[andy Burgess]

Wiley, on 28 February 2017 - 14:22 PM, said:

My thoughts wondered to the weight of a pigeon, something to be honest i have read little to nothing about......which i find strange as all racing animals are weighed and their weights published. Is the weight of pigeons a secret that the champions havent dared discuss? What is a birds ideal weight? Should different body structures be different weights? Many questions could be thrown in this process...i will weigh my birds if time permits this year, just to see if performance can be linked with it....does an individual pigeon have an ideal racing weight and when his at it he performs? Guess theres only one way to find out.

i seem to remember "old hand" done some work on this Ryan. although i cant remember which piece of work it was in ?

[Kyleakin Lofts]

In his 4th book, The Pigeon Racer, Old Hand looks at weight. It is, of course, extremely important.This is why we look for bouyant birds. Chapter 4 and 5 are the relevant chapters. He kept records to find the ideal weight for his individual pigeons. This was to find their winning weight.
Although a lot of his thoughts may now be dated, some were very much ahead of their time and are still relevant.

[geordie1234]

Said the same thing to Ryan last night regarding the winning weights... never read the book though

[dal2]

geordie1234, on 28 February 2017 - 19:31 PM, said:

Said the same thing to Ryan last night regarding the winning weights... never read the book though

Some say all shapes and sizes win......but somethings have to be constant

[geordie1234]

dal2, on 28 February 2017 - 20:33 PM, said:

Some say all shapes and sizes win......but somethings have to be constant

100% Stevie

[glencameron]

J W Langstone used to weigh his pigeons. pre and post races. We are dating back to the 1950's but there were always historically fanciers thinking.

[Wiley]

Birds diet since saturday is 100% barley, small ration in the morning and as much as they require of an evening. They are exercising very well with the hens giving an 1hr 30 mins exercise today being out of sight completely for 40 minutes. The birds are dropping down like snow at the moment but that will be the effect of the barley. Cocks are bouncing and wanting to exercise at any given opportunity you can see the nervous energy in them. The sound of the loft is like a behive, and the loft is full of energy. We are starting to see who the boss pigeons are in there sections now and will be interesting to see if the bosses are the better ones at the end of the season. The birds are currently on an extensive course of naturals naturaline right up until two weeks before the first race, emphasis now is to get all the winter down away, and that with the barley at the moment is having a good effect. My own young birds will start ringing on the weekend, and something i picked up from freddy vandenheede was the use of teas and sedochol on the darkness youngsters regular, it was something i done last year for 5 out of 7 days while on the darkening period and was very happy with the results, so will order my sedochol from tollisan soon, so it is ready for weaning. With the loft coming and other things as said before has put us behind by a number of weeks, my plan next season already is to pair earlier then i have done previously.

[MIK]

this is going to be a great blog.
Well done Ryan...will keep lookin in.

thanks Mick

[Froog]

Wiley, on 25 February 2017 - 06:47 AM, said:

Wednesday and Thursday saw heavy winds, with a lot of local damage, so obviously the birds stayed confined to the lofts. We started to get the yearlings used to taking the peanuts now, many are taking them from our hands already as a lot of lines in our family are very tame, anyhow and i think its a trait that can be passed down, but for sure the small sections makes the pigeons tame, as they have no choice as we are on top of them.
Friday saw the birds fly just over the hour again. Today the race teams young birds will be weaned, and hopefully they are all independent by the time Walkers arrive on wednesday, for them to go to there new homes. They will be weaned onto 100% maples to make sure they take the large grains, as i feel this is an important life lesson early on as the small seed eaters in my experience are hesitant on the big grains, and generally ive found they are the first ones you tend to lose when going gets tough. My stock birds eggs all start hatching today with the last set to hatch on monday. When their young are weaned the first 3 days is 100% maples, then 3 days 100% maize, to reinforce that importance of big grains, and then a good breeding mix until i see them perching.

What do you feed them once they are perching?

[Wiley]

Froog, on 2 March 2017 - 23:31 PM, said:

What do you feed them once they are perching?

Froog,

Once they are perching, young birds go onto a light diet, anything with upto 40% Barley or Depurative, i am not to fussed, Frank Taskers mix was the best for getting birds up in the air quickly and this is what i want to achieve but buying single grains to make a mix is a problem for me for storage. So i will buy any mix i like generally something not heavy in protein and find its not to long that they know what their wings are for, and same procedure for them 3 weeks flying strong around home and into the basket. These will be started extremely short they could have anything upto 8 to 10 tosses from a mile, till its drummed in their heads basket, home feed!!

[Froog]

Thank you for your reply, your blog is excellent

[JohnQuinn]

Interesting you mention the Boss birds Ryan. Over the years I've noticed when the Boss goes down another Ck will rise up and start putting good performances in that were nowhere to be seen before the alpha male went done.
Ps. Enjoying yer blog 👏

[William Reid]

JohnQuinn, on 4 March 2017 - 00:38 AM, said:

Interesting you mention the Boss birds Ryan. Over the years I've noticed when the Boss goes down another Ck will rise up and start putting good performances in that were nowhere to be seen before the alpha male went done.
Ps. Enjoying yer blog 👏

Sorry for cutting into this blog / thread. But a couple of years ago now when I got customised hoppers made I was amazed watching the pigeons that there was a pecking order. Every day is a school day

[Wiley]

JohnQuinn, on 4 March 2017 - 00:38 AM, said:

Interesting you mention the Boss birds Ryan. Over the years I've noticed when the Boss goes down another Ck will rise up and start putting good performances in that were nowhere to be seen before the alpha male went done.
Ps. Enjoying yer blog ������

Yes john, there is always someone waiting in line to show his dominance, it becomes even greater when the boss bird returns, then some rivalaries can really kick off. Territory is the biggest motivation in pigeons, when you can play on it, you can make the birds tick and they'll go through anything to reclaim it. I already have a mental note on which bird hates who in the lofts, and now with the smaller sections ive noticed the instinct for territory to be even greater.

This post has been edited by Wiley: 4 March 2017 - 02:28 AM

[Wiley]

The quality of Versele laga barley is second to none in my opinion, and is bringing the birds into fantastic order they are under no rations at the minute with the evening feed being as much barley as they require. The hens will fly anything between 1hr 30 minutes to 1hr 45. However they will listen, and will trap with our call. Consequently the cocks are a different ball game, they are really rank now and as i said the loft is full of excitement. They will exercise 1hr 15 to 1hr 20 mins and are a joy to watch, flying backwards and forwards across the east london sky. To which they will land on the pitch of the loft roof, and run the 30ft cooing until they explode again for about another 20 minutes. To which we do try to call them in but they repeat the same time explosion. This will change when the basket comes out.

Saw an interesting post on basics regarding water and how people allow it to stand. This is something we have done for years we have 7 two litre bottles that we have in a line that are used in rotation. Once one bottle is used it goes to the back of the queue. This is only ever done with our racers. After two to three weeks the bottles are thrown and replaced with new ones.

[peter dempsey]

Wiley could pleas let us know are they plastic bottles or Glass

[Wiley]

peter dempsey, on 6 March 2017 - 20:45 PM, said:

Wiley could pleas let us know are they plastic bottles or Glass

They are empty fizzy drink bottles peter

[William Reid]

Wiley, on 6 March 2017 - 20:57 PM, said:

They are empty fizzy drink bottles peter

I know you might not think it . But I'm really enjoying your posts .
For god knows how many years now I always fill my containers with water the night before .

[Froog]

RO water is the way to do it

[Wiley]

Today spent the day with the birds exercising and then having a bath, followed up by their morning feed of just barley. I also spent some time analsing on where i thought each bird in the team was fitness wise in comparison with each other. The condition was very good with silky feathering, rose pink flesh, with little to no scale. However one pigeon was not in the condition as the rest of his team mates, more scale then the others, but what i noticed more was that he was holding more down around the breast then the others. It is the pencil blue pied cock pictured known as "against the wind" a previous federation winner. Every bird treated the same so i will keep an eye on him. Will take him in the hand for the next three days and pop three pea sized cuts of garlic down his throat morning and night. And within three days we shall see if he is releasing the down as he should be, its something that usually does the trick. There is down in his box every morning, but his just got to much around his breast, which should part easily like the rest of his team to show the skin. Maybe being over critical but if all fed and watered, and exercise the same, they all should be in same nick.

I would like to thank the Scottish gentleman who was rapid with transfering his young birds he had off me, it was much appreciated.

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