Tony C

The top pigeon fanciers I know say they wouldn’t keep pigeons if they never raced. Me, I love em to bits so I guess I'll never achieve the dizzy heights of being an ace. I can live with that

In my experience I’ve found oversized eggs that big rarely hatch. Slip it under a pair (sit 3 eggs) and keep your eye on it, if it does start to chip slip it under a pair where maybe only one of their eggs is full.

a wing and a prayer just about sums us up

They are Tammy but I cant see a problem using a regular T3

I would think any T3 would be ok to use as a master.

Mite? . Red Mite

I always look at it that a spare pigeon or two can become valuable even if not raced. Personally I like to keep my young bird loft just for young birds. I like to see which one ventures out of the loft first, first one to find its way in the bath, first one to make the loft roof, first one to fly and the likes.

To be in the first 1% of every club/fed race I enter, top 2% of combines. Amen

or w-w-wishky as a drunk would call it ;D

Oh! my heads going thump! thump! thump!.......yes I hit the Bovril

http://llerrah.com/lettherebepeaceonearth.htm

Go easy on the coke Alf ;D

Midnite Tonight Wife. blah blah blah blah Me. Yes Dear Wife blah blah blah blah.....blah blah blah blah Me. Yes Dear Wife blah blah..... blah blah.....blah blah blah.... blah Me. Yes Dear Wife. Your not listening to a word I say Me. I am Dear, carry on You know what its like lads...... just goes in one year and out the other. ;D Have a good'un all

I voted other, I'm afraid I'm a boring old fart....yes a teetotaller, be a cup of coco or if I decide to push the boat out I'll break out the Bovril (kept for special occasions) bottoms up

Who's the best distance flyers on the site? I would like to hear how their opinions differ if indeed they do.

I would let the pigeons be the judge of that. You cant expect to get pigeons conditioned for breeding by keeping them short of food, would a shortage of food effect their hormones too?

The extra bit of rest I refer to is not the time between putting them on w/hood and the first race. Darkness y/birds in the year of their birth moult, get trained, raced and then moult out again, a lot to put a young bird through. Pairing them that bit later gives them a bit more time to build up much needed reserves. There's many ways to race w/hood. Since racing my y/birds on darkness I've found that pairing up later and sending them to the first race sitting 6-8 days on their second round benifits them in the long run. I take their hens away on the Thursday, let the cocks sit Thursday night and send the cocks Friday sitting, they're on w/hood from then on in.

You say you raced them on the darkness, my advice would be is not to pair them up to early, the end of Janurary will be plenty early enough. Dont shoot yourself in the foot even before you start, they'll benifit from that bit of extra rest.

Fighting out of the red corner ;D

The temptation with w/hood is you want to race them right through the program as they always look so well. Naturals especially hens have forced rests and don’t go every week. Perhaps there's nothing between the systems..........if set up properly for the task in hand.

Have an extra special birthday Jack ....pssstt only give grandad a bit of your birthday cake if he's a good boy

Plenty of grub in the shed is the order of the day, you dont want the pigeons coming of the young not even for a minute. They'll know when their sitting duty is over they'll be food there so they wont leave their young as they would if you fed them certain amounts at certain times. Also make sure your down the loft at a sparrows fart to change the drinker.

I would race them unpaired the most part. Put a single cut down cock in the section and let him pair to any hen. Make sure the only place a nest can be built is on the floor, put V perches in the section to discourage the other hens from pairing, if they try to pair on the floor the pair that are nesting will drive them back up to their perches. They'll exercise like you wouldn't believe, talk to them and play with them and they'll surprise you racing too. When the longer races come round pair them to your young cocks.

Blimey!! thats nearly as cold as the looks my wife gives me.

Try this Vic http://www.easibed.co.uk/stockists.php