Training young birds

These are bone idle, won't exercise, try to make them and they just drop on house tops and sit for hours picking s*** off the tiles. Nearly cleared the lot into the bin on a few occasions. Still time yet.

So into the baskets each morning regardless of weather unless it is really hammering down with rain or thick fog. But they've been twice in low grey cloud with no breaks in the sky and this morning in really low cloud and drizzle. Be going tonight too, hopefully bit further down the road. Not messing about picking fine days, what's left so be it. Racing in less than 3 weeks, they get the best of everything and well cared for so expect them pulling their weight.

mine did this colin, not sure if you had them on dark, but mine would be flying nicely, then a week after they went on the dark they didnt want to fly .......also i found if i kept them down too long when they first started going out, they got into the routine of not flying, and walking round the garden ........also if they are pairing up or chasing the hens they dont want to fly.

also hungry birds wont fly, or fat birds wont fly .

but im sure you already know all that

Mine were always on natural light until longest day of year. Then kept on those hours until racing finished. Million ways to train. One better than the other? I do not know. Open loft worked for me. Not possible for many. 20 miles tosses, couple then racing.

No darkness, just been left natural but they aren't falling to pieces in the moult so still well feathered, got me stumped. Usually once YB are batched up and going I had no bother, in fact getting them down after an hour or so was the problem but this lot are all on borrowed time right now

Has me beat.

Always kept things natural, open loft very little and sometimes no training.

However, there is something amiss with all the  birds me thinks  and nature as a whole and nothing is the same or can be taken as granted as in days gone bye.

Think every fancier has  problems at the present time and not of their making.

Although still miss my old feathered friends I am glad I had them at the time I did and feel sorry for the present day fanciers along with their feathered friends.

Regards.

got to be something youve done different colin, have you changed corn, or amount of corn .....feeding / exercising at different times maybe ? have you had them in longer due to bad weather ...?

are they pairing up ...? ive found ybs can get lazy, and once they do its a job on to get them going again .

Gone in loft this morning and full blown YB sickness now, never been mixed in with other pigeons or any nighted out. They'll have to get on with it, locked up for a week and clean water each day, handful of barley twice a day.

Not attempting to tell a fellow fancier new tricks barnie, get some garlic in the water. 

Not the commercial rubbish, the cloves.

Regards.

avidress colin and depurative and watch for the secondary ailments ,its been on them for a few days already i would think if they been acting sluggish and not listening or exercising well ,avidress is made of organic acids,oregano and cinammon it really is a good product ,hope its only a mild dose but its getting warmer and thats when it seems to break out ,i never ever did feed to heavy with my ybs once they were up and running atb

Funny I thing never ever had YBS.

Nor any other ailments of consequence, think prevention far better than a load of commercial rubbish. always said, keep pigeons in clinical conditions, or any animal and you will always have health problems.

They will inherit from the parents any immunity built up, if that is lost you cannot replace it with commercial rubbish.

Regards.

Yes Darren light feeds only, secondary infections do the damage, got them on 4 in 1 see what happens.

Misty I'm sure Garlic has it's qualities but not confident it can tackle something like YBSickness although perhaps through prolonged use it can be a barrier to infections in the first instance?

Sincerely hope it works out barnie, would make me very upset to
have such a problem and in particular when you obviously do what you think 
is the very best for them.

Regards.

sorry to hear this colin, its not nice when they get ill ..........im sure youll get it under control.

it makes you wonder how they catch it, when they havnt been in contact with other birds outside your loft.......is it airbourne, or is it stress ?

David wrote:

sorry to hear this colin, its not nice when they get ill ..........im sure youll get it under control.

it makes you wonder how they catch it, when they havnt been in contact with other birds outside your loft.......is it airbourne, or is it stress ?

Think it is passed on from the parents, a weakness that allows it to manifest its self when they get the slightest stress.

Like many others, canker etc;

Many fanciers never get the problem, others every year.

Regards.

i think you could be right misty, or at least a contributing factor ......ive heard of some fanciers getting it straight from the nest when weaned , so it could be passed on from the parents like you say .

barnie wrote:

Yes Darren light feeds only, secondary infections do the damage, got them on 4 in 1  see what happens.

Misty I'm sure Garlic has it's qualities but not confident it can tackle something like YBSickness although perhaps through prolonged use it can be a barrier to infections in the first instance?

good call colin ,hope they turn around sharpish for you atb

Barnie, did the parents of your young birds have YBS ?.

Regards.

MISTY wrote:

Barnie, did the parents of your young birds have YBS ?.

Regards.

Some did but strangely the ones who's parents 100% didn't have YBS are the worst affected. These are hunched up sick as dogs, gunge for droppings.

Some are starting to turn the corner, only 2 or 3 at the moment, but they are scrapping and spinning around the drinker, acting a bit feistier but the majority look sick of their lives.

colin i read an article about yb sickness and its actually adeno/e-coli virus and was told not to feed barley at this time as the sugar in the barley increases the e-coli and depurative was a better way to go ,i dont know how much truth is in it but for me to have taken note of that it would have come from a good source ,also popping 2 charcoal tablets daily down the throat of the ybs for 3 days helps alot ,the charcoal tablets can be sourced at any chemist i even give them to my dog at times when she has gastric problems ...atb

Thanks Darren, all birds get this on corn twice a week Darren, charcoal another 2 full days on the 4 in 1 then they'll get Kefir on the corn with charcoal stuck to it for 3 days. This powdered stuff works out real cheap one tub lasts nearly a year here.

yer on the ball colin hope they start to turn around for you over the next few days ...funny how it dont seem to effect them all eh atb

oldstrain wrote:

colin i read an article about yb sickness and its actually adeno/e-coli virus and was told not to feed barley at this time as the sugar in the barley increases the e-coli and depurative was a better way to go ,i dont know how much truth is in it but for me to have taken note of that it would have come from a good source ,also popping 2 charcoal tablets daily down the throat of the ybs for 3 days helps alot ,the charcoal tablets can be sourced at any chemist i even give them to my dog at times when she has gastric problems ...atb

Can remember miners using the slack and washings from the coal as minerals, same as using charcoal, always said black minerals were mainly from coal.

Just hope something works after all the effort you have put in.

What annoy me more than anything most of the latter day problems in our feathered friends have arisen by bad practices to keep unhealthy pigeons that cost a fortune alive to breed their  like.

Regards.

Never encountered YBS. Again, I beleive birds with a strong immune system naturally overcome most ailments. Hence was usually open loft and minimal cleaning as you may have seen from some of the pics posted.

halcanada81 wrote:

Never encountered YBS. Again, I beleive birds with a strong immune system naturally overcome most ailments. Hence was usually open loft and minimal cleaning as you may have seen from some of the pics posted.

Agree entirely Hal.

Said many times clinical conditions worst thing out for promoting and maintaining health problems, same with humans children the pale faced protected offspring of the rich have more problems health wise than the street urchins, pale faced and end up drug addicts mainly.

Regards.