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This will be the first year that I have raced on widowhood.
Do the cocks haveto rear a youngster?
As I am interested in the longer events I was toying with the idea of pairing them up a month before the first race and taking the hens away when the eggs are 10 days old, then onto widowhood.
Has anybody else tried a similar method?
Or does anyone think this is a bad idea?  

Of course the cocks do not need to rear,nothing wrong with your suggestion,you could even let them be sitting eggs for the 1st race or two,nice way to keep any yearlings you got cool and steady,not to hyped up.

i  would allways like yearlings to have reared ybs b4 going on widowhood

I always like to take YBs of my yearlings, as I was told a yearlings first set of YBs are normally the best birds they will ever breed. I also think a pigeon will come home to where he (or she) had there first babies and it bonds them to their boxes. I was reading an old book last night on the old strain Gurnays, and he used to breed of his yearlings, and only started to race them as old birds at two year old. Giving them a lot longer to bond to the loft and mature into strong pigeons.

i would agree with sbelbins post, adding , training all ybs very hard  including basket training, to at least 50 miles, then about 3 races, once this is installed in to them, they never forget, and do not have to race as yearlings, maybe a few tosseswith ybs. would do no harm, but if their earmarked for the distance, they musnt be, burnt out, b4 their 2or 3 year old, i beleive this yb training to be of beneficial, to develope their inner organs, heart lungs etc. just my opinion

Oops, yes I forget to say that Jimmy, the Gurnays where trained a lot as YBs and raced the programme, and then as yearlings where used for breeding and then as two year old and upwards raced on widowhood.

the snfc blue riband race was won last year with a pigeon exactly treated like that,
  it has aso been 2nd national, and other prominent positions, so it certainly worked for that pigeon [and that fancier]

Agree with sbelbin and Jimmy White - let the pigeons rear first before racing.

Personally we only let the birds rear one baby, we feel rearing 2 takes a bit too much out of them

i think rearing a youngster does make them much keener to their box and i think they try just a little bit more on hard days."just my theory"

But ya all say about ya yearlings, what about ya 2yr old & upwards then, do thay need to rear a youngster, as thay are bonded to the box, from the moment thay are put in that loft,as widow cocks, just a thought as mine this year for the first time, will not be rearing. Speckled.

Speckled

Whatever age the cocks are I'd be 100% certain that they must rear.   Preferably two youngsters in a nest too if possible

I will just have to put it to the test Mike ,like i said im not breeding any youngsters this year to race.   So i will keep ya posted.Useally i do let the cocks rear a  youngster, but only one round. Cheers Speckled (whats the boing boing ) baggy boys ah?

Hi speckled

We just find the birds find their form better when rearing two.   Just our experience

UP THE BAGGIES !!!

Mike

i think you should let them rear 2 young birds as if they can't they will struggle with the racing as well

saffyrichtwhit  yersayinrab

thanks jimmy and celtic  for the translating

All roads lead to Rome.  I have never reared from my Widow cocks and have had some execellent results by just racing them " dry ."   To see if there is any difference in attitude/performance of the cocks, for the first time, I intend to rear from some of them this season, whilst still racing some dry and make the comparison.  We shall see.

T_T

Looking forward to hearing your findings........

yes me to as i all ways like to get young birds from my best widowhood cock  i also floot there second round if i time it right only the best ones

i used do the same as you wings, i had a few show racers in a wee loft and aviary, i only bred about 4 for a bit interest in the winter, but they were handy for floating eggs off the best racers