Sprint birds

[Ronnie]

Is there a tried and tested way to train sprint birds?

I am asking this as i am relatively new to the sport and next season will be my first old bird programme.Is it logical to assume the same sort of training human athletes use for sprint racing will apply in some instance's with pigeons?I mean training short distances often rather than long distance's less often?or do i just let them fly round the loft and do as they please and just concentrate on the feed.

Ohh so many questions the more i ask the more i find.Still any input on the sprint bird traing will be helpfull from feed to exercise thanks all.

 

 

[Ronnie]

oops meant to also say i will be flying a roundabout system but am aiming for a fully widowhood loft in a few years.Roundabout untill i get enough birds i only have 4 racing pairs for the coming season.

[Guest Silverwings]

ronnie. its a good idea not to train sprint birds with distance pigeons as they may adopt the pace they fly at ,as youngsters allways train them slightly hungry , pigeons are creatures of habit ,training them hungry in their first months will get them into the habit of racing home to compete for their food ! leaving them a little short makes them even keener the next time , this way they dont hang around the transporter on race day, as old birds the hen becomes the prime motivation ,allways remember lack of the hen will be the real motivation ? but instilled in the  their heads the initial hunger training will allways be a back up  , especially if their hen has an headache......ray

[Mike Lycett]

Ronnie

 

Interesting one - at no point would we ever entertain training pigeons that have "an edge of hunger".   It's like a motor car - if you want performance then you gotta give it the fuel

[Guest Silverwings]

mike .you can still put the fuel in through the water as you know ; the lighter feeding is designed to give them a  competetive edge as i said their creatures of habit ? teaching them to race home and not just  home is surely the end product we all look for ....ray

[Mike Lycett]

Ray

 

Couldn't agree more regarding the racing home. Pigeons don't know they are training - every time they go in a basket is a race as far as they are concerned...   However, slightly disagree with the basic principle of "hunger".  Ours are never hungry  - maybe its just us - seems to work ok for us anyway

[Mike Lycett]

Ray

 

Can you answer me something ?

 

If / When youngsters go on the run from training early on in their lives (which invariably happens to us all at some point i'm sure) what are your birds working with if they've gotta put 7-8-9 hrs flying into getting home?

 

Ours did this in July  - after 7 hrs we had 4 home from 36 - but we ended up with 30 from 36.  I think we got that many back for 2 reasons

1 .  They ultimately had their head screwed on

and

2. Because they'd got a belly full of snap to call upon if needed

 

Just my thoughts

[Ronnie]

oops hope i havnt started something .Anyway guys thanks for the input.Its all good advice to a new starter like myself .

[Mike Lycett]

No Ronnie - everything is cool

[Guest shadow]

never raced or trained my birds to the corn tin either but have found taking them 20 miles at least 3 times per week was enough for my cocks and hens on roundabout(old birds )

[Guest Silverwings]

hello mike , may be its the way we do things diferently i have allways found youngsters will roam for long periods when they can not feel any grubs on the move in their tummys  ?and they  have been the victim of nights out and flying into wires late at night ,the key Word in my post was 'Slightly' this way suits me as i dont have to wait around for them when i am meant to be at work ? i would never use a starvation system on youngsters and never have done , last year i visited a top local partnership  who take the first four places in their club week in week out i commented on the amount of corn packed into his young birds their crops were that full the birds were almost unable to stand ? i said you are over feeding these ? he laughed and replied " Watch this " he threw about 4 beans on the loft floor at that all 50 youngsters dropped from their perches and literaly fourght like lions for those few beans he then said " Still think their overfed " .............good thread this mike gets down to the real stuff ? well done ronnie ........ray

[Ronnie]

Ok i'm guessing by reading through the lines and making my own assumptions everyone does it different.

I suppose if i feed once a day as much as they want for twenty min's i should be going in the right direction.As long as the feed is the right sort ie:fatty food's for distance carb's for sprint.would this be the right direction?.

[Guest Paulo]

So with pigeons is it like human althetes for example I couldn't train on a full stomach same with running dogs like greyhounds etc. You'd spew up.

 

So with pigeons would you feed them before basketing so that they had time to digest the food overnight so they have reserves of energy to call on?

 

What about a normal training toss if you train in the morning surely you wouldn't feed them before they went?

[Ronnie]

thats the sort of thing i am on about Paulo .C'mon u guy's give us beginners some insight to the feeding regime

 

[Guest]

Ronnie

 

What family of sprint pigeons are you flying, if you have Van Reets they have to be trained differently than other pigeons, please PM me for details

[Guest slugmonkey]

I feed in the evening and I agree with Lycette there are several valid points here I do think you have to get sprinters to behave diffrent than other birds but I think treating rather than not feeding is the answer I don't think most people feed correctly and I belive it starts with the quantity of feed NOBODY can tell that a pigeon needs exactly 1 and 1/4 ounces, or 2 pounds of feed, or any other exact quantity you should ALWAYS err to the side of caution Especially in YB's I think frequent short tosses ( 2 a day ) in diffrent directions is the key with a reward in the loft for the first trappers ( peanuts or safflower ) its ok to kick out hungry birds for loft exercise then put down a little feed and call them in so the last trappers go a little hungry I will do this 3 times a day and then feed right before dark this does two things as the day progresses the first ones in get there fill the latter ones learn that when they get right in they get to eat first and are more motivated to get in and by feeding late I can stop them from going thin better with less food so they are still hungry and trainable but I never send even mildly hungry birds to race( I have even put other birds in the loft so there is more commotion and competition for food  this really sharpens them but always make sure these birds are taken right out after feeding so they dont fight for perches and the like ) I will basket and then throw down food so the birds know its there and I have even let the " feeders " in so the racers know there will be competition when they get home .

[Ronnie]

Nice one guy's.it may be just the basic's for you guy's but i found so many people are telling me this system and that system that they are skipping the basics and the guys in my club are so nice telling me the systems they use that i cant really stop them and say tell me the basics.The other thing i have trouble with is the type of corn to use i must of changed my corn 5 times during racing and i blame this as the main reason for my birds not performing.(i only raced young birds).one week high protein the next high carb's them put this on the food then put that.Now the season is other i sat back and looked where i went wrong .I use one type of mix now(winter mix )and add vitamins now again to water and Garlic most day's and apple cider once a week.My birds are in better form now then when ive ever had them .

[Guest]

hi i feed the birds right up untill  2 hrs before they go in the basket..but with smaller feed stuff, if them birds that make a mistake havent got nothing as back up, those will be the ones ur likely to lose.

they will eventually go into someones cot and maybe their bin?.

so uve lost that bird that could have given u a win later on in its racing life.

as others have said we all lose birds...but at times i think its our own faults....but i do agree on training keep them slightly hungry...not that hungry that they will drop to look for food but when they arrive home they hear u rattle ur tin..or wot ever and look at u......not sit on the roof and laugh at u  from over feeding.. ;D ;D ;D

[Roland]

Well  I feel one should look at the weather forecast. If it is on the day as forecasted then great, if not then I don;t feel you will be far out... and distance sent. If I felt it was possiblely a hardish race I feed upto 2 hours before the race. Hopper feeding means I take away night before to decide whether a noon snack or 4 Oclock feed as much as they want. Hopper feeding with a good mixture means they don't get over wieght... but not knowing what WE have in store for them can be akward sometimes.

[rockinrick]

basically put birds in basket and train at least twice a day upto ure desired distance u wanna train from

;D ;D

[Mike Lycett]

On racedays we'd feed at least 5 hrs before going to the race - but on no occasion would we EVER go twice a day. Never ever ever ever ever ....   Ever

[rockinrick]

On racedays we'd feed at least 5 hrs before going to the race - but on no occasion would we EVER go twice a day. Never ever ever ever ever ....   Ever

 

lol , my ybs were trained twice a day 4 days aweek , starting at five mile at begining season to 60 mile end season , started with 45 birds still got 38 birds lol ,  musta done something right . ;) :D

[birdman55678]

There are lots of different ideas here and its a very interesting thread.  The way I do it is I also train twice a day starting at 2 miles and then jumping approximately 5 miles at a time out to 30 miles.  Once to 30 miles they just go once a day everyother day.  This continues until the birds are coming home in good time.  I feed my birds in the late afternoon and never feed the morning of a training toss.  Vitimins in the water is a must for me, three times a week.  Ed

[Mike Lycett]

Yes, and ours only went once a day & we've lost 11 (eleven) birds in 9 years!  I'd simply rather go once a day & twice as far.   At the end of the day there's a million different ways to house, feed, condition & motivate pigeons - but only one result sheet and that one tells precious few lies.

Each to his own I say & the best of British to us all !

[Tony C]

Once I get my y/birds to the 30 mile mark they either get trained or let out around home once a day, never both. I'm after getting 30-40 minutes explosive exercise out of them daily. Always fed twice a day.