Liberty for young birds

[Murray]

From the Blog of Ad Shaerlaeckens today

"And yes, they do exist! What many have in common is that they give their youngsters a lot of freedom in the spring, say until May. So not: 'Let them go, clean them and after an hour or so back inside?' Or not, as you often hear, 'fly or inside. No roof sitters here.'
Many of those people who have few losses DO have roof sitters.
At least for a few months."

It made me have a think about young birds, how important it is that they have liberty to explore and even just poke around. I don't mind them sitting on the roof surveying the world. Does it turn them into slow trappers or pigeons that will not listen? I don't think so.
When it's time to start basket training them, a few days on tight rations makes them sharpen up quick smart!

What do others think? Do you put them on a tight reign from day one, or let 'em go for a while?

[Trev]

Good article Muzza
As most of you know by now, I use a bit of an anything goes/Chaos type system
I don't usually start breeding until March, my old birds and youngsters are all housed together, the youngsters wean themselves and from April until October they are all on an open loft, so as you can imagine are up and down from dawn until dusk, in the loft, on the loft, on the house or in the fields.
I admit that for the first few years back keeping pigeons trapping was a nightmare, but having tightened up the feeding a bit over the past couple of seasons the trapping has been some of best I've ever had.
They are fed generously until about mid June and hopper fed beans, but before young bird racing starts in mid July I do tighten up the feeding to give me better control. However as my old birds usually trap when called, hungry or not, most of the youngsters soon learn this too.
Just my way, not necessarily the right way, and definitely not the only way

[Devo1956]

A small video of the training of young birds,

https://youtu.be/IiN2LbePkjc?si=IAle-EfSrJ72PuLQ

[NeilA]

From the Blog of Ad Shaerlaeckens today

"And yes, they do exist! What many have in common is that they give their youngsters a lot of freedom in the spring, say until May. So not: 'Let them go, clean them and after an hour or so back inside?' Or not, as you often hear, 'fly or inside. No roof sitters here.'
Many of those people who have few losses DO have roof sitters.
At least for a few months."

It made me have a think about young birds, how important it is that they have liberty to explore and even just poke around. I don't mind them sitting on the roof surveying the world. Does it turn them into slow trappers or pigeons that will not listen? I don't think so.
When it's time to start basket training them, a few days on tight rations makes them sharpen up quick smart!

What do others think? Do you put them on a tight reign from day one, or let 'em go for a while?

I wean them then 7 days later they go on the board after being released 3 times from a few yards one at a time so they run through the trap mainly through fear but i think that installs the safe place is the loft in them
They get about 2 1/2 weeks to sit in the loft and do as they like then they must fly
They can do all there exploring from the sky
I can’t stand seeing pigeons sat in a roof or pecking around the garden or with poor habits
Then my ybs know that soon as they finish the fly they must be in
When they run they can be gone a hour but soon as they appear there down and in at times there in without me seeing them if I’m in the old bird loft
This stays with them I think so from racing they know it’s straight down and in . From training I have had them filmed and there out the sky and falling off the board as there are to many trying to get on it

[NeilA]

A small video of the training of young birds,

https://youtu.be/IiN2LbePkjc?si=IAle-EfSrJ72PuLQ

Not sure he’s training Devo more just letting birds out to look around
I stand 3 -5 yards away they fly from my hand to the trap board
Anthony Webster flew a good yb he use to stand 50 yards from the loft so they flew from his hands to the trap never touched a roof or one loft roof
That’s the first time mine or Anthony’s had been out the loft
Once they done that a few times then they go out not before was our way

[Devo1956]

A small video of the training of young birds,

https://youtu.be/IiN2LbePkjc?si=IAle-EfSrJ72PuLQ

Not sure he’s training Devo more just letting birds out to look around
I stand 3 -5 yards away they fly from my hand to the trap board
Anthony Webster flew a good yb he use to stand 50 yards from the loft so they flew from his hands to the trap never touched a roof or one loft roof
That’s the first time mine or Anthony’s had been out the loft
Once they done that a few times then they go out not before was our way

Yes Neil, training needs to start somewhere. We all have different ways in training youngsters, I think the guy is just giving them the freedom to look around and get them use to their home.

[NeilA]

Worm use to have a few videos of how he trapped his
One turn in the air where he lives and your best
He may see this and share them

[NeilA]

A small video of the training of young birds,

https://youtu.be/IiN2LbePkjc?si=IAle-EfSrJ72PuLQ

Not sure he’s training Devo more just letting birds out to look around
I stand 3 -5 yards away they fly from my hand to the trap board
Anthony Webster flew a good yb he use to stand 50 yards from the loft so they flew from his hands to the trap never touched a roof or one loft roof
That’s the first time mine or Anthony’s had been out the loft
Once they done that a few times then they go out not before was our way

Yes Neil, training needs to start somewhere. We all have different ways in training youngsters, I think the guy is just giving them the freedom to look around and get them use to their home.

Does he do another video where he actually has them trap training rather than just letting them out ?

[Devo1956]

Not sure he’s training Devo more just letting birds out to look around
I stand 3 -5 yards away they fly from my hand to the trap board
Anthony Webster flew a good yb he use to stand 50 yards from the loft so they flew from his hands to the trap never touched a roof or one loft roof
That’s the first time mine or Anthony’s had been out the loft
Once they done that a few times then they go out not before was our way

Yes Neil, training needs to start somewhere. We all have different ways in training youngsters, I think the guy is just giving them the freedom to look around and get them use to their home.

Does he do another video where he actually has them trap training rather than just letting them out ?

Yes Neil, I think that was his first video. So things will move on from there.

[NeilA]

Good