Almost mating time.

Stock birds had the lights on for 12 hours yesterday. Few days will give them another hour a day and so on. Dec. 15th will mate them. Minus 12 C today so clean out the boxes will wait until it gets to freezing or above. Day or so. Just young off stock birds (all ex racers) this year. Else far too many. Racers can sit eggs. Maybe the odd young bird but not likely. All ready to go! Stock hens will be some young that flew very well. Gonna be a colour fest! Mostly red and red pieds and at least 4 white hens.

Some have already paired theirs up around here Hal ready for the rings on the 1st December not for me not yet

markevans wrote:

Some have already paired theirs up around here Hal ready for the rings on the 1st December not for me not yet

They are 2019 rings etc I take it Mark .

Rings here not available until Jan. 1st. Does not matter. The early ones cannot be let out until the weather warms anyway. 2 months or more after banding. I have been quite lucky. Young birds get to sit in an aviary and obseve all the surroundings. Hawks, feral pigeons etc,. When they do get out they are strong on the wing. Obviously I lose some but losses are minimal.

halcanada wrote:

Rings here not available until Jan. 1st. Does not matter. The early ones cannot be let out until the weather warms anyway. 2 months or more after banding. I have been quite lucky. Young birds get to sit in an aviary and obseve all the surroundings. Hawks, feral pigeons etc,. When they do get out they are strong on the wing. Obviously I lose some but losses are minimal.

Rings available here on the first of July every year etc Hal . Still haven't even picked mine up yet    .