antwerptom03

I turned my lights up a few weeks before i paired and once paired it did'nt take them much more than 10 days to lay. Birds are just laying the second round eggs now

Banded my first round YB's hours after i recieved my rings from our club secretary on december 27th. I turned the lights on 24 hrs a day first week of november then paired thanksgiving weekend. First time breeding this early just to see how it would go and so far so good.. even with our recent sub zero weather the birds have been doing great! Not sure i'll breed this early next year but i wanted to give it try and see how the early youngsters will do

I'd try the single boomerang system with my darkies for season but with the current hawk population in my area the birds i'd have open hole dbl boomeranging to and from my loft would be sharp shinned and coopers

Hey all, I'm thinking of putting 6 young cocks on widowhood seperate from the rest of the yb team..I plan to move the 6 young cocks plus take all yb's off the dark in two more weeks... I would need to move these 6 cocks into a loft in another building about 14ft away from the loft their in now. Do i risk screwing them up for the season by moving at the same time I'm turning up the lights??? Any suggestions would be much appreciated Tom

I'm basketing tonight so i let them stay in the loft today. Thanks for the advice Tom

Hey all, should the natural birds rest on friday morning or should i take them 60 miles early am. They made 60 miles in 1hr 15 minutes this morning. Tom

Have'nt raced any wild birds or wood pigeons so i really could'nt comment. Could'nt say how they race with or without heat. I guess you really would'nt understand what i'm getting at unless you lived here. It gets damn cold!!!! I'm trying to keep the loft dry more than i'm trying to heat the loft. It's hard to keep the loft dry in our area without a bit of heat to help the ventilation work properly without a draft.

I agree MBpigeonguy we can have temps 10-20 below zero for weeks at a time.

I've had one running in the loft i'm building and it seems to dry it out just fine. Mind you it's been well below freezing here in the NE and my building is heavily insulated yet well ventilated. Just curious if the keriosine fumes would raise hell with the birds air sacks??? and if i could use a little heat from a kerosine heater to help bring the widow cocks into shape without doing any harm. Alot of exhibition poultry breeders years ago used kerosine brooders to raise they're early hatched show birds without harm but show chickens are not racing pigeons. Any thoughts or insight ????

Any folks here ever used kerosine stoves or heaters in the loft?

Hi Linda, I'ts already spoken for. Sorry! Tom

Alot of guys in our combine tried the Van Reets quite a few years back and did'nt have much success with them on our south course. The problem for us is the fact that our first YB race is nearly 200 miles. Perhaps thats the reason they did'nt do so well for us. The birds that seem to work on our race course are Janssen / Leen Boers type birds on the easy days and Hansenne and Sions on the tough days. I for one would like to try them in the next few years. However.. Our clubs switching from Unikon to Benzing M1's so i'll have to wait and contact Linda about some foundation birds in a few years. Tom

Congrats Linda and Steve, Good luck in the rest of the season!! Tom

Don't forget the barb and carrier!! Tom

Hey all, I was too cheap to buy a digital camera but i was lucky enough to win one at work the other day. I have some loft pix's on my computor now how the heck do i post them in the members section??? Any help would be great Tom

Happy Birthday! Tom

Our club presidents wife and daughters bought a Bekaert cock from you a few year back as a Christmas gift for him. He's always refered to that cock bird as the sweet honesty cock??. I'll post the mix &i Scheme info tommarow. Gotto be up @ 4am so i better run Tom

Evening Linda, Not one back so far. It's raining pretty good so i'm already looking toward next year. My club pres. has offered my a dozen or more late hatches including a few Bekaerts from a "sweet honesty"??? cock bird from your loft. After thinking long and hard and handling bird from the lofts that had good returns i think my feeding may have been a bit light? Tom

A buddy of mine that has a few white/ grizzles has owls and a few falcons Tom

Late breds are all i have left! Too young to race this year but i'll have to get them down the road this fall to be ready for next years OB's

In reading the book about Gurnay i noticed he did'nt race the majority of his birds until they were 2 years old. He did train them as yearlings out to 100KM He insisted they needed time to develop. Anyone here follow a similar course of action???

Thanks Matthew, I have a dozen late hatches that i hope to train for OB racers later in life Tom

Not 1!! I guess that rain must have hammered them????? Health was super, Birds were flying around the loft for an hour plus a day. Coming good from 30 + mile tosses.I'm very confused over the whole deal Tom

0/1 from 193 miles. Losses were heavy in our club . 1 flyer had 3 from 40 (two teams) The other had 1 from 20 Tom

Linda, She is in a box and i did as you said. She did'nt like that pigeon in the window! Nothing back so far today. The winds in our favor on the long end so we've got our fingers crossed. Head wind races are the only time we have a shot at winning the combine. Tom