Guest stb- Posted March 25, 2013 Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 WalterI am an out and out sprint racer so I do not send across the pond at all generally. My pigeons go to all the available races both as Old Birds and as Young Birds. Other people have had my birds and have won races from over the water. One of them was 2nd National this year. And one of my youngsters scored from Carentan winning the Noms this year. My losses are generally very low indeed. I put this down to three things. 1) I have square holes cut into the front of the loft which double as loading facilities but I keep crates attached with drinkers on them and remove the normal drinkers from the loft. The birds are forced to drink from the crates from a very early age which makes them very well basket trained. 2)I road train repeatedly from first6 miles and then 10 miles. When the birds are doing at least 60 mph from the 6 miles I will pick a day and train anything up to 6 times in the one day. The birds trap to trapping mix and when I get there I crate them and off to go again. The advantage of this is that the birds get fed up with it all and they are a bit hungry so they absolutely tear up this valley at great speed and take the shortest route which helps me to win those tight races. When you read this last bit you need to know that I live in a poor location and people used to reckon that I could not win sprint races. I won 36 Fed cards last year my Section and Runner Up for the full Fed. 3)Due to the fact that my losses are very low and that I do not fly hens after they are youngsters I always have to reduce my hens after each season. Naturally I have ended up with some very good hens judging by their Young Bird performances. This helps me to select for early maturity. It is very similar with the cocks. I always have young cocks surplus at the end of the season so again I select on the basis of Young Bird performances initially followed selection of my Old Cocks at the 2 year old stage. The reason for the 2 year old stage is that providing the Cock has performed well as a youngster I will make allowances when they are yearlings but my ideal is that they should win at all ages.So to summarise I have very low losses due to road training, basket training and rigorous selection.Hi owen do you have a club or fed that only race up to 180miles as i was wondering how you manage to get racing every week as up here the 180 ml mark would be about the 4th race so you would only have 4 or 5 races a season including comeback race . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holmsidelofts Posted March 25, 2013 Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 Hi owen do you have a club or fed that only race up to 180miles as i was wondering how you manage to get racing every week as up here the 180 ml mark would be about the 4th race so you would only have 4 or 5 races a season including comeback race .Hi stb.Our fed ( the same fed owen flys in) races weekly up to the coast which is about 160 miles, we then go over the water which is carentan our first over the water race, then every other week we have an inland come back race, so up to the coast owen sends each week, then he sends everyother week once we get across the water. We normally have 15 old bird races. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walterboswell59 Posted March 25, 2013 Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 hi walter there was an article by owen on one of the federation web sites i think it was ayrshire web sie he races to the coast only which is 180 miles no good to me stb but interesting all the same m8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southener Posted March 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 hi walter there was an article by owen on one of the federation web sites i think it was ayrshire web site he races to the coast only which is 180 miles Isn't the Ayrshire fed in Scotland? I'd like to read the article if anybody has a link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stb- Posted March 25, 2013 Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 Hi stb.Our fed ( the same fed owen flys in) races weekly up to the coast which is about 160 miles, we then go over the water which is carentan our first over the water race, then every other week we have an inland come back race, so up to the coast owen sends each week, then he sends everyother week once we get across the water. We normally have 15 old bird races.cheers m8 i wondered how that worked , my freind Tony mardon only raced up to the coast aswell with his van reets and as tony said clermont around 300 miles gave him a nose bleed but a lot of the van reets flew a lot further and have scored up to 580 miles . Im sure owens would fly a lot further aswell if he so chose to send them . Isn't the Ayrshire fed in Scotland? I'd like to read the article if anybody has a link.yes m8 it is . http://www.ayrshirefederation.co.uk/result.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southener Posted March 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 Can't see no articles on that site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stb- Posted March 25, 2013 Report Share Posted March 25, 2013 Can't see no articles on that site. http://www.ayrshirefederation.co.uk/ hi m8 you will need to join the members forum and you will see the moots on sprint long distance etc there . You dont have to be an ayrshire member to join in . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.