Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Business Is Taking Off (Now if it would only land)
I’m not quite getting the hang of this, but I’m pretty sure I’m brave.
Rule #1 – Make sure your birds are hungry.
Oh, my birds were hungry all right. Stamping-their-feet-and-crowding-around-me-in-the-loft-when-I-was-getting-ready-to-feed hungry.
Rule #2 – Release close to dusk.
I may have been a bit too early last time, so this time I wait until about 7:30.
Rule #3 – Try to avoid spooking them.
This might be where it gets tricky. I think my birds might be spooked at the mere sight of me. The cats and dog have spent 3 days inside to avoid spooking them. Who knows?
Rule #4 – Don’t rush them.
Or is it don't push them? It might be both. Is that literal or metaphorical? I can’t tell whether I’m doing this or not. I decided to put them in a basket tonight and release them outside the loft. The plan was, they would go directly inside the loft to eat. They were all really hungry. I went through the birds one by one as I basketed them and culled the ones that came in late last time. I only had 16 birds from the original 18 I released Sunday. I culled 5, so I released 11. Zero have returned. Several fly by and maybe I’m hallucinating, are they dipping their wings? Maybe – Maybe not.
These birds were supposed to be factory equipped with a state of the art GPS. Also, most pigeons travel only 3 blocks away from home, mine have flown clear out of sight.
Maybe God’s working on my prayer life? Maybe they’re too spooked just from handling them and basketing them? Maybe this is normal and they’ll come back? The fancier in Jersey warned me that this is the part where I'll worry and it will drive me a little crazy.
As soon as I know what a pigeon landing looks like, I'll let you know.
The saga continues…
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So today, I'm pretty much praying continuously and hoping, hoping, hoping. (I pray all sorts of crazy prayers like, "Holy Spirit, don't you know a thing or two about doves?" to "God, I want to talk to you about a factory installed GPS system that was assembled in your factory.")
And this afternoon, a miracle happened just when I needed it. A guy I met at a family picnic, a seasoned racer, called out of the blue (which is where a third of my birds are). He really helped me through figuring it out and I followed his advice and BAM two of my birds were back within an hour - four of them were home within 3 hours and a fifth by 4 hours after the call. So, I'm still down 8 or 9 birds, but I know that God knows where they are and He's watching out for them.
I'll keep posting.
I fed 24 for breakfast this a.m. So that means I'm down 11. However, I believe God can bring home all 35 for dinner tonight and I'm excited to see what God will do.
30 birds are home roosting tonight. 2 younger birds are missing and 3 of the older birds. I'm going to inventory tomorrow to determine which ones are missing.
During inventory this a.m. I discovered that 2 of my babies were on the big kid side. That means that I'm missing 5 big kids and 2 babies. I guess that's good and bad. The big ones that I have now should be completely homed on my loft and they are supposed to start flying for exercise. Unfortunately, they're a lot like me - they seem to hate the idea of exercise.
30 birds again tonight. I think I saw 3 overhead though. 2 flying together and one with a feral. I couldn't get my birds to fly today - it was a bit windy and they wanted to stay inside and right up against the loft, that's all. They're eating good. Maybe I can get them to fly tomorrow. They sure are pretty. Hope it's not too windy tomorrow.
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