Widowhood Hens

[John Halliday]

I have recently started to race my hens on the widowhood system and i cant stop my hens from pairing up with each other can anyone give me any tips on how to stop them pairing up?

[Guest coxy]

could try a mesh floor and cut dwn a bit on food i.e depurative ect

[Guest]

Let them have their cocks for 6 hours before going to the race and for 24 hours on return, then you will have no problems. But do not feed them the same as widowhood cocks, they have a completely different life. Do it right and the cocks will not beat them home

[TheSaddler]

Frank -Totally agree

 

I feed depurative/barley until wednesday night - Then give em the good stuff ..... I have my hens (22 of them) in a three feet by five feet section, on V perches and have a sloped wire mesh floor.

 

Remove hens that pair and box these up in another section. They'll ruin the others in most cases. Chris Little's lesbian hen proves this theory wrong though - Maybe race these lesbian hens to eggs?

[Guest]

Lat year I raced my hens every week on widowhood for 11 weeks straight, never broke them down and they flew constantly for 2 hrs+ in one session every day. At the end of the season I had only one pair that went together out of 24 hens. Frank is right the cocks never beat them. You could also on a wednesday let them train back to the cocks to stop them getting bored enough to pair up.

[ribble]

hi,frank would you let them see the cocks that long if the cock was racing to?

[jimmy white]

cocks are every bit as good as hens,,its your management that brings out the best in them,,,,but you can make things difficult for yourself trying to many methods,

k.i.s.s.

[speedbird]

they say you can never show the hens there cocks too much which i think is true unlike the cocks as they tend to sulk if they see too much of the hen if yiou have a problem with hens pairng up either lock hens up,or mesh floor with poles as perches & another reason is put 1cock in with a hen you dont race & they will rule the floor and chace anything off the floor that will stop em pairing up

[Guest]

I never race the cocks that are paired to my racing hens, I use retired Widowers or even old stock cocks. My hens will go for their first race this weekend, sitting approx 7 days, when they come home the cocks are not there, just the nest and eggs. I leave them alone until Monday morning, put them out to fly and then they are on Widowhood. They have had 4 training tosses 10, 20, 20 and today 40 miles. No cold winds no bad weather, just perfect conditions. They will quickly come into form now that the temperature is rising and will race every week no matter what the distance

[Guest]

I never race the cocks that are paired to my racing hens, I use retired Widowers or even old stock cocks. My hens will go for their first race this weekend, sitting approx 7 days, when they come home the cocks are not there, just the nest and eggs. I leave them alone until Monday morning, put them out to fly and then they are on Widowhood. They have had 4 training tosses 10, 20, 20 and today 40 miles. No cold winds no bad weather, just perfect conditions. They will quickly come into form now that the temperature is rising and will race every week no matter what the distance

[John Halliday]

All

thank you for all your replys i will give them ago.