Flying dry

[Turbo Jeff]

Just wanted peoples opinions, do you need to breed from race birds before they race or is it better to fly them dry to leave more fuel in the tank for racing.

How much does it take out of a pair of pigeons rearing 2 young before the race season starts.

[deanbruton]

i believe you should rear 1 pair of yb's to bond the pigeon to its new box, creating a desire to home faster. Also you should rear from most of your race birds beacause if they are not good enough to take a pair of yb's from they are not good enough to have in the loft in the first place.

[THE FIFER]

if they are paired and u dont let them rear i think this makes the birds a bit unsettled, keep them happy is my view.

[Guest]

I fly natural.  I thought , wrongly now it seems, that all the race birds had to rear a youngster before the racing, but I picked this up from the widowhood system, and forum members have said some of their natural birds don't rear a youngster till they're 2-yo, when they are set down specially for 500-600 mile races.

 

With regards to breeding from most of the race team, I personally think that is a mistake, advice on the forum is breed only from the best, which makes sense because if you breed from them all you're likely to lower overall quality - breed only from the best and you'll raise overall quality of your team -  it is reckoned only 1 pigeon in 10 turns out to be a really good racer, and probably even less than 1:10 turns out to be a really good breeder.

 

Have heard various fanciers express opinion rearing a pair of youngsters is equivalent to flying a 500-mile race.

[Roland]

Take all the beating I believe.

[Roland]

You can always switch around 2 week in June...