Delaying the Moult.

[Guest Vic]

Hi Guys!

            This coming season, I maybe racing the natural system, but, I want early bred youngbirds. Has anybody tried this method? Pair racers up early December. Remove the hens when the youngbirds are about 14-16 days old, thus allowing the cocks to finish the feeding until the weaning stage. Put them back together again at the end of March. Do you think by doing this, their flights will be alright for the later channel races in mid July?

                                   Also, do you think these early bred youngbirds will be in the right feathering condition, without putting them through the darkness system? Or would you prefer to darken them? Cheers, Vic.

[kirky]

Hi Guys!

            This coming season, I maybe racing the natural system, but, I want early bred youngbirds. Has anybody tried this method? Pair racers up early December. Remove the hens when the youngbirds are about 14-16 days old, thus allowing the cocks to finish the feeding until the weaning stage. Put them back together again at the end of March. Do you think by doing this, their flights will be alright for the later channel races in mid July?

                                   Also, do you think these early bred youngbirds will be in the right feathering condition, without putting them through the darkness system? Or would you prefer to darken them? Cheers, Vic.

I did the above wirh my widowhood cocks, weaned yb in jan but i let the hens finish rearing them in yb section, all my cocks & hens held flights to longest race, I would still put them on darkness as thay soon get down to the end flights if left natural ,

 

[wilkins]

what flights would they be on come june please

[OLDYELLOW]

kirky be going to work now i think

[kirky]

what flights would they be on come june please

 

first or second, i did worry that thay might not get through the moult, but thay did by december some throwing two flights at a time, i will be doing the same this year, as i like my widowhoods to rear my first round from my stock,

[kirky]

kirky be going to work now i think

  not tonight mark managed to get one night off, see you about 10 in the morning.

 

 

[OLDYELLOW]

[Wiley]

i have been reading up on the internet of the super moult, a fancier in london who was a legend called lou adaire, practiced this method with young birds to keep a complete wing, bit extreme but it worked brillantly!

[nogin]

i have been reading up on the internet of the super moult, a fancier in london who was a legend called lou adaire, practiced this method with young birds to keep a complete wing, bit extreme but it worked brillantly!

 

what web site is that wiley....cheers m8

[Geraint Parry]

Hi Guys!

            This coming season, I maybe racing the natural system, but, I want early bred youngbirds. Has anybody tried this method? Pair racers up early December. Remove the hens when the youngbirds are about 14-16 days old, thus allowing the cocks to finish the feeding until the weaning stage. Put them back together again at the end of March. Do you think by doing this, their flights will be alright for the later channel races in mid July?

                                   Also, do you think these early bred youngbirds will be in the right feathering condition, without putting them through the darkness system? Or would you prefer to darken them? Cheers, Vic.

 

Hi Vic,

After you have re-paired the birds end of march. Will you let them rear??I know not letting them rear isnt 100% natural, but hope you know what i mean. I tested flying natural in my final year of racing, a completley different method to what i had used previously, the method which i won 1st National with. But the birds seemed to come ok winning: 8 x 1st, 4 x 2nd, & 8 x 3rd. Not bad against the widowhood boys hey?! They also held their flights well and were ok in June / July time. Won o/b land and channel points also 1st & 2nd channel aveerage.

Off to bed now, but will check this topic again tomorrow as its something that interests me. Send over a pm if you like.

 

 

[Wiley]

 

what web site is that wiley....cheers m8

 

the website im refereing to is an american website, however the fancier who gave it to me asked me not to pass it on so must respect his wishes, as he is attempting to do this method that is also on the page, next season. But the basis of the super moult is pulling of the flights. only downfall is it takes 6 weeks for all of the flights to regrow, but the birds are well schooled by this stage!

[nogin]

 

the website im refereing to is an american website, however the fancier who gave it to me asked me not to pass it on so must respect his wishes, as he is attempting to do this method that is also on the page, next season. But the basis of the super moult is pulling of the flights. only downfall is it takes 6 weeks for all of the flights to regrow, but the birds are well schooled by this stage!

 

O.K. WILEY NO SWEAT M8.....CHEERS

[Guest Vic]

I did the above wirh my widowhood cocks, weaned yb in jan but i let the hens finish rearing them in yb section, all my cocks & hens held flights to longest race, I would still put them on darkness as thay soon get down to the end flights if left natural ,

  

 

            Yes Kirky, But I should imagine it is a bit dfferent with the naturals. Because they will be sitting more rounds. This method will suit me, providing that they dont throw their fifth flight for the latter races. In the past, I have had birds throw their 3rd and 4th together at the last races and still won with them. But once that 5th flight goes  they're finished. I am giving this a try, because I believe that too many good hens, are wasted on the W/H system. I also wonder whether the W/H system stresses out a good percentage of birds and kicks off some of the major ailments that are now circulating. I also have more places to isolate  birds, for motivation purposes, than I ever had in the past, through being on the W/H system. I am surprised that there have not been many replies regarding the yb

question! Vic.

 

 

[Tony C]

Hi Guys!

            This coming season, I maybe racing the natural system, but, I want early bred youngbirds. Has anybody tried this method? Pair racers up early December. Remove the hens when the youngbirds are about 14-16 days old, thus allowing the cocks to finish the feeding until the weaning stage. Put them back together again at the end of March. Do you think by doing this, their flights will be alright for the later channel races in mid July?

                                   Also, do you think these early bred youngbirds will be in the right feathering condition, without putting them through the darkness system? Or would you prefer to darken them? Cheers, Vic.

 

Re early bred y/birds, If your going to try this system for more than one year (pairing up early December) I think racing your y/birds on the darkness system is a no-no. Come December when you want to pair these y/birds up they'll not have thrown all their flights and I think thats a lot to ask of them. One way round it could be to pair your 2-3-4 year olds up December and let them rear but not your yearlings, let the yearlings rear when your repair in March.

 

Racing young birds... I dont think there's a better system than darkness.

 

[Guest Vic]

I am amazed, to say the least, that this thread has  had such scant response!  It reminds me of the days, when only the select few, were practising the hush hush W/H system, LOL.

                           The reason I am searching, is because I don't profess to  know it all, even with all my years of experience behind me. But with being one of the old dye in the wool, old fanciers, (I sometimes  tip my tifter to some new upstarts) LOL.

          I have never paired up before January since I've had pigeons, hence the questions.

Surely there must be guys on Pigeon Basics that have done what I am about to try!

                                                 Here we go!  WHAT WILL THE YBS FEATHERING BE LIKE

COME THE END OF JULY? BODYWISE AND FIGHTWISE? I know that I can check the moult to a degree by mating them.  I am jonly searching for a method, that cuts out the darkness system, which causes problems in the future. Thanks. Vic.

[Guest]

Hi Vic, I haven't posted because I haven't taken a lot of notice in the few years since I started back up. However I have bred early with stock the past 3 years mainly because Henry liked early YB and flies darkness. There have been no problems that I know of with darkness YB going on to win. In 2008 for example the yearlings which were darkness YB won 4 x 1st plus 1st Section NFC.

Vic this is an interesting subject and one I need to get my head around, because I don't like darkness YB either but that's cause I find it so unnatural.

Last year I flew widowhood mated mid feb, reared one round and then let the hen lay again and took the hens away. Marmandes was our last race which was 12th July, in which I was 1st & 2nd. The bird that came 1st raced dry. The yearling hen I mated him to turned out to be barren, I've checked back on my notes which say slipped second egg under her on 20th March. They both took to the pot eggs, they sat them until I was ready to take the hens away, when I took this hen away. Interestingly (or not) I rewarded the widowhood cocks with a round of latebreds, so I mated him with another hen, a pic of her is on lot 15 for sale. They bred a lovely pair of dark uns which I gave to Phoebe's sale and Bart bought them for £35. I thought they were an absolute steal and I shall be taking a pair out of them next year!!

This year I haven't decided what to do. Because I was late rearing last year and because my birds had not been out of the loft from September - April, I missed the first few races, including the first channel race to us, only 125 mile but where we are, they've got a 100 mile of water to come over on line. Hope I haven't gone off thread

[Guest]

Hi Vic dont know if this helps but this year i paired up early and raced ob to dummy eggs then let them hatch the round for Barcelona basket end june and they were sitting 14 day old yb ob had only dropped 2 flights at this time as for the early bred yb feathering i dont know cos i gifted them all away but i do know that pigeonpete had some success with 1 of these early bred yb