United States. Army. Signal Corps

“ Introduction to Pigeon Training It is almost impossible to prescribe any one method for training homing pigeons. There are certain steps, however, that must be followed if the birds are to give reliable messenger service. The methods for training Army homing pigeons are prescribed in this section. However, they are not the only methods by which birds can be trained. Success with the birds depends largely on the individual pigeoneer’s experience and technical knowledge. This is particularly true concerning operation of combat lofts. ”

“ The main tail feathers act as a rudder in flight, controlling the bird’s direction. Flying is possible because every flight feather overlaps, presenting a solid surface on the downbeat of the wing. Besides, flight feathers provide lift and pull for the bird’s propulsion. On the upbeat of the wing, the large flight feathers rotate in such a manner as to cut through the air with little resistance, and at the same time to permit escape of air. ”

“ In order to combat lice properly and intelligently, it is necessary to know something about where and how they feed, live, and breed.
(a) Adult lice live on the skin and feathers of the bird and only rarely leave the pigeon. When accidentally dislodged, they crawl very short distances to other birds. Lice cannot live longer than a few days away from the birds. ”

“ Never feed pigeons a full ration of feed at any one time during the settling period. Keep them definitely on the hungry side at all times. This serves to impress upon them that the loft is the place to find food. Hand-feeding will control the distribution of feed and, at the same time, encourage the birds to become tame. Pigeoneers are urged to hand-feed their birds at all times if possible. ”

“ Feed pigeons twice a day during training, light feeding in the morning and heavier in the evening. After each exercise, training, or other flight, call the pigeons into the loft and give them a small quantity of feed as a reward. While the pigeons are taking their morning exercise, clean the loft and place in it a fresh supply of grit and drinking water. Call the birds in when they have completed their exercises, then scatter the food slowly on the sand-covered floor as the birds enter through the trap. ”

“ Stock for breeding at a loft should be selected with the advice of the pigeon expert in charge of breeding. The pigeoneer who desires to become an expert in the art of breeding pigeons is encouraged to study additional literature on this subject. The pedigree for at least two generations is used to determine probable qualities of future youngsters since it shows family, strain, and kind of flying in which the birds excel, as well as the performance of other youngsters produced by the same parent. ”

“ Pigeons should not refuse food unless they have just been fed. They will be alert, active, happy, and much more manageable if kept a little hungry. It is easy to overfeed pigeons so that they become sluggish and listless. Many good pigeons have been spoiled by overfeeding. The pigeoneer should hand-feed the birds and watch them closely while they are eating because their appetite reflects their general health and condition. Sick birds may be discovered by their failure to eat. ”

“ A combat loft is moved daily during training so that the birds do not become accustomed to one location. Otherwise settling to a combat loft is the same as settling to any other loft.
a. Settling birds not strong on wing. The expression “not strong on the wing” means that pigeons do not have sufficient strength in their wings to stay in the air for sustained flight, for example, youngsters removed from the nest when 28 to 36 days old. These young pigeons are tame and easy to handle; they are not as excitable as older birds because their sense of fear has not yet developed. ”

“ It is of the utmost importance that pigeons used for delivering messages trap promptly. A bird may be the fastest flyer in the loft yet be useless because it will not trap immediately upon return to the loft. The message cannot be removed from the pigeon’s leg if the bird stays on the roof of the loft instead of entering the trap. For this reason it is essential that trapping exercises be carefully carried out. The best time for this training is when birds are being settled. ”

“ Settling Pigeons Settling is the process of conditioning a pigeon to return to its home loft when released. Best results can be expected from young birds just out of the nest because settling and resettling become more difficult as the age of the pigeon increases. Many different methods are used to settle pigeons to lofts, and no ironclad rules can be set down to cover all situations. The age of the birds, type of loft, and experience of the pigeoneer will determine the method used and success achieved. ”

“ Treatment is useless for visibly affected birds. Neither drugs nor vaccines seem to be of any value in treating this condition. Many birds recover from mild infections without treatment. Therefore, the best possible care should be provided for the birds in order to keep their resistance high so that they can successfully combat the infection and overcome disease.
(3) Prevention. Since contamination of feed, water, and grit by droppings is probably the greatest cause of paratyphoid, sanitation is the best preventive. ”

“ If properly trained, however, pigeons will return to their loft from reasonable distances in any direction. A return flight from a direction different from the trained line of flight would be called a nondirectional flight. The speed from nondirectional flights will usually be slower and less reliable than from directional flights. This is particularly true when the pigeon must fly from the opposite direction of the trained line of flight. For nondirectional flights to be reliable, pigeons should be given training tosses from varying distances from all points of the compass. ”

“ External Parasites Many insects and related species live off other animals. Some of these parasites, like lice, live on the host but feed only upon bits of its feathers and tiny scales and excretions of the skin. Others are more vicious and suck blood from the animal. Diseases are often spread from bird to bird through the life habits of these parasites. ”

“ As soon as the new loft has established reliable message service, the old loft will be removed, and if the birds are still suitable for combat loft flying the loft will be remobiled. If the birds are no longer suitable for combat flying because of numerous resettling at different locations, or from being settled in one location too long, they may be returned to the base camp and put in one of the breeding sections. The combat loft will then be restocked with new youngsters from the breeding lofts and training in mobility will begin. ”

“ Since pigeons are monogamous their mating can be controlled for breeding purposes. If left to their own inclinations, pigeons will mate between the ages of 4 and 9 months. Mating for breeding purposes, however, should not be permitted until pigeons are at least 9 months of age.
b. Purpose. The aim in mating is to produce youngsters which are equal, if not superior, in ability, to either of the parents. Such youngsters are obtained by selecting breeder stock with pedigree, performance, physical qualities, and temperament which will probably produce youngsters of the required type. ”

“ Freshly deposited worm eggs are much like freshly laid pigeon eggs, in that they must be incubated before they are ready to hatch. They need to remain in warm, moist litter or soil for 10 to 16 days before the worm larvae can develop. Severe freezing, excessively hot soil, and direct sunlight will destroy the eggs.
(d) When birds eat the incubated eggs, the worms hatch out in their intestines. ”

“ Another reason for scattering feed in small quantities is to prevent the pigeons from picking out the kinds of grain they particularly like and leaving those which contain food elements they need for proper development. Pigeons always drink immediately after feeding. When the first pigeon stops eating and takes a drink, it is a sign that the pigeons have had enough food so do not scatter any more grain. ”

“ Care should be taken during flight training not to overtrain the birds. Such training does more harm than good, particularly if long distances are involved. Overtraining can be detected by the slightly dizzy, sleepy, and unbalanced appearance of the birds while resting. When this condition occurs, allow the pigeon to rest for a few days with open loft but no forced exercise. ”

“ Health of the pigeon is dependent on proper care. Overcrowding of birds should be avoided at all times. Good loft sanitation and ventilation, together with proper diet and uncontaminated drinking water, are factors in health that are under the control of the pigeoneer. He is therefore largely responsible for the over-all health of pigeons in his loft. ”

“ Pigeons showing any signs of sickness must be segregated immediately. In combat lofts there is normally no place available to isolate and treat diseased birds, therefore, it is usually advisable to destroy them and burn or bury their remains to avoid contaminating the rest of the flock.
b. In any case of disease, the loft should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected to destroy the germs of the disease as well as the mites and lice which may be carriers. Cresol, saponated solution, is an efficient disinfectant68 when used in a 4-percent solution in warm or hot water. ”

“ General Certain diseases attack pigeons. Normal preventive methods usually protect pigeons from disease. If, however, these diseases are not detected immediately, they are likely to sweep through the loft, destroying or ruining most of the birds. It is necessary, therefore, that the pigeoneer be able to detect, correctly diagnose, and treat the more common pigeon diseases, in addition to taking preventive measures.
48. Prevention of Disease Disease prevention is much simpler and cheaper than control or cure. Medicines are only emergency measures used in an attempt to overcome disease. ”

“ This process of remobiling homing pigeons can best be accomplished with young birds that have not been settled in one location for more than 6 weeks. If there is a shortage of young birds and it is necessary to use older birds which have been remobiled numerous times, transport them to the new location as many times as possible. Feed the birds at the new location and never at the old home loft. The birds will thus learn to retrace their flight to the new loft if they return to their previous location. ”

“ Breeding pigeons. Parent pigeons feed their young in the nest by ejecting food from their own crops into the youngster’s crop. Therefore, when young pigeons are in the nest, return in about 30 minutes after the initial feeding and offer additional food to the parents. When the youngsters are approximately 18 days of age, start placing a handful of grain each day in the back corner of the nest compartment out of the way of the droppings. The parent pigeons will eat a few grains in the presence of the youngsters. ”

“ Mosquitoes are a very common but usually underestimated pest. Besides molesting the birds by biting and sucking blood, they may transmit pox. These troublesome insects breed in standing water, such as swampy areas, old tin cans, and rain barrels. Control consists of draining or oiling breeding places and using screens on loft openings.
e. Other parasites attacking pigeons are fleas, chiggers, ticks, bed bugs, depluming mites, feather mites, air sac mites, subcutaneous mites, sand flies, and beetle larvae. ”

“ The first step in training homing pigeons for messenger service is to develop the health and strength necessary to endure sustained flight. This process is called conditioning. The degree of training necessary to condition the birds will vary with the mission for which they are being trained. Birds that will be required to fly long distances will necessarily be given longer and more intensive training than birds that will be required to fly only short distances. ”

“ Pigeon feed, which is a perishable item, must be grown under prescribed conditions from the finest quality seed, harvested, cleaned, stored, and then mixed when required. When harvested, grain or seed is likely to contain many impurities like chaff, weed seeds, weevils, or other injurious insects, kernels which are dead or damaged, and excessive moisture. ”

“ Tape worms have what is called an indirect life cycle, that is they must pass through at least two different species to complete it (fig. 46) .
(a) Adult tape worms are found in the small intestine. Their bodies are made up of a head and segments. The head is essentially an anchor that fastens the worm to the intestine of the bird. The body segments form at the head and mature as they grow further from the head.
(b) Each segment contains both male and female sex organs and, as it matures, becomes virtually a packet of tape worm eggs.
(c) Segments break off and pass out in the feces. ”

“ Between 5 and 10 percent of the food fed a pigeon should be grit. Normally 5 percent is sufficient, except during the breeding season when as much as 10 percent may be fed since the parent pigeons pump grit into the youngsters when they start eating grains. ”

“ Barbs can be repaired so that little or no evidence of the split can be detected, by stroking the feather between the index finger and thumb. Pigeons repair a split in the barb by squeezing oil from the oil duct with their beak, and then spreading it on the injured feather.
Feather textures vary greatly with the breed of the bird and the part of the body from which they grow. When selecting homing pigeons, try to select those with strong, firm feathers. ”

“ Normally, only pigeons carry pigeon lice. For this reason, the spread of lice to or from other kinds of birds is of no concern. However, common pigeons and stragglers are prolific sources of spread. Contact in crates is also a common source of infestation. Lice are often brushed from infested birds onto the hands and clothing of pigeoneers who later carry them to clean birds handled later.
b. Red mites. Red mites are a common parasite of the pigeon. ”

“ The pigeon flight-record book contains flight records of all the birds housed in one loft and is a complete account of their individual performances and training. Each flight made by a pigeon is entered on its record. A flight record is started for each youngster when it is removed from its parents and placed in the flying loft. ”

“ Homing pigeons are grouped in families or strains usually identified by the names of the civilian pigeon fanciers who bred them for many generations to develop certain characteristics of performance and appearance. When the several varieties of pigeons used to breed the modern homing pigeon actually originated is not certain. ”

“ Paratyphoid germs quite often localize in the brain and cause abscess formation. Such abscesses cause a variety of symptoms, depending on which part of the brain is involved. Usually the bird shows loss of equilibrium. It may twist its head and neck about, show trembling of the head and neck, or other nervous symptoms. Such birds rarely recover.
(f) Occasionally the germ will localize in the eye. The inside of the eye turns white and sight is lost. Only rarely are both eyes involved. Such birds appear to be very ill and usually die in a short period of time. ”

“ Any birds that fail to take to the air should be gently forced to exercise. Noon exercise periods will accustom birds to flying in the heat of the day. When all birds have learned to exercise freely in a flock and then return to the loft they are considered settled and ready for further training as message carriers. ”