A white dove soaring into the heavens is powerful symbolism for many people.
That experience is precisely what Ken Dodman and his wife, Joanne, provide.
The owners of White Dove Release, who live on an acreage north of Brandon, started offering the service at funerals, weddings and other public events about two years ago.
“We’ve got quite a few bookings for this year already,” said Ken, adding one of them will oversee the release of 40 white birds at Brandon’s 125th anniversary celebrations in July.
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White Dove Release charges a minimum of $150 for bookings of one to 10 birds. The doves can be released singly by hand by bereaved mourners or the wedding couple, or all at once from a crate. The more birds booked, the higher the fee.
Dodman said training for the birds is important.
“You don’t want them to land on a building or a wire. You want them to take off, circle three or four times and then head for home as soon as possible.”
The business concept is already popular in the United States, he said, adding that to his knowledge, theirs is the only operation of its kind in Manitoba.
Dodman, who grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, said Joanne came up with the idea to generate income from his love of pigeon breeding, an interest which he has had since he was a boy.
“She just thought well, hey, we might as well make some money at it, and pay for the feed.”
The hardest part was selectively breeding enough perfectly white homing pigeons, he said. The birds are not albinos, as evidenced by their dark eyes.
“The pure white ones are kind of neat to see, especially when they are up there flying around against a blue sky.”
He keeps other breeds of pigeons as well, including Birmingham rollers, which are prized for their ability to perform acrobatic stunts in mid-air.
“They’ll fly up in the sky in a group of 20 to 30 or so and then do backwards somersaults and fall 30 to 50 feet (six to 15 metres). What you try to do is get all the birds to do it all at the same time.”
Homing pigeons are trained by releasing them short distances from home, at first only a kilometre and then gradually increasing the distance up to 30 kilometres.
“After 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 kilometres), you can take them out as far as you want, even 60 to 100 miles (100 to 160 km), and they’ll find their way back,” Dodman said, adding the top racing homers in the sport can cover 800 km in a single day.
The best part about the white dove release venture is its low overhead expense, he said. Apart from travel costs, once released, the birds fly home on their own. Losses due to power lines or hawks occur, he added, but they are rare.
