A pigeon's loyalty is to a place, not a person, and that single fact shapes every house move with a loft in tow. Birds settled at your old address carry that address as home in a way no short journey resets, and a pigeon released carelessly at a new house may simply set off, confidently, for the old one. A successful move therefore does not transport birds so much as re-settle them: building a new sense of home at the new loft patiently enough that, when wings finally open, the new loft is where they choose to return.
Confinement at the New Loft Comes First
Confine the flock in the new loft for several weeks before any bird flies free. Those weeks are active settling time, not storage. Birds need food and water inside the loft, perches and nest spots they can claim as their own, and an aviary or screened view of the new surroundings so the local rooftops, trees, and flight lines become familiar from safety. Feed on a settled routine inside the loft, speak to them, spend time there, and let the new loft become the place where good things reliably happen and where the flock's social life plays out.
Resist the urge to test a favorite bird early. A strongly homed adult can behave perfectly around the loft for days and still make a determined attempt at the old address on its first long flight, and each early loss teaches you nothing the confinement period would not have taught more cheaply. Several weeks of confinement, held identically for the whole flock, is the foundation everything else in the move stands on, so write the release plan down and hold to it even when the birds look thoroughly settled ahead of schedule.
Young Birds First, Older Birds With Care
When flying does begin, fly young birds raised at the new loft first. Youngsters that have known only the new address imprint on it as their first and only home, and their confident returns around the loft show older confined birds a living demonstration that this is where the flock now belongs. Let the young birds range and return for a good while before considering any older bird's release, and start older birds, if you release them at all, hungry, late in the day, and in calm weather, so the pull of the evening feed works in your favor.
Be honest about the oldest, most strongly homed birds. Many keepers never fly valuable older breeders freely after a move, keeping them as settled loft residents whose youngsters fly instead, and that is a respectable outcome rather than a failure. A bird that does make for the old address is not lost by definition, which is why the old address itself forms part of the plan.
Tell the Old Address Before You Need It
Before you leave, tell the new occupants of your old home, and your old neighbors, that pigeons may appear at the old loft site looking lost and settled at once. Leave your name and a phone number, explain that a returned bird can usually be caught at dusk where it roosts or tempted in with feed, and ask them to report any arrival quickly so you can collect the bird yourself. Returns usually happen in the first days after a release, so that warning is freshest, and most useful, when it is given before the move rather than after a bird is already waiting there.
Agree the same details with everyone helping at the new end: who feeds during the confinement weeks, which birds are in which section, and who holds the old-address contacts. Relatives you select can also open the profile of a bird that comes back, once you grant them access using KinsLe Family Sharing.