January 2008 BLOG
As of today, I have rung over 200 youngsters since January 1. For those of you who have followed the blog, you know that the process of "ringing" (Flemish or Dutch) or "banding" (USA) the first round began in October, 2007 with a thorough annual medication of the breeders. The breeders were coupled (Flemish) the first week of December which resulted in hundreds of pipping eggs on January 1, 2008. Breeding a robust and plentiful first round of future young bird racers is not an accident. Rather, it is the result of the planning and execution of an aggressive loft management system; which brings me to the first major key point of the 2008 blog. The most important function of the pigeon racing sport is the role of the fancier. The fancier builds the loft. The fancier selects the breeding stock. The fancier trains the young birds. The fancier feeds and waters the birds. The fancier medicates the birds. And on and on.........
If the fancier performs the tasks inherent to successful pigeon racing well, the results on the race sheet will tell the story. If the fancier performs the tasks inherent to successful pigeon racing poorly, the results on the race sheet will tell that the story also. The outcome of most races over 1100 yards per minute are influenced primarily by the fancier. The outcome of most races under 1100 yards per minute are influenced primarily by the condition, motivation and genetic quality of the racing pigeon. In Oklahoma, racing north from south Texas - the vast majority - probably 90% of the races - are above 1100 yards per minute. The races are tailwind races due to the primarily southern winds of Texas and Oklahoma and the race sheet is filled very quickly - even from races of 400, 500, and sometimes 600 miles. Racers have to be exercised often, fed carefully, and motivated passionately.
The only way to properly learn the pigeon sport is to read - talk to successful fanciers - and to spend as much quality time as possible in the loft with the birds. The more birds that you house, the more difficult it will be to properly learn the sport. If a new fancier doesn't know how to manage one racer properly and effectively, how can a new fancier expect to properly and effectively manage a larger race team - say 10, 20, 40, 60 or 80 young birds?
If you are a new fancier, a relatively new fancier, or a fancier who wants to play the game better, select a young bird race team of 10 pigeons or less in August after the young birds have been properly trained to 60 miles or farther. This plan takes courage because most American fancier think big. This type of culture is not consistent throughout the globe. In Europe, the culture of the sport encourages fanciers to think small. Another way to express it would be to think QUALITY. Let me tell you the hard truth, my friends. Less than 10 to 20 percent of the young birds you raise will perform at the top of the race sheet. I have heard many of the best fanciers in Belgium and Holland remark that they are lucky to breed one champion from every 100 to 200 young birds they breed.
I know a man in the Tulsa area that annually ends up with 60 to 80 young birds left after completing the young bird season. He believes that all young birds who complete a full young bird season are good pigeons. I have asked him to rank his young bird team in order of best finishes to worst finishes on the race sheets. Invariably, there will be 6, 8, or sometimes 10 young birds who consistently scored the highest on the race sheet out of his young bird race team. If this is the case, then he can eliminate all of those youngsters who performed at a lower level that the top tier of racers.
KEY POINT: if your criteria is simply for a young bird to home on the day of a race, you will end up with a loft full of homers rather than a loft full of racers. On the average, less than 10% of the birds you raise will have the quality to develop into top racers. Another way to put it is this way: On the average, 90 out of every 100 young birds you raise annually will not develop into top racers and ultimate champions.
BACK TO THE 2008 YOUNG BIRDS
The first round is almost 3 weeks old. They are moving around the nest box and standing away from the nest bowl with their parents. Each nest box has a bowl or container in the nest box so that the young birds can eat by themselves. In the horse and cattle business, this is called "creep" feeding. My young birds are creep fed in the nest box so that they learn to feed themselves quickly. By the time they are weaned, they have already learned to eat - and sometimes to drink - by themselves. Ultimately, the stress of weaning is not measurable because the young birds learn to take care of themselves by watching their parents eat and drink out of bowls or containers in the nest box. Be learning to eat 7 to 10 days before they are old enough to wean conventionally, the young birds are more robust and healthy at 30 days of age than they would be if the only relied on their parents for nourishment.
KEY POINT: Begin to "creep feed" youngsters a good breeder mix of grain with plenty of safflower in the nest box at approximately 18 days of age.
WEANING YOUNG BIRDS
If you do not have the ability to creep feed your youngsters in their nest box, another alternative is to place them on the floor in a "nursery" setting. Breeders will select their youngsters to feed on the floor and will often feed a noisy youngster that is not their own. On the floor youngsters should have access to feed, water, grit, and other supplements like pickstone. Especially after weaning, give your young birds pickstone free choice or constantly available for them to eat. Young birds will devour fresh pickstone and the added nutrients will help them become very robust and healthy.
I like to give every youngster a Pegosan tablet when they are first placed into the young bird loft. As I have said in a previous blog, PEGOSAN tablets are an excellent product and will treat any active or residual canker, cocci, or crop infections that the youngsters may have picked up or developed in the nest. It also helps minimize any strain from weaning. However, my contention is that if you have fed the youngsters properly in the nest box or on the floor, there should be little or no stress during the weaning phase of a young birds development.
The day that youngsters are weaned, they should spend an hour on the landing board in a settling cage for protection from hawks, owls, cats, etc. It is important to teach youngsters the routine they will face as racers as early as possible. I include the familiarization with the landing board and trap with the weaning process. Youngsters learn incredibly quickly even at three or four weeks of age and this knowledge sticks with them for life. They can learn to be tame with proper training, or they can learn to be wild by ignoring them and treating them as a flock instead of as individuals. As a general statement, I have found that Belgian fanciers treat their young birds as a group of individual racers. American fanciers tend to treat their young birds as a flock. I find that it is far better to treat your youngsters as individuals rather than as a flock. In other words, each youngster should be taught the process of becoming a champion racer one by one. Set each youngster out on the landing board. Let them become familiar with the environment outside of the loft. Let them learn how to enter the loft through the trap and to enter their loft. Once in their loft, they should find food, fresh water, fresh grit, and clean fresh pickstone in addition to any other additives you like to administer.
WHISTLING OR CALLING - THE "RESPONSE TO COMMAND"
when I feed my pigeons. I call them. Other fanciers whistle; either with their mouth or by using an actual whistle. My partner Jef likes to use a whistle in Belgium. I have tried this with my own whistle that Jef bought me. However, rather quickly, I developed a headache from blowing the whistle. So when I am training young birds in Belgium, I teach the youngsters to come when I call in addition to responding to the whistle when Jef blows it. In the States, there is no whistle and I simply call the birds. I picked up my call from Antoine Jacops and simply repeat the word "Come." I do this in a slightly higher tone than normal speech and repeat the word quickly - come, come, come.
Regardless of what command you use, young birds should learn to respond to your command quickly by entering the loft if they are outside or by moving around your feet if you are in the loft with them. KEY POINT: This "response to command" is the most important aspect of young bird training. First, when the youngsters learn the response properly, it gives you a level of control over your birds. Second, it teaches the youngsters to depend on you for their sustenance and well-being, i.e., food, water and the comfort inside the loft. Third, it teaches the youngsters that the fancier is actually the "door way" to the loft rather than the trap. I hope you understand this point because it constitutes the entire basis of the Sport of Racing Pigeons. Youngsters must learn to transfer control of their destiny from their own decision-making to dependence upon the fancier for the decision-making. This transference is traditionally called "taming." You "tame" an animal or a bird by transferring the decision-making process from the animal or bird to the trainer or fancier. In management circles, this process is known as command and control.
Twenty-five years ago, Antoine Jacops, among other fanciers, taught me the true importance of the early education of young birds. Antoine used to say that a fancier must be "very cruel" with his youngsters. While Antoine's English is excellent, he was actually trying to say to be very "strict" with the youngsters at an early age. Make them obey your command before you reward them. How does this translate into something meaningful for you? Let me explain further. Most Belgian fanciers use a wooden floor in their young bird loft. Antoine scrapes the floor twice a day and hand feeds the youngsters one handful of feed at a time on the scraped floor. I do the same. The first day of weaning, place the youngsters out ob the landing board in a settling cage while you scrape the loft. then, depending upon the height of the landing board and the depth of the loft floor, herd the youngsters into the loft through the trap with your hands, hooples, a tennis racket, a board or whatever. when you are doing this, use your command (whistle, voice command, whatever) to come. Once the young birds are in the loft, squat down, sit on the scraped floor, or sit on a five gallon bucket and begin to gently place a small handful of feed in front of them. At first, most youngbirds will be hesitant; but several should begin to peck at the grains. Feed them about one soupspoonful of grain per youngster. If you have to, leave some on the floor for the less aggressive youngsters if they don't finish the amount of grain you allotted for the feeding period. Do this exercise twice a day: once early in the day and once later in the evening. For some of you. you may need to adjust this procedure to accommodate work schedules or family commitments. Don't be afraid to turn on a light and feed youngsters in the night if need be. Of course if you feed at night. you may have to give up teaching them about trapping until you can spend time with the young birds during the daylight hours. My good friend Steve King of Fast Lane Loft here in Tulsa needs to be at work at 5 am. He feeds his birds at night before he goes to work.
After several days, many of the youngsters will begin to respond to your command and start to squeak, shake their wing butts, and move toward you when you begin to command them to respond. After the youngsters are five weeks old, they should fly well enough to negotiate the height between your landing board and the loft floor. Continue to place the youngsters on the landing board in the settling cage - and after about 30 minutes to one hour, call them inside to eat. After the first week of training, do not feed any youngster that does not respond to your command within a very short period of time - say one minute or less. By the next feeding, the hungry youngsters should respond more quickly to your command. Do not feed those youngsters who do not quickly respond to your command until they comply - even if this means that they are not fed for one or two days. Occasionally the stress of not eating causes a youngster to go light. If this begins to happen, give the youngster another Pegosan tablet. Once in a while, you may lose a youngster that simply cannot conform to the response to command phase of the development process. Do not quit using the settling cage until your youngsters have successfully learned to respond to your command. when you feel the youngsters have successfully learned to come to your command, you may remove the settling cage and begin to let them explore their outside environment.
FEEDING
Young birds receive a mixture made up of 1/3 barley - 1/3 safflower - 1/3 mixed grains, i.e., Canadian peas, milo, millet, kafir corn, yellow corn, hemp, flax, rape, sunflower seeds, oat groats, wheat, etc. The mixed grains are primarily small seeds. After scraping the floor, young birds are fed on the floor one handful of grain at a time. If you wish, sit down on the floor or sit on a five-gallon bucket near the birds. Gently sprinkle the grains over their backs. Ask them to eat from your hand. If you're sitting, sprinkle grains on your pants and inside or slightly underneath your legs. If you do this consistently, in just a few days, the youngsters will tame and eat freely from your hand as well as walk over your lap and legs. Observe how each bird eats. Which ones eat the most? Do some seem ravished no matter how much they eat? Are there bullies? Which ones are afraid and timid? Are there those who refuse to eat? Which grains do they eat? All of the answers to these questions give you information about each young bird and your race team in general; and often signals which ones will be your future champions and which ones won't be around much longer.
USE A RACE CRATE OR A TRAINING BASKET FROM THE START
After the young birds have begun to initially take short flights around the loft, use a race crate or training crate to teach them about basketing. Place the young birds in a race crate for about 15 minutes before they are released for their daily exercise. Later, I will discuss teaching the youngsters to eat and drink from the crate so that when they are basketed to race, they will have a competitive advantage on race day.
REPITITION
Repeating the same routine over and over teaches youngsters what to expect on a daily basis. Developing expectation is another important tool to motivate pigeons to race home. when racers learn to expect something positive when they are winging their way home, they will fly faster because the expectation is a motivating factor. Racers learn to expect good food, clean fresh water, proper supplements, a clean environment, the sanctity of their loft space or nest box, the satisfaction of a mate, or the comfort a fancier's love and devotion to the birds. Motivation is a complex state of mind. Let me ask you. when you think of home, it is a positive or negative memory or thought? What do you think of first? Your spouse if you are married. Your partner or friend. Your house? Your kitcfemale and refrigerator? Your television, computer, video games, work bench, pigeons, loft, bed, or toilet? I think that pigeons think about many of the same things we think about when we think of home. If these thoughts are extremely positive, we are motivated to come home quickly. If these thoughts are mundane or even negative, we may come home less quickly.
To the degree you are able, repeat the same processes every single day with your pigeons. The routine will produce a positive expectation that will translate into the speed of your pigeons on race day. I guarantee it!
To summarize, we have discussed two fundamental building blocks of motivation that are strictly a function of the relationship between a fancier and his or her pigeons:
1. Response to command and the satisfaction it brings as pigeons learn the benefits of relying upon their fancier for their well-being.
2. Expectation of a positive home environment that pigeons learn from repetition.
whenever I feed the breeders in the nest box, I say come, come, come to stimulate them to eat. when the youngsters are hatched - even before they open their eyes - they can hear the sound of my voice and feel the movement of their parents around them in the nest box as they respond to my voice. After their eyes are open, they sit and watch their parents respond to my command once or twice a day. It is a mystery, then, why the youngsters get up from the comfort of the nest bowl and follow their parents to eat from a small cup in the nest box when they are first able to walk? Properly managed, youngsters will learn to eat by themselves or to "creep" at 18 to 21 days of age because they model their parents behavior and learn to eat by responding to my command while they are still in the nest! It is no wonder that responding to command is not a new task for the youngsters when they are moved to the young bird loft.
To summarize again:
1. Creep feed your youngsters in the nest box with their parents.
2. Command them to eat.
3. Repeat the process twice a day.
4. Wean at 25 to 28 days. This will spare the breeders several days to a week of the stress of feeding large youngsters.
5. Hand feed the youngsters on the floor of their loft.
6. Tame the youngsters through constant contact with them while feeding. I gently say come most of the time while I am feeding them.
7. Observe your young birds during feeding and learn them as distinct individuals.
8. Place them outside on the landing board in a settling cage twice a day if possible. Let them learn their outside environs.
9. After they are taking very short flights around the loft or between lofts, basket them before they are released to exercise. Use a race crate, if possible, so that they can be taught to eat and drink from the crate after they are properly weaned and eating and drinking vigorously.
10. Teach them to stop their exercising and to enter the loft quickly upon command.
11. Develop a bond with each young bird.
12. Repeat the same process every day.
If you follow this management plan to the best of your ability every single day you are able, you will not only have fun with your pigeons; but you will improve the chances of your pigeons scoring high on the race sheet come race day. I guarantee it!!!
THE ROLE OF THE FANCIER
A team of racing pigeons reflects the personality of the fancier and execution of a quality management program. To state it more personally for you, the performance of your pigeons, their place on the race sheet, are primarily a reflection of how you execute your job or role as a racing pigeon fancier. If you are a relatively new fancier, or a fancier who has not yet experienced the type of success to which you aspire, your knowledge of the Sport of Racing Pigeons will certainly influence the performance of your race team; but your knowledge level will not necessarily be a significant deterrent to your success. Hard work will always neutralize and overcome a lack of knowledge about the Sport. So I encourage you to work hard to manage your pigeons as best as you can at the moment. KEY POINT: Repeat the same basic routines everyday. Your pigeons will respond to your discipline. Concentrate on improving your own performance as much as you concentrate on the performance of your pigeons.
KEY POINT: A good pigeon fancier is a good pigeon fancier. That is, regardless of the direction that is raced, regardless of the system of motivation, regardless of the type of pigeons, a good fancier will find a way to win. It amuses me when fanciers think that they can change the direction of flight in order to stop a successful fancier from winning. I know of such a club in western Arkansas. The club president and founding members fly the course that benefits them the best according to their loft position. While I will admit that loft position influences the race sheet on occasion, over the long haul, the best fanciers win. My friend Michel Van Lint in Belgium, arguably the best pigeon fancier in the world over the last few years, was told he couldn't find success in a club west of his loft position. Needless to say, Michel has raced very well in this "impossible" situation. Why? Because he out works and out thinks his competition. Here is his website if you are interested in Michel's story and pigeons, click here for his website. My partner Jef Cuypers is Michel's web master and maintains Michel's web site.
The fancier must work harder than the pigeons if success is the goal; and if success defined a top place on the race sheet. The idea that pigeons can somehow be raced into form with little or no effort on the part of the fancier is an extremely risky method of playing the Sport; and very well may result in great disappointment for the fancier that subscribes to this method. Time after time, fancier after fancier, loft after loft, hard work is the centerpiece of a successful management system. In Belgium, entire families divide the work in the loft in order to play the game at the highest levels. In Belgium, the noise of scrapers moving back and forth on wooden floor fills the air in village after village early each morning and late each evening. Over 20 years ago when I first visited the Houbens, I was so impressed that the entire family played a role in the success of the Houben loft. One of the reasons the Janssen Brothers were so dominating in their area was due to the division of labor among the brothers. when I first met the Janssens in 1986 and visited their home with Mike Ganus, Jef cleaned the loft, Charel took care of the birds, and Louis was the businessman. Can you tell which one is which in this picture?
Actually, Jef was out scraping the loft when this picture was taken. Charel is on the left and Louis is on the right. That's me in the middle.
Fellow fanciers, if you don't want to work very hard to see your pigeons score at the top of the race sheet, choose another hobby! With that said, there is one other remedy in order to reduce the amount of work required and yet be successful in the Sport. That answer will come in tomorrow's posting.
We are discussing the Role of the Fancier and hard work in the Sport of Racing Pigeons.
Let me give you this obvious formula. The greater the number of pigeons in your loft, the greater the amount of work it will take to properly care for them. If you want to reduce the amount of work and the time it takes to properly care for them, reduce the number of pigeons in your loft. As an example, let's discuss the following questions.
If you raise 60 young birds, how many of them will score in the young bird race series?
If you compete in an 8 to 10 week race season, how many racers does it take to be competitive every week?
Let's examine question 1.
For the average fancier, it has been my experience that less than 20% of the young birds bred and raced will consistently score in the top 20% of the race sheet. To better understand and document this observation, please calculate the following statistic. For your race results, go back through the 2007 Young Bird results and calculate the number of young birds that scored in the top 20% at the club, combine, or federation levels. Divide that number of birds by the number of birds that you bred to race in young birds. Example: if there were 8 young birds that consistently scored in the top 20% (more than once time) of the results, and you bred 60 young birds that began young bird training, then divide 8 by 60 which equals .13. Multiply .13 by 100 to get a percentage. The percentage is 13%. To summarize, if 8 young birds scored in the top 20% of the race sheet for a given level of competition, i.e., club, combine, federation, out of 60 young birds that began training, then 13% of the young birds raised for young bird racing significantly contributed to the overall race results of your team.
Now, if you are a beginner, you might be happy with scoring in the top 50% of the race sheet or the top 1/3 or 33% of the race sheet. If this is the case, then recalculate the statistic we just calculated using a lower threshold on the race sheet. But let me say this: the longer you race pigeons the higher you will want your race team to score on the race sheet. For me, scoring in the top 20% of the club or the combine is not good enough. I want my birds to score in the top 10% of the race sheet. Because the wind and weather has such a significant impact on the federation results, it would be very optimistic for me to only value those birds that score in the top 10% of the federation results. So let's recalculate the earlier example using 10% as a threshold, or, let's only consider those birds that scored more than once in the top 10% of the club or combine race results. Let's say that number is 4. then the percentage of birds scoring in the top 10% of the race results out of 60 young birds that began initial training is 4/60ths or 6.6%.
THRESHOLD PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
If you are a relatively new fancier, or a fancier who wants to improve the race results of your pigeons, pick a reasonable threshold of performance for where you are racing at the moment: the top 50%, the top 40%, the top 20%, the top 10%, or higher. I have heard several new fanciers say they would just like to get a bird home in race time. Whatever, your criteria, only keep those pigeons that meet your criteria. If you raise 80 young birds and 10 of them meet your criteria in young birds, why winter the other 70 pigeons? In my loft, a good pigeon is a good pigeon. With one very important exception, I don't wait on pigeons to mature for a year or two. If you wait on pigeons to mature for 2 years, during the 2 years, raising 60 or 80 young birds a year, you will accumulate several hundred pigeons waiting on several of them to mature into a decent racer. Personally, I don't want these birds if, in fact, they mature. I want a racer than will race well in young birds and old birds. The primary reason why a good young bird doesn't race well as a yearling or old bird is because we race a good young bird to death and it has little or nothing left for its yearling year. If the damage is to great, a super young bird may never race well again. It's not because it was a "flash in the pan" or because it wasn't strong enough to continue racing beyond the young bird season. It didn't continue racing well because it was "raced out." In 2007 young birds, I raced the POSTMAN. The POSTMAN was 1st Ace Federation and scored well on all 8 races we flew in young birds. Although he placed 12th Nationally in the Racing Pigeon Digest awards, had he been a better trapper, he might have scored first. The POSTMAN is a very gentle bird and he would always let his race mates trap before him. This characteristic caused him to score 2nd or 3rd instead of the first place his race mate won. when I started training him for old birds in March, 2006, he was hours late on his first 3 tosses. He had never been late before. Fortunately, I stocked him before I lost him. I believe that he had not recovered sufficiently 4 months after young bird was finished and old birds began. In old birds 2007, Steve King raced his fabulous 2006 federation young bird champion. In 2006 young birds, this pigeon was almost impossible to beat (It is half Antoine Jacops down from the DIAMOND ACE). Although Steve continued to race it as a yearling, he never placed well like he did in young birds. Fortunately Steve did not lose this pigeon and he is breeding from him now. All of this to say that good birds are good birds. If a good bird doesn't race well, it's not because it isn't a good bird. There is some other reason other than the quality of the pigeon.
So, pick your threshold and only keep those birds that meet it. If a pigeon scores low on the race sheet every race but one, and the one race is in the top 20%, I am suspect of this pigeon. I want a young bird that can score high at least twice in the young bird season.
Now, getting back to the work load and time it takes to care for your birds, only winter those young birds who meet the threshold criteria on performance that you have selected. It takes a lot less time and is much less work taking care of 6, 8, or 10 youngsters rather than 40, 50, or 60 youngsters.
Let's examine question 2.
By answering question 1, we also answered question 2. With the exception of Champion Loft, overall race results are calculated on your early pigeons and not your late pigeons. I am not a fan of the Champion Loft award because it is primarily a function of how many birds a fancier sends to the race. With that said, however, Champion Loft does mean more in our A Race Series because of the 5 bird cap on entries. But in the B series with no limit of entries, it means little or nothing. Fanciers that send 40 to 80 pigeons per race will usually win this award easily. The answer to question 2 is that it actually takes only those birds that score in the top 20% of the race sheet to be competitive in the overall race results as well as in the individual races. If this is the case, why race many more than this number of birds? Why race more than those birds which will consistently score in the top 20% of the race sheet? As we have calculated this number, it is less than 20% of the birds you raise each year to race in young birds. Why race more than 10 or 15 birds?
The answer to this question - tomorrow.
If less than 20% of the young birds we raise in the late winter and spring to race in the fall young bird race series are capable of consistently placing in the top 20% of the race sheet, why should we race 40, 60 or 80 young birds in the race series? It is my belief that the primary reason why we race every young bird we raise is because we think that we cannot select those winning pigeons out of the total birds we raise prior to the race season. If those select pigeons could be identified, we could race 10 or 20 young birds instead of all of the young birds we raise. Let's discuss how the quality pigeons can be identified out of the total team of young birds that are raised to race in the fall.
I like to raise 150 to 250 young birds in January, February and March of the calendar year. I can do this because I sell pigeons as a commercial operation and need to vigorously test the birds that are offered to the public. Consequently, a large number of winter-breds are raised. First, I want the young bird team to be as old as possible in early September. I want very old young birds because the young birds are raced on the same race system as the old birds - the widowhood race system. As I indicated in last year's blog, the young males are mated to old females and the young females are mated to old males. Consequently, the young birds should be as sexually developed and aggressive as possible in order to mate and race like old birds. Because the young birds are raised so early in the year, they need to be trained in April and May. I train the young birds as they reach 90 days of age. At 90 days, they are taken on multiple training tosses in all direction from 5 to 10 miles. As I said earlier this week, the young birds are trained in the race crate from the time they are weaned. Thus, they are familiar with the process of basketing and are not afraid after basketing. At 90 days, they not only know about basketing, but they have been taught how to eat and drink out of the race crate.
On each training toss, every young bird is thoroughly evaluated by hand and their eyes are rated. Detailed notes are taken on each bird. After about 6 training tosses, I have developed a complete evaluation of each young bird and have a file on each bird. The young birds are evaluated on:
Feathering - the feathers should be soft and shiny. There should be plenty of body feathers and the feathering should feel thick and plentiful.
Wing - the length of the wing should be proportional to the size of the pigeon. The wing should have plenty of feathers on the wing and wing butt. The arm bone of the wing should be short. when you hold your pigeons, place the tip of your third finger directly on the top of the joint between the arm bone and the wing bone, and measure the length of the arm bone against the length of your third finger. The arm bone should not be much longer than the crease in the middle joint of your third finger. Why? Because the shorter the arm bone, the easier it is for a pigeon fly long hours without getting fatigued and the easier it is for a pigeon to fly quickly. As a general rule, long distance pigeons and speed pigeons should have short arm bones. Humming birds dart and fly quickly and can forage for a long time. A pelican or a crane would have a hard time getting the nectar out of a flower unless they landed on it. I select young birds that have an arm bone the approximate length of the tip of my third finger to the crease in the middle of my third finger. These pigeons can fly faster and longer than pigeons with a longer arm bone.
Flight Feathers - flight feathers should be long and thin; particularly the 8th, 9th and 10th flights. Why? As an example, it is easier to paddle a canoe for hours with a thinner paddle than a wide paddle. A wide paddle moves more water than a thinner paddle. It takes more energy to use a wide paddle than a thinner paddle. A wide paddle contributes to fatigue faster than a thinner paddle. So if you want to paddle a canoe for hours, use a thinner paddle. The same is true for pigeons. Long distance pigeons have long thin flights that do not require as much energy to use. Consequently, birds with thinner flights can fly longer and faster than pigeons with wider flights. Have you ever lost a 200 mile race winner at 400 or 500 miles? Maybe the answer was the length of the arm bone and the width of the flights. A pigeon that can race well at 200 miles may not be able to race well at the longer distances. Antoine Jacops taught me the physical traits of distance pigeons and speed pigeons concerning the arm bone and flight feathers.
Chest - Hold a pigeon against your stomach or lower chest. The chest of the pigeon should be flat against your body. The chest should not feel like a point in the middle of your stomach or chest. The chest should not be shaped in a v; the point of which you feel against your body. The chest should feel flat.
Body - the body should be medium-sized. It shouldn't be too long; it shouldn't be too short. It shouldn't feel too big; it shouldn't feel too small. It should feel proportional to the overall size of the pigeon. It should be well covered in body feathers.
Back - the back should be strong. when you hold the pigeon, I personally like a tail that goes down although several of my fellow fanciers in Belgium don't believe it makes any difference whether the tail goes up or down or straight.
Vent - the vent should be at the end of the breast bone. There should be no space or gap between the vent and the body of the pigeon. A pigeon with a space between the beast bone and the vent is weak-backed. After 150 or 200 miles, depending upon the weather, a weak-backed pigeon will begin to wobble. The longer the race - the greater the wobble. The greater the wobble - the slower the pigeon. Some weak-backed pigeons will not return home; especially after several weeks of racing.
Tail - when you hold a pigeon, the tail should look like one pin feather. The tail should not fan out. As I said earlier, I like a tail that bobs down when the pigeon is held.
Neck - I do not like a long-necked pigeon that may interfere with the aerodynamics of the bird.
Legs - I don't like long-legged pigeons.
Head - I prefer round-headed pigeons. I don't like flat-headed pigeons.
Eye - I prefer an eye that sits well on the head. Eyes can be any color; although I don't like to breed two bull-eyed pigeons together. I don't have many bull-eyed pigeons in the loft. Eyes should be bright and not dull or watery.
Pupil - I like a pupil that is active, that is, it contracts and dilates quickly. The pupil should be small rather than large. Good long distance pigeons have smaller pupils than other pigeons.
Iris - The iris can be any color. I try not to breed irises that are washed out.
Circle of correlation. I prefer breeders with a wide or full or interesting circle of correlation. The circle of correlation can be several colors including black, gray, yellow, gold, green, and blue, as well as variations of these colors.
Inner Muscle - The inner muscle is just inside the pupil and can best be seen with an 18 power loupe. For a breeder, the inner muscle should be thick and wavy - like the cap of a coke bottle.
Cere - I don't like eyes that show an area on the eye ball between the iris and the eye cere.
There are other characteristics of eyes that eye sign experts rate; but the aforementioned characteristics are the ones I rate.
Throat - there are fanciers who rate the structure throat; but I don't. However, the throat should be very pink and free from lesions or other abnormalities. However, these characteristics tend to be a function of health and rather than genetics.
Wattle - The size of the wattle should be proportional to the head. I don't like small wattles like feral pigeons; and I prefer wattles that are not too big either. The wattle should always be snowy or chalky white.
Nostrils - Nostrils should be free of watery or mucous-like substances.
General Appearance - The overall appearance of the pigeon should reflect a balanced, intelligent, alert pigeon that displays a robust healthy condition.
Balance - when I single toss each bird on a training toss, I watch the way the pigeon lifts out of my hand. Although I gently toss the young bird skyward, I want a young bird to attack the air rather than letting the air influence the young birds lift. Take your young birds on a toss and gently toss them into the air. Watch the way they respond to your toss in the air. Well balanced birds will lift differently than birds with physical defects. More importantly, powerful birds will literally attack the air and propel themselves into the air. Once you watch for it and study it, you will be amazed at the different ways birds lift from your hand.
Last week I took a team of late-hatches on a training toss. The wind was blowing 20 to 30 mph out of the south. I took them 8 miles north and released them into the wind. I rated each bird on its lift and which direction they headed. Out of about 40 young birds, only 2 headed straight into the wind. The others either slid sideways or east until they could turn into the wind, or they were pushed north by the wind until they turned around and headed south. During this toss, I was looking for the unusual bird as much as I was evaluating each bird. During these tosses, I am looking for the future champion. It didn't surprise me that only 2 out of 40 (5%) powerfully headed into the wind straight home. I think this data is significant and rated these two birds as potential future champions.
I will discuss my rating system and how to predict future champions again tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying the blog and I hope you will tell your clubmates to read it every day!
After more than 25 years of practice since I first met Antoine Jacops and Mike Ganus and learned their evaluation methods, I can evaluate each pigeon on all of the aforementioned criteria in less than two minutes per bird; sometimes less than a minute per bird. I then write down these evaluations in my own short hand form that reflects each criteria. In the case of health criteria, I only write down anything wrong rather than record everything right. It takes longer to record the notes on each pigeon than it does to evaluate the pigeon. After enough practice, however, anyone can learn to complete this process quickly, yet thoroughly. The detailed notes are incredibly important. I compare notes on each bird after each toss. What I look for is a consistency of evaluation among all of the tosses. Each bird receives a cumulative score based upon 5 to 10 tosses. From this cumulated data, I begin to rank the young bird team into two groups: the first group gets a passing grade and the second groups fails to pass inspection. Each toss thereafter, I continue to evaluate those pigeons that passed until I have reduced the passing pigeons to the number I want to play with on the race team. I prefer a maximum of 20 young males and 20 young females on the race team. My actual goal is usually 12 - 15 young males and 12 - 15 young females. As an important side note, on more than one occasion, I have disliked a pigeon on one toss and loved it on another. I have found that young birds change from week to week based upon many factors including health, rest, type and amount of feed, amount of loft or road training, medication, temperature, bathing and other factors. Consequently, to be both fair and accurate, these evaluations should occur over many tosses.
There is one final criteria that is as important as all of the other criteria combined. This criteria is the time of return from a toss. Initially on the early tosses, I look for two types of racers: those returning unusually early and those returning unusually late. I keep detailed notes on time of return. when I toss the young birds into the wind, I am always home before the birds return. I make notes on the return order and compare it with the release order. This gives me a comparison as to whether the bird gained positions or lost positions on the return. when I have selected about 60 to 80 pigeons from the initial 200 or 250 pigeons, I place s race chip on their leg and use the clock to determine arrival times.
From this overall selection process, I choose my race team in April, May. and early June. By mid June, the race team is selected and mated to older pigeons: young males to old females and young females to old males. It is very possible to select the best race team from all of the pigeons raised by using the Lamberton Selection Criteria. I have been selecting my young bird race teams using the LSC for 25 years with excellent success. In a year in which an usually large number of good birds are raised, I keep a supplemental team of racers that are flown unmated in case of a smash race or other unusual circumstance. I have also found that good young birds are not consistently raised year after year. Some years produce more good birds and some years produce less good birds. This pfemaleomenon is the result of many factors that will be discussed in a later blog. For instance, climate is one important mitigating environmental factor that can influence the health of winter-bred young birds.
KEY POINT: I never race every young bird that I raise during the young bird race series. I don't think it is possible to properly manage and motivate a flock of over 40 pigeons to race to their maximum capability. Ultimately, a young bird team of 24 pigeons, 12 males and 12 females is optimal.
Fanciers should learn how to properly manage and motivate one pigeon during a race series before racing 20 or 40 or more. I urge every fancier who has raced less than 5 years and has not achieved the type of success that he or she desires, to try racing only 12 young birds in the next race series. Raise these young birds as early in the year as possible to have them sexually mature by mid summer. Couple these 12 pigeons to older pigeons, train them early, and race them every week, if possible. If you are courageous enough to try this exercise, I guarantee you will learn more about playing the Sport successfully than at any other time in your life. This knowledge should significantly increase your ability to consistently race your young birds to the top of the race sheet year after year.
We have been talking about the role of the fancier in the racing pigeon sport. Besides managing racing pigeons by consistently following routines, a big part of the role of my role a good fancier is decision-making. Making decisions about the quality of a race team and the number of racers on the team are two of the most important issues that I face in order to create a successful racing pigeon team. In the last several days, I have been talking about these two issues. One of the ways that I could eliminate making the decision about the number of young birds on the race team is to limit the number of youngbirds I raise to 20 pigeons or less. But, because of the large number of young birds I raise, and because of the effort it takes to race my pigeons to their best potential, I must choose a small elite high quality race team from the total number of pigeons that I raise for the fall race team. In the past several days, I have written about how I accomplish this goal. I select race team qualifiers from my hands, from my eyes, from multiple training tosses, from comparing flight times during training tosses, from pedigrees, and from intuition. Although I raise over 200 early-bred pigeons, I select less than 40 young birds for the race team. I often hear that other fanciers cannot pick the good ones; but I don't think that this is true.
There are 30 widowhood nest boxes in my young bird loft. I fill a majority of these boxes with young males. I mate these young males with old females that are kept in a female section with perches behind the young bird loft. There are 36 nest boxes in the old bird loft. The majority of these boxes are filled with old males that make up the old bird race team. The young females are kept in a young female section with perches behind the old bird loft. After I select my young bird race team, I turn the young males into the young bird loft and let the young males select a nest box. This process takes several days. While the young males are settling into their loft, I take each young female and mate them with an old widowhood male. when I couple a young female with an old male, the couple must accept each other immediately. If a young female doesn't click with a particular old male, I try another old male. Pigeons have preferences. A young female can ignore one widowhood male and ignite with another widowhood male. A critical part of the coupling process is to make sure both mates in a couple are very satisfied with each other.
After the young males are settled, I couple the young males with the old females just like I coupled the young females with the old males. My widowhood boxes have nest fronts that swivel. Using one of the front halves, I pen old females in one half of the nest box to protect them from the aggression of the young males. This process is sometimes called pre-mating. After 24 hours of pre-mating, I turn the old females out of their section of the nest box to freely mate with the young males. The entire young bird coupling process takes about a week to complete. Immediately after coupling, young birds act like old birds. If you haven't ever seen it or experienced it, it is very interesting to observe. Young males that wildly dart and fly around the loft become quiet and sedate soon after mating. By the middle of June, or shortly thereafter, (1) the young birds have been trained to 50 miles, (2) the race team has been selected down to less than 40 young birds, and (3) the young birds have been coupled with an older pigeon in a widowhood nest box. During July, I let each pair of young males and females build a nest with pine needles and raise one youngster. They are placed on widowhood several weeks before the official race seasons begins in early September.
Creating an elite high quality young bird widowhood race team takes about a year to develop. The annual process is outlined below:
Thoroughly medicate breeders in November.
Couple breeders December 1.
Hatch young birds in the first week of January.
Wean young birds at 25 to 28 days of age.
Train young birds to a whistle or verbal call.
Loft young birds using a settling cage.
Train young birds to eat and drink from race crate.
Train young birds around the loft twice a day.
At 90 days of age, begin road training young birds with many short distances in all directions.
Evaluate each young bird on every training toss keeping detailed records.
Begin to select the young bird team during April and May.
Place race bands on race team qualifiers during May.
On June 1, road train young birds to 50 miles in all directions.
Finish selecting race team by June 15.
Begin coupling process with old birds.
Allow each race couple to raise one youngster in late July and early August.
Place young bird team on widowhood several weeks before the official young bird race season begins in early September.
Race young birds on widowhood during the 8 week young bird race series in September, October and early November.
Today, I received a very kind email from Jason in Virginia. Thank you Jason! Jason asked me about darkening and widowhood for young birds. I'll tackle darkening in another blog. We don't darken in Oklahoma; but we do darken in Belgium. Jason, if you can put up one or two boxes or if you can buy or build a small cabinet with several boxes in it, you can fly widowhood. I strongly encourage every fancier to try widowhood for young birds with just a few pigeons the first time. My good friend Tony Smith flew 8 young birds in the 2007 young bird series due to several smash training tosses and some severe selection. Tony put these 8 young birds on widowhood mating them to older pigeons. He had one of the best young bird seasons he has ever flown. If you will check the AU Race Results, you will find that Tony placed 6th in the 21 to 30 loft category of the President's Cup competition and 8th in the 41 to 50 category. Tony tells me he will never race a large young bird team again. Click Here for Tony's Awards: 2006-2007 AU President's Cup
Jason, modify your young bird loft with several widowhood boxes. Make sure they have widowhood nest fronts on them. I know people that make these fronts at home; but they are very inexpensive from the supply houses. Race several of your best young birds on widowhood. Don't try to race 20, 40, or 60 young birds on widowhood. It's way too much work. In 2006 young birds, Steve King won Ace Federation Young Bird and the A Series average speed award with one pigeon. In six of the A series races, Steve's super male was his first bird home. This one pigeon, with the help of two other pigeons scoring once, won average speed. KEY POINT: One or two super young birds can give you all the racing pleasure you will need in a young bird race series if flown properly and motivated well.
WHETHER PLAYING CARDS OR PIGEONS, ITS ALWAYS NICE TO DRAW AN ACE
In Belgium, fanciers are always looking for an Ace. Starting with young birds, the goal is to sift through the barrel of new young birds and find a champion. Champions or Ace pigeons are valued more than any other prize. While it is nice to be an overall champion loft, it is better to own a 1st National Ace Pigeon. My friends the Avondts, femaleri and Danny, won 1st Ace Pigeon Grand Middle Distance KBDB 2007 (Click to View). Owning this pigeon, MILLION, is a great honor and will be a diamond in their loft for many years to come. Please click on the link and read about the Van Avondt family. In 2006, I purchased 10 young birds from Danny and raced very well with them. In Belgium, CUYPERS LAMBERTON won 63rd National from 13, 965 pigeons with one of the 10 young birds we purchased from Danny! My partner, Jef Cuypers selected the young birds with Danny's help. Good job gentlemen!
when I visit a fancier's loft, I am always curious what I am shown first. If I am shown an Ace pigeon or a great breeder, I think to myself, here is a fancier who values an Ace. If I am shown first a wall of average speed or high point loft trophies, I think to myself, here is a person who values him or herself more than the pigeons. These statements are over generalizations. I like to win 1st average speed because it is a reflection of the performance of the overall team. What I said was what does a fancier show me first. If you wanted to make the best first impression upon a new friend, how would you do it? What would you show your new friend first? To me, the answer to that question speaks volumes about the attitude of the fancier. I look for fanciers who place their pigeons over themselves. I don't need the friendship of a braggart.
So let me suggest that you look for an Ace in the deck of young birds. Remember, I think that a good pigeon is a good pigeon. I don't look for two or three year old birds that finally get hot unless I want to compete in the Barcelona race. But even then, I believe that a good Barcelona racer will not be a surprise old bird. Look for an Ace. Make your goal doing everything possible in your management system to put each racer in a position to be an Ace. If you flock fly a room of 50 young birds to the perch, winning will be more a function of luck that of sound management practices. Unless you have alot of help, it is very difficult to race 40, 60, or 80 pigeons on a proper race system that will motivate them to race home.
DO YOUR PIGEONS RACE HOME OR FLY HOME?
Even with super health, the best way to stimulate pigeons to race home is motivation. If your pigeons are not properly motivated, they may fly home, but they won't race home. Ask yourself, how am I motivating my pigeons. Is it with food? Is it to a perch? Is it to a nest bowl? Is it to a nest box? Is it to a mate? Is it to eggs? Is it to pipping eggs? Is it to youngsters? Did you remove the racer's mate so that the racer must care for the youngsters by him or herself? There are many answers to the question of motivation. But some answers are better than others. Widowhood is really a very easy motivational system. You can make it hard if you want to; but it's really very simple. For instance, take your best and strongest two young males and place them in a small 5 ft. by 5 ft. loft. The small loft is so that you can catch them when needed. Let them choose a box or even a perch. Keep them celibate during the week. when they return from a race, have two females, preferably older females, in the loft waiting for them. It's that simple. If you want to race females, flip flop the example. Keep your best two females in the loft and have two old males waiting for them after the race.
KEY POINT: Widowhood is a state of mind; not a set of tasks. With widowhood, you will try to create a state of mind with your racers. The racers are celibate during the week. Does motivation come from being celibate during the week? Or does it come from the anxiety, longing, and expectation that comes from celibacy? Several blogs ago I discussed creating expectation in pigeons. KEY POINT: Motivation is a product of expectation. Ace pigeons are pigeons that are capable of developing expectations.
There you have it. I've just handed you the keys to the bank. After you select your race team of 10, 20, 30, or 40 pigeons, the Ace pigeon is the pigeon that can best develop a psychological state of expectancy!!! In the last several blogs, I have shown you how I select a race team. Now I am showing you how to find the Ace pigeon in your race team during the race season.
Most top fanciers believe that the percentage of pigeons that are hatched that can develop a state of expectancy to be motivated properly is extremely low. The Koopman's from the Netherlands say it may be 1 in 200 or less!!! That's .05%. In my loft, I have found that the figure is less than 5%. What I am suggesting is that at a minimum, 95 out of every 100 pigeons raised do not have the mental I. Q. to become Ace pigeons or Champions. The actual figure may be 1% or 2%.
What's even more amazing is that these figures apply only if you are a very good fancier that does everything in your power to encourage or stimulate your pigeons to develop their full potential. If you flock fly or if you are a "mob flyer", you will seldom, if ever, find an Ace pigeon. If you race a flock of young birds to a perch, you will seldom find an Ace pigeon. If your motivation is food, you will seldom find an Ace pigeon.
Last week, we started the discussion about raising 200 or 250 winter-breds to race in the fall young bird season. Today, we have whittled that number down to one or two Ace pigeons. That is my goal every year. I start with several hundred early-bred young birds. I select the best 10% or 20% over a 4 month long period of time. These birds make up the fall young bird season. During the race season, I look for Aces. In November, I will start all over again. A team or hand full of Aces are a winning hand. My yearlings and old birds are all Aces racing toward and AU Championship or an Elite Championship.
Tomorrow discussion will revolve around Ace pigeons and levels of competition.
In the USA, the quality of the competition racing pigeons varies greatly. It varies globally; but I think the quality of competition is higher overall in Europe in general and Belgium in particular. In my experience, the basic standards of competition are more homogeneous in Belgium that the USA. Luckily, in northeast Oklahoma, there are a number of excellent fanciers competing. One of the best "natural" fanciers is Steve Trotter. Steve and I have been racing pigeons in Tulsa since the mid-sixties. Probably the best overall fancier is Bill Hill. Bill is known all over the USA and has competed in California, Texas, and Oklahoma. An "A" list of quality fanciers could never leave out Stuart Child who still own several speed records. Stuart is well into his 90s and still competes every week. Another name that can't be omitted is Jim Robinson. The last 10 or more years, Jim is the man to beat. The hottest "new" fancier is Tony Smith and his grandson Josh Cooley. Tony has been racing for about 5 years and has become a major competitor week after week. In yesterday's blog, I mentioned Tony's finish in the President Cup awards. Go back and click on that link and look at all of the Northeast Oklahoma fanciers who scored in the top ten places. Jim Robinson was first in one category.
The primary reason that these statistics are important is the an Ace pigeon has performed better when he or she has bested the other pigeons of top fanciers. An Ace pigeon from a group of new fanciers is not the same pigeon as an Ace pigeon from an area in which the competition is fierce. Certainly "Little Belgium" in Florida is a hotbed of racing. My good friend Dan Van Lake races well in his area. The same is true in Belgium. While the competition in the country may be harder than in the USA, there are still hotbeds of racing. The Antwerp Union has historically been a hotbed of legendary fanciers. Antoine Jacops competes in the Antwerp Union and is a very respected fancier. I race in the Brabant Province with my partner Jef Cuypers. In several clubs, we compete with the Herbots and our neighbor in Hakendover, Achiel Vangilbergen. In 2006, I imported 4 pairs of Achiel's pigeons to the States. They have been racing well.
when purchasing breeding stock, please be careful to purchase pigeons from fanciers in areas in which the competition is fierce. I think you will get better pigeons if you do this. In Belgium, I purchase new breeding stock from fanciers who race well in very strong competition. By purchasing quality young birds out of their best breeders, we have collected super breeding lofts in Belgium and Oklahoma.
It is almost the end of January. The first round is coming out of the nests and weaned. I like to give each young bird a Pegosan tablet when I put them in the young bird loft. The tablets are blue and known as "blue pills" from those local fanciers that have been to my loft and seen how they help young birds sparkle after weaning. The youngsters are placed in a settling cage on the landing board to learn the exterior of the loft. Next week, the older ones will learn about eating and drinking from the race crate. If you have January hatches, teach them now. Teach them to come quickly when you call or whistle. Young birds are always learning. Like any young animal or human, they soak up knowledge and experience like a sponge. If you're not teaching them something good, they're learning something bad. Just because you're not teaching doesn't mean they're not learning. As I have said earlier this month, I want my young birds to depend on me for their well-being. I want to build "expectation." They should expect that I will let them out of the loft, clean their loft, give them fresh water and grit, call them inside the loft, and feed them by hand on the clean scraped floor twice a day. As they claim a box perch, I teach them to eat peanuts as a treat by giving them a peanut or two in their box. when my young birds see me, I want them to expect good things. Home should be a great place to live. I like to bathe young birds several times a week. I put Ivermec or other bath salts in the water. I also like to use Adams Flea and Tick Shampoo. It eliminates parasites, cleans the youngsters, and makes their feathers soft. I have blogged about these products in 2007. All pigeons love to bathe. But youngsters really love it. They will also get fresh pickstone to eat every day. Again, as I said last year, pickstone is a very important supplement to have in your young bird loft at all times.
January is an very important time for the 1st round. I work very hard to build their bodies, maintain super health, and educate their minds about the daily routine and coming when I call, and most importantly, building expectation which will factor in greatly as I motivate them to come home. As a sidebar, in past years, young bird teams have become so attached to me that they would not leave the release site after releasing them on a toss until I left the area. I have also watched them follow my pickup truck home. Never underestimate the bond you can build with you pigeons. Pigeons are incredibly smart and territorial. My truck and I can become part of their territory if they are happy and bonded and look to me for their needs, expecting me to take care of them.
I have weaned about 200 youngsters to the young bird loft. For two nights, I will keep the light on so that the youngsters have more daylight to eat and drink and adjust to the new loft. I can already tell differences between youngsters. There are several females that are very flighty due to their early maturity and physical development. There were two young males in particular that were absolutely perfect in the hand and are just beautiful to look at. As they develop, they could be candidates for the breeding loft rather than the race team. The first is a Sapin male out of a tremendous pair of breeders from Denis Sapin, my friend in Belgium. Click here to read about Sapin. In 2007 young birds, I gave a local fancier, Bill Kinyon - Top Gun Loft, a Sapin female to try. He raised 4 winners that were first or equal first out of this female. Another local loft, Derik and Tina Webster, Webster Wings, raised their best birds from two LAMBERTON CUYPERS pigeons, a Sapin female and our great Roger Lautermans grizzle male. I'm afraid that I must argue with my good friend Mike Ganus that one of the best breeding grizzle males in the USA may be our Lautermans male from my partner's father-in-law in Belgium.
The LAUTERMANS male from Roger Lautermans
Tremendous Breeder - Brother to Excellent Racers
For the first two rounds, I crossed the Lautermans male on a female that raced well in 2005 young birds out of two grizzle bloodlines from Mike Ganus including the GOLDEN WITTEN.
It is always fun to wean youngsters and to evaluate each youngster when they are placed into the young bird loft wondering which ones will be future Aces or champions. I evaluate each young bird at weaning. I look for the excellent youngster rather than try to accurately evaluate each youngster. when I find an "oh my," youngster, I make a note about that youngster in the breeding book. Rarely does this rating change. I have picked many of the best young birds coming out of the nest. It's not rocket science. If you follow this procedure, in a short time, you will be amazed at the accurate information you will generate about your young birds.
Saturday was the Northeast Oklahoma Racing Pigeon Federation's annual meeting. The 2008 Old Bird and Young Bird Schedules were handed out. The first Old Bird Race is April 5 from 150 miles or 240 kilometers. That means that there are about 9 weeks to get ready for the first race. That actually means that the old bird team should have flown one or two training tosses from 100 miles before April 5. These tosses will occur on March 22 and/or March 29. Beginning today, the old birds will be exercised twice a day for about one hour per exercise period. I won't require the old birds to continuously fly for one hour. They may be a little fat and out of shape from their rest over the winter. So I will simply lock them out for one hour and let them fly free choice. I can also let them fly "open loft" all day. But there may be many of you that live in town and cannot let your birds fly open loft. If this is the case, exercise your pigeons as much as possible up to one hour twice a day. While your old birds are training, completely clean your loft, nest boxes, water fountains, and grit - pickstone bowls. It is important to begin a schedule or routine for the old birds.
February is a very busy time. The first round needs your attention to get them started on the right foot. Old bird begins. The breeders are hatching the second round. Many fanciers simply "house" or "moth ball" their youngsters until the old bird race series is over. I think this habit is very unwise. The young birds have very critical needs during the spring and will develop unwanted behaviors and habits if left alone. I know of fanciers who do not loft their young birds until June; because the fanciers cannot multi-task and give their young birds and old birds the critical attention they need and deserve. Winning pigeon races begins now in both young birds and old birds. It is time consuming.
KEY POINT: If you don't have enough time to properly care for your racers, reduce the number of racers you keep until you reach the point that the number of birds you keep fits your schedule. Do you have enough time to properly care for one young bird and one old bird? While that statement may sound ridiculous to you, begin the calculation of the right number of birds for you and your schedule with one young pigeon and old pigeon. Don't raise 80 young birds and keep 50 old birds if you work 12 hours per day. Or if you work 8 hours per day, but have a wife and three children that have school and sport activities, reduce the number of birds you maintain to a number that fits your schedule and lifestyle.
KEY POINT: It is better to manage 1 pigeon correctly than 40 pigeons incorrectly. Chances are you will succeed to some degree with 1 pigeon because of proper management. If you are successful with 40 pigeons improperly, it will be because of luck.
I love to compete with fanciers whose management system relies totally on luck. My pigeons will out perform their pigeons 95% of the time. I'd say 100%, but you might have more trouble believing that percentage.
To repeat, February is a tough month if you raise January 1 hatches. There is a lot of work and educational bench marks to accomplish with your pigeons, especially the young birds. Only keep that number of pigeons that fits your schedule and lifestyle. Retired or self-employed fanciers often have an unfair advantage become they have more time to devote to their birds. The best way to equalize this disadvantage is to reduce the number of racers you raise and keep in order to have enough time to devote to your birds. There are many years my pigeons were very successful when I had very little actual time to spend with them due to work and family concerns coaching three sons in sports activities. During those years, I raced 12 old birds and less than 20 young birds.
Today I will divide my time among the newly weaned young bird race team, the old bird race team, and the breeders. The young birds will be fed twice a day calling them inside the loft from the settling cage on the landing board. The old birds will be exercised twice a day. The breeders will be checked, fed, and watered.
The 2008 Old Bird Race Series for the Northeast Oklahoma Racing Pigeon Federation begins April 5, 2008. That gives me about 2 months to get the old bird team ready to race. This week I began to medicate the old birds. I will give each old bird 3 Pegosan Tablets over a five day period; or every other day. I will also worm them via a drop of Ivermectin down the throat, and treat them with a "maletail" of several respiratory products mixed together. Since they had their annual treatment last November, the pre-race treatment regiment is not as severe or intense as the annual treatment.
The old birds receive a bath at least once a week with bath salts and Adams Flea & Tick Shampoo in the water to maintain their feathers and treat for external parasites. During the winter, I give the old birds open loft several hours once a day except for questionable weather or visitation by hawks. This week the old birds began training twice a day - once in the early morning and once in mid afternoon. I thoroughly scrape the loft and nest boxes each training period. Once the loft has been thoroughly cleaned, scraping the loft twice a day takes only a few minutes to finish.
The young birds were let out into the settling cage for about 30 minutes. They were called into the loft to eat. Currently, about 1/2 of the young birds run into the loft to eat. I gently "herd" the rest of the youngsters into the loft with a broom so that they can eat. In just a few days, all of the young birds will run into the loft when I call them. Young birds learn so very quickly at this age. They soak up information like a sponge. KEY POINT: It is much easier to teach 30 to 40 day old youngsters than 3 to 6 month old youngsters. Youngsters retain their information and respond to my commands much better if they learn at a very early age. Several young birds have already staked out a "territory" or a box perch.
The second round is hatching. There are approximately 20 young birds hatched from the second round. The first round will finish "primary" school by the time the second round is weaned. The first round will be exercising around the loft and trapping on command by the time the second round is weaned. It is extremely short-sighted to ignore young birds until after the old bird race season is over. Every day at both lofts in Oklahoma and Belgium, the work load is significant. There is always a group of pigeons to train each and every day. The only break with the racers occurs between the end of the young bird race series and 60 days before the old bird race schedule begins. In Oklahoma, that time period is from about November 15 to February 1.
As I said earlier, there are about 200 young birds in the first round. when I feed them, I sit down on the loft floor after scraping and sweeping and let them climb all over me - eating out of my hand or off of my body. Through this intimate procedure twice a day, I "bond" with the young birds using feed as the bonding agent. KEY POINT: I am winning young bird races as I bond with the youngsters and teach the youngsters to develop expectations of me as their fancier twice each day.
Tomorrow, and each day until the young bird race season is finished, I will follow the same procedure at the same time. After weaning, the second round will be housed in separate compartments from first rounders. It is not effective management to allow first rounders to fly around the loft for an hour while the second round is just learning to respond to my call in the settling cage. Each round is separated until they catch up to the learning threshold of the earlier round. when the second round is freely exercising an hour around the loft, they can be merged with the first round. The young bird loft for the race team is made up of young birds that have graduated from "primary" school and are able to quickly and properly respond to the basic tasks expected of champion racing pigeons.
Today it is snowing in Oklahoma and the temperature is dropping. I will keep the pigeons inside primarily because I don't want to get outside. The pigeons would be fine in the weather. when I went into the young bird loft, a significant number of squeakers ran towards me with their wings raised squeaking. They have already imprinted me as their provider. They expect me to have food. By their behavior I can tell that they are developing expectations about their home situation. These expectations are imprinted for life and will be repeated as they wing their way home in September and October in the young bird race series. Creating the situation where young birds race home to fulfill their expectations best starts when they are very young. Racing across the floor to me today is the same behavior as racing home to me in the young bird series.
Michel Van Lint, arguably one of the world's best fanciers is a friend. My partner Jef Cuypers is his webmaster in Belgium. Michel hand feeds his youngsters while in the nest to build a close bond with them. While I have forgotten exactly when he starts, it is several weeks earlier than I start. As I have said, I start interacting with the youngsters at 25 to 28 days old. Hand feeding youngsters takes an enormous amount of time. Michel involves his family in the effort. Regardless of when one begins, I have found that it is best to develop a bond with young birds at a very early age in order for them to develop the desire to want to learn from me. KEY POINT: There is a difference between forcing pigeons to do what you want and teaching pigeons to do what you want.
My friend Tony Smith decided to fly widowhood several years ago. Tony selected about 12 males to race from the pool of older males that he had been racing naturally. These males had never developed the proper etiquette or technique in the loft or inside the nest box. Consequently, when Tony walked into the loft, his widows would react to his presence and quickly fly out of their box and away from him. After a year of racing widowhood, Tony compared the behavior of the widows that were placed on widowhood when they were older pigeons, and those yearlings that had recently learned the system as young birds. He couldn't believe the difference. Most of the males he put on widowhood as older pigeons never "properly tamed" and developed the intense love for the nest box that the young pigeons developed. While the older pigeons remained wild and undisciplined, the younger males who learned the system as young birds acted tame, calm and were far more gentle. The younger males stayed in the nest box when he entered the loft. The older pigeons never developed the calmness in the loft that the younger pigeons developed. KEY POINT: Teach young birds a good racing system when they are young rather than force them to comply with a racing system when they are older.
Tony and his grandson Josh have developed a uncanny relationship with their pigeons over the last few years and are now top fanciers in the Northeast Oklahoma Racing Pigeon Federation regularly winning club, combine, federation and state races from 100 to 600 miles. As I said in an earlier blog, Tony and Josh have gone from new fanciers 5 years ago to Top Ten 2006 - 2007 Presidents Cup finishes in two competition categories. Tony and Josh fly as TNT Titans Loft using LAMBERTON CUYPERS methods and races our birds, especially the PHANTOM and JACOPS bloodlines. If you would like to visit with Tony, call him at 918.245.1976 or go by and see him when you are in the Tulsa area. He always has good coffee brewing and Tony and Josh are generous to a fault. They usually have a few breeding and racing super prospects for sale at reasonable prices. Two other fanciers, Steve King, Fast Lane Lofts and Kirk Hardin, Tri County Lofts are relatively new fanciers who have shot to the top of the race sheet using LAMBERTON CUYPERS methods and pigeons.
Success at anything takes time and commitment. There are no short cuts. I believe that teaching young birds a successful racing system at a very early age makes a difference in their performance during the young bird race series; and for many years to come. It even makes a difference when super racers are retired to the breeding loft. Calm breeders that are bonded to a fancier model their behavior to their youngsters. In general, youngsters bred from educated race birds often tend to be ready to learn from an early age. Even in the nest, youngsters model their parents behavior.
Stay tuned and thank you..................................... Dr. John and Morgan Lamberton