Using a wooden floor also prevents the building up of moisture from pigeon droppings. 3. Cleaning Made Easy A clean loft prevents pigeons from acquiring diseases that may affect their training and worse, lead to death. Administer regular cleaning to the loft by scraping unwanted dirt several times a week. The Essentials in Training Your Racing Pigeons The pigeon is a unique animal in the sense that it is very comfortable with human beings. It is from the same family as with the doves. In fact, both of them are treated to be symbols of peace and love. Like athletes, these birds are molded to compete. That is why, they are trained to become racing pigeons. Once the right racing pigeons have been selected, then you have hurdled one stumbling block in becoming the leading fancier in your community. Now selecting the best means you are compelled to ensure that they are well-attended to. This means that raising and maintaining these birds and their lofts should be prioritized. That is because for it to become a successful breeding and racing program of racing pigeons, you need tested set of suggestions and verified rules coming from the ground. And it all starts with breeding up until racing. If you are starting with newly-hatched pigeons, you are expected to note about the commonalities between these young pigeons. The final decision is arrived at by comparing each bird's speed. The one with the fastest rate wins. Usually, the distance racing pigeons have to cover runs anywhere from 100 km to 1000 km. Although the rules of the race seems straightforward the bird that finishes the race first typically wins these are actually more complicated. The travel rate and the distance are put on record and the fastest to be able to race home is declared as the winner. In fact, racing pigeons in the United States has been recorded to have covered up to 1,800 km. The pigeons start to race from 6 months up to ten years old. However, this may be rare. The common competitors usually cover up to three years of their racing career.