It’s that time of year.

[Andy]

My birds are still separated at present but they are getting keen to pair up. They have been shut in now for a couple of months since splitting them up. This is partly due to the fact that the hens are in the youngbird loft and half would want to go back into the old bird loft if let out. The cocks are in the old bird loft and if I let them out half of these being last year’s youngsters and not yet flown out of the old bird loft would want to go back into the young bird loft. I could let them all out together but that would then mean spending an hour sorting them out afterwards. I’m not planning on pairing up for another 3 weeks yet but the hens in particular are getting keen. I have always had Polly landing on me and cooing when I go in the loft but now I have 4 or 5 cooing and strutting around while I’m cleaning out.

These are the hens in the young bird loft.

4 of the hens that strut around when I go in. Polly is the chequer pied.

Some of the cocks in the bigger of the old bird sections.

These other cocks are in the section that was used for the stock birds that didn’t go out. But now all the birds are flying out this will also be used for the racers.

[Andy]

In a couple of weeks time I will put the nest box fronts back in and may start introducing the hens to their respective mates for short periods prior to pairing. I find this helps settle them much quicker once paired properly.

[Buster121]

Looking well Andy

[Murray]

Yep, looking very well.
I was thinking, with you being abnormally tall, compared to me, who at 5 '2" is a normal height, you must not have a lot of clearance between your head and those rafters?

[Andy]

That is the problem Murray. I am 6ft 4”. Most of my lofts I have built myself so I have to have them at 6ft 6”. If a sloped roof I can get away with 6ft 4” at the back, higher at front. It does mean that when Roxanna cleans out for me at 5ft 2” she struggled to reach the top perches lol.

[Murray]

Whereas my loft is 10' high at the peak. And I am a scrap over 5 feet tall.

But there is no ceiling in the shed, and they can't stay up there forever....

I do like the big air volume the high roof gives, and the birds are pretty quiet, so they don't go crashing around up in the roof.

[Trev]

The birds are looking well Andy, won't be long now it will be nice for you to breed a few more of your own this year Andy as you aren't getting so many for the Barcelona project any more, you'll enjoy that bro.
Due to my loft issues I didn't bother separating mine this year, apart from the odd pair most stopped laying a couple of months ago but the last couple of more spring like weeks have certainly got the birds more amorous and several pairs have gone down on eggs over the past couple of days. Now I just need to decide if I want to keep any this early and if so which ones

[Murray]

Get rings on 'em Trev, and push them along as young birds.

[Trev]

Get rings on 'em Trev, and push them along as young birds.

I probably will, with a few longer races available this year I will have to really get the old and young birds pushed on this year.