No young birds 2021

I’m not breeding any young birds for next season, for me it’s pointless.
I get the young bird sickness after the first race every year, I get them over it, give them plenty of time to recover, to make their bodies back up, I get them flying and training again but by the time all that’s taking the racing programme is in full swing and the distance is right up.
This year I won the first race, with 3 in the top 10, and then I foolishly tried to jump them in to far in a stiff race, and got none home out of 8 on the day.
I had 3 work home in the end, and sent one of those to the longest young bird race and got a 3rd, so they’re obviously good pigeons, but I feel for me that young bird racing is s waste of time.
So at the end of last season, I let my old birds sit a round of young birds, and a local ace flyer (Bob Smith) also very kindly bred me some latebreds out of hes best pigeons.
My plan is to, train them during the winter, and race them next season to see how they go.
They’ve all had young bird sickness already, probably due to mixing youngens from 2 Lofts, but they’ve all Ben treated with deweerd 4in1.
Then vitamins and deoralytes to build them back up, there’s no stress or rush to get them going as they’ve got all winter.
And they’ve all made their bodies back up, and flew for an hour today.
I’m really going to miss young bird racing as I love working with them, but I’m going to give this a try and see how it pans out.
A short while before racing I will let all my birds latebreds and all in together, that way there will always be a few, wound up and jossling for nest boxes during the season.

good luck, the sickness is one of the great mysteries, how do some lofts not get it? I know it makes you want to chuck it in at times so what you're doing is worth a try, you might have to keep an eye on their flight feathers with being late but if you get a few races out of them and they stand up it will be worth it.

Think the trouble is barnie you cannot tell from the outside the damage done by the young bird sickness and to what extent it has affected  their performance abilities.

Different pigeons can cope better than others after an illness and take longer to get back to their best (if ever).

What I would be considering is why my pigeons got YBS every year.

If you try those from another loft and have not the problem ??????.

Regards.

do ybs that have had young bird sickness ever win, or win go on to be a multiple winner ....?

MISTY wrote:

Think the trouble is barnie you cannot tell from the outside the damage done by the young bird sickness and to what extent it has affected  their performance abilities.

Different pigeons can cope better than others after an illness and take longer to get back to their best (if ever).

What I would be considering is why my pigeons got YBS every year.

If you try those from another loft and have not the problem ??????.

Regards.

From my perspective here Misty & the way I think you can I'm . General race results most days & the loses incurred there  of a consistent nature tell how sad things have become now for the average type flyer. YBS or even Rota virus, would be a brave person I suggest who would come out & maybe say they have a more positive factor now on average for the general flyer than a negative one & especially when counting up all the huge losses in many short type races at times or even when training at times these days.  

David wrote:

do ybs that have had young bird sickness ever win, or win go on to be a multiple winner ....?

Yes David, I was reading in BHW where one bird was at deaths door as a YB with sickness and went on to win at highest level, although there will be plenty don't make the grade.
I've had birds, many years ago when this sickness first began, win up to Fed level even though they were knocked for 6 as Yb's.

,There will be the odd exception in every aspect of pigeon racing, that does not change the basics.

There is no doubt that todays pigeons have to cope with numerous, fancier made, health problems.

You can paint up a car and make it look beautiful, lift the bonnet and nothing there.

Aletratively a rough looking banger, lift the bonnet and HEY PRESTO.

You cannot base anything on one offs, and the only opinion one can reasonably come to is that todays pigeons are reliable on medication.

Regards.

ive seen horrible , ugly looking pigeons, looking like streeters ....but have won top positions, good looks dont always = a good racer / breeder ive found .

Honestly I think,  my opinion feeding ybs twice a day contributes to it massively,  as well as stress..the year I kept our ybs tight , fed at 11 we never got it ..might be luck but again my opinion feeding twice a day is no good as well as packing them ..

ive always though of young bird sickness as a digestion problem, could it be because the birds are fed too late before they are darkened for the night, do they get time to digest the food properly ...is the feed too heavy ?

Have seen church pigeons, rung in the belfry, dominate the y/b season.
Mate's mate rung all the black youngsters off the Gas silo's. Devastated the club and fed for three years. Sold off to a 'World Renown' stud farm.

If lucky enough to get a couple of young 'Churches' in the loft. Feed them, entice them. Great look outs for B.O.P. and WILL beat any of yours from any trainging site. true.

I think that David i really do , but I could  be wrong , it has been known lol, once in 1973 when Sunderland won the cup and I,m afraid it was against Leeds United..we didn't expect that , but it proves even I can get it wrong and I was a wee bit embarrassed to say that . Ask jayne my wife she's always saying "your never wrong you  are you " she's right

Wild birds, including woodies start feeding  just after dawn.

Maybe one day easy feed available next a bit harder etc;

 The fact is they feed throughout the day in most cases, just like hopper fed, they will eat at the right time if they know it is always there.

With regard to YBS I once requested in the BHW that a study should be taken of those that have no problems and those that do, as usual no one cared.

A fancier actualy flew his pigeons to a loft in Beverly Church, until he went  to the loft in the sky,   I was talking to a Beverly fancier at a Fed meeting  who told me about the fancier and said he was left with sorting them out.

The fancier won out of turn, he said he had the best pair of breeders the fancier had, had, and if I was interested I could have them but he bet I would not be interested.

I said I would always be interested in a pair of proven breeders.

So after the meeting I went with him first to the loft in the Church to show me those that were still there and then to the fanciers own loft.

Yes they looked like townies, and yes he was right I declined the offer.

 One  amongst many silly mistakes made along the way, looks mean nothing regarding racing, showing a different matter.

Regards.

always fed twice daily ,but a light feed morning heavier in the evening but not a heavy mix as such ,used to get the sickness but not last 6 years ...ever since i stopped treating before pairing with meds i have not had it ,i think the parents pass on a fungal/candida infection and it manifests itself a bit later on in the ybs and alot mistake it for adeno/coli syndrome which is what yb sickness is ...why its called ybs i will never know

Just my theory, I think it travels on flies or bugs, always worse about the time the rape seed fields start turning yellow.
It tends to be the vast majority of fanciers get it round here regardless of how they keep the youngsters, natural, darkness, deep litter, scrape twice a day, light feed, heavy feed, train, don't train. more of a lottery. Lads top of the sheet every week or those at the bottom it makes no difference.

Anything is worth considering barnie, just wish for the sports sake it could be identified, however, if you see the woodies in our garden and others never seen one with YBS.

Afraid it has been as a result of fanciers irresponsible use of everything available you do not see wild birds having all the problems found in our sport.

Even bird flue can be put down to mans interferance with nature.

Regards.

Misty says:
With regard to YBS I once requested in the BHW that a study should be taken of those that have no problems and those that do, as usual no one cared.

Been on a couple of sites putting that topic up.
Seems - truthfully - when asking and seeking 'Others that do or don't, it quickly turns to a mite off hand.

After some say that they have never had it ... My self included, - they will come back saying o ne or two things. Those professing to never having it are said to 'They didn't /Don't know or realise that they have HAD it! Or we are liars!

Very, very few take on board anything that may mean a change of a habit!

'WE are creatures of habits. who hate change'!
Yet still they don't agree, or like the idea, that if they do the same 'Year in Year' out the results will be the same.
Would love a pound when in 'End of season the changes some will be making' ... then don't!

Yes that virus is totally different to yb sickness,  that virus kills them ..I've had that , parathyroid the lot and its so stressful getting any of them

Greenfinches, Linnets and Chaffinches suffered similar issues for years now, never see them around here and it's not the hawks took them all I'm sure.
We hardly saw a yellow field of rape 30 years ago but look how much is grown now, some farms grow nothing else, and I think it's sprayed with something to engineer an artificial harvest time.

oil seed rape

Looked rape seed up barnie, says best thing out for both wild and domestic small birds as well as pigeons.

Farmers going nuts because the woodies are getting at their crop before it can be harvested, never seen a sick woody.

Think we should look far closer to home for the problems the sport finds its self in.

The sport  in this country started going to pot when we imported all the continental problems, along with their pigeons.

If the fanciers who were old in my youth could see the darkness and widowhood systems used so widely and the amount of medication that is involved not to mention miracle this and that, they would have suggested packing the sport in.

Regards.

No young bird racing for me have to many old birds so don't need them

peel bros wrote:

Honestly I think,  my opinion feeding ybs twice a day contributes to it massively,  as well as stress..the year I kept our ybs tight , fed at 11 we never got it ..might be luck but again my opinion feeding twice a day is no good as well as packing them ..

Thinking along similar lines etc Ray could be wrong thou but it's always amazed myself here how much sickness keeps cropping up on a regular type basis on your patch there year in year out etc. Feeding once a day down here is more the norm with the flyers I know well & even if they had the time they wouldn't bother feeding twice a day, because they consider once is enough when racing & it has more health benefits on average overall. Now YBS or the likes of Rota virus & do they achieve much in the end. Couple of years ago here in a local sense in a special type race. 1 pigeon on the day there was from 400 odd miles, clocking around 11pm, at night which was about 3 hours after sunset. Owner was actually in 2 minds early in the piece, when it was young if to kill it or not because it was on death door with the Rota virus issue. Story ends he hand fed it with much love & affection till it got better & then in the end pocketed $100,000 for winning the race when it was the only bird home on the day .

markevans wrote:

No young bird racing for me have to many old birds so don't need them

Chook farmer actually the back bone of the sport I would suggest Ray maybe, in some ways .
*****

you have to remember it's not just racing men get ybs. Fancy breeds, tumblers, fantails, tippler men, they all get this too and they don't practise darkness, widowhood and arguably won't use much other than corn and clean water too.
I visit an old lad who's into his eighties and just keeps a few pairs, they aren't raced and haven't been for 17 years, no antibiotics, just clean water and farm corn, no darkness, training or stress , small team in a massive open fronted loft. He breeds a handful of youngbirds each year and gets ybsickness guaranteed.
He gave me one straight out the nest, 2 weeks later it went off sick and actually died after 3 days. I don't think it's anything to do with husbandry of pigeons, it's a virus just the same as our kids get at school like chickenpox or measles. Just because some kids live a bit rougher than others who are in a warm centrally heated house and fed a different diet, doesn't stop them picking things up at school does it?

Good to kick different opinions about barnie maybe will help in the long run.

Every problem has  a cause, including YBS, once let loose it has no reason not to pick on any animal species etc; likely to be affected choose how kept.

It is the cause that is the worry.

Widowhood and the Darkness systems cannot be of any benifit in any way to a pigeons long term health and well being.

All (or the majority) of the sports health problems have arrisen since we adopted the continental methods, of that there is no doubt.


When the money mad went continental their pigeons, as I wrote in the BHW many years ago needed constant monthy medication or they would not survive,
this from a Coninental friend.

One can pick the odd case of this fancier and that fancier doing this or that but it changes nothing regarding the overall deterioration of our pigeons health.

You get exceptions to the rule in most cases involving animals.

Time to stop making exuses me thinks and accept the sport has been thrown to the dogs by commercialism and greed, and our pigeons are an unhealthy species.

One swallow does not a summer make, one or two odd occasions when a pigeon confounds the norm does not in any way change the whole.


Regards.