Different ways of breeding

[NeilA]

[Buster121]

Some great info and tips coming thanks everyone

[NeilA]

Some great info and tips coming thanks everyone

Agree Buster
Anyone flying widowhood or generally not doing to well can learn a lot
I find Mikes feeding interesting
I weigh mine increasing the amount and content to temperature / wind/ distance
Mikes seems a nice easy way as your only having to do the same thing to Thursday and decide the corn change
I would have done Mikes system wrong as without weights i probably would add 40 percentage barley Sunday going to 10 Wednesday to zero Thursday as my fear is over feeding
So it’s interesting to see mikes way and one I may well use as I plan on some 250-400 mile races next year which my system may well have left them short for

[NeilA]

I know you like to weigh your food, and I appreciate that, but I can't tell you how much ours ate

It was something I did by "feel"

Besides which, like humans, some pigeons have bigger appetities than others - so by feeding in the box you'd cater for each pigeons individual needs

So Mike
If I put a couple of teaspoons in a pot then fed the other cocks but box 1 had left say wheat just say 3-4 grains does he get another teaspoon if you were within the 10 mins or does he have to clear that
This is say Tuesday just for the example

[MIL]

I know you like to weigh your food, and I appreciate that, but I can't tell you how much ours ate

It was something I did by "feel"

Besides which, like humans, some pigeons have bigger appetities than others - so by feeding in the box you'd cater for each pigeons individual needs

So Mike
If I put a couple of teaspoons in a pot then fed the other cocks but box 1 had left say wheat just say 3-4 grains does he get another teaspoon if you were within the 10 mins or does he have to clear that
This is say Tuesday just for the example

I keep visiting them for 10 minutes (unless a Thursday night when its an hour)

If they've eaten it all they get more.

If they've left any, that gets tipped back into the tub and more replenished

He might have left say the wheat but be taking the maize or mung beans for instance

It's like a self serve buffet almost - you go eat what you want for 10 (or 60) mins

If they don't want it - no harm done its not wasted.

[MIL]

Some great info and tips coming thanks everyone

Agree Buster
Anyone flying widowhood or generally not doing to well can learn a lot
I find Mikes feeding interesting
I weigh mine increasing the amount and content to temperature / wind/ distance
Mikes seems a nice easy way as your only having to do the same thing to Thursday and decide the corn change
I would have done Mikes system wrong as without weights i probably would add 40 percentage barley Sunday going to 10 Wednesday to zero Thursday as my fear is over feeding
So it’s interesting to see mikes way and one I may well use as I plan on some 250-400 mile races next year which my system may well have left them short for

This is the thing with any form of pigeon racing, there's different ways of feeding and be successful

You're a good flier Neil, and you've won more 1st Fed's than a lot of people on here, so your way of doing it works for you and you understand what you're doing and why you're doing it

Me, I couldn't race like that because you're trying to counter every variable that's presented to you

You've got speed of the race / temperature / distance to consider for a start

Then what happens if the wind / weather / temperature moves on a Saturday to what was predicted

Where does that leave you?

What if you plan (feed-wise) on say an 8am lib and they don't go until 14:00?

To me it's over-complicating it, so I just tried to make it reasonably simple


I believe strongly in getting the pigeon turned round and recovered as quickly and as thoroughly as possible

This is where many fanciers get it wrong.

The preparation for next weeks race starts the friday night of basketing for me

After that, yes, I'm giving some consideration to the speed of the race, but the other elements I'm happy to "wing it" - pardon the pun

[NeilA]

I do like the way you do it Mike and all my ideas go out the window over 200 miles I believe it’s best 0-200 after that to much to consider
Did you find your birds say flying well on a Tuesday but dropping a bit Thursday as there’s no energy increase ?
Also I only loft fly in the evening would this change how you fed at all if you were in that situation

[MIL]

My birds would exercise better as the week went on to be honest

Around us there were lots of lofts - dozens of them

You'd look at "x" on a Tueday and think "shit they're going well - he'll be close this week".

Never was, that's because his feed was wrong - they were peaking Midweek

Mine always flew better the later in the week it got.

To me that made sense because nothing is won on a Tuesday. It's only Saturday that matters


Would it change if I loft flew of the evening only?

No, I don't think it would

One thing about me is that I was paranoid about my widowers.

If it was wet/damp/misty or a threat of rain I would leave them in

I would risk nothing that might negatively impact their condition



One week I remember my cocks raced on the Saturday and then because of the weather I never got them out again. They went into the basket on Friday night having not been out at all that week

I think that week we had 5 of the first 15 in the Fed against 6,000 birds

[NeilA]

My birds would exercise better as the week went on to be honest

Around us there were lots of lofts - dozens of them

You'd look at "x" on a Tueday and think "shit they're going well - he'll be close this week".

Never was, that's because his feed was wrong - they were peaking Midweek

Mine always flew better the later in the week it got.

To me that made sense because nothing is won on a Tuesday. It's only Saturday that matters


Would it change if I loft flew of the evening only?

No, I don't think it would

One thing about me is that I was paranoid about my widowers.

If it was wet/damp/misty or a threat of rain I would leave them in

I would risk nothing that might negatively impact their condition



One week I remember my cocks raced on the Saturday and then because of the weather I never got them out again. They went into the basket on Friday night having not been out at all that week

I think that week we had 5 of the first 15 in the Fed against 6,000 birds

When you say if they were flying well Tuesday it wasn’t a issue as yours flew better as the week went on I get that totally as it’s linked to my increased feed system but how did you achieve this with feeding pretty much the same amount each day as the superstar mix didn’t always come into play on Wednesday so how did you get them flying better say Thursday morning compared to Tuesday morning if there allowed to eat as they wish each time
I get it if you had fed a dupurative then moved on but gerry is a strong high carb mix anyway

[MIL]

Yes, I fed them for 10 mins morning and night right up until Thursday night, but their food intake and their willingness to fly would change.

I was never bothered really about "how long" they had, it was "how" they had what they had that I watched intensely

I wanted my cocks to be let out, vanish, and not return for say 10,15,20 mins.

Ideally, return like bats out of hell, do a few swings round then bugger off again

I also liked to see them breaking off in different directions

When my cocks were right it looked like I had 100 birds out because everywhere you looked there was a pigeon - but they were flying solo


I think earlier in the week I'd stop feeding them after 10 mins, but if I was willing to give them more they'd have taken it

So in some senses you could argue they were "rationed" but as the week went on the tank got more and more full