Carreir Pigeons

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-08-07 12:37pm

I've been looking and looking for instructions on how to train Carrier Pigeons, could someone help me here please?

EmperorChrostas the Cruel · Post by **EmperorChrostas the Cruel** » 2003-08-07 03:23pm

You don't train them, you raise them from babies. Like any other pet.
Then as adults, you take them in small cages to where you want to send your message from. Write down your message, and put it in a small water tight cylinder you have banded to the bird's legs. Release the bird.
When it flys back home, get the message off the bird's leg.
Sometimes the cages have individual nesting spots built in, like beehives, and the birds pick their spot. Number their spots, and keep track of which bird nests at which berth.

"Homing pigeons," racing pigeons, or carrier pigeons, whatever you want to call them, only have one major talent. Finding their way home from a long ways away. Hundreds of miles. They need no training.
They were a good part of a comm system, long before technology made them obsolete.

Trivia. Homing pigeons were the first specicies we proved have the ability to sence magnatism.

Unless you plan on being a spy, get a cell phone, or stay on line, it works Sooooo much better.
If you just want to raise birds, drive on, young hero!

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2003-08-07 04:29pm

Hmmm...want to go egg hunting in Central Park Straha?

~Jason

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-08-07 08:11pm

EmperorChrostas the Cruel wrote:You don't train them, you raise them from babies. Like any other pet.
Then as adults, you take them in small cages to where you want to send your message from. Write down your message, and put it in a small water tight cylinder you have banded to the bird's legs. Release the bird.
When it flys back home, get the message off the bird's leg.
Sometimes the cages have individual nesting spots built in, like beehives, and the birds pick their spot. Number their spots, and keep track of which bird nests at which berth.

"Homing pigeons," racing pigeons, or carrier pigeons, whatever you want to call them, only have one major talent. Finding their way home from a long ways away. Hundreds of miles. They need no training.
They were a good part of a comm system, long before technology made them obsolete.

Trivia. Homing pigeons were the first specicies we proved have the ability to sence magnatism.

Unless you plan on being a spy, get a cell phone, or stay on line, it works Sooooo much better.
If you just want to raise birds, drive on, young hero!

But then what use is the bird if it only goes one way, and doesn't have a return flight.

Shortie · Post by **Shortie** » 2003-08-07 09:01pm

Straha wrote: But then what use is the bird if it only goes one way, and doesn't have a return flight.

You take it back in a crate in a truck, or a carriage way back when. Back in the day it was a fast means of transporting messages between major locations. Now it's a sport.

Just be careful no-one sells you an Argentinian racing pigeon.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-07 10:03pm

Straha wrote:
But then what use is the bird if it only goes one way, and doesn't have a return flight.

The primary usage for militaries was for forward units to advise higher headquarters of their progress, a return message wasn't necessary because the forward unit was in the process of carrying out its orders. Once they reached there objective it should be possibul to send runners with new orders.

The Swiss army held onto them in to the early 1990's, most other nations discarded them in or soon after WW2 when portable radios became practical.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-08-07 10:16pm

Wasn't the carrier pigeon, as a species, wiped out?

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-08-07 10:25pm

Stormbringer wrote:Wasn't the carrier pigeon, as a species, wiped out?

Carrier pigeons are trained rock doves, in other words any plain old pigeon can do. You're thinking of Messenger Pigeons who were indeed wiped out by hunting.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-08-11 11:51pm

Soontir C'boath wrote:Hmmm...want to go egg hunting in Central Park Straha? ~Jason

MIght be fun, but I already know that there are a few nests just above Battery Park.

I just want to know, could a pigeon be trained to fly between two places? I.E. my apartment, and a friends apartment? Or is this out of the question?

Lt. Dan · Post by **Lt. Dan** » 2003-08-12 12:06am

I think it's a one way trip. It will only go back to where it's home is. Why would they go anywhere else?

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-08-12 03:15am

There is a RFC for TCP/IP over Carrier Pigeons

Linky

It is RFC1149 if you vant to read more