peanuts.....

Is that what you do as well Ian

i think flying widowhood is easier than natural overall, although like don say you have to be stricter with them....and also the front of our w/hood loft had glass widows which were painted white emulsion on the inside which allowed some light through but they couldnt see out at things to distract them as we wanted them to be calm and rest...

my widowhood cocks have clear perspex widows with mesh behind doesnt seem to bother them being able to see out

are they quiet and resting in the loft ian ? if i could i would have had the full front of my loft doweling but the cats can jump up and look in and scare them, so i cant....

yes i think so on a tea time anyway during the day they keep jumping into each others boxes but thats not a bad thing just gee,s them up a touch

ive heard of some fanciers who race widowhood having no perches in the loft and all the cock has is its nestbox....recon its the best way to get them very protective of it.

yes david i also have no perches in loft just boxes

do you ever have any problems with the hen not too bothered about the cock on basketing night ian ?

yes sometimes change the hen over got spares

do you think its because the hens are pairing to each other.....?

David

A widowhood loft has no perchs just the boxes at the back of the loft

Perchs are used to add a little motivation between the cocks

yes don have read thing like that, i think fanciers just experiment with ideas and if it gets some better results they are happy and stick to the methods...i suppose if we do the same thing week after week the birds will go stale and get used to it or sick of it...

Yes that is correct david

If you can change things now and then this makes this makes the cock think and keeps him on his toes

ive heard fanciers complaining about on basket night some widowhood cocks entered my a certain man are very aggressive and fighting and injuring all their cocks amd taking over most of the basket.....according to what they say he does plenty of winning with them, is he winding them up to be like this ?

Yes Totally

david that will always happen but 9 times out of ten its the pigeons that sit quietly in the basket that wins

If you have widowhood cocks aggresive in the basket they are more times than not yearlings which have seen there hens and this makes them fire up

Ian you are correct if the pigeons mind is on the job then he will be quiet and up a corner by the flap waiting for the release the next day

if any pigeons go by him he will flick out his wing just to keep them from him

Remember talking to Ron Green the owner of the champion Breakaway 59 firsts

He said that everytime he was [laced in a basket he would walk to the flap and hunch up and i know this is true because my boxing mate also raced pigeons with his father in the same club and he told me how Breakaway was and how he would walk to the flap and stay there

i bet he wasnt fighting all the time just sitting quietly

Almost all the time just quiet in the basket up the corner by the flap and the odd flick of the wing if a bird got to close

You can believe it or not but they would move the basket around too see if he would still go in the same direction in the basket and everytime he would look and go to the flap

If that is not having your mind on the job then what is???

ive seen a dvd of ron green and his birds ....they are very tame and he can just pick them up off the perch or nestbox, he feeds them some seed or peanuts, i cant tell which.....great bloke as well.

have you tried the peanuts with yours david

hi ian, i crushed some up last week to see if they would eat them but dont know if they did...i keep meaning to give them to the pigeons but always forget and get too involved with cleaning out and feeding, so i never bother....