Later babies

Half of my babies are just now getting out of the loft. I'd like to do something with their flight feathers at some point...any suggestions. First half have started taking down the road and will cut the end of this week and pull later.

what are you intending to do with the flights ? ive heard of some fanciers pulling flights but in my opinion im not for it, i dont like it..............JMO

not for me m8

Ive got some still in the loft, I wont be pulling any flights though.

why do you want to do something with there flights

must be on the light system

I'm on the light system, but will not go pulling flights as the flights would go naturally, on early bred birds I would sometimes pull tail feathers.

i dont think you need to pull the flights, i once saw a bird with a elastic band around the last 3 flights so the birds cant get to far off the floor

Ah I see, he is on about clipping them to stop them flying.

i think so Gaz

raftree wrote:

Half of my babies are just now getting out of the loft. I'd like to do something with their flight feathers at some point...any suggestions. First half have started taking down the road and will cut the end of this week and pull later.

not too sure steve, i got the impression he is cutting and pulling flights on the older birds and wanting suggestions to do "something" with the younger birds flights..........i could be wrong tho`

David wrote:

raftree wrote:

Half of my babies are just now getting out of the loft. I'd like to do something with their flight feathers at some point...any suggestions. First half have started taking down the road and will cut the end of this week and pull later.

not too sure steve, i got the impression he is cutting and pulling flights on the older birds and wanting suggestions to do "something" with the younger birds flights..........i could be wrong tho`

That's my question. I'm on the "light system" and am cutting and pulling the 9th and 10th flights on the early hatched babies now. I suppose I'll just let the later ones go. Last year my YB's were in the middle of the moult right when I needed to race them so I'm trying to avoid that this year.

thought you were on the light but pulling flights if you bred them early enough isnt needed

Thing I found with light birds, is that you have to keep on with the pressure. Ease off the training and they will fall to bits.
I used to race them twice a week and training in between and I won our longest races with them and they held them flights.
Usually it's early bred ones that I used to have a problem with tail feathers, this was solved by puling alternate ones.

i dont see why any flights need to be pulled, its barbaric.....if its because they will drop to bits put them on the dark, breed early or just accept it and fly natural.......JMO

Mine are only babies but are casting flights already and the loft is full of down feathers every morning. This for me is experimental at this stage, as I have never put them on the light this late bred, mine are usually bred in December and by now they have usually gone through it.

so if people bred in december the ybs would moult the body for when racing starts i would presume, would it also moult the full wing, or would it be part way through it therefor hampering its performance slightly.....?

tried it once got them through the moult all looked well training well not seen a feather since the first race yet all the others not on light or dark got home
12 birds never seen again ummmmmmmmm something wasnt right never have found out though but will try it again next year

i remember when we raced before, if we bred early they were like yearlings by racing time, but cant remember if the wing had moulted fully or still moulting.........at that time there was no darkness system.

Light birds are quite different than dark or natural.
Natural early bred birds start throwing flights through the race season and this sometimes hampers racing in the longer races especially if the are just bursting new flights.
Light birds don't moult again after their initial moult and this has to be forced upon them after the racing season, by shortening the days.
Light birds though have to be worked hard.
That was strange g.
Well all mine are on it and so are Kev's.
So we will just see how it goes, I have in the past had some excellent results.

why did you not choose the dark system gary, do you have any reason to dislike it ......?

YB Sickness and respiratory.
I only tried it once and it was horrendous mate.
When I was racing I sort of mastered the light system as these stay on the light right through the season.
The birds just seem different and more advanced on the light for some reason.

the only other thing differant gaz was the 12 were in another loft feed water etc was all the same

ide have put money on them 12 being the first home but not 1 made it

That is unreal mate.
A mystery if ever there was one.

put my last yb in with the others today, had no choice really as its getting a bit long in the flight and strong on the wing...........dont like putting later birds in thats why i only wanted one round but this lastyb hatched by mistake.

seems to have settled in ok so far......