cocks must bond with their box

Cocks Must Bond With Their Boxes

Fanciers wanting to achieve success in racing their pigeons must show an element of flexibility, and be prepared to adapt to the changing circumstances which life, nature and the weather all conspire against you at times. It is always interesting to set a major question and then to go ahead and formulate an answer. In this instance the question I wanted to answer was how long would it take for my Widowhood team to reach winning fitness and condition, considering that they had not even flown outside the loft for a full six months, entirely due to the problem we have with sparrowhawks
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These 30 pigeons had not flown outside for half of the year; that is from October 9 until April 9. During this time they were simply confined to the loft, for their own safety.

It may be important to add that throughout this period these pigeons were fed correctly with a balanced diet. When the moult had finished, and in the warmer periods of the winter they received a depurative mixture, with the addition of a high protein mixture of beans, peas and tares. The exact make up of the feed varied according to the outside temperatures. Pigeons generally eat more when the weather is cold, whatever the season of the year, and so how much the birds required was indicated by how much they ate or left. A regular supply of grit and minerals plus clean water changed at least once every day were the additional necessities provided for the birds.
The cocks perched in their own nest boxes and any vacant boxes were closed and if other cocks insisted on perching on the front of these they were blanked off completely with plywood. It is important to ensure that each cock has only one box and that this is his regular spot, 'his armchair', and something which he will defend and fight to preserve, have full ownership of, and form a total and complete bond with, because when racing commences, this above all else, is what he will race and return to.

During the winter months the hens, which were to be paired to the cocks were kept in their own premises, which is a compartment in the stock loft, completely away from the cocks' home. The hens had access to an aviary and received a bath once or twice each week. Their feed was also predominantly depurative mixture as soon as their moult had been completed. It was important that they did not become fat, thus causing laying problems, more precisely delay in popping out the eggs.
Due to the fact that I was on holiday in South Africa in late January/early February our Widowhood cocks were not paired up this year until February 8, which was later than I would have preferred. However, with only one exception, all hens laid between February 15 and 22, or from 8 to 15 days. The exception, a hen which had been on loan to a friend, laid three days later.

It was my intention to allow these birds their freedom when they had all been sitting for a week, but the fact that the sparrowhawks had already murdered two of our pigeons within a few days, prompted my decision to keep in these pigeons, which were our main race team, many of which were prizewinners, and allow them to get on with rearing their youngsters. Eggs were switched and moved under different pairs so that the majority of these pigeons reared only a single youngster. This encouraged the hens to lay their next round slightly earlier, and also was less of a drain on the cocks. I am convinced that any Widowhood cock which cannot rear and feed a single youngster correctly will not have the constitution to perform well in races, and I feel this sitting and rearing period is a further bonding for the cock to that nest box. Youngsters were weaned at 24 days old, and the hens were allowed to lay their second round of eggs. On April 8 any remaining youngsters and all the hens were removed. Some of the pairs had been sitting for 14 days, whilst others had only just commenced sitting.

In previous years I have found that some pigeons will begin to cast their primary flights after sitting their second round of eggs for only six days, and some will not cast until much later. The 30 pairs in my loft had commenced sitting at slightly different times and I anticipated that because I had paired the birds later this season, casting flights should not be a cause for concern. Ideally I required pigeons to come into form at different times throughout the season to give us birds with peak condition over several weeks rather than having the complete team at a crescendo for just one or two weeks.

On April 9 our 30 Widowhood cocks flew out of the loft to exercise for the first time in six months. The hawk problem seemed to have reduced considerably by this time, possibly because the hawks themselves were now sitting eggs, but maybe we were fortunate that a pair of crows had built a large nest in a tree only 50 yards from the loft, and along with a few of their mates, seemed to be constantly patrolling the area. A total of seven of our earlier bred youngsters and yearlings including 'Bostik' our 1997 NFC Section winner had been lost to the hawk in the first few months of the year.
The aim now was to 'bring on' the Widowhood cocks, and get them into racing condition. At first they were let out for half an hour in the morning and evening, and then
called in to find a level soup spoon full of depurative in their plastic pots, which were attached to each nest box. This encouraged the cocks to fly straight to their own boxes as soon as the loft doors were opened. In the first few days the cocks did not eat up, but the length of their exercise periods was swiftly increased to one hour morning and evening. The cocks did actually fly well for most of this hour and soon polished off a full heaped spoonful of depurative, both morning and evening. Consequently an additional amount of depurative was put in the hopper on the loft floor and as soon as the cocks started to leave anything no more was added. When the weather became colder the Widowhood cocks were fed 50% breeding mixture and 50% depurative with the same routine followed.

One hour exercise morning and evening, well-rounded soup spoon of feed in the pots, and additional feed placed in the hopper on the floor until their appetites were satisfied. Clean water for four days, and then garlic in the water for three days was administered. When the hens had been away for exactly two weeks the cocks received their first training toss. A distance of eight miles, and training continued each day when the weather was suitable. The training stints were usually between 1pm and 3pm, and even after these tosses the cocks were still exercised in the evening, so possibly when the weather was nice the cocks received approaching 2% hours exercise per day. During all the training stints the Widowhood cocks had no sight of their hens whatsoever. Our cocks only see their hens half an hour before basketing for their first race.

On May 2, 10 out of the 30 cocks were re-introduced to their hens and sent to the 124-mile race. However, none of these pigeons were within 10 minutes of our first arrival, a yearling cock which had been prepared for the early season races. He incidentally finished 8th Federation from over 2,000 birds.

Training continued for the whole team for the following week when the weather permitted, again with the cocks returning only to the nest box, and certainly no hens shown. The aforementioned race had improved the fitness of the 10 competing birds, and the following Saturday (May 9) everyone of these improved considerably; so much so, that a three-year-old Kellens cock won our first red card of the season. Do bear in mind that this race was on May 9 and the birds had only their first flight around the loft for six months on April 9. On Wednesday May 13, F & J Halstead also won 1st & 2nd in the Appleby Magna Open race from Wincanton. It is surprising what progress can be made in one month.