Newbie2020

So its fly at 4pm, feed as much as they wont at 6pm (young bird mix) and then give them a small amount of conditioner or something at 11am tomorrow?

so I let them out today 4pm and then they get 1oz or as much as they want at 6pm, with no feed on Friday?

why is that m8? whats wrong?

80 miles and basketing is 5pm

Whats the best method of preparing the birds for the race on saturday from today Thurdsday. My plan is to let them out T 4pm this afternoon for a fly, then feed 1oz of young bird mix at 6 o'clock tonight and then feed them as much maize as they want to eat at 10 o'clock friday morning. Is this sensible or anyone suggest something better?

I just bought some peanuts from the garden centre, but put in for the birds but they struggled and infact couldnt swallow them as they were that big! Am I supposed to crush them up or what?

These birds have now been tossed 18 times in total! They havent done this before. Normally they arrive land, and straight in! I cant understand what changed today. They were fed 1oz each yesterday as they are everyday yet they were still intent on flying for another hour after arriving? I cant work it out!

Will have to do that in future. Is this generally a good sign and shows they must be healthy and enjoying there flying?

I trained my birds today from 40 miles and they took 1h and 15 mins to come home, they circled around the loft 3 times and then shot off again and continued to fly around the mountains for a further 1h and 5 mins!! They had so much energy they just didnt want to land. I cant work out if I am chessed off or pleased. They obviously didnt race to get back home, but then I think they must be in great condition to continue flying for the 2hrs and 20 mins that they did. When they landed they trapped immediately when called, BUT NOT WHEN CALLED ON RETURN FROM TRAINING. I am concerned however the same might happen next saturday on race day. I have given them half food tonight and will take them again tomorrow and see what happens.

there are a few feathers on the floor of the loft, but not a great deal. However there does appear to be more and more getting each day! How long does it take to cast each primary?

My young birds hatched in March, can anyone tell me when they will start moulting and how long until they have finished? My programme starts next week how many weeks they be able to race? When cant you send them? what are the signs and how many weeks after hatching is this?

I think if your loft is mapped to the exact location and google earth specialises in maps etc surely the co-ordinates need to tally? One if not both ae definitely wrong which in this day and age of technology is just poor!! I seem to be in your boat redcheq and flying at least 60 meters different to my actual loft mapping!! Not really acceptable is it???

I have been looking at my distances and comapring the co-ordinates from google earth to my print out of my distances. How is it possible to have a different lat/long???? I have put on my actual lat/long on google earth and its showing me to be 2 streets closer to the first race point than I am actually am??? How is this possible and does anyone elses come up like this?? Very confusing, but surely the two should tally???

How hungry should the young birds be when the go on the training toss?

I cant quite see how pigeon racing is cruel in the slightest! The birds live in A and taken to B and let go. They have C,D,E,F..... infact the whole world to go to if they dont wish to return. They choose to return to their loft! How is this cruel? The birds are given there freedom and choose to return. I think the an advert in the BHW highlighting this venture is required and a PR firm hired asap. Then maybe an advert in the national press, and ultimately a tv advert on prime time tv!! I know this sounds adventurous but if everyone was prepared to give them not unrealistic! An easy way to donate is required where the funds can be deposited safely and easy. Good luck and I am behind you 100%.

I have started to train my birds and they are up to 25 miles, how long should they be taking to get back home?

I am a little confused regarding transfers. I live in Wales and only a member of the WHU. I have purchased some GB rings and the owner has registered them with the RPRA for me. I believe I now require to register them with the WHU to be able to race/show them. If I sell the birds in the future how would I go about transferring them then? Would it be via the WHU transfer forms or would it be the RPRA transfer forms? And would it matter if the purchaser was a welsh union member or a member of the rpra? When they have been registered with the WHU does that then mean the RPRA ceases to have anything to do with those rings? All rather confusing for me.

Just to let everyone know I did get the other 2 back this morning. Took the same 15, 20 miles this afternoon and all 15 beat me back! I agree with the comments regarding the fact it is not advisable, but thats why I chose a really short toss. I also plan to do the same sort of thing from the same sort of distance but gonna let them go just as its getting dark to teach the birds to settle down for the night away from the loft and then to continue in the morning. I cant be doing too bad as I have 6 tosses from 20 miles and not dropped one yet!!!

I havent dropped a young bird and they are out to 20 miles so fingers crossed will get them back!

I decided to try my team of youngsters in the rain today. They have been 4 times upto 20 miles by road. I took them about 8 miles. The weather was clear at the lib site, but thunder and lightening at home end. I wanted to see how the birds would react and learn from being in this type of weather. I only took them the 8 miles so they would be close enough to home. On letting the go, they had about 2 miles of dry weather before they hit really dark low cloud and torrential rain. After 2 and half hours I had the birds back, missing 2. They were quite wet and looked really tired. Do you think they flew for that length of time or do you think they sat out the thunder and lightening and they made there way back home? Either way I am happy, and feel the training went as planned. I hope to get the missing 2 back in the morning. I think this type of training helps the birds learn as they could come up against something like this during a race.

I have 15 young birds flying out, they fly well but trapping is not so clever. I am feeding as much as they can eat in the evenings. Could someone confirm how much food I should be putting in for the 15 birds? I feed once a day, at 4.30-5pm. They go out about 3.30pm for there fly and fly for an hour. I have just purchased a digital scales so will be able to measure the amount of food for the birds.

my vet is the same, dont have a clue. You end up telling them whats wrong with the bird, then then ask you what you think it is and they agree and then they charge you for the privillage! A good pigeon vet is worth his weight in gold......unfortunately I dont know any! I have been searching for ages. So if anyone knows of any good ones I would be interested to hear from you.

I have some Brasspenning birds that are very strong and I hope they go well this year.

Where is it possible to get Sal-bac from? I have spoken with my vet but they are struggling to find where to get it from? Anyone know of any stockists etc I can pass on to my vets?

I have just been speaking to the vet and on looking on the internet is it the Ivermectin Pour On 0.8% - treatment for internal and external parasites. Is this the product best suited for clearing this trouble up. I have been informed even if not mites, will worm the pigeons anyway the same time.....sounds promising anyway!