feeding young birds racing

[Guest chrisss]

what if anything do you feed your yb before basketing for the race,assuming its under 150 miles and no holdover expected,some guys i know feed as normal on friday morning,some like our local club "champ" alleges he feeds "naff all"[only thing is if they get a holdover he loses a lot,but then he breeds a lot]i do not expect [nor need to know] any secrets just if you feed on the friday before basketing

[pault]

yes i feed fridays

[carlsberg]

i feed mine in a morning on basketing days but i know some club mates that dont feed them after thursday so they are hungry to trap better

[Ronnie]

I feed fridays before 11am.

[Guest Paulo]

You don't want them to be stuffed full of corn no more than half a crop full. For sprint races I reckon around 12.00 to 2.00 o clock and give them something like red band. About a spoonfull a bird.

[pjc]

Always give a light feed in the morning.

Never feed youngbirds to late in the day as they will either bring the food up in the basket or may hold some food and not want to trap if the birds are up early.

 

Phil

[Merlin]

Feed as normal on Friday Morning,remove drinker,replace drinker one hour before basketing.

[ALF]

I feed 3/4's oz of corn around 10 am if i'm there or if i'm working till 1pm fridays they get 1/2 oz at 1.15pm

[Tony C]

Feed 3/4 of their ration on Thursday, 1/2 ration Friday fed at their normal am feeding time. Anything with corn still in its crop come basketing dont send.

[Guest Paulo]

Most important thing with YB's is not to race them to the corn tin Chris. Some fanciers keep them short and fair enough they may win the odd extra sprint race by doing it but if its a hard day and the bird hasn't got much body on it cause of keeping it short than it will go down. YB's need good quality and plenty of bait as they are still developing especially natural yb's where they are chucking their feathers out as well.

 

If your doing a lot of training and the birds are going well around the loft they need plenty of food to build them up. Mine get a main mix of gerry plus on the morning as much as they can eat this mix is low in protein and high in carbs and helps them to fly well. They also get some red band to top them up. As they are let out at 5.00am in the morning after going away raking they come back after a hour to 2 hours and are eager to trap to get their food.

 

Then on the night after exercise they get a more convential YB mix with maple peas and beans etc in it for the protein before they perch up for the night. On race day they get pure red band as YB's don't race up to more than 233 in our club this is enough feeding for them.

 

I'm flying some yb's on the dark for the first time this year and one problem I had so far was they got a bit fat on them with only being out once a day but once I got them going they flew ok.

 

Main thing to remember with YB's is they are the future old birds so be hard but fair. One mistake I made last year was not basketing training enough its another really important thing to do. If the birds can drink in the basket they have a huge advantage.

 

I feed them on a sat morning now and make sure theres no water in the loft then basket them leave them for a hour and a half and come back and put the drinkers on and water them making plenty of splashing. Then leave them in till sunday morning with the drinkers on and then refill the drinkers and watch what birds drink.

 

Then turn them loose in the loft with the days feed in there and the water and watch which ones drink first hopefully if they have learned most will feed first and then have water.

 

Hope your not offended and this doesn't sound too basic but just trying to make sure people can learn by others mistakes. I've made plenty so far but must be starting to do somethings right as I'm slowly starting to improve and win more cards and stuff.

[Tony C]

Feed 3/4 of their ration* on Thursday, 1/2 ration* Friday fed at their normal am feeding time. Anything with corn still in its crop come basketing dont send.

 

*Daily ration that should be

 

 

[pjc]

good info Paulo, to many people don't basket train which causes the yb's extra stress when they are basketed the first time for training etc!

I used to wean my youngbirds to a basket for a week where they learnt to feed and water in the basket before going into the loft and they were never afraid of the basket.

 

Phil

[Guest shadow]

feed as normal take out any food left at 12-00

[Guest]

well said Paulo.  

[Guest chrisss]

lots of info there thanks paulo cheers

[sapper756]

Give a feed in the morning as usual. and remove any remaining feed at 1pm, give a conditioner seed 1/2hour b4 basketting, this encourages them to take a drink

[Guest Paulo]

well said Paulo.  

 

How's it going Amanda? Haven't spoken to Davey for a bit I'll have to have a look through one weekend

[jimmy white]

feed on a friday the approx time of lib ,,,,,,,,,good post paulo

[THE FIFER]

I feed as normal. as if birds are fit and fed friday they should be hungry by saturday morning,