CHESTER, S.D. (AP) - There’s some irony in the fact that Mitchell Gross let his hobby go for a while, but then it returned. It’s ironic because his hobby is raising pigeons - birds which are known for their homing skills, among other things.
Gross and his family had pigeons while he was a small boy, but they got rid of them all when he was about 9. A year and a half ago, they found a bird with a tracking band. They contacted the owner to return the bird, who mentioned an upcoming swap meet. Gross went to the meet, and the hobby came home again for him.
Now the recent Chester graduate has about 90 birds in a 10-by-16-foot loft.
Gross used the hobby for his senior project at Chester this year. For this, he had to research and document the species’ history, its breeds, how to raise them and uses for the birds. After three or four months of work and research, he put that information into a 12-page research paper and a PowerPoint presentation. On the binder of information in the portfolio, he received a grade of 98; for the presentation, he earned a 96.
Gross said he learned a lot about pigeons’ genetics from the project. There are a lot of different breeds, about 300 in fact, and some very interesting looking ones. There are pigeons called frillbacks, with curly back feathers; fan tail pigeons; and the Jacobin, which has a feathered hood over its head so “it can’t see out the sides,” he said.
There are some big pigeons, originally raised as meat birds, Gross said. He even has pictures on his phone of some of these breeds he’s seen at shows. He also knows some pigeon trivia, such as the fact that many of the birds, technically known as Columbidae, were decorated with war medals for their work as messengers in World Wars I and II.
Gross already knew a lot about raising the birds, just from personal experience. He can explain that there’s a big difference between racing homers and show pigeons: they have a different body structure, and their racing record determines the cost, he said.
The Modina, a breed of fancy pigeon, is more aggressive, even defensive; show homers are docile. The roller pigeons (which have the ability to roll in the air) fly everywhere and don’t like to be near people, Gross said.
At shows, judges look for things like feather quality, color pattern and identical bars on the flight feathers, Gross said. While raising his pigeons, he has a few that have become like pets and are tame enough to eat out of his hand or be held.
This spring, Gross has seven racing homer babies, called squabs. The young birds fit across the fingers when they’re three days old, he said; at four days old, their eyes open. “In the first week, their size dramatically changes every day,” he said.
Gross hasn’t raced pigeons yet, but he knows about that, too. For pigeon races, the birds are shipped to a central location, loaded in a truck and taken to the starting spot. The doors are opened all at the same time to release the birds, making a spectacular sight. Around here, the races are smaller, Gross said, but he has seen videos of 10 trucks releasing the birds all at the same time.
The fact that pigeons can be shipped overnight through the mail surprises many people, Gross said, adding that it makes picking up the package easy. He once got some birds shipped to the Madison Post Office and simply told the clerks, “My box is the one making noise.”
Gross has noticed, at shows or swap meets, that there are very few young people in this hobby. Being young is both an advantage and disadvantage, he said, but those who are older have the enthusiasm and want to help.
Gross recently graduated with the other 16 Chester seniors and plans to go to Iowa Valley Community College in Grinnell, Iowa, for gunsmithing this fall. While he’s at college, he said his dad will take care of the birds, “or I’ll try to find a place to rent there.”
But he plans to keep up with the hobby if he can.
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Information from: The Madison Daily Leader, https://www.madisondailyleader.com
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