what systems will you all be using in 2007?

[Guest CS]

what systems will you all be using in 2007 for your young birds and old birds and what has worked best for you in the past?

[Guest speckled]

;D ;D ;D ;D ya after a system then craig ;D ;D ;D ;D

[rockinrick]

natural for me as always  

[Guest REDFOXKRAUTHS]

my dads

[Wiley]

widowhood racing both cocks and hens,widowhood for about 12 young cocks,and darkness system

[Mike Lycett]

Widowhood & Darkness

 

Simple as that

 

Ebony & Ivory.

[Guest]

ive always flown natural and done my fair share of winning..... i always have open doors for them...i have 3 hens that are kept slightly hungry which i throw peanuts down as soon as the bird arrives...that was till i got rid of my birds earlier this yr..now im starting back up...ill have to change my trapping system a little.

[superstar]

I will be using the wing and a prayer method! With any luck the birds will use their wings and I will pray for them. I hope it works it will save me getting out of my deck chair lol.

[Guest]

because im starting back up its a long wait for me...not till y/birds..grrrrrrrrr..lol ;D

[Tony C]

Oldbirds W/H cocks up to 300 mile, small team of naturals for races 2+ days in the basket.

 

Darkness for y/birds, play it by ear how I race these.

[Beanz]

Widowhood cocks and am going to try Darkness for youngsters

[Guest Paulo]

young bird widowhood for the young birds won't have them on dark.

 

Next year when I fly old birds fancy using natural as a lot of people have told me its a better way to learn about the birds plus you can race the hens as well. Hens make some of the best distance pigeons.

[pigeonpete]

hi paulo mate, i would really re-consider the natural ybs if i were you mate!! i had mine natural this year, and first 2/3 races were competing, after that forget them they fall to pieces very quickly, and they wont fly just want to have a bath lol :-/ so darkness for me next season, mit only be 10 mins behind then instead of 20 lol ;D ;D ;D

[Guest Paulo]

hi paulo mate, i would really re-consider the natural ybs if i were you mate!! i had mine natural this year, and first 2/3 races were competing, after that forget them they fall to pieces very quickly, and they wont fly just want to have a bath lol :-/ so darkness for me next season, mit only be 10 mins behind then instead of 20 lol ;D ;D ;D

 

I've got a few secret weapons up my sleeves my dads gong to tell me a few tricks of the trades he used. lol You tried seperating the young birds into cocks and hens Pete? They fly much better and trap like rockets means a bit more work like letting out two sets of young birds but it does bring home the bacon.

 

Also heard if you breed a few sets of young uns at different times it means you have birds that don't fall apart as quickly. Downside is they are not as experience but if you train them like demons and spend a forture in petrol they can win.

[Guest Paulo]

This article by Jack Barkel is the way I'm going to roll as darkness doesn't suit my working hours.

 

"TRAINING AND RACING YOUNG BIRDS.

By Jack Barkel.

 

I was about to leave out an article on young bird management until I realized that this is probably the most important part of Racing Pigeon Management, although not as intensive as the other aspects, it is equally as important.

 

The baby pigeon spends the first four to six weeks on a very high protein feed supplied by its parents for the first four weeks and then for another two weeks during the weaning period when it must learn to take in its own food.

 

Once the young pigeon is able to fly up to a perch (the terminology is start perching), its protein fat content must be reduced. Its body craves this type of food and if they are allowed to have access to it, they will gorge themselves like naughty children and put on weight, which creates several problems for young potential athletes.

 

Firstly they are not receptive to being trained to respond to the way you wish them. Secondly they become lethargic which eliminates the desire to fly and exercise in a vigorous fashion.

 

Thirdly they will go into a heavy moult too quickly unless they are very active and do not have an abundance of protein.

 

So, once the youngsters start perching, you must reduce the protein content by adding 30% to 40% barley, to their daily intake. This will keep them light and retentive to do your bidding.

 

Once the young birds have dropped their first primary flight you must start their training tosses. They should if you have fed them the way I have explained, be ranging well away from the vicinity of their lofts.

 

If they are not doing so, you the trainer are not in agreement with what I have stated above or at least not putting it into practice.

All young birds that have been treated this way show the desire to explore and have an abundance of energy to do so.

 

This means that they will range for thirty or more miles away from home, returning at break neck speed from time to time to see if you are about to call them in to eat.

 

Remember like children the uppermost thought on their minds is, what is there to eat.

 

To race young birds successfully I once again would prefer a special loft to control them to my satisfaction and although it is not imperative I do think I should explain my reasons for certain preferences.

 

Let us start with the loft, I prefer the young bird loft where there is a compartment at each end to house the birds with a trapping section in the middle.

 

The birds trap onto a landing platform which has a flap door, one in the left and one in the right, through which the birds enter to get to their food. Always have the food ready and waiting for the young birds when they come through this fold down flap.

 

You must never let them in until this chore is completed, if you ever let them in and their food is not there waiting for them you have lost the most important part of an immediate swift trap with young birds. No circus trainer will fool around with that part of the basic training.

 

Your birds have come to expect that food to be there and I must insist it must be there on every occasion. I only wish you could see how they rush through to gobble up the food as quick as possible. You can see they enjoy it and they are always ready for it.

 

We must strive to keep this magic in the loft for the whole young bird racing season, the trapping is phenomenal better than any widowhood return I have ever seen. How they never kill themselves with their break neck returns never ceases to amaze me

 

The reason for two compartments is, that as the season progresses They become less and less like babies and start to behave as adults. We then need to keep the sexes separate or then again the magic starts to go out of the system.

 

I recommend that one try to keep the sexes separate right from the weaning stage. Another good idea with youngsters is to but them in a basket for a half hour every day for a week at least before one gives them their first training toss. I recommend two or three, five kilometre tosses then on to one at ten, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty.

 

Each should be liberated in batches of ten as the back markers fly into obstacles when in large packs.

 

Once on the one hundred kilometre mark and you are sure the birds have no more fear of being released in strange areas, you must try if you have the time to spare to start releasing them two at a time.

This will help them all become individuals instead of leaving the direction finding to the front flyers.

 

Please remember to leave your birds for about ten to thirty minutes before releasing to settle down and orientate themselves, the longer the better.

 

Now we come to racing and how to treat young birds on a return from a race. There are many theories on how to feed a bird on its return from a race. With old birds it has been my experience that, they have a strong constitution, with a mature stamina that allows them to be able to thrive on being purified on their return and as all my readers are aware that is the way I feed them on their return (see previous articles).

 

The young birds are another proposition altogether, they have tremendous amounts of energy, fly at maximum performance without any thought of conserving energy, muscle or anything else. There muscles a lean and supple with very little reserve to counteract their mental attitude to what lies ahead of them in the race.

 

The highly tuned fragile constitution of these young birds can be ruined for the rest of their racing career if we use the same treatment and preparation as we do with the old birds.

When your young pigeons arrive home they unlike their seniors have depleted their reserves and depurative can have a detrimental effect on them.

 

The secret of this is to reverse the treatment of the old birds, so apart from the electrolytes and glucose, you must start the build up immediately and by Tuesday night they will be ready to fly like the wind once more. This is when you go back to the barley and wheat mixed with the pigeon yeast, Friday night stamina levels are high, energy levels are high and your young birds are ready to attempt to break the sound barrier again.

 

Make sure all residents in the loft that did not go to the race are full and will not share in the spoils you have waiting for your arrivals.

Young birds that are treated this way will not moult further than their fourth primary and will not go into the big moult, if you disagree then you are not sticking to this system.

 

The writer is aware of the lighting system, also the darkening system and they do work, but I say this, "that there are many more youngsters spoiled or wasted on these systems than the simple one I have just given you." I treat the young bird racing season as the training ground for greater things to come when these birds mature.

 

I do believe that you must train young birds in their first year, many South Africans who do not fly the young bird races, as they feel the weather is too hot and rightly so I feel, will neglect to train them until they are yearlings and still call them young birds. Although these fanciers fly fantastic with their old birds their yearling team let them down and they wonder why.

 

We must train our babies to be our flying machines of the future, if we neglect this duty then we must be prepared for an average season with inexperienced yearlings. Please remember this system is for birds a few months old and not for Yearlings and Old Birds.

This is the final article on this series, there will be a short break.''

 

The training he recommends is the way to roll train the birds like that and they will slaughter most peoples pigeons who are too lazy to train properly. They have to use their brains and develop their muscles. Better doing that by roadwork than flagging then around the loft twice a day. It all depends how much time and dedication you have got through like everything.

[stevebelbin]

Breed them early and they will be on the natural darkness system  

[pigeonpete]

paulo mate do you want to rephrase that please?? does nt fit in with my working hours!! :o pmsl do you do any work?? lol your always talkin to me!!

[Guest Paulo]

yes whilst I am talking to you I am paying invoices off and doing filing. Filing is quite boring so pigeon basics helps with that