I wouldn’t be pushing the yearlings over 350 miles. Yes you get the odd decent result from a yearling in the longer races but most of the winning birds are older. Plenty of 4, 5 and 6 year olds in the distance race results. In our club it has been getting a lot of older birds in the results even from the short races. I see there was a 9 year old in last weeks result. The people who send yearlings to these long distance races have generally got a long established team and a lot of pigeons.Trev wrote: ↑Mon Jun 19, 2023 10:44 pm Well it's my first 400miler since before covid, I've got the 11 birds that returned from Hexham plus the 9 from last weeks Rugby to choose from. Out of them there are a couple that have had slight injuries, 8 yearlings, 4 two year olds, 4 three year olds and 6 five year olds. One of the five year olds has flown Bordeaux, none of the others have flown further than 292miles !! Some however have only flown just over 200miles, even less for most of the yearlings.
After this week we have two old bird races left, another short one then Elgin at 484miles so I need to keep some birds back for that one too. When I raced years ago I wouldn't have sent yearlings any further than about 350miles butbtyes days fanciers seem happy to push yearlings to 500 miles plus !!
I have an idea of what who I'm going to send where but would be interested in other opinions
All the old pigeons have done is head for cover every time they see a hawk. 
I suppose I do tend to relate back to what I used to do many years ago. I raced widowhood then, only the cocks. I found the yearlings done well on this method and were sent every week from 90 miles up to 350 miles. Back then we had 3 long distance races, 430 miles, 550 miles and 650 miles. I would mainly have 2 year old hens and older, plus the odd cock that didn’t take to widowhood on natural for these races. Back then racing North Road and with predominantly head winds and in very warm conditions very rarely would these be day races. Even the 430 mile race would sometimes be won on the second day. Thurso 550 mls was never won on the day in all the years I raced it and when I won Lerwick 650 mls I timed late afternoon on the third day with a 3 year old hen. She had scored the previous year from Thurso being timed on the second day. Yearlings would have gone down long before this.Murray wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 9:01 am That's one very interesting subject, Trevor.
That's a very interesting reply, Andy.
A few years ago I would have been reading and nodding in agreement. Now, not so much.
Many years ago an old bloke told me that a young bird, when it was about 11 months old, or as we would call it a 'yearling', was the best it would ever be. I was doubtful.
He was probably not far wrong.
Pigeons down here fly 300, 400, 500 and more in their first season. My little Melbourne hen flew 600 miles 3 years in a row.
Most of my training tosses this year with the young birds went : Take them out, let them go, zoom home, all arrive in a rush, everyone is happy!
A few times I put the odd race bird from last year in the box, in the misplaced belief that they would help the young'ns get home. Wrong.
What happened was the youngsters came home broken up in small bunches and the old race birds came home late or the following morning. And these were only 10 mile tosses.
Then I realised that was a bad move, so I have trained the young birds on their own. Faultless.
Yes, you can race them as 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, year olds. I had a lot of old widowhood cocks back in New Zealand. But they are better and faster when they are young!
Good luck TrevTrev wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 10:23 pm I've kept my yearlings at home along with the couple that have had minor scrapes.
I've sent 6 in all, 4 cocks and 2 hens. The cocks are 3 two year olds and a 5 year old that all flew Hexham (292 miles) a couple of weeks ago, the hens are 2 three year olds, one foew Hexham the other has flown just over 200miles previously and was my first bird last week. We had 10 members sending 45 birds.
Looking at the conditions I'm reckoning on a 12 hr fly with the majority of birds not being home until the second day.
