neila

I feed beans in the hopper as I work strange hours and they will not over eat on them I feed and fly the birds out once a day and feed them Gerry plus to get them in. I just increase the amount of Gerry fed as the week goes on from say 1/4 ounce Sunday 1/2 Monday to end up 1&1/2 Thursday i do the same with the ybs but feed them 2/3 Gerry 1/3 barley and stop when they leave the barley its a easy way to race if stuck for time like me

blimey that is a high protein high fat mix ,wonder how he went about the amount to feed them just thinking if like mine they would eat the peanuts all day

hi Paulo I feed protein sunday / Monday then I go carbs then on to carbs and fats , as I don't understand why the fats in the super diet get fed early when a protein feed could be used say to Tuesday going on to a carbs fats type feed from then onwards would you think the fancier that feed fats early would have no need to add any fats wed and Thursday thanks

yes they do , I that was the point of the topic I started to try to find out why early in the week as its full of fats

Tony there is a farm just north of Hertford that sells clean food beans £10 ,wheat and Barley £5 rape £10 ,maples £12 not to far from you if you buy a few bags its worth the trip a lot of lads go there and its all in 25kg bags

very good point Mick , its not like other birds that feed to make a long flight to a warm climate etc and they for what i have read do stock up on fats prior to the flight

thanks Tony , are you still trying the bean based feed for the distance birds ? I done well with a system close to yours from 270 miles I had a 3rd combine and a 4th combine from 365 miles

Hi Owen can I ask when you send to more water races as I am sure you mentioned in another post how would you go about for example a 6-7 week run of 250- 350-450- 550 miles with a week off in between will barley still be a big part of you feeding? I have fed program and national program with 220-400 miles each week for 8 weeks would you just feed a lot more fats than barley ?

I cant get the link up but what did he feed Monday and Tuesday was it super diet?

thank you walter

thank you tony what has thrown me is the use of super diet by some top fanciers early in the week before going on the normal sport type mix, and looking at a lot of these diet mixtures they carry as much fat as the energy type mixtures , on the vl web site it says to feed super diet post race and pre race but having read some articles and spoke with some decent fanciers they seem to feed say Monday to Tuesday ?

Walter do you use the barley as a guide to stop feeding or do you leave the food down for them thank you for your advice on this topic

hi Walter I have up to know fed beans in the hopper with a light hi carb feed on top each day with a bit of fats near to a distance race but I was thinking maybe I should move with the times, what would be the make up of your base ?

see what you mean maybe protein on return and maybe 25% fats added to the race mix once we get over 5 hours instead of adding at a set time

trying to work out the use of fats on old birds in the form of sunflower ,hemp etc I have thought in the past to add it to the mixture about 3-4 feeds out from a 300 distance type race and for more days for a longer race, , but now I have been reading about some of the diet mixtures that are in the main just fats like vl diet 1000 (20 % fat) the bamfords one etc and fanciers seem to feed this Monday and Tuesday each week before going on to a high carb widowhood corn which goes against what I have done in the past it also seems the distance does not matter either its still fed even if the race is say 150 miles I just wondered if anyone could point out why this is to me or why they seem to just use protein on a sunday before fat Monday and Tuesday then carbs I have always gone protein sunday and Monday ,carbs Tuesday then on to a mix of carbs and fats depending on the distance regarding the amount of fat added thanks

thank you walter thats good advice and one I will try this summer very kind of you

thank you Walter , would your target race be late june time? what are your views on pairing early may (if I can hold the hens from going lesbo) would the incentive of the first nest be out weighed by the lack of flights thrown

had the cocks out twice and the hens once since last october

if cocks and hens are kept spare and flown in this way to early May then paired how long or how many nest would members think the birds would fly well on I want to race a few paired but don't want them to go flat when the better races come I was thinking of a first nest just on dummy eggs and a last nest going to small ybs just to see is that adds to the wish to race, or would it be better to have a them paired then split for say 6 weeks then repaired for the main races ? in the past I tried a few on the first nest of the year and they performed well but they had not thrown a flight to late in the year but I have noted my best results have come with birds on the 2nd and 3rd flight which would not be the case if kept spare to may for the early channel races

thanks Alex very good information very good of you to share this with us

thanks Alex good advice , I like your feeding system it seems very straight forward but correct to my way of thinking can I ask how you make sure that your birds do not over feed early in the week in order to build them up , is this by set amounts ? I guess that is why I mentioned if the diet had any barley thanks for your help neil

good read .missed it first time round just picked up on it today

is the diet you mention Alex one that contains barley or more like diet 1000 with no barley but more small high fat grains

would there be a limit to this Wiley ? I mean in a 100 mile tail wind would you still include protein and if so would this be in the form of a fat mix like diet or pea/bean mix or even a product maybe

hi Tony what about the system you posted on here with beans etc , that was a interesting read and from memory worked well for you