This site is a combination of a blog about my new breed of pigeons and a blog about its progress as well as an informative site about pigeons and their keeping as pets. Hopefully it build sup overtime into some sort of order.
I have been a ‘pigeon fancier’ for most of my life and in paticular I had bred and flown a breed called the Birmingham Rollers. As pigeon fanciers will know these are bred and then flown in kits of 20 and are judged for their performance in the air as a kit. Points are given for pigeoens simultaneously rolling. The more the pigeons break the greater the points accumulated, generally over a span of 20 minutes.
However due to my moving home I could not keep pigeons anymore. My new place doesn’t have my own private garden. But as a lifelong pigeon fancier its hard to be completely away from them forever thus I have bought myself a breed of pigeon called the ‘Iranin High Flyer’. I bought them from the first person I met thus I have no idea of the quality and excellence of his birds but as its only going to be as a little hobby it doesn’t really matter. I bought a breeding pair together with one squeaker (young bird approximately 4 – 5 weeks bred by them.
Ive made myself a breeding box and a small kitbox. which I placed on my small balcony. The kitbox could home a full kit of 20 Birmingham rollers as I originally had intended but for some reason Ive changed my mind and got myself the Persian Highlyers, these also tumble in the air and are endurandce flyers thus this sites going to be a little blog about my hobby and information on the breed, basically a diary and information point so I can learn about them too.
The first bit f good news is the hen has layed its first egg. They lay 2 eggs at a time. The second one is usually layed 40 hours later. The eggs take approximately 20-21 days to hatch so all systems are go.
Ive separated the squeaker and I hope to start flying him soon but I need to settle him, basically get him familiar with his new surroundings, just incase I let him out and he flys away not to return home. He will be quite key to training the future young ones becasue they will tend to follow his habits thus I need to make sure he is totally tuned in.
And I am Maj from the UK.
Posted by Bob on May 21, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Hi Maj,
You have a very nice website and much good reading . I am new to pigeons having mine only a year and a half . I have homers although I don’t race them … I just keep them as pets and enjoy their company . My only regret is that I waited so long to become interested in pigeons . Amazing birds !
Keep up the good work and enjoy your birds !
Bob in USA
Posted by majnun on May 21, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Hi Bob, glad you took the time to visit and comment. I am still building the site up in between family life, work life, pigeon life etc.
Wish you well with your pigeons and should you return and read this comment I found this article on Homing pigeons which I think is really very useful and full of good information.
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/special/homing_pigeons.htm#1
Ps i had my first pigeon @ 5 years old.. it was just a chick and basically I took it with me everywhere.. was homed eventually to fly in to our house.
Posted by alek on September 27, 2009 at 4:54 pm
hello you have good birds.please let me know if you have some pigeons for sale.this is my email.tumbler35@hotmail.com.
thank you
Posted by Prabhu on June 19, 2009 at 8:39 am
Hi: Nice blog about pigeons.
Posted by Prabhu on June 19, 2009 at 8:44 am
Hi: Nice blog about pigeons . You have shared some very useful info here. Iam from India and I have tumblers and tipplers. In chennai, the place where I live, the racing rules are very different. Chennai is also the city with large number of pigeon fanciers. I write a blog my experiances at http://chennaipigeons.blogspot.com/ .
Prabhu.
Posted by majnun on June 19, 2009 at 9:05 am
Thanks Its still a work in progress however I am glad you liked it.
M
Posted by Rudy on June 22, 2009 at 2:54 am
Hi Maj, your doing a great job with the site!! I keep the best possible flyers I could get my hands on. I have English Tipplers, Iranian Highflyers and I just acquired 2 pairs of Pakistani Highflyers that were imported.
I love all these breeds in their own rightful way, as they are all quite different. The Iranian Highflyers are just beautiful birds that come in all patterns and colors. In my experience these birds mature much later than, say, a Tippler. A tippler will show most of its potential in a few months, I find that the Iranian birds really show off in their second season, when they do, they are wonderful birds to watch.
Anyhow, keep up the good work, be a little patient and I am sure you will enjoy your Persian Highflyers, Cheers!
Rudy
Posted by majnun on June 22, 2009 at 8:47 am
Yes the Iranians are beautiful birds, when I decided to start pigeons again once I saw the pictures of the iranians and ralised they tumble too it was an easy choice. Compared to Birmingham Rollers they are a much more superior breed although each breed has its own qualitiies.
I have this years young flying approximately 60 – 90 minutes not sure if this is normal or under performance however this far it suits me and I hope they can get much better. I guess I needed the information that it takes 2 or 3 seasons for them to peak.
If you have a website etc please do let me know and do share any information you have on your breeds.
I do know breders locally to where I am who haveboth Pakistani Tipples and Macclesfield tipplers, etc.
Posted by Rudy on June 23, 2009 at 1:07 am
HI Raj, you know that picture with the two birds on the red nest bowl? is that a random picture or are they your birds? I’m just curious because yesterday on kijiji (classified adds here in Canada) someone is selling a pair of Iranians and they posted the exact same picture, and it caught my attention because I saw the same picture on your site two days ago!!
I started with my loft just a year ago, and the hawks took every one of last years birds!! Partly my fault because I was flying them late into the fall, when the hawks are plentiful here, as they migrate back from the north at that time. I just couldn’t resist and I kept flying them, lesson learned, never again !!
Yesterday I flew two youngsters from this year, they were way up high and BAM!! a hawk out of nowhere was chasing one of them for what seemed an eternity, until I could no longer see them, I was heart broken, as it was a youngster that was very promising, only one bird returned. Two hours later, to my amazement I see the little champ up in the sky!!! He escaped a wicked chase that seemed so impossible to escape. It really made me go to bed with a smile!! Cheers Raj !!
Rudy
Posted by majnun on June 23, 2009 at 9:14 am
Hi Rudy, the picture on the front page is not mine but random picture from the internet.
However the ones on the right from Flikr are my pigeons. Like I mentioned before I just have the one breeding pair I would love to keep more but lack of garden doesn’t allow me. Ive Manged to get four younsters from them this year and they are on 2 more eggs. I used a pair of Birmingham rollers as sitters for the eggs. A friend of mine gave them to me, they are from one of the top breeders in Uk @ b rollers but now I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t have the room to keep them and no one to give them away to. Im trying to keep the fact I have pigeons again a secret this time, previously when I kept and flew rollers I had each and every pigeon stolen a few times and then I just stopped keeping them. Years of effort ended in one night of thief work. Thus I know the feeling when you lose your birds to hawks. Luckily I dont have a hawk problem thanks to god just a cat problem for which i bought some catguards..( sonic things.)’
Do you have a website Rudy or pictures of your pigeons posted anywhere on the Internet. IF you do please pass me the link.
I found this interesting book online a few months ago I shall blog the link for you. its worth a read. The book is approx 126 years old.
And its “Maj” (Majid)
thx 4 commenting. And yes you’re right its a great feeling when you think you’ve lost something and then from no where its back.
Posted by Prabhu on June 23, 2009 at 10:04 am
Hi Rudy and Majnun:
Interesting discussions ! Can you please tell me the unique features or the difference between the different rollers like Iranian, Birmingam and and Persian birds? . Do you have or know about any blood line which can fly alone without flying together as a kit?
Prabhu
Posted by Prabhu on June 23, 2009 at 10:08 am
And how do you guys judge the bird for its performance. Do you see their eye signs?
Prabhu.
Posted by majnun on June 23, 2009 at 11:16 am
Hi Prabhu,
The simple difference between a Birmingham Roller and a Iranian High flying Tumbler is that, the roller is not an endurance flyer and does not fly for hours at a time so high. They will fly relatively lower. Also in the performance of the “roll” there is a difference. The birmingham roller will do a simultaneous fast spin backwards at a 180 degress angle ideally dropping upto about ten metres. The best pigeons will control the velocity and depth of the roll. The Iranian HF Tumbler will do a few backward tumbles but it will ascend before the tumbles and they will be a few in number also they “Clap” their wings before the tumble.
I have been able to train both breeds (BR in the pasr and IHFT) to fly singularly . A lot will depend on if you separate the sexes whilst they are not flying. If they are paired they will probably want to come down for its mate.
In the UK Birmingham rollers are flown in kits of twenty for twenty minutes and judged according. Points are awarded for Kitting and the more pigeons who break simultaneously roll will earn you points. The minimum number of birds in a break had to be 5 before points were awarded.
I have never flown Tipplers or highflyers in competition but I suppose they are judged according to the minutes in the air.
And I don’t know anything about the eye sign. I just look at the pigeon, pick it up touch it, see how it feels, Get a feel for its condition and hopefully see it flying and performing before i take it.
Thanks for the visit and comment Prabhu.
Kind regards
Maj
Posted by Prabhu on June 23, 2009 at 11:25 am
Thanks Maj for your response. That was useful. Tumblers we have here is closer to the IHF you say. The tumblers here fly for several hours ranging from 3-8 based on weather conditions. The tumbling has to be controlled and limited in number in the competition. I have a tumbler clocking 2 hours now but it is yet to tumble.Its a young bird (3 months old) and will take another couple of months at least to tumble properly. The region where I live is hot and humid during most part of the year and tumblers normally fly for 4-5 hours. The board time for the races is 3 hours.
Prabhu.
Posted by majnun on June 23, 2009 at 11:37 am
What do you feed your pigeons? India must be the ideal country for grains and peas.
When ive been to India (gujarat) and ive seen fanciers who keep pigeons, they don’t seem to know about, rollers, tumblers or high flyers, they just tend to keep, pouters, fantails and parlour tumblers.
Posted by Prabhu on June 23, 2009 at 11:55 am
I feed wheet, millet, bajra,pea, nuts etc,. I also keep red brick powder with calcium contents like Oyster shell, egg shell etc,. Mostly fanciers who keep fancy breeds will not have performing pigeons. I would say fanciers having tipplers, tumblers and homers are higher in number here. Now I have tumblers and Tipplers. My tipplers are clocking 4-5 hours now. Chennai is very hot(40 degrees) and humid and birds cant fly here for long. The same bird fly for 15-20 hours in regions with better weather in India. The board time for Tippler races here is 5 hours.
Prabhu.
Posted by Rudy on June 24, 2009 at 12:14 am
Hi Maj, sorry for spelling your name wrong ! I don’t have a web site yet, but would like to create one soon, about performing breeds in general. I would be happy to receive the link to the book you mention, as I always enjoy some good reading. Your birds look quite fine, I also like crested birds. I have some nice crested Kashanis, I have yet to see how their babies perform, I have high expectations, but sometimes it’s better to keep them low LOL. How are your little fliers doing? how often are you flying them ? Cheers!
Rudy
Posted by Prabhu on June 24, 2009 at 10:33 am
Hi Rudy and Maj:
Do you do any special training to the birds to make them perform? Here are some things that fanciers do here to make the birds performance ready:
1.Feed the birds with food that contain less protein. Basically make them lose weight. At the same time make sure they get a balanced diet inform of calcium and vitamin supplements.
2. Weather here is hot and humid. Birds will be put in mesh cages in open for 3-4 hours a day for about two weeks. This will get the birds used to the weather.
3.I also make the birds swim in a tub 5-10 minutes a day for 2-3 days.This I do only for those birds which do not start flying for long time even after they become old enough. I have found the swimming exercise deliver very good results.
4. If swimming does not help, I take the bird 1 or 2 kms away from my loft and leave them. I do this for few days. For a bird which does not fly not more than 10 minutes, this long distance journey is like a exercise and sometimes they pickup time.
Prabhu.
Posted by majnun on June 24, 2009 at 9:15 am
Hi again Rudy,
Yes like you I like the crested birds. Forgive my ignorance to IHF, like I said I only started wit the breed this year (February). I tend to fly them every day in the eveing after work, they usually fly for about 90 minutes but they are just 3 months old.
What are Kashanis. What would you say my breed were from the looks of them?
At the moment I have 2 flying but I shall start adding the other 2 youngsters soon. I am conditioning the parent birds to fly too now as I will stop breeding them soon. They just laid two more eggs hopfefully that’s it for this year. Winter comes early in the UK.
I started a new Pigeon Forum that might help you share any pictures and information about pigeons with other fanciers. If you have any friends you could also ask them to join. The Link is at the top of the page.
Thanks
Maj
Posted by majnun on June 24, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Hi Prabhu interesting hints especially at swimming. Fortunatelyso far i have not had to force exercise my pigeons. They tend to alight as soon as they are out. Just have to make sure they are kept on their toes. (Good condition)
Yes I do feed my pigeons a high carbohydrate diet which keeps them light, generally this is a mixture of wheat and Barley. In addition to that i add a ready mixed super junior pigeon mixture which has lots of different peas and some high fat seeds.
I was reading a study of pigeon diets and it said the pigeons generally would use the fat from the breast muscle to give them the energy for the long distance flight. Hence I would say they do need some fat in their diets. An old English tippler fancier recommended indian corn.
Please look out for a blog listing an old tippler book which has some really good old information for feeding and training tipplers. I shall hopefully post this very soon.
Posted by Rudy on June 25, 2009 at 1:22 am
Hi guys ! Like you Maj, I am quite new to these breeds, and like you I consider myself a learner.In my search for top quality, legitimately pure birds I was fortunate enough to come across a gentleman from Iran, his name is Abbas. He has over 250 IHF, some imported. Anyhow he is a great guy who loves to share his passion and has thought me a lot, I can spend hours watching his birds and asking him questions, most of my birds come from his loft, he has also gifted me some beautiful birds.
Iranians have many different names given to all kinds of IHTs. Many of these names are based on colorations (Toghie, Posh Dar, which are saddles etc ), others are named after some provinces or towns where these are most popular. Such is the case of the Kashani.
By the way, diet is a great topic to discuss. Because I am a member of the Tippler club, it’s always an important issue. I love to learn from fanciers that base their practices on sound science and also its great to learn from Eastern fanciers that have been involved in the fancy for centuries, and have many traditional methods of feeding, breeding etc.
I will try to make time to take some pictures of some of my birds and share them with you. Maj, I was told not to fly my birds daily, in parts of Iran they are flown one month of the year, the month with the longest days. But if I may give you a humble suggestion, fly them 2 or three times a week, at most. I know we love to see them in the air, but the drive to fly won’t be the same in the bird if he flys daily, it will be more like an excersise routine, they won’t give you their most. Take care guys, and Maj, I hope that your neighbours cat choked on something LOL
Posted by Prabhu on June 25, 2009 at 7:14 am
Hi Rudy:
I fly the birds for 2-3 weeks until they peek and sustain, rest them for few days and again fly them. The birds are flow for 2-3 months (sometimes few more months) like then and they are rested permanently.Most fanciers here fly the bird during season only. The flying season here is Feb-June.
Prabhu.
Posted by majnun on June 25, 2009 at 8:54 am
I had noticed with mine that if they are not flown on a paticular day due to bad weather, etc then they are itching to get out and do stay up for longer. Initially when I bough the highflyers I was thinking due to my job I could let them out in the morning and hopefully they would still be lying when I got home some 9 hours later. (lol). I think this wa because when I flew BRollers in my old house our neighbour had 9 cats so even with a trap I had to be around when they came down else they would become the meal for some hungry poorly fed cat.
Not sure if you guys have problems with cats but all I do is feed the neighbours cats withleftover chicken etc, keeps them happy and keeps them away from my birds. Like this morning I was confident enough to leave one of the young squeakers out that I’m trying to settle and start training, the cats will keep away and it should just trap by itself.
Posted by prabhu78 on June 26, 2009 at 5:33 am
Hi Maj:
You know about this fancier ? http://kaftar.homestead.com/kaftarbaz.html . I think he is from UK and is very experianced.
Prabhu.
Posted by majnun on June 26, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Yes I have seen his website but I don’t know himpersonlly
Hope your doing well.
Posted by Muzaffar zaidi on June 30, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hi
you are doing a great job with the site . Iam from karachi pakistan and participates pigeons tournment in karacki Iam intrested in discussion about piegion flying. Ihave a record in (karachi invitation pegion flying club) 131hrs a day for 07 pigeons. Each pigeon fly 18hrs to 19hrs. iam intrested Indian high flyeres for discession about tips
muzaffarimam@parco.com.pk
Posted by Rafiq on July 9, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Hi
Can we discuss on indian high flyeres. I had a record of flying a single tumbler pigeon for 10 hrs. Probably we can share our tips. My email ID is rafiqg786@yahoo.co.in
Posted by Muzaffar zaidi on July 23, 2009 at 9:47 am
salam,
I’ve posted pictures in the htt://pigeons.lefora.com to share with all they are mostly pakistani (pattiwalla)low flyers ihope you like them , and feel free comments
http://photobucket.com/muzaffarzaidi_photos
Thanks
Posted by majnun on June 30, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Thanks for the comment and visit. Please join forum at http://pigeons.lefora.com hopefully we can discuss their.
salams
Posted by Rudy on July 1, 2009 at 12:34 am
Hi Everyone, I’ve posted some pictures of some of my birds in the forum to share with you (I hope not too many), I hope you like them, and feel free to comment. Most are Iranian Highflyers, and there are just a few Pakistani Highflyers, I just started with this breed this year. Some of these birds are straight imports, others I bred here. Once again, I hope you will enjoy, Thanks
Rodo
Posted by majnun on July 1, 2009 at 9:34 am
You have some beautiful birds. Your Kashani pair look just like the pair I have breeding from this year.
Please post more pictures if you can. Its always nice to see them.
Posted by Rudy on July 1, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Thanks Maj, I’m glad you liked my birds, your young ones do look a lot like my Kashanis. I will try to post more pics in the near future, I have some young ones in the nest and I am in the process of switching up my pairs. I am racing against time as in about two months the hawks start coming back !!
Rodo
Posted by majnun on July 2, 2009 at 8:42 am
Hi Rudy the parents of my young birds look just like your breeding prayer, you might remember the old picture I had here on the front page, so similar to your pigeons. I guess its a natural trait with regards to plumage.
id like to get hold of another breeding hen, the one I have seems to give me unfertilised eggs quite often
Question when do you feed your birds and what quantities ( the ones you fly)?
Posted by Rudy on July 2, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Hi Maj, I saw the pics of your breeders and they surely look like my birds. In terms of feedings I know many people have many different methods, and as many disagreements. In Iran many fanciers feed white millet as the sole diet, and apparently have great results. I generally feed my fliers once a day, always in the evening. Sometimes I will give my flyers just a bit of millet with the occasional bit of hemp a few hours before letting them out. Feeding them in the evening helps bring the birds in after a good fly. I hate birds that sit on the roof. After they are done flying, they land, preen themselves for a few minutes and they come inside their loft. I try to apply some methods used with Tipplers to all my birds, as Tipplers must be well disciplined, I enjoy them more this way, building a routine and being consistent is of importance. In terms of quantities, Tipplers are fed one ounce of grain, IHFT’s are much bigger, and very different, I normally use my judgment, for the most part I let them have their fill, but I always handle the birds to feel their form, and go from there, they must feel lean.
PS: infertile eggs, may be the hen or the cock, Cheers bud !!
Posted by Prabhu on July 31, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hi Maj:
I have posted some pictures of my pigeons at my blog: check it out at http://chennaipigeons.blogspot.com/
Posted by Imjid on September 11, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Hi Maj
Great work with the site and some nice pigeons you got have you bred them and trained them to fly yet?
check out my site and my youtube page for some vids of my birds the link is on my site.
Good luck for the future
Imjid
Posted by majnun on July 23, 2009 at 12:20 pm
mashallah the pigeons are beautiful and the loft.
i wish I was living in india or pakistan so that I could have the space to keep so many pigeons.
We need to get more people involved in the forum site. Invite some members if you can.
TakeCare.