Young Birds on Open hole

[Diamond Dave]

Has anyone tried this. Would the young birds become more resilient or would it just attract disease and lazy roof-toppers......

[Devo1956]

Myself, i would like to stay under control. Call and feed, return from training trap and feed. Return from race trap and feed. routine, routine, routine. Hey but that is my view,

[Tony-P-]

I have heard of people having open lofts all day for their birds but I know most call, trap and feed

I think it's all down to the time a person has for the birds, if your working 9 to 5 then the birds are probably let out first thing for an hour called in and fed, same of a night but then you have the winter months when its dark till 7am and dark at 4pm so open loft would be good then for the working man just my thoughts and something I will need to look at as the winter draws in over the next few months.

[Murray]

There is no simple answer to that.
I know that where I live if you open lofted your youngsters they would all be eaten by the hawks in fairly short order.
But it depends, to a degree, on whether you are looking at being competitive in the young bird racing or rather regard it as just a prelude to the old birds.
Once again, where I live, old birds is a concept, rather than something you aspire to. One year exposed to the hawks is usually enough to instill fear in the hearts of most pigeons.
Bottom line, don't. Just as you don't turn your racehorse out on the common to take it's chance, you don't leave your racing pigeons out as a free lunch for the Goshawk.

[Rdhd Danny]

With yb, s I prefer as little freedom as possible open lofts a definite no no, once my team is routing the area and doing half hour twice a day they are stopped from loft flying and switch to two tosses a day instead, like children given too much freedom without supervision Is a recipe for disaster!

[king]

Has anyone tried this. Would the young birds become more resilient or would it just attract disease and lazy roof-toppers......

My birds are on open hole for around 3 hours a day including my team of 2 young birds. The birds when let out go for a fly, the old birds return leaving the young birds flying longer.They act just like the old birds when out.

I wouldn't try it with a full team of young birds. They want to be flying or in the loft.

Would the young birds become more resilient? Resilient to what Dave? If disease, it wouldn't reduce the chance of catching anything, in fact it would probably increase it, due to attracting toppers which would make your birds lazy and pick up a habit which would be hard to break.

If you want to make your birds more resilient to disease. Just increase the ventilation or add a flight.

[Diamond Dave]

Has anyone tried this. Would the young birds become more resilient or would it just attract disease and lazy roof-toppers......

My birds are on open hole for around 3 hours a day including my team of 2 young birds. The birds when let out go for a fly, the old birds return leaving the young birds flying longer.They act just like the old birds when out.

I wouldn't try it with a full team of young birds. They want to be flying or in the loft.

Would the young birds become more resilient? Resilient to what Dave? If disease, it wouldn't reduce the chance of catching anything, in fact it would probably increase it, due to attracting toppers which would make your birds lazy and pick up a habit which would be hard to break.

If you want to make your birds more resilient to disease. Just increase the ventilation or add a flight.

Thanks King - all makes absolute sense as usual

[Andy]

There are some top distance fliers that I know keep their youngsters on an open loft. I would if it wasn’t for the fact that I am in a built up area and I don’t want them upsetting the neighbours.