Fred Holbard..........

Some great reading on this thread. nice one guys

yes a lot picked up reading these posts

Hi David

That's exactly what I do, i hour from the first bird home, again yearlings are slightly different, hens are always there when they get home on race days.

the harder and longer the race the longer i leave the hens in , also if i think they are loosing there keeness then i will leave hens in until morning, late ones back dont get hen at all,

Hi Ian

I'm a bit different from you
(it wouldn't be any good if we were all the same, would it?)

I never leave my hens in overnight ever, unless we have a smash, and most of the birds are missing, which fortunately doesn't happen that often half the time the cock is better on his own and recovers better, JMHO

Please don't think I'm knocking your way, as many roads.......and all that

I think if the cocks are losing their keenness, the less they see of their hens the better, again this is just me. (absents makes the heart grow fonder) and I agree about late ones, except yearlings which are still learning the game

ATB

fred

yes like you say everyones different , i appreciate you being honest many would just agree , like you say if we were all the same then the world would be a boring place , i know many people re pair up towards the end of the season to try and get abit more out of the cocks ,tried it before and worked for one race ,topped the fed that week but only for the one race they were crap after that so wont be doing that again, made a note just to remind me

Here's a little tip for you Ian, if you've got a comeback race after the last old bird long one, repair them on the Sunday of the long-un, they'll be driving for the comeback race, normally works for me, I only like to do it the once though.

Regards

Fred

thanks fred ill try that ,like you say only seems to work for one race

Quote:

fred if you dont mind me asking do you fly widowhood how many old birds do yu fly and how do you fly your youngbirds , ie darkie paired up seperated or any thing else


Hi Ian
I fly widowhood cocks old birds, this year I have 30 cocks, 10 are my combine cocks
and twenty are for allround, a big team I know, but they don't all go every week.

My youngsters are all on the dark, seperated and/or paired, I like to catch pair my hens to old cocks, ie 2 or 3 young hens to one old cock

Fred

hi fred, im just re-starting racing this year again with ybs, what is your opinion to flying darkness ybs on roundabout......i was thinking of seperating sexes when they start to show signs of if they are cock or hen and have the cocks in a section with widowhood boxes and the hens to perches and then use the normal roundabout system......

fred holbard wrote:

Quote:

fred if you dont mind me asking do you fly widowhood how many old birds do yu fly and how do you fly your youngbirds , ie darkie paired up seperated or any thing else


Hi Ian
I fly widowhood cocks old birds, this year I have 30 cocks, 10 are my combine cocks
and twenty are for allround, a big team I know, but they don't all go every week.

My youngsters are all on the dark, seperated and/or paired, I like to catch pair my hens to old cocks, ie 2 or 3 young hens to one old cock

Fred

i myself race 24 widowhood cocks , i race my youngbirds on the dark system i leave them together and let them pair up i put nestpans in youngbird loft to encourage this,

DAVID wrote:

hi fred, im just re-starting racing this year again with ybs, what is your opinion to flying darkness ybs on roundabout......i was thinking of seperating sexes when they start to show signs of if they are cock or hen and have the cocks in a section with widowhood boxes and the hens to perches and then use the normal roundabout system......

I've been racing young birds on the door system off and on since 1985, it's similar to roundabout, but they stay in their own section, and here's a great tip for everyone, they exercise a lot better on their own, especially the hens, they say darkness youngsters don't run - mine do - two and a half hours last year.
I wish you well in your first year back, I bet you can't wait

Fred[/quote]
i myself race 24 widowhood cocks , i race my youngbirds on the dark system i leave them together and let them pair up i put nestpans in youngbird loft to encourage this,[/quote]

Similar to myself, although I race to the door, I let them pair at either end of the programme, depending how I feel, keep em guessing!

fred holbard wrote:

DAVID wrote:

hi fred, im just re-starting racing this year again with ybs, what is your opinion to flying darkness ybs on roundabout......i was thinking of seperating sexes when they start to show signs of if they are cock or hen and have the cocks in a section with widowhood boxes and the hens to perches and then use the normal roundabout system......

I've been racing young birds on the door system off and on since 1985, it's similar to roundabout, but they stay in their own section, and here's a great tip for everyone, they exercise a lot better on their own, especially the hens, they say darkness youngsters don't run - mine do - two and a half hours last year.
I wish you well in your first year back, I bet you can't wait

i cant wait, but its been a very big help all info were getting from members

sure you will be ok david, steve just comittment is what you need the rest will follow

David like Ian says you will be fine. How many of us are having their first full season this year?
Its my first season flying up north.

Amanda

Fair play Fred top man, like the honesty

Thank you for that Don, I'm always honest with my replies, there are no secrets, most of it's common sense, but as my old dad used to say "the trouble with common sense is - it aint that common

You are correct with that mate

But the other thing is observation just spending time with your pigeons and seeing what they do different

Here's one for you Don, I don't know how long you've had pigeons for, but sit in with your birds for a while - mainly when they're paired up, try to be as quite and unassuming as you can be, no talking to them or offering them titbits, now here's the thing, you should be able to hear them purring - yes purring like a cat, You may think I'm Barking (no pun intended) but I heard this years ago with my old Busschaerts, I spoke to my club mates about it and they thought I was mad, but I had it confirmed by Chris Balson on another site, he had the same, and it is that they are content, happy you are in there domain.

Any one else notice this

yes your right fred have heard of this

hi fred, when you have raced the ybs to their own section as widowhood, do you use the same method as widowhood cocks and show the hen before basketing....? if so, altho it would motivate the cock how do you motivate the hen as she wouldnt be normally in the nestbox section so would only have a perch in the hens section......

Hi David, I've got three sections in my young bird shed, it's the one I wrote about in the ventilation thread, one is set up with pipo boxes, 8x6 one has got foot by foot by foot box perches for the hens 8x6 the centre section has eight widowhood boxes, but I only had 4 cocks in there this year (paired to old hens)

ah right, so you dont actually have young hens paired to young cocks if you are flying them on a widowhood type system..........? good idea to put young cocks to old hens as the hen will always be there upon their return,
do you think i should just concentrate on putting the ybs on the dark and racing them to the perch with this being my first racing after all the years away and just keep everything simple....or have a go at some sort of widowhood/roundabout ?