Wiley

I hope to buddy

I may try it in the summer, pairing the old slatey cock with two of his winning daughters, and retain a cock from 1 pairing and a hen from the other. To put the theory to the test, however retain these for stock, and mate them the following year, and see how the offspring perform.

Had birds out today they flew for just over the hour, with the sky grey and the temperature dropping slightly was pleased. The weather is supposedly on the change from thursday onwards with a storm expecting to hit, well see as the weather man hasnt been that reliable as of late. Will hav to order some Sedochol from Tollisan soon, as my own young birds when they are ready will go on sedochol and naturaline in the drinker most days, while they are on the darkness. Its something i tried last season on the experiement team and i felt at least it made a difference. The Kris Van Massenhoven cock (Danny Van Dyke and Dirk Van Den Bulcke Blood) purchased at Blackpool seems to have finely settled down now, and seems content and ready to pair, so he will go with my daughter of Sticker Donckers Superman, who has bred me some good pigeons in the short time she has been here, including 4th Open Essex & Kent Amalgamation. I've attatched his photo and the hen who i intend to pair with him sire. Ive found the Danny Van Dyke blood to blend really well with that of Sticker Donckers in the past, and the sire of The Young Bird of the year 2016, is exactly that being a grandson of both Wonderboy and Kanon. Was thinking a lot about pairing lately, and was wondering if old hands strain makers way held weight. Its unusual for me to look at an idea from the past, however i am always willing to learn. Below is old hands belief, be interesting to hear your own thoughts..

Finished photo

Ah very good buddy hope it breeds plenty of winners

Time caught up with me today, had a buisness meeting, followed by building the last of the steps for the loft..cleaning out all the lofts, and bathing all birds in the avairy, time just ran away with me. They will be out tomorrow 100%, shame as today was a cracking day. Other news is that i got my good slatey cocks photos edited and hopefully the finished article will be on here tonight. Edited photos are not everyone's cup of tea, but i was really happy with what ive seen of it so far.

Well done all, gutted i missed out on the birds i wanted Brian is that you back in the sport

Bet his birds trapped excellent also, the association with him and food would have been phenomenal

Feeding does play a part with exercise for sure dal....my birds are exercised in afternoons, so instead of most peoples routines i hear of giving a light feed (quantity) of a morning, and a bigger(quantity) of feed in the afternoons...mine is reversed. Bigger quantity of feed in the morning, as ill get a better exercise from them when they are exercised in the afternoon. Follwed by small quantity in the evening. But at the moment they have young and get as much as they require.

19th to 21st Jan i was told tommy

:smiling-sun:

What i would like to add del, if i was looking for a peak at a certain point I would do things slightly differently as you questioned also. That would start from the intial pairing dates.

Hi Del, i never force the birds to fly, they fly on there own free will, i would never force them to fly either del, i believe in love of home, they must want to get in and not get chased off..This is another reason when we do exercise our birds once a day but for a period of 1hr 30 minutes, the doors are closed for 45 minutes, and they are open for 45 minutes with what i call play....thats where they can spank about and come and go from the loft as they please, when the doors are open there is hemp waiting in there boxes, to actually encourage them in. We are 8 weeks away from my first race del, i dont look for a peak in form, i expect to compete in every single race i enter, i look to compete from first to the last. I will start training them in the car roughly 1 month before the first race, built up gradually in miles, its something we just do starting from 11 miles .

Exercise period didnt have the length but had all the intensity of the previous day, they only put in 50 minutes, but it was a very good effort, i think the weather affected the duration today, as the temperatures dropped slightly and wasnt so bright. However tomorrow they expecting temperatures of 17 degrees if weather man can be trusted, so would expect the performance and duration to be even better, but we will see about that tomorrow. They are where i want them to be at the minute. I expect as other years have shown when the sexes get seperated, for a period of 24-72 hours the birds will tend to sulk. However from there they will really kick in a gear, and should be where we need to be, by my loft fitness date of 8th March.

Birds put in an excellent effort around the loft today, 1 hr 15 mins. Their work rate is gradually getting to where we want it to be....bath was filled up and they readily all jumped in. Im extrememly pleased on how clean the birds are looking wattle wise and skin colour/scale wise considering they are raising two youngsters. The skin is a lovely rosey pink, and the scale is of a minimum, and has that transparent look. So hopefully i have the foundations set to create a rising plain in the build up of the season. Will just add that here, birds only exercise once a day in and out of the season, for those that are wondering why i am only stating 1 exercise time, and thought that a routine hadnt started, when i said it had Having to keep an eye in the stock loft constantly, as two hens for some reason have it in their head to visit other boxes, cannot afford to lose any of their eggs, so they may have to get boxed and rotated until they sort their heads out

Dal, i did have a time when i was experimenting with the feed, and at the time Frank Tasker was a big advocate of sunflower hearts and i did try them, however I personally didnt like them as the birds didnt have the bond as they do with peanuts....birds will go through fire once they get the taste of peanuts, and its something we use to bond with our pigeons. The birds must take the peanut out of our hands in their boxes.Consequently i am toying with the idea of using sunflower hearts once again but as the distance races come along, which i will discuss as they approach.

My type of pigeon that john.

The above is a private message from a fancier, that i felt would be a good topic to discuss in the blog. Firstly, i believe in fats over carbs. In my opinion it is the best source of energy for a pigeon. It seems to be common knowledge in this day and age that carbs are fast burning energy, while fats are the secondary source of energy and are slow burning, hence meaning carbs provide a quick immediate energy source that is depleted very quickly, and that fats start to burn when the carbs are burnt out first to provide the body with valuable energy. Now many will look at the depurative mixtures and the Diet mixtures and notice many have similar ingredients. However the difference being the amount of Wheat and Barley used (in a good diet mix there will be no White pigeon barley as versele laga will call it.) Both mixes play their part in a feeding system, and can be even used together if you was unsure on measures to feed pigeons, as the barley and wheat content of the depurative would give you good control over your rations, byring you fed a little at a time, until they started to leave the barley. Depurative's goal is to provide something that can detoxify the system, and the fibre content of the grain also helps with detoxing, and it will also provide high carb content, which is why the widowhood bibles, where big favourites of it on return from a race. While a diet mixture goal is to provide grains important for fat storage. Now do i feed a diet mixture when racing, yes their is a measure of diet mixture in my grain 7 days a week, and especially on a Thursday evening, and a Friday morning, when i offer my birds all they require that measure can be upto 75%. I believe in fat loading, in comparrison to the traditional widowhood way of carb loading. But take into consideration that my birds are constantly being provided a fat source from the grain, as well as the tit bits i give my pigeons. My pigeons return from exercise to a pinch of hemp in their boxes, and after every feed my pigeons are fed 2 peanuts each. The hemp and peanuts measures increase drastic when racing distance racing and some days the birds could eat 10-15 nuts a day. Interestingly, Geoff Kirkland i believe is a big believer in a diet mix before his distance flights 2-3 days before basketing, so when they are in the baskets their interest would then be in consuming the carb sources provided in the basket.

Adding to this i will also add that i have dropping samples, taken a number of times of the year, and sent of to my vetinery, who will make a culture, and on the back of the results he gives, i will act on it. I will describe later on the process i follow when taking droppings for analysis. This is done over a 5 day period and the pots are kept in the refrigerator over this time. Droppings are taken as early as possible in the day, even better when it is still dark. When 5 days sample have been collected they are sent of. I will even do the tests even after a good performance.

Have a look at around antwerp with dave allen when he visit Staf Van reet, im sure a system similar to his could work well for you, maybe not the measures used depending on your preference for racing. But barley infront of em at all times....id then personally basket them, in the hopper ontop of the barley put the measure and the grain you see fit for requirements, and take them on a toss back to the feed.

Have a look at around antwerp with dave allen when he visit Staf Van reet, im sure a system similar to his could work well for you, maybe not the measures used depending on your preference for racing. But barley infront of em at all times....id then personally basket them, in the hopper ontop of the barley put the measure and the grain you see fit for requirements, and take them on a toss back to the feed.

If thats the case why not get em loft fit first, then their only exercise will be training them, back to there required feed waiting at home, basket, and fed it will be drummed in there heads.

Thank you harry, i will give you a call on sunday if you are about buddy?

Dal, this wasnt the first time out for the year my friend, they was going out 2-3 time per week previously weather permitting, since the new loft was errected, as they needed to get used to the new loft, however now the routine has to kick in, as the season looms close.....

I have decided to create my own blog, as i think what Peterpandy and JohnQuinn provide with theirs makes very enjoyable viewing for the reader and also for the writer/photographer. Now i am not saying mine will be anything on their level, but hopefully you guys can join me on my new journey. Now the name of the blog is Intensity, Integrity and Intelligance. Why? It is just three traits i like to see in my pigeons, as well as three promises i like to offer up to my hobbie....however maybe not so much on the intelligance side. Now, the race programme for my federation has been set, and giving the date of the first race being the 8th April from Peterborough, being roughly 74 miles to the loft. Alot of work has been going on around the garden roughly since October as we demolished our old racing lofts, and Ecco Lofts installed a new 30ft x 8 loft for us. This is the complete set up, and houses our stock, young birds, race hens and race cocks. With the new loft being errected it put the whole system out of place really and we are slightly behind on our usual schedule by roughly 2-3 weeks. It will be also interesting to see with a new loft, how the performance is affected, but thats something that will make this blog of interest i hope! Now the last week or so, has seen us building sets of brick steps infront on the lofts to make access better. Consequently with the construction going on, you may have guessed the temperatures have risen also this week with an average of about 11 degrees and rainfall has been at a minimum, compared to last weeks -4 and snow showers. With this change in weather we've also been setting in some routine as we are roughly 8 weeks out from the first race. The 16 pair of widowhood cocks and hens, still have young birds in the nest, and are starting to just give each other the eye, so i will start to think about seperating the young birds over with the hens, and when i am confident they are eating will be reasy for dispatch to there new owners. The reason why i will seperate the hens and young birds is because we do not allow our hens to go down again, and although some of the young wont be of the required 21 days, the team of hens will do an excellant job in mothering them. As i said earlier we are 2-3 weeka really behind schedule, and over the last 4 days we have started to let the race birds out routinely. Currently we are on day 4 of regular exercise, i must add that they are never forced to fly. The first day of letting out they produced a respectful 30 mins, Day 2 35 mins, Day 3 50 mins and today again 50 minutes. So far so good. Both sexes go out together, as the young birds have reached an age that the parents feel they dont need to sit so regular. Hopefully we will be where i want the team to be come 8th March. Obviously feeding wise the birds are not measured at the moment they take as they require of 3 different mixes at different times during the day. They also get a good selection of grits, clay blocks and matrix daily, as well as a good helping of lettuce ever two days. Lewis McCalley put me onto pink minerals, something ive never gave my birds, but its something ive been doing while rearing this year, and ive been dampening the corn with a garlic, onion and elderberry tonic every two days, an drying the feed with the pink minerals. I am unsure if i will do the same process in my stock loft regarding the pink minerals and tonic. But with the stock sitting i still have time to weigh up my decision. One thing i have noticed, and is something i have been considering for sometime now is that Canker treatments are not needed as much as once thought. Previously treating for canker was always done here for peace of mind, wed treat for it because we read every where that they have to be but my opinion has changed, much like it had many years ago regarding cocci and worms. Go against the grain, do your own thing, it will either surprise you, or bite you on the ar$e, time will tell!! But at least you can say you done it your way!!