Roller pigeons?

[KWAK]

Recently I was given a flock of rollers that had never been let out to fly. I've been letting them fly outside for the last month and a half with nothing. Today quite a few of them have been flying and then "clap" their wings together and just fall straight down with their head back and tail up before flying back up. The youngest is about 6 months and oldest is about a year and a half. Is this their version of rolling?

 

[lightchick]

No, I think they just do that to fly lower. Rolling is like doing back flips in the air while falling.

 

[KWAK]

I found a post about young roller pigeons "tail riding" before they begin to roll. This sounds exactly like what they are doing?

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

They are called twizzlers when they do that. Unfortunately that's all some will ever do. If you are a die hard roofer person you cull them out. If your a just a backyard pigeon fan you just enjoy watching their antics,

 

[willygog]

If those birds were never flown, they need to learn to roll, the younger ones,,six months to under a year will come around the best, the older ones may never get "good" at it. but that is what new to flying , rollers do. it can take 4 months of flying to get the action going, and some are much longer and wont be maxed till next year... from 4 month to a year is normal depending on the family of rollers he gave you.. dont cull nothing out yet, fly them for at least 4 months to see how they develop and fly daily for a 1 hr long flight...tail drops are the first sign of trying to learn the roll... if they were never flown, that will slow down the development.. rollers roll but it takes time, and training to get them to a top performer. and locks downs just slow the process. fly them till june then re evaluate.

 

[willygog]

I found a post about young roller pigeons "tail riding" before they begin to roll. This sounds exactly like what they are doing?

You are 100% correct.

 

[laughingdog]

Depends on fam of rollers.. some enjoy long slow process of a gradual roll, that can zake three years to fully develope, some like me enjoy early rollers at up to showing at six months. birmingham rollers for flying standard should do nothing but roll backwards straight down. ienjoy rest of antics more common told of in birm anscestor of oriental rollers, so just saying standard. ive had rollers roll out of nest n some roll on nest dtill when get excited, so depends on line. ive been lucky to have no roll downs yet, but they happen eventually supposedly to everyone. somesay late rollers learn better even though slower to control roll. good luck n let us know how goes.
im juststarting breeding a few year old pair of champion fam bronze rollers out of kentuky, n got a young early strain pair (hopefully) from virginia that already rolling in coop n just starting to settle. my main strain culled down to very best is still being tweaked to continually get best/decent results. kit n kit box size, amount of light, feed n even type n ratio of feeds n water allowed, supposedly all play a factor. i don't use any of these "tricks".