Y/B Training disasters

[Blue Tooner]

Where are all the young birds going?

Have heard some real horror stories today.

1 member from my club tossed 60 y/bs from 20 miles at 4.00pm and has only 10 back at dark.

Another member (new starter) tossed 16 last night from 10 miles and didn't see any till this morning and ended up 6 adrift with another member having 16 younger ones missing from off the loft and there are similar reports from other clubs in our fed.

It can't all be hawks :-/

[ALF]

I'm going to start next weekend and i hate this time of year more then any other i've been there done that with the losses at the 1st toss and it's a nightmare until you get them home

[Guest]

its the same through here  club member 34 tossed 1pm  total of 16 2 days later 10mls  none back untill next day getting reported all over the place ive had 3 tosses out to 15 mls and only lost 2 and iam the best off birds should not be getting lost from that distance

[Blue Tooner]

Training youngsters is always a dread and it just seems to get worse. I had my own ones at 15 miles today and they took three hours, tell you what though it took my mind off of the Tours race ;D

[Blue Tooner]

Training youngsters is always a dread and it just seems to get worse. I had my own ones at 15 miles today and they took three hours, tell you what though it took my mind off of the Tours race ;D

[Guest]

i think thats the problem i was the same and if there are teams going up and down for hrs it stands to reason they must be flying in to one another and that spells disaster for y/birds just learnin the es

[carlsberg]

i now have 14yb's left out of 36

[blueskey]

had a freind drop off birds on his way home i never got none home on the night , got nine out of 22 home now but end of the day , they say you are only droping the sh** ?

[micko and jack]

i dont know about homers for a start of

but just a thought

why not send an old bird or two from the same loft just for the first few tosses

this maybe a none runner if so sorry

i should have kept my mouth shut

(and not a chance of that happening its by making comments like this you learn from others so new members dont be afraid to chip in ) micko

[Blue Tooner]

Just spoke to another of our club members this morning and he dropped 25 yesterday from 15 miles, so that takes it to over 100 youngsters missing from 5 or 6 members in the last 2 days ??), must be soul destroying. I think Frankdooman has a fair point about teams of y/bs going in all directions for hours, it must spell disaster when they run into one another. Just hope some work back for them, but I bet there wont be too many.  

I wondered if one of the problems was that many youngbirds are being trained before they are ready i.e. not ranging from the loft and being pushed too far too soon.

Would be interested to hear others views on this.

[andy]

I always toss first time from 12 miles very early in the morning so they get the sky to themselves.

[Guest Paulo]

Wonder if its anything to do with the vast amount of young birds on the darkness system. Had 7 chucks so far up to 18 miles and not a problem they all beat me back this morning with ease.

 

YB's don't seem to rake as much now

[kelly tom]

Andy I tossed 20 darkness youngsters at 9-00 from 10 miles 2 weeks ago I got 2 on the day 1 the next day 1 reported in Manchester 1 reported dead on a local farm and 15 unaccounted for. They had been of the darkness for three weeks and treated for worms,canker and respiartory.

[Guest shadow]

why are you training youngsters with the forecast for thunder and torrential showers throughout the country with so much electrical activity in the atmospere no wonder you are loseing so many

[bewted]

why are you training youngsters with the forecast for thunder and torrential showers throughout the country with so much electrical activity in the atmospere no wonder you are loseing so many

 

very true shadow,,,,,,,so very true !!

[Guest Paulo]

Wonder if its anything to do with the vast amount of young birds on the darkness system. Had 7 chucks so far up to 18 miles and not a problem they all beat me back this morning with ease.

 

YB's don't seem to rake as much now

 

 

I've got 20 on dark and 20 on natural the dark ones look better than the natural and handle like yearlings but the natural ones go away raking for hours. While the dark ones rake but not for as long as the natural ones.

 

First year trying the dark. One strange thing was no YBS last year on all natural but had a bit this year. Rested them for a week and treated and now they are fit again.

 

I think too many people take the birds away before they are flying well around the loft

 

[kelly tom]

Shadow I havent trained a pigeon since last wednesday

[THE PRIEST]

First time i have tried the dark system in my life and i have never lost so many young birds training. I only started with 30 and i have lost 9 already. Normaly i fly my young birds natural and hardly ever lose more than 1 or 2 during training. I have had 7 training tosses from up to 12 miles and the young birds have had 4 tosses that have taken over 2 hours.

[kelly tom]

I am thinking the same about the darknees as I havent lost a natural young bird training this year but have only 4 out of 20 darkies left.

[pjc]

Spot on Shadow, just look at how the atmospheric preasure has changed in the last couple of days!

Keep em at home!

 

Phil

[bewted]

I am thinking the same about the darknees as I havent lost a natural young bird training this year but have only 4 out of 20 darkies left.

 

racing and training as near to nature as possible is good,,,,,darkness is playing against nature and sometimes nature has a way of kicking you back in the teeth !!

[Guest Gareth Rankin]

I always have my young birds fly in morning before i basket for them to go training, reason being that young birds are bursting with energy and to take them for a short toss as many fanciers do is asking for trouble so best to take the steam out of them before they get in with the wrong crowd and finish many miles away from their loft.

Don't over train as fanciers seam to forget that they are homing pigeons so they are built with the ability to home this is providing that they are kept in the best of health and in a enviroment that they are happy in. Have witnessed in the past fanciers having 20-25 tosses before the first race only to drop many young birds at the first race.

Due to circumstances i have seen in the past ourselves only having 3 tosses with our young birds and win young bird average in club and fed.

[Guest Paulo]

All the fun has been taken out of YB racing by the greed of people who have made it too specialised i.e. darkness, lightness etc to win the YB averages

[Guest Paulo]

I always have my young birds fly in morning before i basket for them to go training, reason being that young birds are bursting with energy and to take them for a short toss as many fanciers do is asking for trouble so best to take the steam out of them before they get in with the wrong crowd and finish many miles away from their loft.

Don't over train as fanciers seam to forget that they are homing pigeons so they are built with the ability to home this is providing that they are kept in the best of health and in a enviroment that they are happy in. Have witnessed in the past fanciers having 20-25 tosses before the first race only to drop many young birds at the first race.

Due to circumstances i have seen in the past ourselves only having 3 tosses with our young birds and win young bird average in club and fed.

 

Good advice with the letting them out before a short toss trick. On my second and only bad toss from 8 miles they all nicked off raking because I didn't do this before hand

 

 

[Guest]

my method ,split them in to 2 or 3 teams ,first 5 tosses half mile ,just on dark ,and i mean just on dark ,they are very hungry and dont mess about ,trap strait away because of hunger and geting dark ,2 or 3 at 1 mile ,2 or 3 at 2 miles then each night a mile or two extra ,always hungry and just enough time to get home before dark most weather conditions as long as it is reasonable , i get them to the 15 mile mark doing this and keep them there untill the 3rd race ,i have not had any trouble with hawks or clashing with other birds because of the time of night ,i dont go any further because i will have to cross the severn bridge every time  and that is a breading groung for mr peregrin ,they then get jumped into the 3rd race 70 miles then if they got what it takes they get home, some of you will disagree with this method but it works for me ,if they dont get home on the night they are not to far away in the morning ,im not into young bird racing i just want to educate them for the future and using this method i have at least got them to their first race with out loosing 90 percent of them .ATB les ps i think that the birds race home this time of night because it is time to go to roost and they dont want to be out side the loft  all night.