This system is available on line so those of you wishing to look at it can. It is predominantly a hopper feeding method with importance on building the birds up weeks in advance of a proposed marathon event in which it will be involved. Again after all my research, a recent conversation backed this up as well so much so that as my birds would not eat peanuts, and we all know how good theses are for the birds in the build-up, that I changed my feeding method slightly to entice the birds to eat them. I did this simply by reducing their food so that when I arrive at the loft in the evening they are hungry. On arrival before their main feed they were given peanuts. Enough to make sure all got some. After about 4 days they were jumping at me looking for them on my arrival. I will go back to the hopper when I think that they are all in hand and can be controlled using the peanuts. This method has also settled some of the more unruly stock birds.
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and nieces. Again this will be for three rounds. All in all I foresee this taking about 6 months. This will be possible only because of the use of feeders. At this point we now have, if I am lucky, about 60 young. We all know what can happen to the best laid plans, they can go to shit. So fingers crossed that will not happen too much. Young birds flying and hopefully all well they will not be trained heavily or even not at all. They will be basket trained though as I believe they need the experience of being in crates young and then every six months after to keep it in their minds. How I do this is by placing them in a large racing crate, home-made, for up to 5 days giving feed and drink whilst in the basket. I think one of the biggest mistakes any fancier can make is not basket training the young at an early age. Then put them in training and racing baskets over night with no prior experience of where to find water and expecting them to do well. Once this is done properly I think you need never fear birds dehydrating whilst in the baskets. I think dehydration is one of the biggest killers of our birds whilst racing. I am really looking forward to the first generation of young to face the challenge of Barcelona to come along. I will not breed too early though I’ll wait till the end of January I think.
Until next time
Michael
[email protected] 0035387 7187535
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Next we have to plan the breeding. I have briefly mentioned how in intend to go about this in my last article. I have several birds related directly to or the same way bred as others I know of who are producing birds to do the job in hand, lest we all forget, that is to get these birds to fly the paltry 854 miles from Barcelona to Dublin Ireland within race time. I will start with the closest related birds to the original stud sire that has actually done the job. These will be paired together for three rounds two of which will be floated to feeders. When this is done the birds will get a two to three week break from breeding to build back up again and then they will be repaired to different mates. This with the closest birds to the original cock being paired to those that are furthest from him. In this case these will be aunts and uncles paired to nephews and nieces. Again this will be for three rounds. All in all I foresee this taking about 6 months. This will be possible only because of the use of feeders. At this point we now have, if I am lucky, about 60 young. We all know what can happen to the best laid plans, they can go to shit. So fingers crossed that will not happen too much.
International Racing Pigeon July 2018 l www.internationalracingpigeon.com