Can I ask you all,
when the Y/Bs have been to their first race and home, do you keep road training or just loft flying
Knowing when YB's are ready for racing?
Mine have their first toss at around 10 miles. They’ve had 5 tosses and am happy to put them on the transporter tomorrow night. The distance they are racing from is irrelevant. All you want from training is to teach them to leave the basket and get home. The distance in between letting them go and home doesn’t mean anything. They’re flying well enough around home.
They don’t need teaching where the water is, they’re not stupid. I never show a youngster where the water is. It doesn’t matter how many tosses you have the first time they go into a transporter from different lofts and are all let go together is completely different.
Mind you I must say that I’m not interested in young bird rating. This weeks winner is just as likely to be lost next week. For me it’s just about giving them a bit of experience.
Probably the best young bird season I had was when I gave them no training and our first race was 95 miles. I won 3 of the first 4 races.
I do work 6 days a week and get very little time with the birds and can only train early morning.
They don’t need teaching where the water is, they’re not stupid. I never show a youngster where the water is. It doesn’t matter how many tosses you have the first time they go into a transporter from different lofts and are all let go together is completely different.
Mind you I must say that I’m not interested in young bird rating. This weeks winner is just as likely to be lost next week. For me it’s just about giving them a bit of experience.
Probably the best young bird season I had was when I gave them no training and our first race was 95 miles. I won 3 of the first 4 races.
I do work 6 days a week and get very little time with the birds and can only train early morning.
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I road train once a week after the first race for about 15 miles just so they stay in the rythm. usually do this 2 days before basketing so wednesdayTony-P- wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 4:08 pm Can I ask you all,
when the Y/Bs have been to their first race and home, do you keep road training or just loft flying
We race old birds with young birds in the 3 counties King.
I was talking about training really Andy, but yes a few Feds race both together. If it gets more birds sent I've nothing against it.
Ok King. Unfortunately because of the very limited time I have at present with the birds and space, I don’t keep a big team, my youngsters have been flying out with my late breds from last year. Not ideal I know. And because I concentrate mainly on my widowhood team during old birds season they have to be worked around my widowhood routine. This means that little is done with them until the old birds season has finished. But in just the 2 weeks nearly now since OB racing has finished they are getting much more controlled. They are now all flying out together though, young birds late breds and old birds twice a day.king wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 11:18 pmI was talking about training really Andy, but yes a few Feds race both together. If it gets more birds sent I've nothing against it.
I will probably even give the widowhood hens a few of the later races with the young birds as they hadn’t been out of the loft since the old bird season started.
I’m not suggesting mine is the right way but it works for me.
Being able to race old birds with the young birds also means I don’t have to push these birds into old bird races either early in the season or when the distances are getting longer. I breed a round of late breds out of my better widowhood cocks at the end of the OB season.
Didnt send mate only 3 members in our club sent and only around 350 birds in the fed when usually there's probably 1400-1600 so i think alot arent ready im happy to give them another week especially when I need to try and keep them for ob racing I only have 8 OB's leftDevo1956 wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 10:28 pm Can i ask what was the outcome Mark, did you send to first race. Or was more training needed?
I totally agree with Andy on that. Road training young birds is mainly to get them jumping out of the box and and heading home. It can be used to advantage, by training them a lot you can teach them to depart and go quicker and quicker.Andy wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2026 8:34 pm Mine have their first toss at around 10 miles. They’ve had 5 tosses and am happy to put them on the transporter tomorrow night. The distance they are racing from is irrelevant. All you want from training is to teach them to leave the basket and get home. The distance in between letting them go and home doesn’t mean anything. They’re flying well enough around home.
They don’t need teaching where the water is, they’re not stupid. I never show a youngster where the water is. It doesn’t matter how many tosses you have the first time they go into a transporter from different lofts and are all let go together is completely different.
Mind you I must say that I’m not interested in young bird rating. This weeks winner is just as likely to be lost next week. For me it’s just about giving them a bit of experience.
Probably the best young bird season I had was when I gave them no training and our first race was 95 miles. I won 3 of the first 4 races.
I do work 6 days a week and get very little time with the birds and can only train early morning.
It all depends on what your goals are. I'm an old Jockey, it's my nature to make them go fast.
It's not hard, plenty of tossing up to about 20 miles, they switch on. If you are using YB racing as education for later, you may be inclined to just go a bit easier on them. The results are not so important.
Neither way is wrong..
Murray's Loft
"Well THAT didn't work".
"Well THAT didn't work".
Good call Mark, let us know how training is going mate.Mark1021 wrote: Sat Jul 25, 2026 6:43 amDidnt send mate only 3 members in our club sent and only around 350 birds in the fed when usually there's probably 1400-1600 so i think alot arent ready im happy to give them another week especially when I need to try and keep them for ob racing I only have 8 OB's leftDevo1956 wrote: Fri Jul 24, 2026 10:28 pm Can i ask what was the outcome Mark, did you send to first race. Or was more training needed?