Pigeonbasics.com

hi all. when would it be appropiate to start training your y/b's and at what distance? cheers, anthony.

if flying well 10 miles at 12/14 weeks old

once you start traing the birds will reduce their flying around the loft so you will have to keep the training going I waited until the birds were ranging for anything up to 2 hours before even thinking of training, basket training is more important to get right before getting them down the road and you can do that round the loft

this might sound stupid, but, how do you basket train?

Quoted from coey1

this might sound stupid, but, how do you basket train?

put them in a basket - getting them to drink water in the basket is probably the most important thing they need to learn

Quoted from coey1

this might sound stupid, but, how do you basket train?

no, not stupid at all, , its getting them used to the basket ,confidence in the basket and able to feed and water in the basket, sometimes yb,s are very stubborn and will not drink from the drinker on the basket , after ive had them in the basket a few times and see that they have now settled a bit ,instead of fighting , i would feed first in the loft ,,,without water , then after half hour or so, basket them, again let them settle , then fill drinkers with a watering can, letting them here the water splash , once theve taken a drink once, they never forget , yb,s deheydrate quickly ,especialy on warm days on the transporter , so its very important they know where to find water ,and be able to drink    

Quoted from shadow

once you start traing the birds will reduce their flying around the loft so you will have to keep the training going I waited until the birds were ranging for anything up to 2 hours before even thinking of training, basket training is more important to get right before getting them down the road and you can do that round the loft

this is quite true coey, even if their ranging [going away for a while, then returning] for an hour or so, their naturaly finding out their surroundings , probably within a good few miles in all directions, so they are learning a lot by doing this , but as shadow says once you start training they will stop this , so really then , their better off trained every day if possible b4 racing , then even 2 or 3 times per week when racing [depending on the type of race theve had i.e easy or hard ]

another way i use is fill my basket drinkers with water then drop some seeds in the water then the will peck at the water
just to let then know water is there