Help???my roller pigeon hasn't come back???help??

Question

i have them for 2 week now and when i let the pair fly both of them didnt come back and its been 1 day and like 8 hours...plz tell me why they ran away

Answer 1

you should keep them locked up for a least 4 to 6 weeks. no doubt they have gone back to there previous home.

Answer 2

It may come back, but I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for a roller after this amount of time. (Below is the answer I left at your other question before I saw this one)

It's always a function of their age and if they have flown before. If they are squeakers, then a few days in the loft and having them learn your feed call and you can begin to let them out. If they are adults that have been flown before, then I'd let them rear a round of young first. That will make them feel the loft is home and if you lose them, then at least you have the young.

Make sure as you settle them that they can see the outside. If you can put a cage over your trapping arrangement then so much better. It will give them a chance to see the outside, learn how to go in and our, etc. When you do let them out the first time, you might want to give them a bath so that they want to stay down because their feathers are heavy and wet rather than go up and spook before they know the neighborhood.

You might want to go to either the forums at the National Birmingham Roller club site forum at http://www.nbrconline.com or the Flying Oriental Roller society forum at http://com3.runboard.com/bflyingoriental... and also get some information from experts in whatever breed you have.

Answer 3

Ugh. They aren't homing pigeons, so they didn't fly away to their previous home. However, if they were adults, two weeks may have not been enough time for them to call your loft 'home', and they didn't really know to come back just yet. Rollers are kitting birds, which means they fly in tight groups. All pigeons are social and prefer to fly with others, but Rollers are bred to fly in kits. They also have almost no homing ability...so...it is very easy for them to get lost. Our loft is basically surrounded by trees, and I've had some rollers get lost once they flew far enough to get behind the trees. Once they got up in the air and saw the loft again, they came back.

Depending on where you live, different things could have happened to them. A hawk could have attacked, or something else could have scared them into flying a little too far. If you live in more of an urban place with feral pigeon flocks, they could have grouped up with them and don't know to come back.

If you don't have any other pigeons, then you're out of luck. If you did have others to fly, the missing pair might come back once they saw their flock. Otherwise, there's no telling where they are and when/if they'll come back. The only thing you can do is wait and hope for the best.

Next time you get pigeons, no matter what the breed, it'd probably best if you keep them as breeders and fly the babies. This way you'll always have birds to fly. It's really discouraging when you lose your only two birds. With babies to fly, you'll gain experience and learn from your mistakes, and with time you'll have a nice flock wheeling around your house :)  They're a lot of fun, but things like this just happen. You just have to get back up and keep going :)

Good luck and I hope they find their way back!

- Becky