How does pigeon racing work?
LK: Racers take their pigeons to a certain destination, set them free and see which one returns to the coop first. The birds all have a ring on their legs with a bar code, and there’s a scanner at the cage door, which is like a finishing line for them. The pigeons will race in one of three distance categories: 300, 500 and 600-700 kilometers, But in Europe, pigeons will fly as far as 1,050 kilometers. There’s not that many racing events in Hong Kong, probably because you’re not allowed to bet on pigeon racing, and it doesn’t count as a sporting event. HK: How do you train the birds? LK: We raise them from chicks in a very cozy and stable environment. We keep their feeding on a clockwork schedule to make sure they’re comfortable. And then depending on the maturity of the bird, we start taking them away and releasing them, starting at 5 kilometers, and then we gradually increase the distance. I once sent a pigeon to Shanghai and it flew back to Hong Kong the next day. But for competition
