BBC Our Lives - Homing Instinct (2024)
BBC Our Lives - Homing Instinct (2024) 
No one quite understands exactly how a pigeon finds its way home, having been driven hundreds of miles in the back of a lorry to be released and race back to its loft. But across the UK thousands of fanciers are staring into the sky awaiting the arrival of their treasured birds.
This documentary delves into the world of the Rhyl pigeon racing club, a once-thriving community hub that has seen its membership dwindle over the years. Despite these challenges, the club's ageing members remain passionate about their beloved sport. And they have embarked on a determined recruitment drive, hoping to attract a new generation of pigeon fanciers.
This is an insight into a world where hi-tech electronic chips and conveyor belt cleaning systems combine with good breeding and old-fashioned care and attention to produce the best racers.
The Rhyl pigeon racers are intense rivals but also the best of friends. Is this a vanishing pastime or can they enthuse the next generation to share their passion for the world of pigeon racing?
See Also
Wikipedia Reference
You want more information on this!…. just click. (Pigeon racing)
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Snippet from Wikipedia: Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specialized, trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird's rate of travel is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which animal returned at the highest speed.
Pigeon racing requires a specific breed of pigeon bred for the sport, the Racing Homer. Competing pigeons are specially trained and conditioned for races that vary in distance from approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) to 1,000 kilometres (620 mi). Despite these lengths, races can be won and lost by seconds, so many different timing and measuring devices have been developed. The traditional timing method involves rubber rings being placed into a specially designed clock, whereas a newer development uses RFID tags to record arrival time.
While there is no definite proof, there are compelling reasons to think the sport of racing pigeons may go back at least as far as 220 AD. It is recorded in the Mishnah that pigeon racers are forbidden from bearing witness. The Sultan of Baghdad set up a pigeon post system in AD 1150, and Genghis Khan used pigeons to carry messages to aid his military intelligence. The sport achieved a great deal of popularity in Belgium in the mid-19th century. The pigeon fanciers of Belgium were so taken with the hobby that they began to develop pigeons specially cultivated for fast flight and long endurance called Voyageurs.
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