rockx.559
30 posts
May 05, 2008
9:27 AM
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how do you work with a portable loft? does the roller jus know where ever you let them fly as long as their loft is around there? help..
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MILO
973 posts
May 05, 2008
9:31 AM
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Great question. I've often wondered that myself. I always thought the pigeon (primarily the Roller) to be landmark oriented. It is a very different bird than say the Homer pigeon. I would feel nervous flying mobile, but would like to know more about it.
c
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Snake Doctor
271 posts
May 05, 2008
10:21 AM
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Wafer kits and Sippi fly mobile and know much about flying mobile, they are on this site from time to time. The European roller flyers fly mobile on a regular basis, several of them have pages on the web with pictures. As I understand it, the birds fix on the structure of the trailer loft or the small portable fly box itself usually brightly colored. I'm told you can't leave it the same place for 3 days or the birds will fix on the physical location not the box.
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"Semper Fi"
SD
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tucknroll
29 posts
May 05, 2008
1:11 PM
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MIlo and others,
Back in the early days the late Paul Bradford, Frank Picolet, Bill Schaffer and a few others use to fly portable annually. The neat thing about it was they met at a central location and flew in that agreed spot and whom ever won the fly had the previledge of hosting it close to thier permanent location of residence. Paul lived in Utah and Bill Schaffer in Colorado and Frank Picolet in Kansas. I always thought that it would be a fun outing and a way to have a place to meet and enjoy each ones birds at the same time flying from a very differrent area. I know its hard enough to get them to roll from a permanent spot but it seems to me that with all the problems that we face in flying at the same location maybe our forthsight should be placed upon raising birds that can adjust to portable flying and still maintain thier consistency in rolling.
The hard facts about todays flying with all the elements that we contend with that are out of our control we need to be thinking outside the box and try and breed for this trait in order to enjoy our birds more fully. Often times we here of a fancier that has moved to a new residence and in so doing he or she is not pestered with the monsters of the air until they the monsters have finally keyed in on thier location. Flying portable would seem to even the playing field and at the same time one could enjoy thier birds without continous fear. We need to learn how to coexist in todays atmospheric conditions and our environment and what it provides naturally.
Because of the high expensses in fuel these day in talking with a very good friend of mine that has racers he cannot afford to do as many training tosses as required in order to be competitive so his alternatives is to raise a bird that requires minimal training tosses and hope for the best come race day. Sounds a little off the wall but if you really think about anything we do it is to our conviences and circumstances that we make it work for us.
Now about the portable lofts Al Perron would be the one to chime in here. Many of you guys have kit boxes strategically placed around the yard right? You may start them out in one box on the east side of the yard and may later put them in another box on the west side of the yard. The key to portable is no different than training a kit of young birds to go in to the right box. Once you have imprinted on them that you are the feed can they'll follow you in the house. It would be to your benefit to have some kind of a round circle on the roof that is colored like Red or Orange or something to which would be clearly seen through adverse conditions should an on coming storm approach suddenly. I leave the details to Al he knows and has the veteran experience. Paul Bradford had a couple of his kit pens with wheels attached to them and moved them about the yard everytime he flew them. One was red the other was blue. Hope this may help in some way.
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tucknroll
30 posts
May 05, 2008
1:13 PM
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Oh i forgot to mention the great Hans Roenttenbacher was also part of that group!
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flo
98 posts
May 05, 2008
1:30 PM
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copy this link and paste it to the web address. It is a pretty neat clip of oriental rollers and it is similar to portable kit/loft except they setup a mini box and place the OR's on it and let them fly and they will return back. Take a look if i'm starting to confuse you. the vid will explain it all. I hope we can do this with our BR's one day.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dUdz4lvtnhg
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FLO
www.blacked-out-loft.webs.com
SAKTOWN, KALI4NIA
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wafer kits
100 posts
May 05, 2008
1:57 PM
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Guys;
Most of you seem to have the right idea about flying mobile. Train your birds to either a small box or a trailer that has a fluorescent marking of some kind; (the red end of the spectrum is best, (ie) red, orange, yellow etc. The birds learn to imprint on this marking or its container. You can start out by moving your kit box around the yard but, once they are flying tree top level, you want to take them out preferably at least 5 miles from your home. Any specific questions? Al
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sippi
222 posts
May 05, 2008
5:41 PM
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I go a step farther Al. I paint my perches, my feed pan, my landing board, and my roof all the same color. Flourescent orange,pink, and white. Then when my birds are being homed they eat and sleep the color. Once they fly one time and come back to the roof its a piece of cake. The best color box that has struck my fancy for the Euro box is banana yellow with red. It is some kind of bright.
My portable lofts are painted white except of the roof and landing board on the outside. I always fly in the woods so it sticks out like a sore thumb. I never leave my portable in the same spot more than two days and I never fly in the same place two times in a row. I have also found it much easier to train the squeaks before they can fly. That way I dont have to use a training cage at all. If you set them on the landing board when they are just barely feather and cant fly well they will immediately duck in to the trap for security I do this every day while the kits are flying. After a few times they will stand on the landing board and then they will fly to the roof and sit. I never let them land on the ground but have little trouble this way. When the older birds come down and trap the squeaks will follow them in for dinner.
sippi
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sippi
223 posts
May 05, 2008
5:50 PM
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You can do the same with the BR's as with the Orientals. I fly mobile with Turners, Fireballs, Galatis, and Orientals. The only disadvantage with the Euro box is the size. You cant hardly do it with twenty bird kits. Oriental competition is with three birds in Europe. Here in the States it is with three, five, or seven birds. I myself like three and five.
Sippi
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Velo99
1694 posts
May 05, 2008
9:27 PM
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I saw a drawing from 1920s Germany.
A guy had a backpack mobile for like 8-9 birds. They were flying low in the air above him. Showed a diagram of the pack. Think it had access to each row from the end and he slid the partitions into it after the birds loaded. Each bird was fed in its slot. Been a while since I saw it. Hope my memory is accurate.
Guys have been flying moblie for centuries. One of the Sultans from the 12th century took 10,000 pigeons with him on caravan. I have been procrastinating about flying mobile. I think it would be interesting to say the least. Once I slow down enough and turn my attention to it I think I can make a go of it.
That would be a really neat thing for the convention each year. The NBRC National Mobile Champion. Competetion is limited to the number of flyers that show up.
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V99
Keep the best. Eat the rest.
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wafer kits
101 posts
May 05, 2008
9:51 PM
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Sippi;
Each flier may do some things a little differently but certain things are basic to all. At the present time I have no painted markings at all and the birds have learned to imprint on my truck. Also, I commonly fly 2 or 3 times from the same place because the birds are more relaxed if they are familiar with the area. If I work 3 or 4 areas at different times of the day it lessens the amount of BOP attacks. Al P.S. I do favor an orange marking though!
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