Natural or Widowhood...?

i was advise a couple of days ago by a decent fancier (murray and mills) that because all my old bird team consists of only yearlings which have only had two open races from newark, which probably only had a couple of hundred birds entered.......that for the first 4 races i should race them on natural as they will possibly get lost, partly because they have no/very little roadwork and partly because their minds will be teeling them one thing (sex) but they have not enough experience to handle this.


any thoughts...?

ive heard of murry and mills maybe there right think ide go easy on them to rember you want something to race next year as well

The majority of yearlings take a while to grasp the widowhood system (SOME NEVER DO), thats why a lot of flyers use the sliding door with the youngsters to give them a little knowledge of racing home to a hen etc etc

I would agree that with an inexperienced team, take it steady with them and to create less stress ie by sitting eggs for a few weeks wouldnt do any harm

Yearlings on Widowhood is similar to sending a cock driving, 10% will race their knackers off to get home, the other 90% simply go crazy and chase the skies following this and that

yes, this is why im thinking about what he said, my team only consists of 6 cocks because ive decided to hold back 3 others which i want as breeders....

plus i will have the 6 hens too if i do race natural....

i think thats a good answer mark just go easy at first

ah right, so the advise was pretty sound then...? he said after the first 4 or so races then see what they are like and then maybe put them onto it depending how they are doing.....plus he said the first race depending on the conditions/wind etc i could loose the lot if on widowhood.

i think you been given good advice david and like mark said yearlings look the part sometimes but just chase anything that moves
a bit like a wound up greyhound missing the traps only to be behind to excited

thanks birdy, dont want to just throw them away, especially when i only have a small "team" hopefully i can build them up and take it steady with them so they will for the base of my oldbird team next year and then push them a bit harder maybe...???

i think you will be ok like that its ok to send every week but 1 bad race will set you back another year or 2 so being carfull now will see you racing 2 year olds next year plus give you a good start with this years young birds ie plenty of time to get them ready

I have always flown natural, but this year I have 10 cocks on widowhood and 5 others on natural, they are 9 yearlings and 1 2 year old. Everyone in my area flys mostly with yearlings, because of the perigrines we dont get birds much over 2 or 3 to race. Yearlings seem to go best down here thats just what I have been told as I havent done it before this year, but I tended in the past not to race yearlings, or at least go easy on them but not this year they will go every race, I will let you know what happens.