Feeding hens /pairing

[NeilA]

Normally I only race a few odd hens
But next year I may use them all for races around 250-400 miles
Now I feed my hens light and happy they do a hour a day
For the middle distance races I would think I need a slightly different feed and not do rationed
The hens section has grids and perch’s with dividers ( I didn’t want to box them )
I’m thinking about them going lesbo and these are the hens my cocks race to
I can’t put a decent aviary on that section to shut them out in
Just looking for advice on how to get over the more generous feeding and avoiding them going lesbo
The grids do work and I could slope them if I have to although a pain
How do others get over this problem so tne hens still give the cocks the attention Saturday when they return from sprinting l

[MIL]

The more graft you give the hens Neil the less inclined they'll be to pair with each other.

[NeilA]

Cheers Mike

[Andy]

A fellow member in my club sent 9 lesbo hens to Bordeaux 441 miles to him in the BICC. Had 4 on the day and 3 next day. He says they lay like chickens lol.

[NeilA]

A fellow member in my club sent 9 lesbo hens to Bordeaux 441 miles to him in the BICC. Had 4 on the day and 3 next day. He says they lay like chickens lol.

To be honest Andy I want to avoid that but in a lazy old bird trainer

[Murray]

From the blog of Ad Schaerlaeckens,

Countless times you could read in 'the pigeon press' that even champions warned against mating hens. That would be deadly.
Earlier I mentioned that Gust Christiaens and Roger Buvens thought otherwise. They liked nothing more than hens that were paired with each other. I myself won two 1st prizes National Orleans (zone) with hens that were mated.
Superman Willy Daniels is another one. He goes even further and believes that it can also refer to quality, that such hens are often the best.

And further, also from Willy Daniels,

Some advice:
Stay off medications if possible. By-products don't yield anything. He limits himself to electrolytes and brewer's yeast. Also the man who often manages to stunt so much in the Netherlands with few pigeons, Falco Ebben, has had his lesson when it comes to those products that are so much praised. Like Verkerk.
Never before have they seen any improvement in condition after administering supplements. Speaking of Verkerk, Daniels also thinks that hens can do much more than most people think.
Weekly races from 500 to 600 kms should not be a problem at all. At least not for the stronger sex, hens. The time when widowhood cocks and widow cocks alone dominated the races seems to be definitely over.

And yes, Ad told me I was welcome to quote him. As he said, at least I asked him. Many don't.

[NeilA]

From the blog of Ad Schaerlaeckens,

Countless times you could read in 'the pigeon press' that even champions warned against mating hens. That would be deadly.
Earlier I mentioned that Gust Christiaens and Roger Buvens thought otherwise. They liked nothing more than hens that were paired with each other. I myself won two 1st prizes National Orleans (zone) with hens that were mated.
Superman Willy Daniels is another one. He goes even further and believes that it can also refer to quality, that such hens are often the best.

And further, also from Willy Daniels,

Some advice:
Stay off medications if possible. By-products don't yield anything. He limits himself to electrolytes and brewer's yeast. Also the man who often manages to stunt so much in the Netherlands with few pigeons, Falco Ebben, has had his lesson when it comes to those products that are so much praised. Like Verkerk.
Never before have they seen any improvement in condition after administering supplements. Speaking of Verkerk, Daniels also thinks that hens can do much more than most people think.
Weekly races from 500 to 600 kms should not be a problem at all. At least not for the stronger sex, hens. The time when widowhood cocks and widow cocks alone dominated the races seems to be definitely over.

And yes, Ad told me I was welcome to quote him. As he said, at least I asked him. Many don't.

Wouldn’t be no good for me Murray but thanks
hens are my cocks partners so them pairing together in a lesbian system would be the last thing I want
The focus remains the cocks for sprinting to 250 miles
I don’t want to get into keeping another team of hens for the cocks

[MIL]

Normally I only race a few odd hens
But next year I may use them all for races around 250-400 miles
Now I feed my hens light and happy they do a hour a day
For the middle distance races I would think I need a slightly different feed and not do rationed
The hens section has grids and perch’s with dividers ( I didn’t want to box them )
I’m thinking about them going lesbo and these are the hens my cocks race to
I can’t put a decent aviary on that section to shut them out in
Just looking for advice on how to get over the more generous feeding and avoiding them going lesbo
The grids do work and I could slope them if I have to although a pain
How do others get over this problem so tne hens still give the cocks the attention Saturday when they return from sprinting l

When Dave was racing hens for my Dad we did find them a durable and effective asset racing.
The one big thing that you have to consider with them is at various points of the season they are interested in mating
The truest way of stopping them doing it is by boxing up the culprits, but I can appreciate you might not want to do that
Grids etc are an option, but in my experience the fond hens will always find a way

When "Pitbull Queen" won the NMCC (result below) she was sitting eggs with another hen in the corner of the floor (she won that race by almost 3.5 miles!)
The advantage of that pair doing that was that they used to run any other hens off the floor whenever something hit the floor

[NeilA]

Got grids in there Mike they work to a point and I am putting 45 degrees boards on back sides and front on top of tne grids
I’m not against lesbo hens but it’s more that the cocks are the focus as you know with what I went through with the peregrine and the possibility of sending to a few middle distance races the hens increase the team size
The peregrine is the issue if I’m honest as I’m happy with my 16-20 cocks it’s just they got destroyed by week 5 pretty much so I need more of the same level to compete
Maybe I could put to old cocks down on tne floor
One thing I noticed with lesbo hens once a pair go it seems in my loft to encourage others mainly the yearlings to do the same

[Steve Howells]

Normally I only race a few odd hens
But next year I may use them all for races around 250-400 miles
Now I feed my hens light and happy they do a hour a day
For the middle distance races I would think I need a slightly different feed and not do rationed
The hens section has grids and perch’s with dividers ( I didn’t want to box them )
I’m thinking about them going lesbo and these are the hens my cocks race to
I can’t put a decent aviary on that section to shut them out in
Just looking for advice on how to get over the more generous feeding and avoiding them going lesbo
The grids do work and I could slope them if I have to although a pain
How do others get over this problem so tne hens still give the cocks the attention Saturday when they return from sprinting l

You could try giving both sexs a short toss midweek and letting them run together for a few hours once back.