Pigeon racing on the rise in Roodepoort
“To prepare and select the pigeons that you think will do well in the race, you will have to gain good knowledge on pigeon condition, health and fitness as well as medication."
Pigeon racing or pigeon flying seemed to have become a dying sport over the years as a result of the very small number of young people not having the knowledge and motivation for the sport.
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance.
Although the beginning of September marked the end of the racing season, locally based Florida Homing Society (FHS) and Horizon Pigeon Club (HPC) usually race their homing pigeons on Saturdays.
Before the race the birds are taken to the club and are placed into their allocated baskets before being transported by trucks to be released at their starting point.
The races are normally held at a member’s home before members meet at the club after the birds have come in to see who is the winner. PigeonUniverse is a tool designed to assist pigeon fanciers to manage their pigeons.
As long as a pigeon is timed on race day you will be able to keep track of its performance with measurements at an organisational, divisional, club and loft level. The time it takes the bird to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird’s rate of travel is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which one returned at the highest speed.
HPC chairperson Johan van Tonder encouraged members of the community to join the clubs by visiting them and submitting a form to become a full member.
“Club members will have a meeting to discuss applications, then two members will visit the potential new member’s home to assess the condition of lofts and pigeons, and discuss experience with pigeons,” said Van Tonder.
He told the Record that pigeon racing is a very competitive and satisfying sport; the participation part of it consists of pigeon fanciers training their pigeons by first homing them to their loft and then training them by flying them around the loft until a certain level of fitness is achieved to participate in competitions.
After an hour of unchased flights the birds are taken on training by first taking them 25km away from their loft for about four flights.
Then the distance will be increased to 50km x 5, 75km x 4 and finally 100km x 4 before the pigeons are basket-trained and ready to start competing in their first race which will normally be around 230 to 280km.
The fitness training will continue by either taking the pigeons out to a destination or by loading them into the club/organisation truck that takes the pigeons out for training 120km on a Thursday and 180km to Kroonstad on a Saturday.
“To prepare and select the pigeons that you think will do well in the race, you will have to gain good knowledge of pigeon condition, health and fitness as well as medication.
“The pigeons get a ring around the leg when about nine days old, and the ring will have the club’s name, organisation name, year of breed and number. This will be noted in a book that you keep to show how it was bred, the parents’ info and ring information. We call it a stock book. The pigeon ring will be on one leg and on the other will be an electronic ring that will scan on your electronic system as well as the club system when the birds enter the races,” said Van Tonder.
On basket nights, the pigeons are taken to the club where they are entered into the race by means of scanning their electronic ring into the club system.
There are two different divisions to enter. Young birds – the birds bred within this year; and open birds – the pigeons of any age but preferably older than two years.
After basketing at the club, the pigeons are loaded into the organisation’s baskets in their truck. Loads are usually between 5 000 to 7 000 pigeons.
The truck will then take all the pigeons to the race point where they will be liberated from around 07:30 (young birds) or 08:30 (open birds).
The pigeons race back to their loft/ owner as fast as they can fly (normally around 80km/h) depending on wind from the front and back.
According to Van Tonder, once the birds start arriving at their lofts the members normally will take their clocks to the club for the closing of the race (strike out) which will happen once all the members are ready, that is between two and three hours after birds arrive at their lofts.
The winner is determined by calculating the distance and the velocity, as well as the distance flown to each loft.
“Pigeon racing is a rewarding sport, although it is a lot of work breeding, feeding, and preparing your pigeons for racing,” added Van Tonder.
Members of the community who would like more information on pigeon racing are advised to contact Florida Homing Society (FHS) chairperson Mossie Mostert on 082 800 1947 or Horizon Pigeon Club (HPC) chairperson Johan van Tonder on 083 468 0690.
