THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409140171
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSAN SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 176 lines
BILLY ``HENRY'' MADDEN has a pool, a deck, a barbecue and a loft in his back yard.
His family uses the pool, deck and barbecue. His pigeons use the loft.
Madden is a pigeon fancier, a hobby that's for the birds.
The Indian River resident owns, breeds, trains and races homers, known also as homing pigeons, carriers, racers or fliers. A fancier is one who enjoys raising or breeding birds or animals. Madden has about 80 birds.
Homers have an uncanny sense of direction. A trained homing pigeon will always attempt to return to its home loft.
``There has been research with homing pigeons,'' said Ben Sikes, president of Seaport Fliers, a local pigeon-racing club. ``Some think that the sun and/or a magnetic field may help keep the bird on course. But I don't think anyone has a definite answer.''
``Homing pigeons are not the same as the pigeons you see in downtown Norfolk,'' said Madden. ``Homers are a special type bred to develop certain characteristics, like body style and wing span, which contribute to swiftness and dependability.''
Homers cost from about $25 a pair to more than $1,000 a pair. According to Madden, the birds race for about seven years but can live as long as 17 to 20 years.
``But I don't own any $1,000 pigeons,'' said Madden.
A soft cooing sound rippled across the back yard. Madden stepped into the aviary and gently clasped a dark gray bird to his chest before thrusting it into a wire basket. Then a white pigeon and a soft blue one with dark stripes or bars across its wings were put into the basket. The 20 or so birds - plum colored, gray, blue, dark- or white-throated, grizzled or speckled, muted, bold or slightly gaudy - each went into the basket.
Madden put the basket into the back of his truck and headed to Suffolk. It was splashing rain, so this training exercise would be shorter than usual.
He lowered the baskets to the ground and opened the trap door. The plum colored, then the mottled blue, a white, a dark gray, one after another fluttered out and circled. The flock swirled and gathered in formation. One more overhead sweep and they were gone.
About 35 minutes later the first flier circled, paused on the loft roof, glided to the landing board and entered the coop. He was home. Within a few minutes most of the flock flew in and bumped through the doorway. One by one the stragglers joined the ranks to coo about the day's flight.
``It's relaxing and enjoyable to me,'' said Madden. ``Taking care of the fliers is not a chore but an everyday part of the hobby. And like anything that is competitive, it can also get exciting when it's race time. Then it becomes a sport.''
Owners of the homing pigeons maintain sanitary lofts and use vitamin-rich grain for healthy birds. The birds eat corn, peas, millet, milo and flax mixed seed. Training and conditioning are scheduled for strength, endurance and safety of the birds.
``Bad weather, electrical lines, falcons, hawks and neighborhood cats are their enemies,'' said Madden.
Recently he received a call from a falconer on the Eastern Shore. On checking the nest of one of his falcons, he discovered a pigeon's ID leg band and not much more of the bird. His falcon family had feasted on a Madden homer.
In 1987 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Madden listened as co-workers talked about clocked times, wing bars and breeds called Wegge, Sion and Jansen.
According to the lunch talk, a speed of 60 miles an hour over a 100-mile course was not uncommon. For great distances, the returning bird would average about 40 miles an hour over 600 miles. Madden thought it sounded interesting and asked questions.
According to history, homing pigeons were used for racing or carrying messages since the times of the early Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Homing pigeons were used to relay information about the Olympic games.
In this century there have been at least two highly decorated homing birds. During World War I, Cher Ami, although injured, flew through enemy lines with messages. She logged more than 2,300 miles while on duty.
Birds were donated to the U.S. Army Signal Corps by pigeon fanciers during World War II. Homer G.I. Joe received numerous commendations.
The Signal Corps retired its homing birds in 1959.
When Sikes was a leader of his sons' Boy Scout troop, they worked on the pigeon merit badge. After the project, the boys forgot about the birds, but Sikes didn't. More than 25 years later, he's stilled involved with his homers.
Sikes invited Madden to visit his loft and birds he called Sikes' Napoleons. After the visit, Madden was hooked and ready to start his own loft.
The loft was similar to a rabbit hutch with three sheltering walls, a wire-enclosed front and a plywood floor for easy scraping and cleaning. On the inside were perches and nesting boxes were along the back wall.
When it was ready his co-workers helped him stock it. Madden was now a flier and he called his birds Madden's Maddog Fliers.
Over the years the loft has become a duplex pigeon villa. Begonias, geraniums and decking lead to the screen door that opens into an entry hall.
Madden keeps a current chart of his birds posted in the hall. The chart records each bird's identification number, nest number, hatch date, parents and race results.
There's a bin of grain, feeder troughs, a bath pan and water fillers. In the right duplex are the young birds. They're ready for training and for their first race. Young birds only have one season before they are referred to as ``old birds.''
To the left are the ``old birds.'' Numbered nesting boxes line the back wall. A numbering system helps keep track of who begat whom for lineage and breeding purposes.
The nesting boxes are opened up in late December. The birds go through the ritual of courting, mating and nesting. Unless separated for breeding purposes, males and females most often mate for life. A clutch of two eggs is laid in January. The parents take turns sitting on the nest until the babies hatch about 18 days later.
The male and female provide regurgitated food called pigeon's milk for the young. When the bird is 6 days old, its leg is banded with an assigned identification number.
When the bird is 6 weeks old, it is separated from its parents, and flight training begins. The young bird is introduced to the landing board and the loft roof as its wings strengthen and it masters flying.
Shortly after the birds are removed from the nest, the parents lay another set of eggs to start a second family.
Once in training, the birds are taken out each day and set free. They automatically return to the home coop. Over the weeks they are gradually taken from 1 to 50 miles away as they learn to return home for food and water.
Madden is also a member of the Seaport Fliers. Clubs from Elizabeth City to the Eastern Shore like the Hampton Roads Racing, Tidewater Pigeon, James River Racing Pigeon and the Elizabeth City Homing Club combine to form the Tidewater Concourse Association. The association sponsors a nine-week racing season that starts in September.
Young birds fly in designated 150- to 300-mile races. Old birds fly in 200- to 600-mile races. There are two races on each race date. There's an ``A'' or red race and a ``B'' or blue race. Each loft can enter only 10 birds in each race. The ``B'' team is released 30 minutes after the ``A'' race begins.
The association has a contract driver who transports all the birds to the release point. His pickup is equipped to carry almost 1,000 birds. The first trip this season was to Durham, N.C.
On Saturday night before the early morning race, Madden cooped his 20 chosen birds. They would travel 150 miles back home, as the pigeon flies.
The driver talked with the appointed ``liberator,'' who was assigned to release the birds. They discussed weather conditions like rain, fog or wind.
``At this point,'' said Madden, ``you get a book, pull up a chair and wait. We know about when to start expecting the first fliers back. If there is any long lapse we start calling to see if any birds have returned to lofts along the route.''
Once Madden said he had a bird show up three weeks after supposedly a three-hour race. It may have been disoriented in bad weather or sidetracked by another flock.
A returning bird hit the landing board and stepped inside to the stall trap. The numbered leg band was removed and dropped into a metal box clock. The official minute and second was recorded. The same information was stamped on a tape inside the clock.
After the race, club members took their clocks in for an official opening ceremony. Bands and clock tapes must match exactly. The Tidewater Concourse Association then announced the race results.
Madden's Maddog Fliers weren't so lucky the first race. None of the birds had winning times. There's no prize or money for winning. But there's a certificate if the homer finishes in the top 10.
Sikes still bemoans a race from several years ago. One of his homers flew more than 600 miles from Holland, Mich., and lost the race by seconds.
Madden has a number of diplomas in his files. A blue hen flew 590.037 miles from Opelika, Ala., with an average speed of 1091.134 yards per minute. In June 1993, 293 fliers were entered from 35 different lofts in another Opelika race. Another Madden hen was the top bird with a speed of 1341.426 yards per minute.
Like coaches everywhere, Madden said, ``This year's team just needs to train more.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
One of Billy Madden's homing pigeons glides to the landing board in
Madden's Indian River back yard after a flight from Suffolk.
Madden puts his birds in wire baskets for the ride out of town
before a race.
A group of Billy Madden's racing pigeons head home from the Holland
area of Suffolk.
Madden owns about 80 homing pigeons.
by CNB