neila

thanks mate, I do shift work but I am always just back in the mornings or at home ready to go so I tend to hopper feed but I may give your idea a go

can I ask have you weighed the food that you give them , wondered how much they are on thanks

so did i

depends on the air flow I always think if you go 1 bird per foot on the longest side and times that by 3 you will be ok ,on a normal 6 foot deep loft but I think by being 8 foot deep you could add 6-8 birds so 30-32

I was at my corn shop last week and noticed that 20kg of beans from Bamfords were £16.50 which was a shock to me the local farm sells clean beans ar £10 for 25kg same for peas and £6 for wheat and barley 25kg so I plan to base my feeding on these grains and just but maize and some oil/fats to add

I think fanciers do complicate it , mine are on 75% barley and 25% a mix of tk conditioner and a few beans I feed barley first then the conditioner/ beans mix and then back to barley to they leave it , and that's it for the day . I know they bit of barley they leave will be cleared up within a few hours. This is the 2nd year I have done this and the birds moult very well on it and see to reason to change this. I do add a bit of Add herb to it though as I do all year , not sure if it does any good but my results improved when I started to use it so kind of stuck with it I can get barley for £6 for 25kg so a good saving to

Hi Owen can I ask if I have understood that you train just 10 miles and at the most twice a day so the max your birds would be in the air each day would be 20-25 mins and some days just 10mins or so so you do not worry about the idea that the birds must be flying a hour Am and Pm

this is a decent topic , be nice to hear other views on this subject

thanks Owen I will look at trying this feeding method out

yes Owen , I think I have more of a understanding now fats increased to match the work load to come and increased from late in the week or for longer races a percentage of fat earlier with regular short training is that close Owen?

I think the super diet mix may be higher fat than Irish ruby ,VL do one and I know Bamfords do

very interesting posts Owen , thank you for a interesting topic I always tried to carbo load but your post have made me think again , can I ask on the barley based diet do you fly 350-500 miles or would this be more for a sprint program ? or would you just increase the fats to fly the distance thanks

thank you owen can I ask would would you add any other carbohydrate grains (maize etc)towards the end of the week and decrease the barley in order for the birds to eat more or would you just increase the fat mix %

hi Owen a very good read can I ask how you make up the 30% of other grains with the barley being a high carb low fat diet would you use mainly fat/oil seed to add protein and energy and not other high carb grains like wheat/maize towards the end of the week or would you add maize to encourage the birds to eat and carbo load them ? after a hard race would you build the worn tissue back by say a super diet fat mix rather than beans and leave the mix 30% fats 70% barley to late in the week and then reduce the barley last season when I had a poor year I was feeding 1/2oz protein sunday-tuesday AM and all the barley they wanted PM then Wednesday AM to Thursday PM I made a mix of 3/4 widowhood mix 1/4 energy mix from and fed 1/2 oz Am all they wanted PM as I tried to improve and make my feeding more lighter would you think a super diet mix would be better to replace the protein mix? the two years they flew really well I fed a hopper of beans all week and 1/2 oz of Gerry plus from sunday to Wednesday AM then Wednesday PM to Thursday as much as they wanted of Gerry plus with a bit of sunflower depending on the wind and distance so where I am stuck is when they had the hopper of beans the results were miles in front of when they didn't have the beans , yet I know from what I have read that the lighter food is better for them just my results didn't show that to give a brief example this year 3 water races without the hopper of beans 2x2nd 1x3rd and no fed pos , same races last year with the hopper of beans 3x1st ,3rd,4th, and 6th fed... be of interest to read other views on the above above different feeding methods thank you in advance

the trouble I have Owen is that when I had little time I hopper fed beans for 2 seasons and the birds done very well for me, last year I went on a lighter diet with fats at times and with barley added as a feeding guide and had a poor year ,so I am a bit stuck what to do it may be other reasons than feeding of course so I am back on 25% beans in the diet for now

what price are members paying for beans now? I paid £10 for 25kg local to me from the farm and are of decent quality , although I am told bamfords are over £15, I know they were £13.50 a few months ago it does not seem that many years ago they were £6.50 to7 a bag

how have the gevaerts raced for you this year thanks

i feed about 1/3 oz barley in the morning and protein at night with 10% barley all they want, feed them to i see barley left then i stop

not paired yet must say looking forward to paring the birds ,but about 4 weeks away yet

ok terry thanks i will do that

40 all bred from stock 1 round so they are the same age

cheers terry would you let the hens run with the cocks section on the odd day during febuary/early for a few hours every week or so? or wait to training in late march i ask as last year the first race i sent the hens to i ended up 3rd but 3 hens came and just flew round and round which cost us the race ,the nest race we won and was 3rd fed after a week of training back to the cocks ,so i am just trying to think how to get them to trap quick from the first race

i like to feed my stock birds pellets at first light ,so they digest them quickly to feed the young ,

cheers terry I took the advice you posted elsewhere on the system and it worked well for the short season i had . i did worry a bit so i kept a few old cocks on widowhood but will not be next year as i have a nice team of yearlings (never been paired). I think its best to start birds as yearlings on the system I have set up a central trapping area now between the cocks and hens section as i found my older hens that were raced to the cocks lofts in past years were trying to drop early to gain entry to the cocks so now both my cocks and hens will only have one entry point between the sections

thanks Terry can i just check the cocks feeding please when you say just over a ounce a day split would 1.25 ounce be correct as i see your hens are just under this and i notice you no longer feed barely at all early in the week thanks for your time to post this advice