pjc

this has happened many times, just swapped hens and they went straight down. Give him a choice of hens in a seperate section and let him chose!

the only way to know anything for certain is to send droppings for testing. Have you given your birds any preventative medication? Are they currently feeding youngbirds etc? Give us some info about the birds in question, housing, food, nest state etc Phil

I agree with Chrisss, you don't need to disturb the birds every day cleaning around the bowls and the droppings show you how healthy the squeakers are!

Here you are pecked hen, sure yours would like company! Pup looking for good home!

I just feel the bird has become extreemly exhausted which has allowed an underlying problem to take hold but with his medication and good care sure he will pull through. Can't remember if Stuart gave us his diagnosis or the results from droppings were updated. Phil

Michael, just bear in mind this is a non fancier who hasn't the knowledge and experience we may have. Yes I agree if it was our own we may not give it as much attention because it is unlikely to race again and is clearly giving David pleasure then what is wrong with giving it a chance? Phil

Some people I know put all there youngsters on the floor at 15 days, all the hens feed anything thats asking and will all lay again in there boxes as the bowls are empty and can be cleaned/replaced.

absolute crackers, good luck with them. Are they to race or sit and be looked at?

There are quit a few Dicken medal winners for services in the war, can never remember which done which, but they all deserved there medals!

I was thinking for David not the bird!

maybe we should come up with a name, dolittle was mentioned but we've got enough of those in our clubs! Any sugestions? Phil

they should be feeding themselves well before 4wks, as has been said put them together on the floor with an open trough of food. If you have any spare hens then put them in there as well, the young will follow but the hens won't feed them. After they have been fed then just dip there beaks in the water to make sure they have drunk. Phil

The difference is though Vallance is that you also contribute to debate and don't just self promote or advertise! rings in post

The cider vinigar as long as its organic will help with acid but the other thing to help provide beneficial gut flora is to provide a probiotic. This will certainly not do him any harm. One word of advice though, before you give him anything other than food and water is check with Stuart as you don't want to provide anything that may effect the tablets you are giving him. Phil

he may have regurgitated because he has gorged himself or could be something to do with the medication he's on. Are you still giving him tonic inthe water?

in the last couple of days there has been a request for help from a lad in Reading, I have made him an offer but also know there is at least 1 member on here from Reading. When I checked it appears again the last contributions were to sell some young birds. Advertisers only should be blocked or charged!

Once again we have sat and watched self promotion and then suprise suprise an advert appears for young birds! Maybe mods should aprove for sale adds before they go live to stop this happening or contact the seller for there contribution before going live! Phil

There are to many in the sport for the money and have forgotten about the grass roots. When they get into sell sell sell every thing they breed has a price and helping promote the sport goes out the window. (not all but many) I relate it to many years ago when I started doing a lot of photography, I had always carried a camera with me but when most of my pictures were being taken for others then every frame had a value. When this happened I stopped carrying my camera and taking pictures for pleasure. I have only fairly recently started to carry my camera again for pleasure, sad realy I know but shows how money effects the brain! Phil

Tammy are you suprised!

they tend to lay on the floor when they have 2 young in the nest bowl and there isn't room for the next clutch. Stock nest boxes need plenty of room so that when the first yb's are arround 12 days old you can put a 2nd nest bowl in the box for the next round. Personaly i don't like them nesting onthe floor as the cockbird can start to dominate the space and be a pain. Phil

When you talk about being good ambassadors David, you say the sport only needs a few, unfortunatly thats not the case due to the nature of the sport. We all need to be ambassadors escpecialy when dealing with the public and non fanciers. The sport has a poor image due in the main to ferral pigeons walking the streets and occupying our towns making a mess. To the majority of the public they are racing pigeons so when somebody mentions pigeons to them that is the 1st image they get! Its not until the public get to see our lofts and the birds within them that they realise what they see on the street is far from what we actualy do. So as I say we all need to be ambassadors as it only takes a few to spoil a lot of hard work put in by many! Phil

We're not a bad lot on the whole, despite what you may have heard!

We havn't got ets yet Tony, but do you not reset the master each week? If this is the case then the system wouldn't store all the previous weeks race data and I can't see why it would need to. Phil

thr fSS will only work with unikon i beleive at the moment. The reason for using in conjunction with fss is that fss will do all your point and averages etc, does unikon? Phil

Invalid does have a name! Welcome David!