first toss today

halcanada wrote:

Chicken crates. Plastic. I cut a 2 foot flap in the front. Can get 30 plus in a crate.

I know the sort of this Hal - we have a couple here left over from when we had chickens for the table and eggs. I never though of using them for pigeons though.

Thanks
Phil

3rd toss for ours a little later today from 12 miles

We are also training our young birds today. We have two races again this weekend and I would like them to be top-fit for that.

Hil took our y/b's at 07:30 this morning for a 60 mile toss. They were up at 09:40 hours in a slight head wind, so I expect them to take about 90 minutes.

Phil

I hate these long tosses with just yer own kit of ybs it can be a hazardous affair good luck hope it goes well for you guys

oldstrain wrote:

I hate these long tosses with just yer own kit of ybs it can be a hazardous affair good luck hope it goes well for you guys

If you mean regarding Hawks - we don't have too many and we have never had a hawk strike on a training toss - mind-you, there is always a first time.

Phil

yes exactly peregrine strikes ...ours faired well today some were in the loft others on landing board chasing hens on arrival but all trapped well on entering loft ,weathers not good tomorrow so may have to give it a miss until Wednesday evening now ,another at 12 mile for now

good luck with the training Darren and phil, hope you get them all home safely.............

We also had a good training toss today - 60 miles into a moderate head wind.

We sent 10 y/b's and 9 came back together in 97 minutes. We had one late-comer, but that was a bird that I was going to lend to someone at the club, but decided it was far too good to lend, so I got it back yesterday - it had not been here for 8 days and had been locked up in another loft all that time.

Taking Hil out for a Birthday Lunch tomorrow, so may not train Tuesday, but weather permitting, we will do it all again on Wednesday.

Phil

I decided against training today, there was s few thunderstorms forecast, but it turned out a lovely day in the end.

Boosey wrote:

I decided against training today, there was s few thunderstorms forecast, but it turned out a lovely day in the end.

Yes - same here Boosey - they forecast thunderstorms here also around 14:00 hrs - that is why we trained so early this morning.

We never had the thunder or rain, in fact it was a great afternoon.

Phil

blueskylofts wrote:

We also had a good training toss today - 60 miles into a moderate head wind.

We sent 10 y/b's and 9 came back together in 97 minutes.  We had one late-comer, but that was a bird that I was going to lend to someone at the club, but decided it was far too good to lend, so I got it back yesterday - it had not been here for 8 days and had been locked up in another loft all that time.

Taking Hil out for a Birthday Lunch tomorrow, so may not train Tuesday, but weather permitting, we will do it all again on Wednesday.

Phil

That's the way Phil keep on the sweet side, with Hil etc.

we had another toss earlier today and dropped 1 of our 23 ybs but still plenty time yet that's theirs 4th toss

We got some of our young birds in the training basket also this morning before the birthday girl was taken to lunch and t started raining.

A 26 miler today, just to get them on line a bit more. Hil let them go in two lots of five birds.

The first 5 birds did it in 47 minutes into a head/side wind and the other lot took 58 minutes. The wind did pick during the last 45 mins of their flight, so I guess that was the reason for the slight delay for the 2nd 5 birds.

Phil

No chance of getting the birds out today, washout with thick fog, every time we start them back up the road something turns against us, oh well, start again tomorrow, need to train hard now, week Saturday the first one and Luke is already having sleepless nights

Just cannot get a weather break to train. Hot, humid, rain and thunderstorms daily. Saturday looks OK. So far. Heres hoping.

ours will be in the basket soon for toss no 5 same place 12 miles our stray yb turned up at 4pm yesterday none the worse for it ,may move them up after today to 20ish miles atb

Got them up the road today, cocks out first hens 5 minutes later, out of the baskets and like darts, straight for home, all home , none away, so we're happy, time for a move to 30 miles, maybe

glad to see members yb training is going well........hope we have some winners reported when the yb season starts

Odd thing is David, there's lots of lads down here that are training their ybs from the same places as we are and are getting hammered, big losses sometimes, one lad in our club lost 22 from the same place we tossed today, and they're a partnership that are top of the sheet every week, go figure

It sounds like things are moving on the young bird front in the UK.

We only have 3 races left - for young and old - these crazies over here stop racing at the end of July.  WHY? I don't know.

Phil

That's a really short yb season Phil.

Why are all these birds not returning home Lofty?

Phil

When we train the birds on the line of flight there are quite a few nesting pairs of peregrine's, take today, we went to Bridgend, there's a pair close to there, then when they pass margam park there's a couple of pairs in there, then a pair on the steel works in port talbot and a pair on baglan tower, if we get them through then we're on a winner, touch wood we are only a couple down and we've been really lucky as losses down here have been crazy

That sounds horrific Lofty - how long it is going to take before someone (the RPRA for example) does something about this hawk problem.

A hawk could kill a pigeon worth hundreds if not thousands of pounds in a few minutes. Pigeon fanciers should not and cannot be expected to throw money down the drain every time they want to train their birds.

Not to mention all the time and care we have to put into our birds, just so we can have a few young birds for the racing season.

We have been really fortunate with our birds, we have only had one young bird that wouldn't come in at meal time, taken by a hawk, off the loft roof. We have had a few that haven't come back from training but that is to be expected, hawks or no hawks.

Phil