Daphilster08's Brother

[wonword]

Hello, just thought i'd introduce myself now also. As stated in the title, im Phils older brother. I currently attend the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus for Clinical Laboratory Science. I have been interested in falconry for many years now, researching, watching videos and looking at photos. It is definitely something I want to get into in the future. In my past I have raised hundreds of pigeons of many different breeds (so if you need advice on raising them for falcon food, lmk) and raising pigeons has sparked my interest and increased my respect raptors. One of the many pigeon breeds I used to raise were tipplers and highflying tumblers, breeds that flew at altitudes often out of sight by the human eye, but most of the time you could spot a "kit" flying and the birds appeared as grains of sand. One of the most thrilling things was watching another spec moving across the sky (Peregrine Falcons) and watch the manuevers skills of both birds, within seconds they would be near the ground. The raptor that proved most lethal to my pigeons however, was the Cooper Hawk. His element of surpise and low levels of flight, weaving inbetween garages was always the best tactic in catching pigeons. Like most pigeon fanciers, I respected the raptors and knew it was all part of the game. I am also hoping that my experience in building pigeon coops will aid in my building of a beautiful mew oneday, as well as other experiences from raising pigeons such as vaccination, banding, trapping, using hunger to control birds, etc will help me in falconry. Anyway, enough babbling. I hope to learn a great deal here to help me with the pursuit of falconry.

[KidK]

Hello, just thought i'd introduce myself now also. As stated in the title, im Phils older brother.

Welcome to NAFEX! (welc)

Do you have a name, or can we abbreviate it to POB (Phil's older Brother)?:D

Pigeons are great fun, and it sounds like you have had some good birds.

You should make lots of friends in the falconry community in and around the Twin Cities!

Best Regards,

[wonword]

Welcome to NAFEX! (welc)

Do you have a name, or can we abbreviate it to POB (Phil's older Brother)?:D

Pigeons are great fun, and it sounds like you have had some good birds.

You should make lots of friends in the falconry community in and around the Twin Cities!

Best Regards,

Thanks! POB sounds good, lol, jk, my name is John. I plan on making lots of falconry friends, I heard they CAN be nice people:D

[Bryant Tarr]

Hi POB! :) (welc)

[wonword]

Hi POB! :) (welc)
Now I might as well change my username to POB;) haha jk

[Heatherg]

Welcome John...will you be attending the meeting/picnic tomorrow with your brother? Hope so....Looking forward to meeting you and your brother!

[daphilster08]

Welcome OB(Older brother) Ahaha :D

[wonword]

Thanks! I wish I could Heather! I have a wedding to go to however. I would really enjoy coming and taking photos, hopefully i'll know about the next one a little sooner then the day before, now that im on this forum;)

[jkruer01]

Like most pigeon fanciers, I respected the raptors and knew it was all part of the game.

That's funny! Most pigeon people I know HATE hawks and falcons. I have heard many words used to describe hawks and falcons by pigeon people but respect wasn't ever one of them. Many openly admit that they keep guns on hand to shoot Coopers Hawks and Peregrine Falcons on sight.

Out of curiosity, what has lead to your deep love and respect of these predators that kill, destroy, and mutilate the pigeons that you have spent so much time, money, and effort on? From my experience, the opposite end of the emotional spectrum occurs with pigeon fanciers and their emotions towards birds of prey.

Jeremy

[wonword]

That's funny! Most pigeon people I know HATE hawks and falcons. I have heard many words used to describe hawks and falcons by pigeon people but respect wasn't ever one of them. Many openly admit that they keep guns on hand to shoot Coopers Hawks and Peregrine Falcons on sight.

Out of curiosity, what has lead to your deep love and respect of these predators that kill, destroy, and mutilate the pigeons that you have spent so much time, money, and effort on? From my experience, the opposite end of the emotional spectrum occurs with pigeon fanciers and their emotions towards birds of prey.

Jeremy

Jeremy, I know what you mean! There are alot of people on both sides of the spectrum. But to answer your question, I understand and love evolution. Without raptors, there would be feral pigeons, raptors, rodents, etc running about everywhere. Killing my pigeons is just natural to them, they should not be punished, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. But, also, when I raised pigeons, they were mainly flying breeds. Coopers did take some showbirds off the loft, which was unfortunate because they stood no chance, but most of the time the show birds were out, i was out so it rarely ever happened. I could not watch over the tipplers in the same fashion on the other hand, as they fly high for hours and hours (7.5 hours of straight flight was my best time). But not only this, raptors served an importance purpose to my birds, culling via natural selection. Plain and simple, if you cant outrun and out maneuver a falcon/raptor, you are its dinner. The falcon gets fed, my bloodlines improve. Sure young and birds in training are at a disadvantage, but my old tipplers could outmanuever a peregrine 98% of the time they attacked. 200mph is fast, but when the tipplers fly at the same altitude as the peregrine, its all about maneuvering. It is a beautiful thing seeing millions of years of evolution not only in falconry, but in every aspect of the world around us. The peregrine needs the pigeon, and without the peregrine unhealthy pigeons would survive and multiply causing massive die offs, so the pigeons needs the peregrine too.

[borderhawk]

Welcome John!
It is pretty rare to find a pigeon keeper with that POV. My boyfriends dad has been keeping and racing homers for over 30 years. He's mildly interested in my falconry and asks questions mainly in comparison to the pigeon keeping and training. Nothings been admitted but I wouldn't be surprised if alot of the cooper hawks that've made it into the lofts never made it out alive. Despite our differences we get along well, and he likes to tell me stories about the flights he's seen by wild raptors on his birds. When I decided to put together my own little flock he got pretty excited....sure that I'm gonna get addicted to racing them like him. I'll have to admit, some of the colors are cool, and I'm liking getting different colored ones and breeding them. My Redtail doesn't care what color they are, though..... ;)

I do have a question for you. What would you suggest for splay leg? I've got a couple half grown chicks that were hatched in a nest box that I never got around to getting good nesting material in, and sitting on the bare wood they both ended up with one splayed leg. I'm not terribly worried since the hen is a "dropper" so they won't be great homers anyway, but I'm trying. I placed an old t-shirt in the box for grip and tied both legs about an inch apart, then tied a 'sling' on the twisted leg to hold it in a folded position. I just checked on them a half an hour ago for swelling and such and they seem to be fine, and they were both sitting with their legs under them like they should. My boyfriends dad says he's tried everything he can think of in the past to fix splayed leg and has never been successful. Any thoughts?

[everetkhorton]

(welc) John! Pigeons are a sport of it own, can be a lot of fun. When keeping pigeons you get to see the full cycle of nature and life.

[wonword]

Welcome John!
It is pretty rare to find a pigeon keeper with that POV. My boyfriends dad has been keeping and racing homers for over 30 years. He's mildly interested in my falconry and asks questions mainly in comparison to the pigeon keeping and training. Nothings been admitted but I wouldn't be surprised if alot of the cooper hawks that've made it into the lofts never made it out alive. Despite our differences we get along well, and he likes to tell me stories about the flights he's seen by wild raptors on his birds. When I decided to put together my own little flock he got pretty excited....sure that I'm gonna get addicted to racing them like him. I'll have to admit, some of the colors are cool, and I'm liking getting different colored ones and breeding them. My Redtail doesn't care what color they are, though..... ;)

I do have a question for you. What would you suggest for splay leg? I've got a couple half grown chicks that were hatched in a nest box that I never got around to getting good nesting material in, and sitting on the bare wood they both ended up with one splayed leg. I'm not terribly worried since the hen is a "dropper" so they won't be great homers anyway, but I'm trying. I placed an old t-shirt in the box for grip and tied both legs about an inch apart, then tied a 'sling' on the twisted leg to hold it in a folded position. I just checked on them a half an hour ago for swelling and such and they seem to be fine, and they were both sitting with their legs under them like they should. My boyfriends dad says he's tried everything he can think of in the past to fix splayed leg and has never been successful. Any thoughts?

Hey Michelle, thats great that he keeps pigeons and you have interests in them in well. You should check out eggbid, they have some cool breeds for sale on there every once and awhile.
As for the splayed legs, in the 10+ years i've raised pigeons, I have not come across that problem. Just make sure you have a nest bowl for them, and provide them with plenty of nesting material, hay, tobacco stems, etc. You can just pick up some bowls at the dollar store, but I always preferred using these :
http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/390.html
Hope that helped!


(welc) John! Pigeons are a sport of it own, can be a lot of fun. When keeping pigeons you get to see the full cycle of nature and life.

Thanks Ev., and I agree. And raising pigeons RIGHT requires alot of work, and I think that some people dont understand that. My 7.5 hours my tipplers flew was a great accomplishment for me, but the record is 22+ hours, that takes alot of breeding, culling, and training.