"So let me get this straight," reads the e-mail I sent to Jay Wagner, "..You guys race pigeons?"

That’s right. The Biddeford Racers is an organization of about twenty-five individuals whose hobby is seeing whose birds can fly the fastest.

Of course we’ve all heard of homing pigeons. Those intrepid creatures who through some sort of uncanny natural gift, can be taken five hundred miles from their home and find their way unerringly back to their roost.

Just how the pigeons figure out where they are and where they need to go is still unknown to science. They may have some sort of internal compass. They definitely have eyesight and hearing that is far more acute than humans.

The first recorded use of pigeons for sending messages goes back to about 5000 B.C.. For millennia, until the invention of the telegraph in the 1800s, pigeons were the fastest way for people to pass messages from one place to another over a long distance. All the mercantile houses of Europe maintained pigeons, knowing that there is money to be made from timely information.

Jeff Letellier and Friend

The royal family in England keeps pigeons still and sponsors some of the largest pigeon racing events in Europe. Pigeons have been used in every war and are still in service in the military of several countries. In World War Two, one bird, named G.I. Joe was credited with saving the lives of a thousand British soldiers when he alerted artillery forces they were shelling their own troops. Pigeons transported many thousands of messages in that war with a success rate of over 98 percent.

Intriguing stuff, this pigeon history, but hardly relevant in the age of the Internet. Right? Homing pigeons have gone the way of the horse-drawn carriage? Maybe not.

Jay introduced me to Jeff Letellier, who kindly allowed me to see his pigeon coop (or "loft") in Biddeford. Jeff caught the racing bug from his father, who lives next door and still keeps a large group of birds. According to Jeff and Jay, a lot of people get into pigeon raising that way.

The Biddeford group is probably the biggest group in Maine. A small group also races in Sanford, and another, Central Maine Racers, is based in the Farmington area. In Belgium, pigeon racing is big; one person in a hundred is involved in the sport, in the U.S.A that number is less than one in a thousand. No wonder I'd never heard of it.

Jeff and Jay go down the aisle between the wire mesh cages. They discuss the merits of each bird. This one is silver, that one is blue, that one is red. They all kind of look brown or gray or white to me. Wooden boxes line the walls where each pigeon has claimed his space. Some sit on eggs in terra cotta bowls. And some chicks peek out of others. Any pigeon intruding on another bird’s spot needs to be ready to fly or fight. Pigeons are very territorial. If allowed they will mate for life. Getting home to their mate can be a powerful incentive for a bird to fly over five hundred miles.

Jay says being successful in pigeon racing is all a matter of managing your flock. They must be kept healthy. They must get exercise. They must be trained and motivated. He says, "As a manager, that would be your responsibility - to determine which ones are best suited for your conditions. That comes with experience more than anything." If your birds are going to win, you’ve got to know what they can do. According to Jay, the guys who win regularly "are the guys who know their birds on a first name basis."

Part of managing is breeding. Most folks first starting out in pigeon racing get their birds from others. It’s easy for a manager to let his flock get too big, and a spirit of camaraderie seems to permeate the Biddeford group. Jeff points to one bird and explains, "Jay gave me that one." After a time if a racer wants to improve his breeding stock he can buy a bird from a professional breeder. "You can spend five hundred dollars on one bird, and hopefully that one bird will boost your flock." In Europe, where pigeon racing is more popular, birds have been known to sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

Predators are a big concern in the coop. A tricky raccoon or weasel can wipe out a flock if he finds his way in a coop. "You have to keep the wire tight," says Jeff.

Every morning and evening Jeff lets his flock of racers out of the coop to fly. They’ll circle in a big formation over his house for an hour before they get tired and swoop down, en masse to return home for some food and water.

Figuring out what makes a good racing bird can be tough. Jay says, "The best way is to put them in baskets and let them fly."

Jeff says most of the time pigeon racing is as affordable as any hobby. "Go golfing, or boating… It’s definitely an affordable hobby for families. It’s a lot of fun."

A pigeon race typically starts on a Saturday night, called shipping night. Everyone brings his or her pigeons to a central location. Each bird has a permanent tag on its leg with a unique number. Each number is recorded and collectively they are packed into cages and put on a truck. Loft-owners bring the module from the clock in their coop, which is inserted into a master device that notes and records any deviation in the clock’s time. Seconds and milliseconds can mean the difference between winning and losing the race.

The exact longitude and latitude of every participant’s loft is on record with the club. The race ends at each bird's home location. Because the race has different finish lines, knowing the exact distance from the launch site to the coop is vitally important to ensure fairness.

The day after shipping night, typically a Sunday, the truckload of birds is driven away, sometimes a hundred miles, sometimes 200 or even 600 miles, depending on the event. Assuming the weather cooperates, the birds are let free early Sunday morning in a cloud of fluttering wings. Dozens, sometimes hundreds of birds will soon gather in a formation that looks like a ball. They’ll circle a time or two to get their bearings and they’re off for home. Some will lead the way and others will follow. Trainers will try and get birds to act on their own. According to Jay, "Followers don’t win races." Trainers will work on teaching their birds to get oriented quickly; crucial seconds can be gained or lost on takeoff.

The folks on the truck will then contact the club with their exact position and the time of the launch. A couple of hours after launch the trainers back at their lofts will start scanning the sky to see their birds come in. "That’s the joy of it," says Jeff. The bird’s owners rarely watch the launch. Their automobiles are no match for the speed of the birds. Jay says in all his time training birds, "I’ve never beaten them home, I’ve tried and I have the speeding tickets to show for it."

For each bird, the race isn’t over until that bird crosses into the coop. A small programmable computer chip attached to the bird’s leg sets off a sensor, which records the pigeon’s unique number and the exact time it arrived through the door to the loft. If a bird dawdles outside, his time will suffer. If it sees unfamiliar people around the loft or a cat is nearby, it can slow his arrival.

Occasionally birds are late. Hawks can scatter a flock and take a bird. Birds can be hit by cars or taken by cats while stopping for rest or water, particularly on longer races. Occasionally a bird can be missing for weeks and even months and then show up back at home like nothing ever happened.

The Pigeon Coop

Later Sunday night the members of Biddeford Racers will gather together, bringing the removable module from their clocks. The information it contains will be entered into a computer. Based on the time in transit, and the distance to a bird’s home coop, the computer calculates which pigeon averaged the top speed over the length of the course. That bird is the winner. Times are measured in yards per minute. Typically birds fly around 1400 yards per minute. Sometimes weather can slow them to a mere 1100 yards per minute and an especially fast race could go 1700 yards per minute, over sixty miles per hour. "Some are good for fast weather, some are good for real hard weather, some go good at 100 miles or 200 miles," says Jeff.

Both Jay and Jeff say that the sense of sportsmanship of the Biddeford racers is an important element in keeping them involved. If your birds are sick, someone might come by to try and help figure out what’s wrong. After the race is over they’ll gather together and discuss the days race, and share stories and advice. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys raising animals, pigeon racing might be for you. "This club has been growing quite a bit," says Jay. "I like the attitude I see."

by Chad Gilley
Manager of Online Content
September 23, 2002