Vanroaby health balance

[Andy]

We start at 10 and they stay at ten till they are turning once then off, then we move to 20 the same till they are turning once then off, the birds will tell you when you can step up by one rotation and straight for home, with late breds and been new I'd start at 3 and let them get use to routing your area twice a day disappearing for half hour or more is ideal, be consistent pigeons love routine so out and called back consistently at the same time is really important imo, but I work with really high quality birds a lot of birds won't take our training program, what you want is them healthy in good condition and training to your abilities the best you can

A good post Danny.
As you say though for Tony being new to the sport and with late breds he doesn’t want to push them to early. They need to be ranging well before he thinks about any training.

[Rdhd Danny]

@andy absolutely

[Tony-P-]

@tony no we want them trapping well but most importantly clearing the lib site from one rotation and heading straight off then they confident enough to move

O right thanks Danny

[Murray]

If you was starting up again and you had late breds to start with, getting them use to your loft, feed and surrounding then start letting them out and training to use the trap. Once you have had them fly round the loft a few times and trap. what would be the starting point for your road training
how many times would you stay at this first point before moving the birds on ?
What would you increase the road training to in miles ?

I'm a bit different from some, I do hamper train mine from just down the street three or four times before I start road training. The reason for that is we have a big issue with hawks here, and I teach them to come out of the box and head home without too much risk of being hit by a falcon. If you are 10 miles up the road for your first toss and they get whacked, you stand a good chance of never seeing them again.
Once they get the hang of that I go up the road in easy stages, 4, 8 , 12 miles, when they leave straight away and beat me home I go a bit further. Some years they are at 20 miles after only a few tosses, other years they might get stuck at a certain point and I'll go there 2 or 3 times until they do it properly.
There's no rules. If they are going well, you can push on, if they are a bit slow learning you need to be a bit patient. A 20 mile toss done well is more use than a 40 mile toss where they arrive broken up from all directions all day long.

[Tony-P-]

If you was starting up again and you had late breds to start with, getting them use to your loft, feed and surrounding then start letting them out and training to use the trap. Once you have had them fly round the loft a few times and trap. what would be the starting point for your road training
how many times would you stay at this first point before moving the birds on ?
What would you increase the road training to in miles ?

I'm a bit different from some, I do hamper train mine from just down the street three or four times before I start road training. The reason for that is we have a big issue with hawks here, and I teach them to come out of the box and head home without too much risk of being hit by a falcon. If you are 10 miles up the road for your first toss and they get whacked, you stand a good chance of never seeing them again.
Once they get the hang of that I go up the road in easy stages, 4, 8 , 12 miles, when they leave straight away and beat me home I go a bit further. Some years they are at 20 miles after only a few tosses, other years they might get stuck at a certain point and I'll go there 2 or 3 times until they do it properly.
There's no rules. If they are going well, you can push on, if they are a bit slow learning you need to be a bit patient. A 20 mile toss done well is more use than a 40 mile toss where they arrive broken up from all directions all day long.

Thanks for them Tips Murray, yes I bet most fanciers have their own way's of training their birds but I like the idea of just down the road for a few times first off we have farmers fields about 1/2 a mile from me do you think that would be a good starting point for the first few Tosses

[Murray]

Yep, Tony, Perfect.
It isn't road training, it's hamper training. Put them in the box, put them in the car and walk away. Let them sit for 10 minutes then drive half a mile down the road and put them on the ground. Let them sit 3 or 4 minutes then let them out. I do that 4 days in a row from different directions. They come out, go up see the loft, off they go.
I think it's an hour or so of my life well spent.

[Rdhd Danny]

@murray well said yes with Pete starting out he definitely best starting slow another great tip @tony is basket them over night a couple of times set the basket 10ft or more away from the loft facing the trap and call them in from the basket to feed this gets them to realise basket to trap and gets them use to the basket, we do all our weaning in the baskets aslo as it teaches them early to feed and drink in the baskets and easy to manage