Your Opinion

After having a Chat with Graham I wondered what everyone else thought, Do you think it is a must to race youngbird's or do you think like in the old days you can train them well and race them as yearlings ? ok guys its over to you.

Lets face it young bird racing is a joke,train well stop them and let them moult.

I believe real good ones are born not made
Only tried not racing as ybs on a few had mixed results they either made good ones or they were lost early doors
Had a hen with 4 x 1sts 3 x 2nds plus good fed turns she wasn't raced as a yb infact she only had 2 training tosses as a yb
Also Bred a fed and section wnr 4000 birds what won the very first oldbird race what only got trained as a yb
but 1 or 2 went AWOL straight away aswell
I prefer to give them a couple of races and then stop them they seem that little bit harder to lose the year after
Jimmy

race them if you can,i believe they need the experience of at least 3 to 4 races with plenty of training.

2010 we didnt race yb and going into there third season we only have 3 left

2011 yb were raced right through and we ill have twenty 2011 to race this year and theres some good ones in there



wither racing them is why we held on to more i don't know but i relly like yb racing so they will be getting raced

just my opinion, do what ya want, no hard and fast rules in this game.
But if they cant earn their keep why have um at all.
The old days just dont compare.

Jmo but as I dont keep my young uns on the darkness we only race them at the most 2 yb races, dont think it bothers them as weve had yearlings go the whole programme,

I think its important for the yb's to have a few races to get used to being liberated with more birds.

i prefer y/bs to get over a 100 mls but also know some who only train them but i found if not raced most go down very early sean

3 or 4 races for me especialy sprint birds ...they need to get out and clear quick so the exsperience is a must jmo but as said good birds are hard to lose either way

I knew a fancier called Norman Westwood of Bilston who never raced his young cocks only the hens

But he always trained them well and come as yearlings they were unbeatable
always raced well and they were the ones to beat

Norman won the Midland National from Angoleme in 1997 (not to sure of date)

JMO, but i think ybs need to go to as many yb races as possible, a few years ago i only sent my ybs to a couple of races, then as yearlings i sent 8 on widowhood and never saw a feather for 3 days, then only two ever came home.......i did get advise by a good fancier not to put inexperienced yearlings onto widowhood or i woldnt see them again, i didnt heed his advise and lost 6 out of 8.

like i say this is JMO

Although I am a hater of late breds except for breeding purposes, because of the fact that they never get trained enough and miss out on valuble education, I am also getting to believe what others have already said, birds are born to race.
However lessons learned racing as youngsters stand them well for the racing future, that isnt to say that birds are always bred late never flying as youngsters and turn out brilliant, but not often maybe once or twice a lifetime.
We all have stories of birds never going into the basket until 2 year olds and racing exceptionally well, but again caution as its not offten.
This leads me to anthother pet hate of mine "Basket as the judge" which I believe is total crap, basket tells you they race well, but not always as I believe we always loose our best racers every year by pushing them too much till thier lost, but the basket will elimantate all your breeders without mercy leaving just raers, luckily some will be good breeders too but most wont be.

i think the term "the basket will sort them out" is misleading, yes it will loose pigeons, some good , some bad....but if the fanciers management is crap, then the old saying the basket sorts them out is meaningless, all it will do is loose good birds which have been in the wrong hands, because as well all know good pigeons as well as bad ones do get lost, altho for various reason......JMO