RENSSELAER, Ind. — Mike Parrish has started a 4-H Racing Pigeon Club in Jasper County. He said he wants 4-H youth to experience the same excitement and joy he receives when his racing pigeons find their way back home after a long flight.

He’ll begin the process of recruiting more potential members during a meeting on January 13 in the Community Building at the Jasper County Fairgrounds.

“There’s been quite a few people interested,” he said. 

Parrish said he and others involved in the sport will answer questions from the audience and have racing pigeons at the event scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Eventually, his goal is to include racing pigeon programs in the 4-H offerings in surrounding counties such as Lake, Porter and La Porte if what he started in Jasper becomes popular enough. 

Parrish of Wheatfield said he’s been racing pigeons for about 12 years and has won cash prizes in some of the competitions. He grew up on a farm in nearby Francesville. Currently, he’s an environmentalist for the Jasper County Health Department. 

According to historians, pigeon racing as a sport began in Belgium, where the first long distance competition of more than 100 miles was held in 1818.

The sport gained prominence about a half century later in the U.S., Great Britain and France.

Parrish, a founder of the 15-member Northern Indiana Racing Pigeon Club, said the homing birds rely a lot on instinct to find their way back home even if they’re several hundreds of miles away.

According to researchers, homing pigeons seem to use odors from the different areas they travel to create sort of a road map in their minds for finding their way back.

Researchers also believe pigeons appear to have the ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field to use as sort of a compass and have a keen sense of landmarks and geographical features to help as a guide on return trips.

Parrish said he tries to keep about 40 young pigeons a year and begins training them about a week after birth.

Initially, Parrish said he lets them go in and out of an aviary fastened to a cage and loft about the size of a large shed where they’re housed to get familiar with their immediate surroundings. Over time, he keeps placing them at greater distances from the aviary to enhance their ability to find their way back.

“Once you get really out past 10, 15, 20 miles, they know their way home,” he said.

He said the NIRPC hosted nine races last year ranging from 50 to 300 miles away from where the competitive birds are permanently kept.

Electronic bands containing software that keeps track of things like time are clipped on the leg of each of the racing pigeons.

Once the birds arrive home, Parrish said winners are determined by the average time it took for them to travel a certain distance while heading home because not all of the birds live an equal number of miles from the starting point.

“If you get a little bit of a tailwind those birds may be flying 1,500 yards a minute,” he said.

Parrish said the 4-H youth will be required to take part in at least one race and show the birds during the fair. Parrish said each youth will be provided with a half dozen or so pigeons to take care of and train for racing at home.

Parrish said his birds don’t always return, though, from either getting lost or becoming prey to a hawk.

He said the 4-H races will probably be no more than 75 miles to keep the youth from getting discouraged and having to stick around for several hours waiting for them to return.

“We’ll keep it small, keep it interesting,” he said.

Jasper County 4-H educator Peyton Newman said three children have signed up for the program since open enrollment began in October. She expects more youth to join the program in the coming weeks and months. “I’m super excited about it,” she said.

So far, Newman said she hasn’t found any other 4-H program in Indiana that offers pigeon racing. “I think we’re pretty unique in the state for having this now,” she said.