How far would you send a yearling?

I like to stop mine at out first channel, this being lille 347 miles, then next year a bit further till hopefully its still with me at 4 years old to tackle the UNC Marathon thats Bourges, but remember a few in our club used to send their yearlings to Bourges and time them in, but each to our own. But then again how far have members on here sent their yearlings?

cocks 347,hens about 420

When we raced in 1990/95 we sent a yearling cock to Niort 523,mles he did it on the day in a lite north wind and hot he were 3,rd club we won it with another bird we only sent 2 and had them both on the day.

300 miles up to now but old bird team is at maximum numbers now so all being well can be a bit more daring this year with a few and go to 400 miles but all depends on a number of things and I think you need to treat each bird individually jmo

if it hasent taken owt out of them at 300 miles then a good forcast i just might try a few at 400 miles but no more

the NI kings cup winner from France this year was a yearling

i think 300 is enough there still maturing

Seen yearlings fly 500 mile

Look at Mr Cattrysee Colin Lloyd of Cannock
His Saintes National winner was a yearling but that pigeon won the Fed from Saints the week before the national win

That's 2x400 plus miles in a week

if its good enough its old enough but wat do I know pmsl

mufc rick wrote:

if its good enough its old enough but wat do I know pmsl

Could I suggest         Rick, "you know" about as much as the rest of us here & that's not all that much     . Surely yearlings !!!!! (if fit/healthy & motivated) should be able to fly 5/600miles under reasonable race conditions.  

many a good distance fancier suggest 2 year old birds for distance and bring um on steady but like I said I think you have to treat each bird as individuals not a job lot ...send all yer yearlings to 500 and 600 mile races ya wont have many left

oldstrain wrote:

many a good distance fancier suggest 2 year old birds for distance and bring um on steady but like I said I think you have to treat each bird as individuals not a job lot ...send all yer yearlings to 500 and 600 mile races ya wont have many left

Will agree 110% Daz

But for me I would say if you want a proven family I would say send your birds and see what is left for me that's the only way to sort your birds out mate

But it's all about time it takes a lot longer to get a distance family established compared to a sprint family

oldstrain wrote:

many a good distance fancier suggest 2 year old birds for distance and bring um on steady but like I said I think you have to treat each bird as individuals not a job lot ...send all yer yearlings to 500 and 600 mile races ya wont have many left

Agree with that, I think a yearling will do 5/600 mile races but long term dont think it will do it any good though, jmo

In my opinion this is an unanswerable question as everyone will have a different answer. for years now I have raced yearlings down to 280 miles but they are easily lost, and birds that race up to that distance as youngsters don't make it that far as yearlings.

A fancier years ago advised me to only race them on comebacks as its too cold early on, he was right and I did find them easily lost, however others in the area raced them fine and won mostly with yearlings.

I have also religiously stopped a few yearlings to breed from for that year and race them again the following year, but this hasn't been that good and these are again easily lost.

I have come to the conclusion that you have to have fun with them while they are going well, stopping starting or anything eles you do makes no difference, good ones come home and bad ones don't.

Rudderfett wrote:

In my opinion this is an unanswerable question as everyone will have a different answer. for years now I have raced yearlings down to 280 miles but they are easily lost, and birds that race up to that distance as youngsters don't make it that far as yearlings.

A fancier years ago advised me to only race them on comebacks as its too cold early on, he was right and I did find them easily lost, however others in the area raced them fine and won mostly with yearlings.

I have also religiously stopped a few yearlings to breed from for that year and race them again the following year, but this hasn't been that good and these are again easily lost.

I have come to the conclusion that you have to have fun with them while they are going well, stopping starting or anything eles you do makes no difference, good ones come home and bad ones don't.

Will free with you there Martyn

Not sure at what age ---you folks-call a yearling.----how old?
A 4 month old pigeon--with training - is good for 300 miles.
Seems most flyers "BABY" their birds.
I had a hen---trained up to 30 miles----she flew 3-----300 mile races.
But that is just the way us Texans push pigeons.
I had 1 pigeon that I shipped to ever race.
It never won a race--but came home.
The 500 mile race---took it 29 days to come home.--I think another flyer had it for a while.
It had a tad over 4,000 -offical race-miles on it when I stopped it.


Ring a Squab with a last years ring----ship it with the Old birds--Raaces-
You will be surprised how well the bird will do.

With all respect to you TEX but racing in America and here in UK is very different, not sure what raptors you have there a lot I know but not perigrines? and believe me in April here when we start off training the yearlings its f****ng freezing and raining most of the time.

Yes rud---we race different here than in the U K.
our 300 mile race - this past weekend----birds were released in 29F temps.
Not sure the C temp----below 0.
And we have our share of Hawks and Falcons.
If you raise and fly rollers and let them fly "EVER" day
you better hatch 365 birds. you will lose 1 ever time you let them out.

burning the candle at both ends dont do no good to nowt be patcient it works better

Rudderfett wrote:

With all respect to you TEX but racing in America and here in UK is very different, not sure what raptors you have there a lot I know but not perigrines? and believe me in April here when we start off training the yearlings its f****ng freezing and raining most of the time.

True Rudd     in what you say. Total waste of time comparing differant area's/countrys in the way we go about racing the birds etc. So many differant factors play a part before one gets to a final result on race day type of thing. I've seen many an import/pom     down here, who had a long list of credits to their name (It all meant nothing thou)       sadly, in most cases & they just had to adapt to our way of doing things etc or drown slowly in their memories.