The Bull System

[Guest Owen]

I have mentioned the Bull System several times and I believe that in a fast moving sport like Pigeon Racing it is a very useful tool to have in your Tool box. The penny is beginning to drop that the idea of strains of pigeons is just not sense. The Belgiums and the Dutch have never really used it. They have always been preoccupied with breeding the best pigeons. Not trying to preserve past strains that never really existed in the first place. A have had a lot of people talk to me about inbreeding. Sorry, but this is another figment of the imagination. It will work very well with show creatures and farm animals but it is not practical for performace creatures like we are dealing with. If you seriously want to use inbreeding as a technique you must have a large number of very good specimens to succeed.

The Bull System will give a chance to rear very good young birds and follow a policy of outcrossing as you do it. Outcrossing will not reduce the essential vigour in your birds as you proceed.

I produce young birds from my widowhood cocks as follows:-

Place your Bull Cock into a section on his own, out of sight of other pigeons. Feed him well on hot feed. Seed.

4 days later place pairs of pigeons into standard widowhood boxes. Separate them with a widowhood front so that they can pair through the bars but not tread.

3 days later run the hen with the Bull cock for about ten minutes. He will tread her. Return her to the box and run all the other hens with the Bull leaving them with him for anything up to 1/2 hour each time. After 3 days put a nest pan into the box so that the hen can lay in it when she is ready, it will help to stimulate her. As she lays her eggs take the partition out and let the Dummy Cock and the hen in together. They will carry on as a pair and rear the young. A word of warning. The hens take a little longer to lay than normal because they are not stimulated by the cock driving so it is essential to have them in top condition. I breed in February, which helps. When you test young birds you will discover that some hens produce birds that perform well but others will produce total duffers. Vital information. What you will do is produce a lot of very good birds, with the occasional star. Obviously your star will be a future Bull. So now you can see how this system gives you a chance of real and sustained progress.

Finally, there are other methods and variations on this system, but this is what I do to avoid using cocks that have not won anything. All my young pigeons are now bred from cocks that have won at least 4 races. And obviously I use some hens that have won young bird races as my breeders. The major benefit you will get, is that your birds will be bred to perform as young birds and yearlings and after about three years that is what you will have. You will end the business of having to wait until a pigeon is 4 or 5 to give you results. If they have not performed by the end of their second year, you can dump them. They are unlikely to do it after that.

Best of luck

Owen

 

[pjc]

Its a very good way of doing it!

If you had a prooven prolific stock cock you could just keep him, use him on all your widowhood hens and let them rear you a full round of youngsters from him before being used for racing.

[Guest]

thanks to Owen for giving us this information . have followed his posts this year ,and talks (types) a lot of common sense . could be Pigeonbasics equivilant of Old Hand .       andy.