Training old birds

[Diamond Dave]

Dave - I always liked to feed AM and PM around the same time; so any work that the birds did/didn't do was factored around that

Sposing you had a week of bad weather Mike, would you still send at the w.end?

[NeilA]

I would i was in hospital in 2022 left them in all week fed to my exact measure by my sister and she flew them out for me Thursday night first time of the week
123 club 456 fed
I was desperate to get out of hospital as I new they would go close

[MIL]

Dave - I always liked to feed AM and PM around the same time; so any work that the birds did/didn't do was factored around that

Sposing you had a week of bad weather Mike, would you still send at the w.end?

Absolutely. I'm a bugger for sticking to my principles

I remember one week back in 1994 the birds returned on the Saturday and I'd never have them out on a Sunday anyway

The Mon, Tues, Weds and Thurs were either full of fog in the morning or showery PM and I refused to let them out

Friday is a day of rest so they went into the race on the Friday not having not been out since they competed the week before

As i recall that week we were 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th against over 400 birds (can't remember the Fed).

[Murray]

Having spent a long time in the racing game, I know that the best trainers are the ones who have a feel for what they need to get them in peak condition. Just because one bloke tosses his birds three days a week at a certain distance and wins all the time doesn't mean another bloke will be successful doing the same thing. Our situations are all different.
We can all observe our pigeons. Some blokes just never seem to understand what they are observing. Others just instinctively know.

[MIL]

I agree with that.

In fact, "Fun Boy Three" made a song that captures the sentiment perfectly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_kjctTbMHA

[NeilA]

Definitely pre season I will be on it

So Mike when you trained was you loft flying morning
What do the cocks return to midweek
Was the yearlings rewarded

Yes, I preferred to train in the afternoon as 9/10 it was warmer in the afternoon

They'd loft fly in the morning (assuming not wet or damp)

I NEVER let them out in the wet or damp. Does no one any good

Yearlings were always rewarded with the hen. They never always had contact, but she was always there

Did you have the yearlings in another section ?
What would be the latest you would train day wise

[NeilA]

If the weather is right I would like to give them 2 or 3 tosses pre season. Last year the weather was rubbish so they didn’t get any.
Nothing after first race. Cocks loft flown morning and evening.

Are you going to do a bit more pre season Andy
With the width of your fed and 5 yearlings ( I think you said ) to train on your line to learn the reward

[Andy]

If the weather is right I would like to give them 2 or 3 tosses pre season. Last year the weather was rubbish so they didn’t get any.
Nothing after first race. Cocks loft flown morning and evening.

Are you going to do a bit more pre season Andy
With the width of your fed and 5 yearlings ( I think you said ) to train on your line to learn the reward

If the weather is ok then yes. The trouble is with our combine is that there isn’t a line of flight. If I was to draw a line from any race point to other members lofts none of the lines would be that close, not even in the club we have a 14 mile North to South & 20 miles East to West. We virtually know on a Friday evening who the winners of the race are going to be depending on the wind in both the club and combine. There are a lot of top lofts in the combine. Of course this year I am also going to be flying with the 3 counties and they will go along nearer the coast, 30 miles south of me, as they race into Devon, (Exeter, Plymouth) and Cornwall.

[MIL]

Did you have the yearlings in another section ?
What would be the latest you would train day wise

No Neil

In that BHW Write Up Dad would've tried to keep his yearlings on their own where possible because he probably brought them on a bit slower.

At my loft the typical scenario was this

36 YB were reared and at the end of the YB season I'd be left with 28+ as a rule

I had 2 Sections of cocks housing normally 16-18 cocks in total

So, looking at my OB Widowers I probably had 10 old cocks retain their boxes, so from a YB team of 28 to choose from I was probably only ever looking for about half a dozen or so young cocks to supplement into them. Plus, the way I preferred to operate I was confident I could get yearling widowers banging on the door right from race 1.

I tried to feed no later than 6pm. Around 5:30 as a rule

So; whether they'd loft flew, stayed in, or trained down the road they were always in and ready to be fed around 5:30pm

[NeilA]

How you ever selected 6-8 I would find really hard to do from 14
That’s the skill