Pigeonmumbler on Sat Oct 02, 2010 4:55 pm.
The Art of the Pigeon Bamboo Pole & Hoople
Only a few will know or may have heard of how the Bamboo Pole or Hoople was used in the Training & Capture of your Pigeons, Both Bamboo Poles & Hooples where used in ancient times thou you will not find any articles written about the Subject…
Let me start by describing the Two;
Bamboo Pole: Yes it’s a Pole made of Bamboo, in the old days it would be one solid Pole, about 10’ feet in length and sold in Bait or Fish shops for fisher men around the world, Now because of the length you can still find it for fishing but in two detachable 5’ foot Pieces… But when I was young man a Bamboo pole was one solid 10’ foot pole sold in Pigeon Pet shops for training Pigeons…
The pole was a must have, Exclusively used in training the birds… When you have two to five hundred pigeons or more the pole was a necessary tool, Coops or lofts had to be large enough to accommodate hundreds of birds I would see lofts that where 7’ high and 10 to 15 feet Across & Wide, The pole was used to heard the stock of pigeons from roosting any where else other then the top of the loft or a few feet from the loft, with a few taps on the ground from the 10’ pole the birds would fly on the loft and remain at least for a while, but its in the training and eventually, when trained they would remain no further the ten feet from the loft…!… The pole was also used to walk and guide problem birds and strays through the trap doors… The birds would treat and see the pole as an extension of your arm as long as it did pose a threat, The pigeon finds your hand much more threaten then the pole, unlike your arm the pole doesn’t have a claw at the end of it…!…Now once well trained with the pole about the only threat you can pose on the birds is when you attach a flag, cloth or bag at the tip of the pole, this will scare the birds to flight, when trained properly then birds would rise higher and higher in the air when the flag is waved in the air at the tip of the pole, When the flag is removed from the pole the birds would start to descend back to the loft… You can also use the pole to poke at a few birds into flight in Order to attract Stray birds to your Loft…
The Hoople; Is a tear drop shaped net made of Bamboo thou many today are made of Aluminum , The best way to also describe it, well a fish net about a 1 ½ ’ wide and 2’ long with the netting stretched across tight… Some come with a 6” handle & Others with a 1’ handle…A lot of Homer fanciers use two of them to coach in problem birds though the trap door, holding one hoople in each hand, I used it as a net to catch stray birds, I’ll give you an example… One early February Morning in Brooklyn NY, I was havin coffee by the Window, looking outside pondering if I should let my Birds out because it was to Cloudy and the winds where about 60 miles an hour, I spotted about 20 birds in a small kit battling the strong winds… I just knew they where strays, I ran up to the roof and sure enough the sky was fill of stray pigeons in small kits, The way the wind was blowing I knew the birds where from Queens… I ran and open the coop doors but only let out about half my birds because the winds where to strong, when I got out of the coop and looked around to see where my 70 birds where? They had flown about 8 or 10 blocks away because of the winds, I quickly started to let out 10 birds at a time to draw the birds back to the coop and it worked, as I viewed other fanciers in the vicinity they as well had spotted the strays and the game was on… The Sky was full of thousands of birds with flags on every pole and PigeonMumblers whistling to scare there stock “kit” of hundreds of bird in the air to gather all the strays!… After about ½ hour of flying my stock of birds came down on the loft and BINGO I had about 10 strays on the coop, I tried to walk the strays in the trap doors using the pole but they would not go in and would fly off, So I grabbed my Hoople and started to run around the coop netting the strays, that day I caught 33 birds with the Hoople and walked 6 in with the pole… 39 strays in Total all day, There where strays well into the Night, and the next day I caught 9 others… The Bamboo Pole & Hoople where and will remain an Essential tool in the Training of Large Stocks or Small Kits of Pigeons… Ask any Old Pigeon Fancier from anywhere or a PigeonMumbler from NY… Louie
The Art of the Pigeon Bamboo Pole & Hoople
Only a few will know or may have heard of how the Bamboo Pole or Hoople was used in the Training & Capture of your Pigeons, Both Bamboo Poles & Hooples where used in ancient times thou you will not find any articles written about the Subject…
Let me start by describing the Two;
Bamboo Pole: Yes it’s a Pole made of Bamboo, in the old days it would be one solid Pole, about 10’ feet in length and sold in Bait or Fish shops for fisher men around the world, Now because of the length you can still find it for fishing but in two detachable 5’ foot Pieces… But when I was young man a Bamboo pole was one solid 10’ foot pole sold in Pigeon Pet shops for training Pigeons…
The pole was a must have, Exclusively used in training the birds… When you have two to five hundred pigeons or more the pole was a necessary tool, Coops or lofts had to be large enough to accommodate hundreds of birds I would see lofts that where 7’ high and 10 to 15 feet Across & Wide, The pole was used to heard the stock of pigeons from roosting any where else other then the top of the loft or a few feet from the loft, with a few taps on the ground from the 10’ pole the birds would fly on the loft and remain at least for a while, but its in the training and eventually, when trained they would remain no further the ten feet from the loft…!… The pole was also used to walk and guide problem birds and strays through the trap doors… The birds would treat and see the pole as an extension of your arm as long as it did pose a threat, The pigeon finds your hand much more threaten then the pole, unlike your arm the pole doesn’t have a claw at the end of it…!…Now once well trained with the pole about the only threat you can pose on the birds is when you attach a flag, cloth or bag at the tip of the pole, this will scare the birds to flight, when trained properly then birds would rise higher and higher in the air when the flag is waved in the air at the tip of the pole, When the flag is removed from the pole the birds would start to descend back to the loft… You can also use the pole to poke at a few birds into flight in Order to attract Stray birds to your Loft…
The Hoople; Is a tear drop shaped net made of Bamboo thou many today are made of Aluminum , The best way to also describe it, well a fish net about a 1 ½ ’ wide and 2’ long with the netting stretched across tight… Some come with a 6” handle & Others with a 1’ handle…A lot of Homer fanciers use two of them to coach in problem birds though the trap door, holding one hoople in each hand, I used it as a net to catch stray birds, I’ll give you an example… One early February Morning in Brooklyn NY, I was havin coffee by the Window, looking outside pondering if I should let my Birds out because it was to Cloudy and the winds where about 60 miles an hour, I spotted about 20 birds in a small kit battling the strong winds… I just knew they where strays, I ran up to the roof and sure enough the sky was fill of stray pigeons in small kits, The way the wind was blowing I knew the birds where from Queens… I ran and open the coop doors but only let out about half my birds because the winds where to strong, when I got out of the coop and looked around to see where my 70 birds where? They had flown about 8 or 10 blocks away because of the winds, I quickly started to let out 10 birds at a time to draw the birds back to the coop and it worked, as I viewed other fanciers in the vicinity they as well had spotted the strays and the game was on… The Sky was full of thousands of birds with flags on every pole and PigeonMumblers whistling to scare there stock “kit” of hundreds of bird in the air to gather all the strays!… After about ½ hour of flying my stock of birds came down on the loft and BINGO I had about 10 strays on the coop, I tried to walk the strays in the trap doors using the pole but they would not go in and would fly off, So I grabbed my Hoople and started to run around the coop netting the strays, that day I caught 33 birds with the Hoople and walked 6 in with the pole… 39 strays in Total all day, There where strays well into the Night, and the next day I caught 9 others… The Bamboo Pole & Hoople where and will remain an Essential tool in the Training of Large Stocks or Small Kits of Pigeons… Ask any Old Pigeon Fancier from anywhere or a PigeonMumbler from NY… Louie
Last edited by Pigeonmumbler on Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:53 pm; edited 2 times in total
