pigeonscout

loft stock and barrel has got to be one of the best books about. Mike Ganus young bird Dark system video. Derek Nicholls system X video.

looks like you sent your cocks driving to nest and I don't think that is good way to send cock birds for 3 days in basket. If the nut where off I don't think they would have been showing such good form on the wed. I think 4 days in the basket for driving cocks would be far to long and they would have been burnt out before the flaps were opened.

If I have 6 old cocks in a section of 12 boxes I will take the cocks out of that section and lock up their boxes so no young bird can claim it. I will then put in 6 young birds to claim the 6 open boxes. 7 days later I open the old cocks boxes and put the old cocks back in.

Breed him to the new hen for first round then back to the hen he races well to for 2nd round.

Rick I wish there were more like you in the sport

slugmonkey that was a great post, there is and easy way to check your feed to see if it contains mold and it is one, that cage bird keepers use. First take a tin of seed and soak it in water for 24 hours, then put it in box or tin with lid on it and put in warm place. 48 hours later remove lid and you will see the mold on top, it looks like spider web.

If they are hens lock them out untill all the other birds are feed then take food away and let them in.

If they are cocks lock another cock in their box so every time they come in their is one in their box. You will only need to do this 4 or 5 times and they will be the first ones in.

Lock them up for winter let out once per week for bath.

Keep the fighter

If he is not willing to do what is best for the young birds i.e. leave it with parents until it is able to feed itself then he is not the sort of person I would be giving a bird to. Why would anyone want to go to all that trouble to rare a bird when its parents are there to give it more than he could ever do? Why would you even think about giving a bird to someone knowing it is not going to get a good start in life and may even die. It is so easy to tame young birds. Not one of my young birds will fear me 5 days after they are weaned and even before they can fly they will run to me when I enter the loft. Don't do what your friend wants do what is best for the bird keep it in the nest.

http://pigeonportal.webportalasp.com/spps/ahpg.cfm?spgid=17 Read this about how to deal with young bird sickness not one of us has lost a bird to young birds sickness in 6 years.

Go to Derry in Northern Ireland it is still UK and you should get 400+ mile

Take the hens out of nest with one of the young birds put on floor with some straw at 14 days. so you will have two hens on floor with two young ones and two cocks in nest with one young each.

Breed form breeders not all good breeders where winners.

All my birds are called come on, come on, whistle, whistle, come on. LOL

Racing the young of the pair is your best bet. They could have all the above and still not breed winners, they could also have none of the above and be supper breeders. One of the worst birds I ever held was a hen called the sissi bred by Gaby Vandenabeele it was like a big starling and it was one of the best breeding hens ever.

I think we must have learned from same person Dutch men.

We are drawn to them like a magnet we cannot put into words why we like them we just do and birds like that turn out to be crackers

Wiley I know what you are saying and understand it 100% but sometimes I get the feeling a bird like that has picks us.

Jason I did you not say your new loft would be 6ft+4ft and have you thought about how much it is going to cost you to train theses birds 5 days a week from 25mile +

Dont lock a cock in a box let him pick his own box when he does, lock his hen in that box and let him be on the outside just as pj1001 has said.

who was selling them? and who do you know they where bred in uk?

If anyone can win a sprint why are they not all doing it? A lot of fanciers that cannot win short races call themselves distance men. The fact is they win at no distance and don't even send their birds to the 500 or 600 mile races. I always ask these men if your birds are distance birds and they are only good for the distance races why are you having your clock set for a 80 mile race. True distance men lost a lot of birds and I take my hat off to them because it is a very hard kind of racing and you need bxlls the size of coconuts to send your race team to a 500 mile race. They take a big gamble to win the big race. If a fancier sends 30 birds to a 250 chances are he will get all 30 back on the day. If a distance man sent 30 to a 600 he would be jumping for joy if he got 15 back in two days. The difference between the two is in they way the birds are set up for the race feeding, system, etc. I could not say who is the best fancier because they are in my view two different games same as pool and snooker. So what are the best birds? the very fast bird or a slower but longer flying bird? My answer to that is find the ones for the game you are playing.