hi peter, your thread is about natural, i havnt raced for around three year because of work and transporter duties thro the season so the birds were basicly left to there own life with no routine, like retired, open hole and fed once a day, i feed straight barley with mollasses mixed thro once a week,basic grid is given on the slabs outside the loft and they take if the y want, water is topped up once a week, i go out to work at six in the morning and they are their pevking about in the dark, come three i am back and there mobbing me for food , fed and in by four but no hatch closed, they stay in and thats them till six next day,on the way into estate i saw them fling and thought ill watch cause if i go in theyll see me and be down, twenty mins i got fed up and went in, down like a shot an in for feed, i know barley isnt all they need but with the mollasses they are in tremodous nick, if i can get my lad to taske photos ill put them up, i have been throwing eggs away since jan, we get a visit roughly twice a day by the local perry/sparra but have only noticed three gone in three year, whene they get a start its like a bluddy gunshot,i hoped to race again this year but with work and comitments its impossible .hopefully i will race again in 2018 and itll be natural laying aroun ist april, keep your writings going peter as i know a lot of lads enjoy them.