April - May 2010 BLOG
Due to the weather, this 2010 Old Bird Race Season has been a season that has required patience as much as planning and hard work. I never like to send pigeons to races in which they are not physically and mentally prepared to be competitive. (I define competitive in the Belgian terms of placing each bird sent in the top 1/3rd of the race sheet. As I have written many times, many Belgian races give out prizes on the basis of 1 prize for every 3 birds shipped.) However, there are those fanciers who prefer to use the official races to train their pigeons rather than spend the necessary time before the official race season begins to properly train their pigeons to be perfectly ready for the first race. In Oklahoma, I have never followed or believed in this practice. In Belgium, the early races are from 60 to 100 kilometers in distance. That converts to approximately 35 to 60 miles. Belgian fanciers use these early short races to properly train their pigeons. In Oklahoma, our first old bird race begins at 150 miles or 240 kilometers. Few Belgian fanciers would begin training their valuable racing pigeons from this distance - even after a few short tosses. Nor do I. I replace the early organized Belgian races of 60 to 100 kilometers with my own automobile and properly train my pigeons myself before the official race season begins.
In theory, it would be best to convert early club training tosses into early training races. Perhaps you do in your area. But I have found that many fanciers find little value in races that are too short to be recognized as officially sanctioned races by the American Racing Pigeon Union - our national governing body. Consequently, I often train by myself or with one or two fanciers who are comfortable with my unique and rigorous training schedule.
The first two official races from 150 and 200 miles we released with little trouble. However, the 300 mile race scheduled for last weekend had to be cancelled due to rain on Saturday and Sunday while this weekend's race was postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to rain. Just because races are cancelled or postponed doesn't mean that the race team's schedule and daily training regiment should change or be postponed or cancelled. It simply means that each fancier or a small group of fanciers must replace the postponed or cancelled portions of the race season with training tosses that replace the cancelled or postponed portions of the official race season. Although the official 300 mile race was cancelled last weekend, my widowhood race team was trained from 85 miles on Monday at which time they returned to their mates just like they would if they had flown in the official 300 mile race on Saturday or Sunday. Due to the short distance of the toss, after about 30 minutes of play time, the mates were removed from the widows. The widows - both males and females - were not happy with the limited time that they spent with their mates. A number of them slapped my hand as I reached into their nest box to retrieve their mates and loudly voiced their unhappiness for hours after their mates were removed.
Before, during and after the race season, each day has a regular routine. when Saturday's race was postponed until Sunday, I simply repeated the training and feeding schedule on Friday that is normally scheduled for Thursday - two days before basketing. It will not normally harm the racers to repeat a day's schedule when the official race schedule is altered or postponed. In the case of last weekend when the race was cancelled, the race team received a long toss after the rain stopped on Monday. then, the normal schedule was carried out as if Tuesday (the day after the toss) was Sunday (the day after the race if the race had been flown), etc. In the case of this weekend, Thursdays schedule was repeated on Friday and Fridays normal schedule was carried out on Saturday.
Several weeks ago, my youngest son Jeff decided to officially and formally play the racing pigeon game. Jeff has been taking care of the pigeons when I am physically unable to do so and he takes care of them while I am out of town. when he first began taking care of them, he said that he was not going to become emotionally attached to the birds. Well, so much for that idea. I want to document Jeff's progress in the sport in the hopes that you will find information that may relate to your specific circumstance.
when Jeff indicated his new found desire to be a fancier with his own pigeons, I told him he first needed a good loft. My older racing loft has been relegated for the past several years to housing "extra" pigeons. So, we took out the extra pigeons and gave the loft a very thorough cleaning. After cleaning, we let it age and breathe for about a week. then we cleaned it again. We decided to begin Jeff's entry into the sport by using one-half of the loft for a small team of young birds. I wanted Jeff to first learn how to effectively manage a small team of birds before he became confused and fatigued by trying to manage a much bigger team of young birds. One-half of the loft is comprised of two identical sections that are the same size of the loft sections in the new race loft - approximately 5 ft. by 6 ft. with six nest boxes that are divided with Belgian nest fronts. The six nest boxes can be collapsed into 12 box perches. Therefore, there were 24 box perches in the two loft sections. Consequently, we selected 24 young birds to occupy each of the 24 box perches. For the most part, Jeff took those young birds that had any white on them including several mostly whites and several white grizzles.
Jeff released the 24 youngsters into the two loft sections and let them adjust to their new surroundings and compete for the box perches over about a one week period of time. During this week, the youngsters were wormed and medicated with a mixture that included medicine for canker, respiratory and coccidia.
After medication and when the youngsters were comfortable in their new loft loft and in their adopted perches, it was time to "settle" the young birds to the outside of the loft. Most of the youngsters were several months old. So, we settled them using the method that I have recently documented in a new YouTube video. First, Jeff placed the youngsters in a settling cage every day for about one week. After the young birds had been in the settling cage for about one hour, he called them into the loft to feed them. At the end of the week in the settling cage, Jeff soaped each youngster. After about two hours on the landing board, almost every young bird was completely dry. So, Jeff called his young bird team into the loft and fed them.
It is very important for older young birds to stay on the landing board for at least an hour before they try to fly. Older young birds are usually so strong that they can fly away within seconds or minutes of being released for the very first time. Anything or nothing can scare them and they will take off and fly away and seldom have the strength or knowledge to return home. Losses can be high. Therefore, we can take their ability to fly away by thoroughly soaking them with an effective shampoo that not only cuts through and washes away the powder in their feathers that repels water; but also contains a mild insecticide that eliminates external parasites. I personally prefer Adams Flea and Tick Shampoo. After following this procedure, Jeff effectively lofted his team of 24 older young birds. After one hour, Jeff called the young birds into the loft and fed them.
Next Blog I will discuss the method Jeff learned to feed his young birds and why he regularly calls the young birds into the loft after one hour of freedom outside the loft.
Thank you................................Dr. John Lamberton