back up team

does anybody breed a back up team of youngsters to fill any gaps due to losses

my mate does he breads 30 ybs but he says he trains them hard up to 50 miles thn keeps them back for old birds .but also he said only a few of them will make the cut from there first race. So not sure if it worth the time you have to put in to train them and money

edgie wrote:

does anybody breed a back up team of youngsters to fill any gaps due to losses

To a degree Steve I would say yes but I much prefer to call them all here etc  part of my A      B C & last but not least my D team  .

I wouldn't breed a back up team to fill gaps, I think its best to keep numbers as low as possible so only the best are left at the end of the season.......

neither would I david breed them all in time for racing and get them down the road as far as you can no matter whether yer natural or darkness of course naturals need to watched to make sure they are not too far gone in the moult

No back up team for us either. We have enough lol

peel bros wrote:

No back up team for us either. We have enough lol

Being the owner of the magic 73 team as mentioned here, I would agree .

the reason I breed a few more,is that they are bread at the correct time nature intended,no darkness the best of the weather, these are not late breds but sumer bred they will do a full moult in the year of there birth, I give them a reasonable amount of training before winter sets in,fair enough I loose some but I also get some very good yearlings out of them, normaly they get there first channel race at around 10 months old ,as we all know yearlings will give all they have got to get home , so why not try this next year,you maybe surprised . p.s. my first channel race is              ( 320 miles)

edgie wrote:

the reason I breed a few more,is that they are bread at the correct time nature intended,no darkness the best of the weather, these are not late breds but sumer bred they will do a full moult in the year of there birth, I give them a reasonable amount of training before winter sets in,fair enough I loose some but I also get some very good yearlings out of them, normaly they get there first channel race at around 10 months old ,as we all know yearlings will give all they have got to get home , so why not try this next year,you maybe surprised . p.s. my first channel race is              ( 320 miles)

All sounds OK to me Steve etc . As you would understand by my waffle here a 10 month old youngster is basically what we call an old bird here & the best of them will amaze one with what they will do if properly prepared for a certain task that they are set & I find it amussing  some what that more dont set them a task to achieve some thing out of the norm in your back yard as such, for the challenge factor .

I sometimes breed half a dozen to fill in the gaps if I have had a bad young bird season.

littlehen wrote:

I sometimes breed half a dozen to fill in the gaps if I have had a bad young bird season.

now that's where I differ I will breed at least 30 they fly better as a team, but then again I do have the room, I pick out the potential ones, the rest just stay together and are raced as a young bird team  if you have a strong team it helps to keep you at the top of your game ?