“Teach them don’t test them,” ace Chennai-based pigeon fancier Mr Walton Pepin would say, and I completely buy that. Following the same axiom that love comes before fancy, I wouldn’t like to stress or scare my feathered friends by pushing them to distances that might strain them beyond their capacities. There is the occasional fancier who might want to toss his birds from 60 kms or even 30 kms first up. The belief is that 'My birds are good and they can do it'; or the more sinister intention (very questionable) -- to FILTER. But what is it that you are filtering, I’d like to ask this person, bad pigeons or victims of poor maintenance?
Phase -1
What has worked for me is starting early and training hard. Many fanciers may not agree with me but I’d like to toss my pigeons in two phases. The first round of tosses begin in July, August. If the weather is good I take my youngsters, moulting their 4th flights or thereabouts, just a bit down the road, say 5 kms and give them a toss. This is just so they start enjoying these basket outings and also begin to learn what’s expected of them. I give them about two to three tosses from 5 kms and then go further to 10 kms. I toss them twice here. I only toss them on weekends and soon the birds are beginning to look forward to Saturdays and Sundays. I draw their baths out on weekends and they get plenty of sun and water on these two days. By the time the birds are done with 10 kms they’ve gotten over the fear of the basket and shoot home from 10 kms (as the crow flies) in around 6 to 7 minutes. This is good!
I don’t overdo these youngbird tosses. The idea is for the birds to enjoy themselves. I may sometimes go up to 30 kms. This is only if time permits and the birds respond to their tosses by increasing their flying time around the house. Sometimes your birds may not fly around the house. Now there could be a whole lot of reasons for this, begining with the diet, to worms, to poor health. But these notwithstanding, once you begin these short tosses, the birds start increasing the flying time around your house.
According to Basil Gossman’s findings (and I’d go with him on this) birds can see landmarks 30 kms away. So, 30 kms is not really a strain on the birds. I toss my birds at 30 kms or thereabouts many times. I like this distance. (Those of you who are smart would have already figured out why. Those of you who haven’t, here’s a clue – READ THE FIRST LINE OF THIS PARAGRAPH AGAIN.)
I keep them at 30 kms till they do 30 kms in less than 30 minutes.
Phase -2
The second round of tosses begin after the birds have moulted their 10th flight. Most times they’re still moulting their 9th or 10th in October-November and one is forced to start Phase- 2 with them still finishing the moult. I have not had any bad experiences doing this and in fact one of my youngsters, Texan (now a stock breeder), came in very good time to win first from a 180 kms race and his 10th flight was only 1/3 grown. However I do agree that this does put a strain on the bird and is best avoided. So we now have all 10th flight moulted birds and we’re ready to begin phase 2.
In the early days when I didn’t have a car, this was about the time, my Bullet (for readers outside of India, The Bullet is a single cylinder, 4 stroke motorcycle from the stables of Royal Enfield. They come in many versions. Mine is a 500cc single), gets fixed with a carrier. This would allow me to carry two panniers and about 30 pigeons to do my training. This is also one of the reasons I didn’t breed too many pigeons (The other reason being – the smaller the loft the more healthy your pigeons and better your chances of winning)
But even today the number of pigeons I train do not cross 40. These days I use a Maruti car to train my pigeons and what can fit on top are two small panniers that once again permit me to carry only about 35 pigeons. (Thank God, providence makes these decisions for me. Left to ourselves each of us fanciers would surely like to train 200 pigeons every year) Many thanks from my end would also go to Karate Eswaran from Chennai who helped me custom-make the panniers to fit the top of my car.
Phase-2 is a bit more business like and is worked back wards from the first race. This is so that the birds don’t lose form once they start training on the track. (Remember form also doesn’t last too long and retaining form is what this sport is all about.) So if the first race is 200 kms, two weeks before that I’d like to have tossed from 180 kms; one week before that from 150; one week before that from 130; before that 100; 75; 50; 50 and then of course we already have our favourite 30 kms. So the training chart reads like this (Please note, for many people like me, pigeon keeping is a hobby and a passion. It begins and ends there. At other times, we’re either employees or very busy business folk, who only get weekends to train their pigeons.)
So Week -1 (sometime mid October) -- 30kms
Mid week -- 30 kms
Week – 2 -- 50 kms
Mid week -- 50 kms
Week – 3 -- 100 kms
Week - 4 -- 130 kms
Week – 5 -- 150 kms
Week – 6 -- 180 kms
And you’re set for the first race…!!!