steves birds
2 posts
Aug 23, 2008
12:55 PM
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Help! Hi all.. five weeks ago I got a call and learned that a friend had been killed in a horrific accident on one of our lakes here in washington. His name is Victor Proctor and some of you may have sold birds to him over the last couple of years. A week later got another call from the brother looking for a home for my friends birds. I accepted and now have thirty six beautiful rollers which I know almost nothing about. I do have them coming out and flying and a few are doing some versions of what looks like stalls and flat spins with one actually doing multiple back flips combined with spins. They come out on thier own, fly to the roof of the garage and eventually fly off for a while returning to rest and fly off again, After a couple of hours of this they make thier way down the roof fly across to the loft ane one by one find their way in. SO far no lost birds. I have read to fly them only when they are hungry as it helps to call them back in, I do alot of whistling at feed time and now have them pretty used to me and they set still while I open the door and such. I have so many quesions and know no-one with birds so it's day by day and im not finding much help for beginners like myself. I will throw out a couple here now for starters .
Will the birds get more comftorable with the surroundings and start rolling more as time goes bye? THey seem to be reaching way out over the trees and sometimes way out and out of site. Are they just getting comftorable and confident or do alot of birds just fly without doing anything else.
I do alot of clapping when I see a spin or roll. Does this help? and is there anyhting else I can do to promote more activitey ?
I have read that you don't want them landing on anything else but the coop but it seems a patern has been set that might be impossible to change.
I am feeding the 14% pigeon food and finally yesterday found grit. When I put it in last evening it was a freenzie that went on until it was gone.More this morning and again they went crazy for it. I guess no harm will come from this and eventually they will slow down on it.. Can they eat too much of it? If any of you remember to have sold birds to Victor maybe you can tell me if some of these birds are from your stock. I have identified some of them like the helmet heads,Komorner tumbler. Many have been taged but it means nothing to me. Four are ewbeckasten rollers I think ( however it's spelled) Anyhow im most likely doing everything wrong but I hope not reversable. I certainly need some advise. I would be happy to hear from any of you if you would please. Also, any reference to books for the novice woulf help as well. My email address is stpe2005@aol.com..... thank you for any advise you can hand off to me.
Last Edited on 23-Aug-2008 10
Last Edited by on Aug 23, 2008 12:56 PM
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Oldfart
797 posts
Aug 23, 2008
4:09 PM
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Steve, First welcome to the site. I am not the most knowledgeable on this site but I would be glad to try to help. I am going to wait for someone more quilified to add their input and then if you still have questions feel free to email me at flycontroline@yahoo.com
Thom
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SSLOFTS
114 posts
Aug 23, 2008
6:07 PM
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Sorry to hear about your buddy. Look back through the posts on here(200 pages!!!) to find out everything you need to know. Quite a few of the guys on hear really know what they're talking about. Good luck.
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Electric-man
1967 posts
Aug 23, 2008
7:21 PM
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Welcome Steve! Sounds like you have mixed breeds flying. It will be hard to have a lot of control of them with the different breeds.
In generalization, keeping them in very dry conditions is very important. You control your flying pigeons with the feed! A good starting point on the feed is about a tbls/ birds on the flyers. Breeders need food 24/7, grit and oyster shell(calcium). Fresh water daily! I am against cracked corn in their diet. They can get canker very easily on it, specially youngsters.
They are probably in their molting cycle right now and they are not going to perform at their best. Their a lot like us, if they are out of shape(fat), they are going to be less active. Overflying them will make them too strong though and they will resist the roll. Adults need to be flown every other or every third day. Fly the youngsters as much as posible( at least every day) until they start rolling well. Treat them like atheletes if you want top performance.
If your thinking about this seriously, I sudgest that you order a book or two( you can order them here from Tony) and read up on them. There are 200 pgs you can go back and read previous post here on the forum. There is a reading room you can go into and ck out. You can type in key words in the search site and bring post of that subject forwards. Its unbelievable the info you can aquire right here if you put forth the effort. Keep in mind that we specialize in the Bihmingham (performing) roller here. There are many different tumbler breeds and sounds like you could even have some Oriental rollers. There is going to be a lot of difference in the performances! It can be very time consuming working with several different breeds. I suggest that you pick one or two and go from there!
You can always just open the door and let them be pigeons and enjoy, but you will never see them at their top performances if you do.
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Val
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Santandercol
2934 posts
Aug 23, 2008
10:10 PM
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Good to have you come on here looking for some answers Steve.Most sincere welcome and hang in there with the birds they are alot of fun.You've asked alot of good questions and don't take it from my reaction that you won't get lots of help here on RPDC.I'll help you out if I can when it is not so close to crash time.Val answered lots of your Q?s pretty well and he is an ACE guy.I'll bet your Buddy's spirit is smiling seeing you take care of his sweet birds.
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Kel.
Rum-30 Lofts
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steves birds
4 posts
Aug 24, 2008
8:15 AM
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PS: I sailed around you two years ago. Beautiful island. They all are. Were in Sequim Wa which is straight south of San Juan Island. Were out on the straight and live on Whats called Miller Penninsula.. I call it Paradise. In fact we named our Ranch Paradise ranch. BE well Steve
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gotspin7
1760 posts
Aug 24, 2008
8:28 AM
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Stevesbirds, welcome to the site, I see these guys took care of you already
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Sal Ortiz
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Santandercol
2937 posts
Aug 24, 2008
9:15 AM
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Steve,
You're a sailor too,eh!I've also been known to jump aboard the occasional boat having owned several different vessels since my teens.Heading out on the water in the rain today to take a family of ten to spread their fathers ashes on Georgia Straight.I see you sent me a PM.Will write later.
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Kel.
Rum-30 Lofts
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mcroller
197 posts
Aug 25, 2008
12:47 PM
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welcome Steve you are right about the island up here in paradise ,ITs wonderful here an we have some excelant flyers an birds here.
jimmi
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Square
429 posts
Aug 25, 2008
1:16 PM
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Welcome.. sounds like you have your work cut out for you ,,, sorry about your loss.. I would first start by seperating the breed's then ... comes the task of seperating the breeder's and flyers from each this might be hard as from what I understand you dont have much info.. any how best of luck and I am sure you will find alot of help and info here,.,,
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"Home of the Ghost Town Roller"
K.C.R.C
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steves birds
5 posts
Aug 25, 2008
9:26 PM
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Booker, are you saying that the only way to get these birds to fly and roll together is to seperate the breeds and pull out the breeders then fly small groups of the same breed together. I bet there's fifteen breeds in this bunch of birds. I think at this stage that I would like to see and enjoy a lot of birds in the air with hopes that many will produce some rolls,dives, spins and such. Can I achieve this with so many breeds flying together? I am in so over my head . I fed them light this am and pushed them all out this pm hungry and they all went to the ground or up to the top of the coop. I ran around waving my arms and yelling a bit but they were deffinitely not going anywhere. I finally brought out the food and they were actually jumping in the pan as I was holding it. We had some wind today but not bad while I had them out. Why do they sometimes fly and sometimes not. What do I need to do here boys. Im a dam fish outa water with these guys.
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Santandercol
2949 posts
Aug 26, 2008
7:06 AM
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Steve,
Don't fly them till 24 hours after they've been fed.They will perform better without any food in their crops and trap in quick.All the different breeds fly and perform differently so if you fly more than one breed at a time they will distract each other from what they are supposed to be doing.Make sure they are getting a little grit/oyster shell with their feed.
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Kel.
Rum-30 Lofts
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steves birds
6 posts
Aug 26, 2008
8:45 AM
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thanks Kel, I'll skip breakfast today abd see if they want to do something tonight . appreciate the comeback
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steves birds
7 posts
Aug 26, 2008
9:08 PM
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Laid off the food for 24 fours and seperated the rollers from the other oriental and exotic breeds. Pushed out the rollers about supper time and they all flew. This time I saw a lot more activity in the rolling and spinning by several. I will be keeping the exotics seperated from now on. thanks Kel.They always want to go to the shop roof for ten minutes or so before they decide to fly. IS there a way to break this so they fly straight out?
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Santandercol
2951 posts
Aug 26, 2008
10:10 PM
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Get a long pole like a 20ft piece of PVC pipe-1/2" and tape a garbage bag to the end of it.You'll look funny waving it cause it bends a bit but you can reach a long way with it and when you wave it at the birds that will usually make them get up and fly.With my Doneks I use it like a spear and can toss it right over the top of my 2 story house.It really -isses my wife off when I do that tho.Did you get some Oriental Rollers in the bunch from your late buddy?
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Kel.
Rum-30 Lofts
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cr250
121 posts
Aug 27, 2008
2:20 AM
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welcome to the site Steve.Still learning myself.
Brian
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steves birds
8 posts
Aug 27, 2008
8:09 AM
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Thanks Brian, Kel, great tip . I will try it this evening. I threw some firecrackers on the roof last week and it didn't phase them. By useing the pole will they eventually get the deal and fly out or is this a standard practice?
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