Training racing pigeons with tosses are one of the most important parts of pigeon racing and making sure your pigeons are trained to fly home. Training homing pigeons to fly home along the race line is a great way to give the birds a better chance of winning a race. I try to at no less than three times a week get the pigeons in a basket and up the road. The more you toss them for training the more familiar they become with the path home. It is said that it is typically best to train along the race line. I have some of my own opinions when it comes to training homing pigeons. If you plan to simply keep pigeons and not race them then loft flying is very important. It may however not be necessary to take the birds on training tosses. When the racing pigeons aren’t loft flying it is a great idea to keep them going on these training tosses just to keep them in shape, they are athletes after all.
I usually separate the cocks and hens while training as well. At first I trained all the birds together but as time went on it seemed to make more sense to separate them. I do find that when training the racing pigeons that if not all the pigeons are released at once it seems that the first group will hover around and wait for the rest of the flock before carrying on home.
This is something you actually want to try to avoid. The more independent a pigeon is in flight the more likely it will be to take the lead when released from the shipping truck and maybe be the first one home. Each of the racing pigeons has an electronic band so I don’t need to be home to find the exact time of their arrival. This is useful since they pretty much beat me home every time I take them out for training.
I have homing pigeons but I do not have many. I have a small racing pigeon loft that I use to train the pigeons and race them. The pigeons spend a lot of time loft flying and enjoying the time they get. You must continue to loft fly racing pigeons if you want them to stay in fit shape. Homing pigeons are amazing birds and I only have more to learn about them.