widow hood

does every body rare yong uns off there cocks.or any body not rear any off them does this system work if you dont breed

you are better to rear young off widowhood cocks so it gives them that bond to there box and hen this is what they are racing back to

i do not breed off my racers and i think i do ok with them,but i should try really they might be better like ian said a better bond

ray doesnt matter even if you dont take anything off widowhood as long as they bring a youngun up thats what counts ,

thanks guys great advice

This is a very good question, I've a mate in Norwich, swears by not letting them rear, I myself like them to rear 1 round, I've tried both ways, not seen much difference in performance, I did try celibacy (with the birds) for one season, it wasn't for me.

The new way on the continent (last few years) is to rear two rounds of youngsters before racing

fred how could you have time to bring two rounds of younguns of widowhood you would have to pair really early

just my opinion but would have thought it best to let the w/hood cocks rear at least a tb or two, even if they are floated eggs from another pair........altho i would only let them rear one nest and then seperate before getting them prepared for training/racing

exactly that Ian, pair up in november - 1 round of youngsters then another round before racing starts, they're supposed to hold they're flights better

Sounds like a lot of work to me

yes it does but if it works

ian wrote:

you are better to rear young off widowhood cocks so it gives them that bond to there box and hen this is what they are racing back to

2010 is learning for me hopefully racing the 5 prs yearlings, going to try this with them, but only racing in 3 just to start them off ready for 2011

Spot on Ray and yes it does work

But i only let the cock feed one youngbird on the second round and sometimes they have gone to the first race feeding and will be on widowhood from the second race

i let my widowhood cocks bring one youngbird up only then split them and start training seems to work for me

It's just a way of making them last the whole season with a full wing

by the time comes with the last races they still got about 7 - 8 flights to go

That is as soon as the last race leave the birds together for 1 week then part them and then bring in the barley as part of there feed and watch them drop apart

yes barley does the job

until i saw this i have robinsons barley water every day bottles just gone in bin

steve1952 wrote:

until i saw this i have robinsons barley water every day bottles just gone in bin

do you give your birds it steve.....?

barley yes but not barley water

Nice one steve

I also removed the box fronts so once the birds are parted everything is removed and just the boxes are left open