did anyone see one of our members, fred holbard in the racing pigeon weekly.......? he had won 6th combine with one of his birds and it also gave details of some of his wins which were very impressive. well done fred, hope you have a good 2010 season.....

Hi david Fred as been in all the mags on and off for his achivements with his birds, wish i could boost his results top flyer in deed Well doen Fred and good luck for 2010
Ken

Thanks very much for noticing guys, just caught up with this site, been having a few problems logging on, I've been fortunate over the years, with my results which I'm proud of, mind you I did have a good teacher. I had a good year - especially with the youngsters last year, lets hope it continues.

ATB for 2010 to everyone

regards

fred Holbard

hi fred, could you tell us if you have paired up or not , and if you have is there any reason you pair early.........? some of our other members havnt paired yet and are waiting for the better weather but after reading some of the replies i too decided to pair up two days ago and apart from just one pair they have all took to their mate.

could you also tell us if you will be racing widowhood or roundabout this coming season, and will your ybs be on darknesss........?

Hi David

I have paired some of my race team up, and all my stock birds, all on the 1st of January, I pair up early as it suits my system which is widowhood, and yes I race my youngsters on the darkness, I think if you want to compete with your babies, then you have to, I like to compete in all the races I can, old or young.

Any other questions, please feel free to ask, and I will answer as best I can

best regards

Fred

totally agree fred i also fly widowhood and darkie with youngsters ill also like to compete in all races and want to give them every chance possible

fred, have you paired some of your race team up to breed from them, or do you float eggs under them from stock birds.........if you breed from the race team do you just take two ybs from them or more,?

Welcome to the site Fred your advise will help us all

I will be rearing from the race team that is paired up, I float the stock birds under them, the idea is to get all the youngsters at roughly the same age, within two weeks if possible of the first and second rounds, I don't like to have youngsters of varying ages as this can cause all sorts of problems, I know that sometimes it cant be helped if you haven't got a big team to breed off of, but its the way I like to do it, if not, I would have more young bird sections to put them in, I like to take two youngsters from each pair, either there own or floated.

regards

fred

hi fred, so when the racers have reared one nest what do you do when they lay again, or do you seperate until nearer the time for ob raining/racing ?

I let them rear, preferably 2 youngsters, sometimes 1, till the youngster is 17 days old, or the cock starts to look at his hen again, whichever is first, I then take away the hen and leave the cock to finish off the youngsters for a week, then wean them into their own shed (no hens) they are then separate for about a month before I repair and they sit eggs for 5 days - any longer and they will start to drop flights.

regards

fred

so then you take the hen away again and the widowhood starts.....? good bit of info re they start to drop flights fred, this is what comes with knowleage which i dont have at the moment.......

when you start to train your widowhood cocks do you have the hens in the nestbox for when the cocks get home...?

also do you still train widowhoods when racing has started....?

interesting that fred i leave the cock to bring youngster up last week ,but have never re pairedthem up again after this ,

I normally train on the second round of eggs, or before when they're on the drive, I have trained once racing has started, sometimes the yearlings need re-educating, it's all very well saying I never train once racing starts, that's all very well when everything is going right, but as everyone knows, it doesn't always go to plan

Hi Ian

The way your post reads, I thought you had babies being finished off last week

Of course you don't need to repair, a lot of people don't, I've tried all ways over the years, my main combine pigeons wont be repaired