Preparing birds for the distance races

[Guest]

Hi, advice please on how to prepare Natural cocks and hens for 500-700 mile races, for first time attempt across the water in 2006. The birds are 2yo and 3yo and from well known Scottish distance families.

[stucky 1]

Lot depends on the bird itself, some need lot of road work some very little. Up here in west of scotland some people are giving the birds more races than useally because of the hawk problem, that way they dont need as much training, but percentage wise, own way is afer they finished there rearing i start training, paired up between 20th feb and 10th march, first race use 112 to 130 mile then i give 3 to four races in a row, miss week or two then like them to have race were they have 8 hours on the wing use 250 t0 320 mile race,.

[Guest]

Thanks Stucky and Rose. There's an 8 hour fly usually available with the Inland National in the first week in June; the first and biggest Channel race is usually around the third week in June. Thoughts please on roadwork required in (1) the lead up to '8 hour fly', and (2) final preparations between then and basketing for the channel race?

[jimmy white]

with natural birds i found the biggest mistake was breeding, training, and racing too early,  agree with the above posts  ,only differance would be with me ,up here it used to  work  out that your 8 hour fly, could be 4 weeks before the rennes race, so after a weeks rest, i would train fairly long tosses,up till a week before they went.to the big one,  but i found there are as many differant type races as there is differant type pigeons and you never know what the race is going to be like, some pigeons thrive on hard work others dont, so sometimes it can be trial and error, i used to like sending them with their second flight just bursting through   these dates may have changed now , to what they used to be, if the 8 hour fly be 2 weeks b4 the big one, i would be happy to see them comming well, then send them,  Maybe just to explain the differance in   pigeons and races    i  won combine sartilly505 miles with a widowhood cock paired in january, this pigeon had 5 races never a training toss, but was flying freely for 2hours each morning and evening [when the rest of the cocks were down and in]now i new this bird was fit , iknew the forecast was good and won with him doing over1600 vel.this bird hadnt even cast  a flight, now this bird was no match for sir colin whose vel was way below 600 and treated in a differant way, and over 600 miles, so really its setting them up for the race, then horses for courses and knowing your pigeons.

[stucky 1]

Thats the diference for myself and jimmy compared to rose, were rose can have a few races to choose from we have probly 1. Two at the most, the way the racing is now it can be big chance giving your birds the race it needs to close to its desired race, Have been saying for ages we in scotland are 5 year behind rest of U.K and they are 5 year behind the continent, but the rest of the uk are at least catching up. My last race for them use leicster 250 mile , then they would have 3 weeks to the gold cup race, and depending on the bird it would have maybe 200 mile training in between, use no bigger than 40 to 50 mile tosses, some may be 25m but i use dont go over 50m, that was way use to do it, but now we have midweek club can get maybe 2 dunbars that about 70 mile, then couple of 25 to 35 mile tosses. That is one of the reasons i hope we dont go to maidstone as lot of people use that race for gold cup. And to me it to dangerous a race to be so near gold cup race, to be used as set up race,

[Guest]

Again looking at a set-up race, if not Maidstone (which would be minimum of 10 hours on the wing) then going by 2005 Fed program, alternatives are:

 

250 miles (6/7 hours) end of May (4 week gap till big one, bit too long?)

 

290 miles (8 hours) (tuffy this one for me anyway, my course record is 0/2) 2nd week in June - 2 week gap till the big one. (Bit dicey two weeks before the big one?)

 

Private training: Berwick 70 miles, Alnmouth 110 miles both within easy reach by train. Been to both, Berwick twice, a stinker for returns; Alnmouth once 3+ hours. No probs and would rather single up from there.

 

(My thanks to the three of you; realise nothing is hard & fast, think I need to start with a rough plan, and change to suit each individual bird.)

[Guest]

Rose, don't know if you ever read Round Os column in BHW.  

 

He's always on about the English North Road Feds races from Arbroath and how the 'leaders' need to strike out across the sea towards landfall at Fife to become winners, while those taking the scenic route round the coast become also rans. Often wondered about turning my birds North for channel training Arbroath-Fife-Central Scotland, birds need to cross the Tay Estuary and fly into the prevailing SW wind all the way. Haven't measured it out reckon around 50/60 miles. Might be worth a try within '4 week' period following last inland race @ 250 miles?

[jimmy white]

i think maybe , bruno, your thinking of distance rather than hours on the wing you could send them 300 miles , they could possibly do this in,   5 hrs if the wind was favourable, then again you could get 8 hrs out  of them at250 mile race with head wind which would be more suitable, i agree with rose trainng them in a head wind, to harden them up, itrained a black cock from near dundee, opposite way of race, and scored with it from sartilly, as i said before no hard and fast rules, but NOT to race or train or breed to early, and remember that the bird usually casts its first flight, after sitting more than 10 days on its second round of eggs, i used to seperate them after theve reared, race them spare then have them sitting [or hatching] depending on the bird, usually a cock sitting 10 days ,,a hen on 3 day old young, after this separation period  found that it made them keener, when they did nest, for second time. ,,.only another opinion.,, maybe another interesting point about making sure they have the fuel in the tank for the job, is an example of last years kings cup winner, auld reekie  [ what a pigeon]   this pigeon was raced lightly as yb, never raced as a yearling , and to my mind must rate as one of the best birds ever, and can tell you its not finished yet, by a long chalk.[its also been 2nat this year, among its other great positions, a great example of management and pigeon, both , hand in hand, another example of getting the best out a bird was my,, fifer,,this was a broken widowhood cock bred for the distance, raced as a yb and yearling then purchased for £8 and broken to me, never raced for two years, sent over the channel as 4 y old just out the result .sent as 5 yold could have been on the result, was at clock station with sir colin, he was in the loft when i got back. as a 6 y old never having actualy scored, but still had faith in him, flew widowhood again, 4 races, every am and every pm he went back to fife [no loft there]approx 16 miles , so on its own it flew 32 miles am and 32 miles pm, this time after never seeing his hen for 4 weeks [off course this is why he was on w hood otherwise he wouldnt have done this]i put 2 3day old ybs under him, he took to them ,like a duck taking to water , without seeing the hen, he rewarded me by being 15 open kings cup race rennes, this bird was tam mcleods breeding, and tam was 6th open   in the same race,   now i can honestly say that this bird had 4 races no tosses, but he trained himself. wish they all did that.

[Guest]

I broke 11 pigeons to a new loft this year, 5 had previously won to the old loft. I managed to settle them in the winter months, and flew them on widowhood. My old partner kept the old loft on so you can imagine the fun I had trying to arrange a time when I could get mine out while his were in. I sent them to every inland race and all to the first channel race (only 350 miles so still a sprint race) ended up 3rd and 7th club. I stopped 5 that were destined for the next channel race which was 2 weeks later and sent the rest the week after. My preperation for the next channel race was simply to let em out am and pm, and they would do as expected go to and from mine to the old loft (1mile) for an hour each time, then banged the 5 into the channel race, and ended up 1st and 2nd club (22nd UNC 98th UNC against 11665 birds) and I got the other 3 back in good time when the race was classed as a disaster. Then two weeks later sent the 3 that didnt score to bourges (55o mile) and ended up 2nd club (76th UNC). In other words I think good birds will win to any loft as long as they have a lot of early racing and plenty of quality food, and it can be done on widowhood (which I have been told many times B4 that you cant win channel racers on widowhood).

[Guest]

Thanks, Sbelbin. Note and agree with what you say about widowhood and winning at the distance. My birds are on the Natural  / love of home system and I'd prefer to stick with this.  

[stucky 1]

Once the time comes round bruno i sure you will be able to calculate what will be best for you. It would be ok if we were sure that the race was going to be a fair fly, but we cant there that much can go wrong, that is why it best to have few weeks between last set up race and desired race.

[Guest]

Matter of interest, Stucky. Will you be using Maidstone as set-up, or is it just hours on the wing / wing and a prayer, too far? Don't fancy it myself.  

[Guest shadow]

After all the preparation at leat 16 hrs on the wing from inland racing then  one sigle up from 50 miles approx. The bird should be ready all my birds are flown on round about ALL races and I have found this method  succesful over the last two seasons in fact I clocked the first four pigeons from Nevers in the club this year ) approx (482) miles .I never achieved succes like this flying natural or widowhood, now I have got a team together I am going to do all my channel racing with MNFC next year and see how they get on in good company

 

fly hard fly fair

[Guest]

Thanks Shadow. Your post highlights that I'm not fully understanding what I'm being told by the others who have so kindly contributed.  

 

When we speak of 'hours on the wing', I have understood that to mean in the set-up race..that is, a good 8 hour fly in that race, a couple of weeks before the big event. By my reckoning, that's around the 300+ miles mark. But are we really speaking about the 'total hours on the wing'...that is , from all the inland races & training and the full roadwork we give each bird?  Because as you say Jimmy, a stiff Kelso (60 miles) could be 2 and half hours on the wing, rather than the usual hour and a bit, and would almost certainly fettle the bird up better.  

 

Apologies for being a wee bit dense on this, ladies & gents.  :B

[bill_bennie]

Shadow, I'm just curious. When you say single up from 50 miles, is that a toss

where the bird goes by itself? I don't know as I'm on a differant continent and

you may say it differantly than we do over here.

 

Yours in the Sport - Bill.

[Guest shadow]

Yes Bill the bird is liberated on its own from 50-60 miles. I usually take my candidates for the race may be 3 or 4 ., put each bird up on its own leaving a gap of 20 minutes between each bird, my wife then tells me the order the birds come home in