Cocks On Widowhood (Hen Question)

[chrisbonnie]

hi lads

 

i was just reading the Dave Allen book, The Widowhood Year.

 

i havent tried widowhood as of yet, so wanted to have a better understanding of it before i even attempted it.

 

one thing im not sure on is the hens

 

now, it seems Dave allen shows the hens to the cocks before and after every training toss

 

am i reading it wrong, or is this what happens?

 

why i ask is that our birds are trained during the day while im at work, and my mother lets them in, and i dont think she'd be up to bringing hens in and out of the loft for us, and quite frankly, i dont want her doing it either

 

i always thought the whole idea with widowhood is the cocks only the Hen before race day, and of course on the return to the loft?

 

can anybody clear this one up for me

 

thanks lads

[just ask me]

you be ok mate it just will take any yearlings that bit longer to cop on as too what will be waiting on them 2 3 4 year olds should know what going on after a few races

[OLDYELLOW]

many ways to do it but with yearlings the hens are important and need to be shown , as when these are paired simply settle hens to the widowhood loft and fly them out , so when splitting and returning hens to there own section these hens know where the cocks are simply train the hens shorter than the cocks then hens are waiting for cocks to return

[Wiley]

why show hens before a training or racing, only winds cocks up especially yearlings and they fight like hell in the basket. Send them calm and relaxed. Personally like all animals why give an animal a treat before it has done its work, you don't teach a dog to sit by giving it a treat first telling it to sit and then giving it a treat afterwards, it don't work like that, the dog or bird hasn't learnt anything. The idea of widowhood, is getting the birds to race home with them knowing there hen is going to be there, and with pre season training is where you have to drum in the birds heads that when they go in the basket for training, on return they will see there hen. All roads lead to rome but this is my opinion.

[OLDYELLOW]

it hardly winds them up at training stage as there seeing them too often , it just gets them to know there hens there and on return and i did do that until second race then only on return after 3 race onwards , after 2nd race no training is needed unless you think there going stale and a toss can give them a boost

[chrisbonnie]

so would i be correct in saying that during the race season preperation, i.e the 4 hard weeks of training before the first race its important to show the hens when the cocks return,

 

but when racing is up and running, with the reduction in training, the hens are then only showed to gee up the cocks before basketing, and of course on their return from a race?