deltadukman wrote:Pigeon racing has always kind of piqued my intrest. Not the point that I want to purchase a highly modified tricked out fast foul, but curious as to how they race and such. How many end up off track and how do you get one to go somewhere and turn back around. Whats the name of the club?
I'm no expert so I hope I don't mislead you here. My knowledge of it is only second hand. My dad who is retired has stumbled into the pigeon delivery gig somehow. There are some local guys who are member of a club and he has been delivering their birds to the start of the races for them for several months now. They're called "homing pigeons" because that's what they know how to do...go home. They are delivered to the starting point in small portable coops. They wear a band on their leg with a chip of some sort in it and when they're released they fly across a sensor/timer thingy that starts their time. There is another sensor/timer thingy at the door to their coop at home. When they fly back in their time stops. It is all recorded and compiled by computer and the bird with the fastest time wins. Pretty simple if there's nothing I'm missing.
The recent races have been starting somewhere in Kentucky, about a 7 hour drive one way for my dad. He releases the birds and comes straight home to check the times on the computer. He released some a couple weeks ago from Meridian, which would be another 3 hours of drive time, and the birds got to Meridian about 3 1/2 hours before he got to Corinth.
