sparko

Finally got some young birds from my 8 bird stock 6 young from 6 eggs so im happy ,just 1 pair not layed yet but they arnt far away i think as the cock is chasing her back to the nest now might be able to get a small group together for young bird season on 8th august.

Thanks all,i thought it would be ok but nice just to get a second opinion from you experienced fanciers thanks again

is this anything to worry about or is it a common thing with hens first egg ? im a little concerned about her she looks ok and no blood on her vent so i put it down to the cold and being her first just wanted to know if its normal or not ?

Thanks Andy it means alot to me and the son

Thanks Paul and to you too.

Got my very first egg today not getting too carried away just yet but im very very happy as its been a long time coming and these are the parents

Thank you and atb to you too

we have 24hr daylight come mid june.

yes that may help also they did moult last year but not the flights so maybe that could bring them on a bit too ?

Thanks Walter i do understand it could be a while with the hens but they are happy enough and im sure i can wait a couple more months,the first thing i was told when i got these eggs in england was be patient with them atb Nick

well the winters are bleak but not terribly cold because of the gulf stream but it can get to minus 10 ish on a bad day and the summer is 24hr daylight and mainly dry with temps up into 20s on good days but the wind chill factor keeps it down to mainly 15 ish i noticed the lofts the other year and thats how i got going and apparently they have raced them since 1989 i think and this year i think there is 23 members racing and getting bigger the last 2 or 3 years and the furthest we can race is 400km alb Nick

Thanks m8 ,ive made a couple of alterations to the ventilation since these pics and its working alot better now probably be next year when im set up properly with a breeding loft too and have a bigger team of birds to breed with but im not going big just 9 or 10 pair will do me as im planning on having 36 ish birds total come race time in this loft 18 cocks and 18 hens and maybe 1 or 2 without a box to keep them on there toes oh and ive got to get a solar panel up too as we have no electric at this site given to us by the town thanks again and im very happy with the loft being my first project what my son and i built all by hand saw

and this is the cocks section for young birds

Thanks Andy ive moved them into the hens section so just put the breeding boxes up for now instead of v perches and the young will go in the cocks section with the pipo boxes so that will give me some time this season to get them there own breeding loft up i think its a bit late now anyway to separate the young for sliding door system so these breeders should be fine in the hens section for now i think.just got to keep myself patient for now as im dying to have some birds flying out especially for my son who goes down there every day cleaning out etc in all weather so i am going to give him the job of whistling the birds in on race and training days i think he will enjoy that .

thanks ,im having problems uploading them all ,oh well at least i got a couple up ATB Nick

thanks

ive only got 8 birds so have to breed from these when they are ready but they are treading the hens and all are very keen with there partners so just waiting for the hens when they are ready now so hopefully i might get a couple to put in a race or two this season

Might have to get doing some research for some good stock of these then if it goes pear shaped this season.

Thanks Tommy and atb to you too mate

we only have 5 races in young birds and 10 in old birds ,thanks for the advice all

Yea they should have called Greenland Iceland and vice versa and i will let you know how i go .this is the view from the rear of the loft

Thanks Walter and also everyone else ,what a great bunch of guys i really am grateful for your thoughts.ATB this season Nick

Hi mate well about minus 10 ish in winter into the 20s in summer

Thanks Geordie i have got it in my mind to be very tough when selecting as ive seen some here putting anything in the stock loft and also keeping birds in there that havent produced anything even after being in there for 5+ years and that isnt going to be me and my birds unfortunately are from a 5 times East Section Champion so i will have to settle with them

Well i cant tell you too much im afraid as this is going to be my first year,the races are from around 80mile ish up to 265miles(400km)this is our young bird lines on google earth. my loft is on some ground that was given to a few of us to put the lofts up but the only downside is we have no electricity so i have 12v power and led lights also i will be going solar powered too this year to trickle charge the battery.The birds from the other fanciers seem to cope very well and mine are always in the aviary even now when its been down to minus 9 just recently so i dont think that bothers them too much.One problem i did find this winter though was when its very windy and snowing it blows sideways hits the lofts and goes in the vents along the underside of the roof filling the lofts with snow and some other fanciers have been using spades to dig the snow out lol,but i was lucky as i have a false ceiling in mine and it settled on that but even so i had to get it out. Anyway i started tinkering with the vent putting a few 2 inch spacers along the vent and a piece of wood screwed to them the length of the loft and another the same way but vertical level with the top of the roof so the wind rushing over it draws air out the loft it may be confusing to read but it doesnt matter how hard to wind comes at it now the air inside still goes out that vent and nothing comes in. The other fanciers have had theres there way for a few years but i didnt like the fact my loft could get wet and the bonus was the air at ceiling is always going out which is what i believe is how we want it,i also have louvers lower down on the front bringing fresh air in.im not sure if the daylight will affect the birds as im new to this, i am also planning on training 3 times per week weather depending and see how i go from there and the rest i guess im going to have to learn as i go,as you can see in the pic that is one big glazier they are going to have to find there way around,do i train on line of flight for each race as they arnt on the same line or just stick to a happy medium ,do i pick a side of that glazier to train from to try and get the coming that way ? i just dont know the answer to this and maybe i could get some ideas from you kind people so i can get a plan in place.ALB Nick p.s B.O.P is the Gyr Falcon in Iceland