The Keeping

For the good of the animal

The Swiss Animal Welfare Act forms the basis of the species-appropriate husbandry (or keeping) as practiced in our racing pigeon facility. The size of our loft determines the number of our racing pigeons. The daily free flight is also part of the keeping. In order not to expose the pigeons to unnecessary dangers, the free flight is controlled depending on the weather. Likewise, in the event of increased attacks by birds of prey, care is taken to vary the time of day for the daily free flight. In order for a high performance of our pigeons we attach great importance to care and cleanliness in the loft. A correctly managed, clean loft is the basis for healthy racing pigeons. It takes a lot of discipline in the keeping of high performance racing pigeons.

The training

With patience to success

The racing pigeon is a sensitive creature, which reacts strongly to changes. In all these years we have acquired our own method. The procedures for feeding, free or training flights and preparation for races are well thought out and are adjusted only if necessary. We therefore practice consolidating processes and making major changes only in small steps. In addition, we do not unnecessarily expose pigeons to danger in areas rich in birds of prey, as it is the case here in Valais. It is nonsense for us to use pigeons in poor condition for training flights or races. The pigeons must show their good form in free flight first before we start training.

The Sky-Leader rings from the company Jixiangle are GPS loggers with which we record training flights. These recordings help us to analyze the flights and thus to get the optimum for our pigeons. It shows us, for example, in the case of pigeons that come back late to the loft, where they have been. With this data we can identify locations of bird of prey attacks to plan training flights differently.

The Skyleader system is easy to use and recommended for every fancier. Every fancier who thinks he knows exactly where his pigeons fly through, can convince himself with the Sky-Leader rings from Jixiangle. Click on the link below to view one of our flights in detail.

This pigeon gets used to the size and extra weight before flying with the Sky-Leader GPS ring by means of a dummy ring (included).

Excerpt from a flight over the Swiss Alps with the GPS logging system from Sky-Leader.

Insights

About flying high-flyers!

Gain a few insights into our everyday life from the work and the handling of our racing pigeons. We let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pigeons in free flight around the house. In the background, the Bortelhorn (3194 m.a.s.l.) towers on the right and the Hillehorn (3181 m.a.s.l.) on the left.

The legendary Swissfighter (CH-08-15364, Breeder: Baumann Heinz Rothrist). Ace-bird of Switzerland 2009. It is impossible to imagine our breeding without him.

A bird from one of our most successful breeding pairs. His mother is a pure Janssen pigeon.