Pulling Primarys

[DinUtah]

Could someone tell me the timetable for cutting and pulling primarys of young birds?  Along with that, the pros and cons of doing it.

[grooter]

hi dinutah why do you wont to pull feathers from young birds it is lick pulling finger nails out

[Guest shadow]

Never heard of anybody pulling or cutting primaries on Y/Bs can see no reason fot it I never pull primaries on any bird as it can lead to a blood quill

 

fly hard fly free

[DinUtah]

I know what your saying pulling a growing feather being bad, but, once I got a young bird from a fellow that had its wing tips clipped.  i asked about it and he told me he did it to avoid the moult of the last 3 or 4 primarys.  He told me after some time the feathers would pull out easily.  Sure enough when that time came they were totally dry and pulled out very easily and 3 or 4 weeks later they were grown in enough to start routing .. I just dont remember any of the specifics about how much to cut off or when or anything.. just checking with the abundant knowledge pool here.. sounds like a bad idea to start with..Ill keep reading.. to see what else comes up..  Din

[Guest Silverwings]

dinutah . what reason or need do you have for wantng to pull out primarys ? may be some other way round it ? the only time i ever pull feathers from a pigeon is to get them ready for gas mark 6 , some fanciers use all kinds of extreme methods to win a Y.B race dont listen to them ? remember they are youngsters for a few months but old birds for life !

[jimmy white]

dinutah, to be prfectly blunt with you, you would be better not getting advice , from this fellow.  if you pull a birds flight out [ which is not advisable]  the new flight will grow, but youll find it shorter than it should be, i would tend to take advice on this forum, where you can allways ask the hows and whys etc

[DinUtah]

Exactly why Im here Jimmy.. The wisdom here is better than any book.  From the way this guy talked i was thinking many people did it.. Im glad I asked

[Silverdale Lofts]

The fanciers who fly the light system with ybs pull and cut the flights

[Guest]

Well I reckon it's time they came into the light of the 21st century, Silv.

 

An earlier post was spot on - it's like pulling teeth, the primary feather follicles are located in the humerus, the secondaries in the ulna, both major bones in the wing. There is absolutely no doubt you cause the bird pain pulling these flights.

 

And when the Animal Welfare Bill becomes law in the UK.... well try and tell it to the judges...they've brilliant lightness, darkness and prisoner systems available for you:-

 

Lights out 10pm till 5am;

 

Lights on 5am to 10pm;

 

Confinement to own box: 23 hours out of 24.

[carl]

Well people i have also read about pulling flights to bring on form,not that i would do it but i read it somewhere.

[carl]

ok found it and its from none other than jack barkel  finding form..

 

http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/jackbarkel/articles/jackarticle4.htm

[Guest]

Thought I'd posted my wing back to front or upside down, depends which way you look at these things!  

 

Humerus is the long wing bone, nearest bird's body: Secondary flights on this one;

 

Ulna (with Radius bone on the wing's leading edge) is further away and on the inside edge: Most of the Primary flights are on the ulna.

 

'The fingers' form the little '*expletive removed* wing' and the furthest bones: end primaries are on these.

 

The bone structure of a bird's wing is the similar to our own arm, hand and fingers.

[mealybar]

As far as I know/knew from the 7th Primary (7-10) they are located in the bone.

[Guest shadow]

I never pull primaries and if they break one I look for apiece to match and repair it with a needle and super glue especially during the racing season.

 

quality not quantity

[Guest]

Mealybar: forced me to go open a book!  ;D

 

I personally find the bird's wing a bit of a nightmare to both remember and visualise. Anyhow memory failed me (again), there are no feathers rooted in the humerus - should have been a steal because this bone is hollow (air spaces inside it) so there wouldn't be the strength or the room for feather follicles in it.

 

Also, If you take into account the forces that the wing is subjected to, especially to get lift, if the primaries and secondaries were rooted in 'skin' - they'd be torn right out.

 

So all of these feathers do go into bone with all its 'like' implications of pain & tooth pulling.

 

 

15 'blow-up' photos of models of the bird skeleton at the following address.

 

http://137.222.110.150/restricted/gallery/album182/wing_avian_X_ray

 

 

 

I've attached number 14, an xray of the bird's wing which may or may not copy well:

 

 

The top of the xray is the humerus - clearly no feathers attached to that.

 

The middle is the radius and ulna - clearly, secondaries attached to the ulna.

 

The bottom is the 'wrist &  4 fingers' - clearly, primaries attached to these.

 

 

 

[Guest slugmonkey]

It is amazing to me how many guys pull flights almost all the one loft and futurity races remove the tenth and some both ninth and tenth I know some guys in florida who remove 7-10 on both wings and most of the tail feathers then they let the bird sit in the loft for 45 days while they grow back they call this a power moult I have a couple of birds in spring hill Florida for the Gulf Coast Classic one of the handlers got 2nd in a race with one of my birds and then called to ask me if we thought he should pull flights of course I said no I usally have to bench a bird for a race or two because they drop flights but I think long term I am much better off never having pulled them some times I have birds dropping 2 or 3 flights and even had one drop 5 this year the old timers tell me this is a sign of good health I think I would rather have the bird to race than the good health LOL I cant see how this could be good on a bird to pull flights

[Guest]

Go to the articles section on this site, Bob Rowland and he tells you how to do the power-moult.