World War II veteran turns 95 years old on Feb. 10.

By Petra Chesner Schlatter, BucksLocalNews.com


*Editor’s note: Danny Quill was one of the first veterans to be profiled in our “Saluting Our Veterans” series. In honor of Mr. Quill’s 95th birthday, we spoke with him about a very interesting aspect of his life.*

Looking back on his life, World War II veteran Danny Quill of Morrisville remembers when he had homing pigeons.

“I flew pigeons in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” said Quill, who turned 95 years old on Feb. 10.
Homing pigeons, he said, have saved lives. He pulls out an article about “G.I. Joe,” a pigeon that saved the lives of 1,000 British soldiers during WWII because of a message it delivered.
“I’ve had that article for over 60 years,” Quill said.

His life, in a way, previously centered on homing pigeons and racing them. He talked about how he had them since he was 16 years old. Quill reminisces as he sits in his easy chair with his cat, Queenie, on his lap. Quill said the cat sleeps on his feet to keep him warm.

Quill is still a member of the Delaware Valley Pigeon Club in Horsham and the Bristol Homing Society. He has two white sweatshirts with pictures of homing pigeons on them.

“Pigeon flying was good,” he said. “I had a lot of friends.”

“When I got rid of my pigeons, they auctioned them off,” Quill said. “I took 70 up and brought three back and I got $1,600. Then the fellows that bought them two years later wrote me and said my pigeons were breeding winners.”

“I had pigeons, chickens, golden pheasants and silver pheasants,” he recalled about raising birds while he and his late wife, Ann, lived in the Woodside section of Lower Makefield Township.

“After my wife died, I was living alone,” Quill said. “I got rid of practically everything. She died in 1976. I got rid of them all. My buddies — a couple of them died. They used to train my pigeons.”
Quill said he raised and flew homing pigeons because “It’s a great, great sport and a lot of fun.”
“When you put them in the race — when that pigeon comes home — it has a counter mark on its leg,” he continued. “You drop that into the clock and you turn the key and it tells the time. We have a regular clock.”

For a race to Minnesota, he would release his homing pigeons at 8 o’clock in the morning and they returned home at 4 o’clock.

“There may be 1,500 or 2,000 pigeons in one big race,” Quill said.

His homing pigeons had personalities of their own. He described what one of his favorites did. “I’d leave her out,” he said. “You’d call her and she’d fly up and sit on your shoulder. My wife used to call her. She’d land on top of my wife’s head. She didn’t like that too much.”

Quill raised champion pigeons. “I won with them,” he said. Often, Quill would have about 150 homing pigeons at one time.

“Today, it’s too expensive for training pigeons,” he said.

Another reason he gave up the sport was the high cost of feed. “You’ve got to feed them a certain kind of feed — all different kinds of grain,” he explained. “It’s regular mixed-up grain with all kinds of seeds.”

To prepare for baby pigeons, Quill would use tobacco stems to make a nest. Each female laid two eggs. “The male and the female take turns sitting on them,” he said. “Then the male feeds them. It’s something they throw up for their babies.”

Quill described what homing pigeons do when they’re not racing afar, sometimes traveling 600 miles in a day. “You leave ‘em out every day to exercise and then you whistle to come back in the coop,” he said. “They’re looking for feed. You let them fly for a while and then they come in.”
Describing what the pigeons look like when they take flight, Quill said, “Oh, man – their speed I can’t explain. They spin and spin and go around and around in a circle.

“They’ll go for a half mile in a big circle way up in the air and they’ll exercise,” Quill said. “Then, they’ll start coming down low to your coop and you whistle. You shake the feed and they’ll come into the coop to get their feed.”

Quill said the homing pigeons “go way up – you can just about see them. But the real pleasure is to see that one come home, and it comes down VOOM!! They’re glad to get in the coop and glad to get home.”