Sprint Cross Distance

[Mike Lycett]

Agree with Shadow.   It can bwe done - but 100 mls x 600 mls dont' work.  In horse racing when do you see a 6 furlong horse x 4 mile horse?  It don't happen.  People have different perspectives about what is "sprint" and what is "distance".  Basically speaking, they don't mix & I think if you build your loft on that theory then you'll be kn&ckered pretty soon

 

Mike

[Guest]

Ex Pat, you are spot on.  We have a family of Janssen pigeons that have had aarden crossed into them and can and will win from 100 to 600 miles. The guy who bred this family actually had 13 birds on the drop from 500 miles.

 

what we look for when judging the distance a bird is capable of flying is the position of the humorous bone.  If it is say within a fingers width from the body it will do the distance further asway the bone is the shorter the distance the bird will fly.  Some of our Van Reets have a 2 finger gap.

 

Jimmy you are also spot on, Gustav Van Reet developed is family of pigeons by selective breeding and raced them sometimes 6 times a week from Quiverain a distance of about 125 miles.  Over the years he bred a top class sprint pigeon.

 

It has always been my dream to fly the Van Reets the way Staf flew them, but our weekly race from the 125 race point has a five bird limit so I don't think it's worth the effort.

 

[jimmy white]

thats exactly what i was trying to say rose, theres as many differant types of pigeons as there is differant types of races  5 to 600 miles in fast 1600 velocity,[ ive seen higher velocity than that] could be won by a sprinter, but get a 500 to 600 mile race doing 1200 or less, takes a differant sort of bird alltogether thats what i was meaning saying horses for courses,, ie  if i knew what the velocity was likely to be, i would send the birds accordingly [you can only guess by the weather forecast, what the race is liable to be like]

[Deano]

I personally think it is all in the preparation whether a pigeon will win at the distance.I have a hen what has won bourges 550 miles 2 years running and she is pure van reet!

[square_peg]

agree with deano     doo's dont know they are sprinters or 500mls it all about set up      sure some doo's will never win a short race but win at distance  if you set your loft up to do sprint or distance  then as time goes by  that is what you  will have in your loft   if doo' s dont do well at your distance then you will get rid of them

 

thing is sprint & 500 ml doo's are NEVER fed the same

[Guest]

Deano.

 

Well done with the Reet.

 

There are some Reets that will fly the distance, but they are few and far between, ours are really heavy muscular birds and not suited to anything over about 250 miles, but the birds bred down from Champion Leyton Express are much smaller in stature and have flown and won up to 500 miles.

 

There are 2 families of Van Reets, the first, which he sold out mainly to Dean Pallet were the pure bed heavy birds. When he sold out to Dean he was left with I think just a few young birds/yearlings.  Going from Dean's results he found that his birds were very much in demand, therefore he had to bring birds in from the outside to breed to his, i.e. Jos Sootjens, this put more distance in the birds, but they are not the true sprinters he flew for years with such astounding results

[Guest Silverwings]

agree with EX-PAT and Mike on this thread , Horses for courses ! the physical make up between short distance and long distance pigeons are worlds apart  , with constant handling and comparisons  of birds developed by specilists of either category , you soon begin to observe the  diferent qualities deliberatley built into their birds, some over many years of breeding ,their are the odd exeptions to the rule ? but my advice to any novice is "Never try and fix anything that isn't broken" good fanciers will allways help you ! after all its not in their best inerests to add to the stray population .....ray

[square_peg]

come on rose

at some point you must have set your stall out for long distance racing    and fed them to the task in front of them

[square_peg]

we all have doo's that dont come in slow velocity 1000 downwards   thing is we dont kno what the forecast will be

I have heard fanciers tell me they set there doo' s up for a hard race    so how is that done   anyone care to tell me

[hooky]

crossing two completely different families of birds will result in birds throwing either way..just because you breed a sprint cross distance bird will not generally give you young that are half way some will be sprint others will be distance and some may be inbetween.!!!same as breeding dogs i spose.they will not get equell amounts of genes from both parents

[mealybar]

Having notice people say about distance races, but being raced at 1400, or 1500; I think it doesnt matter the distance the bird is flying, I dont think they know how far they have to fly to home, could be 50miles, could me 500, the thing is time on the wing.

 

If you have a stiff race from any distance it will be the birds which are most comfortable at flying at the fastest possible speed in those conditions which will win.

 

Dont think I explained that too well , say 300 miles, a sprinter comes out the basket and flies 50mph, and can can only keep this speed up for 4 hours, then flies much slower (fatigue); a different bird comes out and sets at the 300 miles at 40mph and can go on for 7 hours, until he too tails off that speed (fatigue). [so what is the convoyers shoe size - reading it through it sounds like the Pizza Hut advert ]

 

Lets say a strain of distance birds are the ones which ideally fly at 30mph and can go on for 16 hours, and a strain of sprinters can do 50mph for 6 hours, given the prevailing conditions either bird could win at almost any distance.

 

What I'm maybe trying to say is look at the hours on the wing of a race, not the distance or velocity, to see which are the sprint, middle and distance birds

[zetlandlad999]

how did we get distance birds and sprint birds in the first place,,, by selective breeding, anything can be tried in breeding, and with the proper management, youll find out their worth,,,good or  bad

 

Hit the nail on the head, Jimmy.