Widowhood

[Buster121]

Sounds easy enough, I know the guy by me he does widowhood and even now he stopped racing couple years ago but what birds he has left fly the skies out for hours and hours 7 days a week, when he lets hens with them they don't fly as much

[Buster121]

Sounds easy enough, I know the guy by me he does widowhood and even now he stopped racing couple years ago but what birds he has left fly the skies out for hours and hours 7 days a week, when he lets hens with them they don't fly as much

I found it easy Buster. Cleaning out only took a couple of minutes as it would only really need the nest boxes scraping. The cocks would certainly exercise well. They would come down from time to rime before clapping off again they would generally fly individually flying in different directions on their own. They would disappear in one direction before returning from a different one. The only thing I couldn’t really do was stay out in the garden while they were out as they were always waiting for me to open the traps. When I first started racing widowhood I trapped through the open door. When walking towards the loft you could see they were watching even if flying. As soon as I started to open the doors they were down nearly knocking me over to get in the loft. It was always great to see. If a cock was reluctant to trap you know they weren’t right or hadn’t taken to widowhood. I will have a few natural boxes in another section and any that don’t take to it will be put on natural.
Feeding is another subject. The hens being treated exactly the same as the cock with the aim of bring them into condition for the weekend.

If I do restart racing I may have a go

[Buster121]

If I was to use the widowhood again, I would change the feeding method, for sure. I used to do the break down and build up, in the traditional manner. I read that more and more people are using one feed every day, for all the pigeons. That's what I would do.
Jos Van Limpt 'De Klak', who passed away years ago, bought one grain mixture, which he fed to every pigeon 365 days a year. So he was perhaps ahead of his time.
It is interesting to google Jos Thone' and see what he is doing with the feeding, Of course you need to look past the sales pitch but the 'Premium Thone' Olympic' mix is aimed at having one feed which can be used for all the pigeons, stock, young birds and racers.
It is what I try to do too. I have fiddled with my regular mix, taking a little bit more of the wheat and milo out, and adding a little more safflower, and that's what they all eat, except when they are feeding babies. Then they get a breeder mix with lots of small peas until the youngsters are feeding themselves.
Pigeon racing is like all competitive sports. It is always evolving.

I use an all rounder all year for both old and babies and the babies have maize

[Buster121]

If I was to use the widowhood again, I would change the feeding method, for sure. I used to do the break down and build up, in the traditional manner. I read that more and more people are using one feed every day, for all the pigeons. That's what I would do.
Jos Van Limpt 'De Klak', who passed away years ago, bought one grain mixture, which he fed to every pigeon 365 days a year. So he was perhaps ahead of his time.
It is interesting to google Jos Thone' and see what he is doing with the feeding, Of course you need to look past the sales pitch but the 'Premium Thone' Olympic' mix is aimed at having one feed which can be used for all the pigeons, stock, young birds and racers.
It is what I try to do too. I have fiddled with my regular mix, taking a little bit more of the wheat and milo out, and adding a little more safflower, and that's what they all eat, except when they are feeding babies. Then they get a breeder mix with lots of small peas until the youngsters are feeding themselves.
Pigeon racing is like all competitive sports. It is always evolving.

I use an all rounder all year for both old and babies and the babies have maize

What I have noticed about the "All round" mixtures made by UK companies, and the ones made by Van Robaeys, Natural et al in Europe for British consumption is they are very heavy on peas. Like between 40 and 50% peas! I ask myself why? Well obviously that is what the customers want, but legumes, peas and beans, are expensive and increase the price of the product. and apart from a couple of weeks in the nest, pigeons don't need them.
It is another case of doing what we have always done. If our Grand dad went, "Eh up! look at the beans in that then!, then we tend to think that lots of beans is a good thing. We can be slow to change our thinking.
I envy the Dutch and Belgians. Those blokes do it for a living, and are always on the ball with the next thing.

The one I use is a farms own I would say more small stuff than peas in my mix