeons as far as you feel necessary when training them. Flying home is instinct to them so as long as they are healthy and hydrated, they should make it back. It all depends on the pigeon, for they are all different. Some may be quicker, stronger, or may have a stronger homing instinct than others. You'll never know until you take them out and give it a try. You'll loose some in a race or training excersise, but don't let that get you down. After all, you learn from your mistakes. Over time you'll pick up on more and more little things that improve your results, and new techniques that will make them want to come home. I can give you more info, techniques of my own and others I've heard of, training methods, feeding methods, loft ideas, medicine/disease help, and much much more if you need it :]
All ya got to do is message me and I'll be glad to help.
It saves me making a super long post that you'll dread reading at once.

Hope that helped ya, and remember - message me anytime you need any help with your birds!
- Becky

Answer 2

I havent a clue how they do it, I think its something inbuilt in them, like a dog and cat knowing which way to go home after a night on the tiles, or like in the film the incredible journey.
Its also quite embarrassing that these little birds put the whole of the human race to shame. They are taken miles away from their homes, in a basket or whatever, let out of a van, and left alone to their own devices.
Many of them if not all, will reach home before their owners do and will be sitting there waiting for you when you get back. Some of the owners will have to have used sat nav machines, maps and memory and still may have got lost on the way. These birds set off immediately, sometimes in the dark, with no sat nav and no maps ... and they STILL get home before their human counterparts....They are one clever set of birds.
WONDERFUL AMAZIN creatures.... to be thoroughly admired

Same admiration should go to all those that fly wherever they go for the winter...and all that with no satnav&map too!!...

Answer 3

You cannot! A homeing Pigeon can be released in the East and will travel to it's home if it is in the West and vice versa! This is it's homeing instinct!

Answer 4

A pigeon is not a computer to be programmed. They have their own inbuilt navigation system.

Answer 5

Strap a compass to its leg.
Did you really expect a sensible answer. Sorry if you did.

Answer 6

let it go in the east

Answer 7

cut off its right wing?!

sorry I dont have a clue

Answer 8

R U BLONDE?