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What do you do when one of your pigeons doesn't make it home after a race? Here are four questions you should answer:
1) How long was the bird missing before someone found it? This will give you some indication of condition of the bird. If it was lost for quite a while, chances are it's injured or sick.
2) How far from home was the pigeon when found? If it isn't far, you should go and get the bird. That will let the finder know that pigeon fanciers care about their pigeons. Be prepared for the bird to be in bad shape, however. If it got almost home but not all the way, there's probably a problem.
3) Did the finder just pick the bird up, or did he have to catch it? It's not easy to catch a healthy pigeon. If the finder just picked the bird up it may have an injury.
4) How much does the finder actually know about pigeons? If the finder doesn't know much about pigeons and just picked it up, he probably thinks it is a pet bird. Many people don't know a healthy pigeon would have flown away and not allowed itself to be caught.
Some other considerations are the length of the race, how far had the pigeon flown already and how far from home is it. Don't ever tell a finder to let the bird go. It makes you look like you don't care about your bird. Either go and get the bird or tell the finder he may keep it. If he can't keep it, find another pigeon fancier in the area and let them pick it up. They might give it a new home or work out a way to get it back to you.
Remember, the bottom line is it's your bird. You put it out to race and it's your responsibility to take care of it.
About this Author
Learn everything you need to know about breeding, raising and training champion racing pigeons. Click racingpigeonbooks.com for a huge selection of racing pigeon books and DVDs.
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