Breaking old birds to house.

Ronnie · October 20, 2006

Heya guy's

what are the chance's of me breaking my old bird's to a new house only a few hundred yards away line of flight.(they are all yearlings )i wont be able to leave my old shed up at old address so will be old shed at new address.Or would it be best to keep as stock and just have young birds next season?

Any help and idea's would be great thanks in advance.

PS:

Also have two loft's a few doors away in either direction of the new house where i wouldnt like the pigeons to stray into.(They would more than likely be culled).

andy · October 20, 2006

RONNIE,

DEFINATELY EASIER IF YOU ARE TAKING YOUR LOFT WITH YOU RATHER THAN BUYING A NEW ONE GOOD LUCK...

Ronnie · October 20, 2006

Thanks Andy

I am thinking of waiting till i pair them and letting them out with the young birds or keeping say the hens in there boxe's and hoping the cocks come back to them.

i really am undecided at the moment.I am erring on the side of caution as these are the only birds i have and hopefully will be the future of my loft.

jimmy white · October 20, 2006

yes easier with the same loft ,, if you can build a make shift aviary , separate cocks and hens [ with separated aviary] and as they are yearlings and probably not going to do the longer races later in the year, would leave them like that till jan[ thats if your racing w,hood,] then pair up , and when their sitting , take the aviary away, you shouldnt have any problems ,as far as them homing hope that helps mate.

October 20, 2006

well mate ive done it before twice, its just a case of pateints, ya should think youself lucky ya dont live miles away, as jimmy say separate the birds, wait ill on eggs then let the cocks out one day then the hens the other,but let the other fanciers no about the birds ya trying to break off, wing stamp them , but from that short diatance i dont think ya have much probs as there will e birds about all year round, mind you mine won some good race as broken of birds, it keeps them fit flying backwards & forwards to the old house ., Good luck mate mind you ive race broken y/bs this year 9 left out 13 so i pleased.Speck

ALF · October 20, 2006

WELL RONNIE WHEN I MOVED LOFTS ABOUT 4 YRS AGO I WAS IN THE FORTUNATE POSITION OF STILL HAVING A LOFT AT MY OLD ADDRESS SO IT WAS QUITE EASY FOR ME TO BREAK THE BIRDS.I TOOK MY OLD BIRD LOFT WITH ME AND PUT ALL THE BIRDS IN IT RIGHT AWAY(THIS WAS IN FEB) PUT A CAGE ON TOP OF THE LOFT FOR ABOUT A WEEK THEN LET THEM OUT A SECTION AT A TIME.1ST DAY NONE CAME BACK LEFT THEM TO SIT OUTSIDE AT THE YOUNG BIRD LOFT,NEXT DAY WENT DOWN AND BASKETED THEM AND BROUGHT THEM UP TO THE TO THE NEW PLACE FED THEM THEN THE FOLLOWING DAY LET THEM OUT AGAIN HAD TO REPEAT THE PROCESS A COUPLE OF TIMES BUT WITHIN ANOTHER WEEK ALL WERE BROKEN THEN JUST MOVED ON TO THE NEXT SECTION ;)AGAIN MOST WERE BROKEN WITHIN A FORTNIGHT....IT SURE DOES HELP PUTTING THEM IN THE SAME LOFT ;) ;)IF I WERE TO MOVE AGAIN I WOULD TAKE MY PRESENT LOFT WITH ME JUST TO BREAK THEM BUT WOULD PUT THEM OUT AS EARLY AS I COULD MAYBE EVEN THE NEXT DAY AND JUST REPEAT WHAT I HAD DONE PREVIOUSLY

ALF

PS... IKNOW YOU DONT HAVE A LOFT AT YOUR OLD ADDRESS BUT EVEN IF THERE IS A GARDEN SHED TO GET THEM IN I WOULD LET THEM OUT ASAP

Beanz · October 20, 2006

I think if you are only a few hundred yards away and you take your loft with you and none at the old address they will break pretty easily, they may stay out overnight but they will in all likelyhood find there way back, racing them will be another matter as they may still go back to the old address first.

jimmy white · October 21, 2006

i agree it would be very easy to break them , but if they were stuck out all night or maybe two without food would stint them in the middle of their moult , very shortly itll be dark at 4pm so really i would say there was no hurry, i would tend to wait untill theve finished their moult really

Beanz · October 21, 2006

Jimmy, sorry I did mean break them once they were paired and through their moult.

October 21, 2006

;D ;Dspray them with water,or let them out on a wet day,or you can clip the first 3-4 flights on each wing,or put an rubber band on the 3-4 flights when you let them out and take them off when the come in,let them look about for about a week and a 1/2 , if you use a trap to get them in show them how to use it if they dont know,let them out for about 3 weeks each day,with one of the methods,

and last but not least,a little hungry first 5-7 times they go out,

ben ;D ;D

p.s. good luck,let me no how you get on!

Ronnie · October 21, 2006

Thanks guy's a great help

I will put a post back up in a few weeks how i got on(its gonna take that long for BT to put my phone back on).

dandydoo · October 21, 2006

I personally dont like Clipping ...can make your birds very vulnerable ....wet n fairy liquid does same but you wash out bloom and still make them vulnerable to predatord but it doesnt last long

peterpau · October 21, 2006

If you're not moving far. You wont need to do anything drastic. Should break easy enough. Should race ok too. Best o' luck

October 22, 2006

During WW2 when the Army used mobile lofts, they had a specific insignia painted on the top of each loft, for arguements sake a white cross or a yellow star etc.etc. We had some friends who were moving house and we decided to give this idea a try. A few weeks before the move our friend painted a red cross on the loft and let the birds fly out and get used to it. Then when he moved he painted a red cross on the roof of his new loft and it didn't take him very long to get his birds settled to their new home.