Homing Pigeons VS Pigeons

by **Eridanus** on April 7th, 2012, 7:31 am

So, the price list differentiates the two:

Homing Pigeon: 100gm
Pigeon: 2cm

Basic Training: 1x cost.
Extensive Training: 2x cost.

Now what does "basic training" and "extensive training" apply to the two? For example, does the Homing Pigeon's "basic training" include carrying messages to locations? Can I train the normal pigeon instead to do it?

by **Cantrip** on April 7th, 2012, 1:53 pm

It's more a question of breeding the pigeon to return to, say, a particular cage, than training. I think you'll find the price disparity exists for a reason. You can't just train any creature to perform a task, they need to have a genetic affinity for them.

Also, it'd just get absurd if we let everybody have super-awesome pigeon messengers for less than the price of ale. That by itself invalidates the logic of 'extensive' training for this circumstance.

by **Eridanus** on April 7th, 2012, 2:02 pm

Well if a homing pigeon with "basic training" does what homing pigeons do, IE return to their homeplace, can a homing pigeon be "extensively trained" to have two places as their 'nest' instead, and thus can be dispatched to-and-fro between these two places?

by **Gossamer** on April 7th, 2012, 3:01 pm

Homing pigeons are special bloodlines of rock pigeon thousands of years old that inherantly to know where their roost is even at extremely long distances. The idea is then that the pigeons are sent out in cages to various locations and released. Once released they will always return to the same place they roost. This is one place, not multiple places. The truth of the matter is there's very little training involved in that unless you underscore them not picking at message scrolls tied to their legs etc. The main thing involved is breeding and bloodlines. The best ones that return to the roost the fastest get bred. The rest get eaten.

Homing pigeons that carry messages are called carrier pigeons. They are very vulnerable away from their roost though and fall prey to predators.

Regular pigeons can't be trained to do anything really interesting other than tamed to ride on shoulders, hide in coats, be pets, etc. They won't fly anywhere on command.

Hope that helps.

by **Eridanus** on April 7th, 2012, 3:04 pm

Thanks it definitely helped