Good practice/training.

[Buster121]

The home straight is finally in sight for our renovation at St Arnaud. It has been a bigger project than we anticipated, and we have to keep reminding ourselves that we paid little for it, or it would not be worth it.
I have the little loft up and painted and fitted out, it looks neat. Started on the stock shed which will have an aviary for the 'valuable' pigeons which will be prisoners, at least at first.
I have too many pigeons, and was looking to move some on, when I saw a post from a bloke starting up and wanting stock pigeons. I contacted him and quizzed him. He was obviously genuine so I said I had 6 pairs he could have. He asked how much I wanted for them? I told him I would give them to him to help him get started, on condition they come back to me if he changed his mind about the sport.
He came this morning and I had 6 cocks and 6 hens for him. He thought I might give him the cast offs, and was amazed when I showed him a mealy hen which is a sister to one that won a race last year and it's brother was second yesterday.
Then a hen off the Billion Dollar Baby, then a cock bird that had one race before Covid shut us down and would have won had I clocked him quicker...And so on.
The bloke was stunned. I asked if he had any other pigeons. He has one pair that was given to him. 2012 pigeons. The hen laid one good egg but the other was deformed. Mmm.
I gave the new starter good pigeons. Now I still have some old hens in the shed which I don't need, but giving old pigeons that are has beens, or never were, to new beginners is not good. The bloke has some good older pigeons and several pairs of young birds off my best breeders. He has a chance of getting some good youngsters straight away.

Well done Murray a great gesture, I hope he does well with the young from them, I agree with your sentiments regarding giving the lesser birds away, I myself would only give anything I was prepared to keep myself away regardless
I look forward to seeing the pics when you move in it will be worth all the hard work and everything else you have had to endure whilst all going on

[CHARLTON34]

Sorry for the delay in replying - it's been a busy few days with one thing and another
Please understand when I write this reply there's nothing personal going on here
Sometimes I can be direct, but i'm not having a go. It's just the way i write.
I know what I Know and I evidence it to prove it
So, Andy, you have an initial problem in the sense that you only have 14 YB to race.
Straight away you're on the back foot a little simply in the sense that you cannot afford much of a hiccup because the numbers aren't there to support that
The programme you're flying is crap - but that cannot be changed so you have to deal with it

You'd like to be competitive but as I understand it you're not racing Darkness I think?
Straight away that gives you a "problem" in the sense that from about the 4th-5th race onwards your YB are racing at a clear disadvantage compared to Darkness YB
The advanced moult will be kicking in and the Darkness will likley to be on their 1st flight - they have every advantage over you
The plus side is that you're still racing tiny distances so I'd like to think you might be able to absorb that a little - but if you were at 200 mls you'd be screwed

You cannot race successfully in my opinion from the 4th-5th race onwards with "Natural" YB.
Not if there's a good Darkness team racing against you
In the 1990's I had 2 teams on the go. Darkness and "natural". The hens went Darkness and the cocks did not
They were brothers/sisters and treated the exact same in every regard except that
For the first 2-3 races the naturaL yb can compete - especially if the racing is reasonably quick.
After that they're toast - I've seen it at my own lofts and I've seen it for decades in club results too


Racing Darkness is not a guarantee of success with YB.
I started doing it in 1990 and by say the year 2000 probably 38 members of of a possible 40 in my club were on darkness
They can't all win. So who wins?
Well the birds in the best form and the best condition do.
But that comes from great health - and these weaknesses show themselves hugely in YB racing.
Obvious obstacles to swerve are YB sickness and "fat eye" - but plenty of lofts do not hit super form

Some say that Darkness and YB Sickness go hand in hand. Bullshit!
Every year I get msgs from guys who have YB sickness and their birds are not on the Darkness
In addition I know other lofts who rarely get YB sickness - and they are darkness
It's how the YB are managed
My own birds would come under stress - I could see it happening
What I do though is REACT. I don't "wait and see" - thats the worst thing you can do
Now I know you like to "let things run" - and that's your choice - but YB sickness can either be avoided or the impact lessened with smart management

I believe that to race a YB team successfully - especially if you are racing against other good sprint lofts, the team need to be well drilled, disciplined and well educated
Everything in life is best taught early so yes, I would relish the opportunity of racing fanciers who rarely trained their YB
If you're up against a team that are training once or twice daily and have "the line" and are in good health, well feathered, well motivated etc then it realy is men against boys
Me I would be training as regularly as I could be if I wanted to be successful with YB racing
In your case I would give them plenty of tosses (no need to go beyond 20 mls in your case) and I'd have them doing it blindfold

The nezt thing that you need to compete successfully in YB racing is quite simply a fast pigeon
You cannot and will not consistently beat a good sprint man with good sprint pigeons if you're racing distance pigeons
You don't recruit Cavendish to win you a Mountain Stage of the Tour De France - he's a different beast
You don't expect Denman to beat Frankel over 1 ml - they're a different animal
You don't ask Mo Farah to beat Usain Bolt over 200m - they're different athletes
Pigeon racing is exactly the same!

Dad flew at No.36 and I flew at No.34. He had 30 yards overfly off us
He flew the Van Hee's and I had my sprinters. In over 10 years of racing (so say 120 races inland) his Van Hee's never beat me inland ONCE.
By same token I couldn't live with him at 500 mls - they are different monsters
If a bloke is winning consistently with distance pigeons in short races then I'm sorry but there's not a good sprinter in that club
One off's "can" happen if its a shitstorm of a race - but winning consistently - not a chance

Mark Gilbert and Mark Bulled are both classy fanciers. They win short races and long ones
They don't do it with the same pigeon though
Gilbert isn't winning Inland with "Golden Barcelona" blood. He wouldn't expect to - and when Bulled went 1-2-3-4-5-6 Fed the other week it was with Bulcks not his Legacy family

It's like Trevor. He has a decent sprint man in his Club in Andy Still
That's good for Trevor because he has a target to aim at
You wanna beat him Trev?
From behind a keyboard its easy - You fight fire with fire
You have to be every bit as hard working, disciplined and well managed as he is, otherwise he'll pull your pants down every week I'm afraid

Hello Mike, I'm in the same Combine as Andy so getting any distance on your race team is a big problem for ob & ybs racing.
I think I need to change things to your way of thinking with the mindset towards racing & your points make a lot of sense. Would you be able to suggest a feeding program for ybs that's easy to follow across return from a race & the build up to the next 1 please. Also what proactive treatments would you use to keep on top of things in general, this might both be why I struggle & be competitive.
Regards Dave.

[PeteDerby]

Sorry for the delay in replying - it's been a busy few days with one thing and another
Please understand when I write this reply there's nothing personal going on here
Sometimes I can be direct, but i'm not having a go. It's just the way i write.
I know what I Know and I evidence it to prove it
So, Andy, you have an initial problem in the sense that you only have 14 YB to race.
Straight away you're on the back foot a little simply in the sense that you cannot afford much of a hiccup because the numbers aren't there to support that
The programme you're flying is crap - but that cannot be changed so you have to deal with it

You'd like to be competitive but as I understand it you're not racing Darkness I think?
Straight away that gives you a "problem" in the sense that from about the 4th-5th race onwards your YB are racing at a clear disadvantage compared to Darkness YB
The advanced moult will be kicking in and the Darkness will likley to be on their 1st flight - they have every advantage over you
The plus side is that you're still racing tiny distances so I'd like to think you might be able to absorb that a little - but if you were at 200 mls you'd be screwed

You cannot race successfully in my opinion from the 4th-5th race onwards with "Natural" YB.
Not if there's a good Darkness team racing against you
In the 1990's I had 2 teams on the go. Darkness and "natural". The hens went Darkness and the cocks did not
They were brothers/sisters and treated the exact same in every regard except that
For the first 2-3 races the naturaL yb can compete - especially if the racing is reasonably quick.
After that they're toast - I've seen it at my own lofts and I've seen it for decades in club results too


Racing Darkness is not a guarantee of success with YB.
I started doing it in 1990 and by say the year 2000 probably 38 members of of a possible 40 in my club were on darkness
They can't all win. So who wins?
Well the birds in the best form and the best condition do.
But that comes from great health - and these weaknesses show themselves hugely in YB racing.
Obvious obstacles to swerve are YB sickness and "fat eye" - but plenty of lofts do not hit super form

Some say that Darkness and YB Sickness go hand in hand. Bullshit!
Every year I get msgs from guys who have YB sickness and their birds are not on the Darkness
In addition I know other lofts who rarely get YB sickness - and they are darkness
It's how the YB are managed
My own birds would come under stress - I could see it happening
What I do though is REACT. I don't "wait and see" - thats the worst thing you can do
Now I know you like to "let things run" - and that's your choice - but YB sickness can either be avoided or the impact lessened with smart management

I believe that to race a YB team successfully - especially if you are racing against other good sprint lofts, the team need to be well drilled, disciplined and well educated
Everything in life is best taught early so yes, I would relish the opportunity of racing fanciers who rarely trained their YB
If you're up against a team that are training once or twice daily and have "the line" and are in good health, well feathered, well motivated etc then it realy is men against boys
Me I would be training as regularly as I could be if I wanted to be successful with YB racing
In your case I would give them plenty of tosses (no need to go beyond 20 mls in your case) and I'd have them doing it blindfold

The nezt thing that you need to compete successfully in YB racing is quite simply a fast pigeon
You cannot and will not consistently beat a good sprint man with good sprint pigeons if you're racing distance pigeons
You don't recruit Cavendish to win you a Mountain Stage of the Tour De France - he's a different beast
You don't expect Denman to beat Frankel over 1 ml - they're a different animal
You don't ask Mo Farah to beat Usain Bolt over 200m - they're different athletes
Pigeon racing is exactly the same!

Dad flew at No.36 and I flew at No.34. He had 30 yards overfly off us
He flew the Van Hee's and I had my sprinters. In over 10 years of racing (so say 120 races inland) his Van Hee's never beat me inland ONCE.
By same token I couldn't live with him at 500 mls - they are different monsters
If a bloke is winning consistently with distance pigeons in short races then I'm sorry but there's not a good sprinter in that club
One off's "can" happen if its a shitstorm of a race - but winning consistently - not a chance

Mark Gilbert and Mark Bulled are both classy fanciers. They win short races and long ones
They don't do it with the same pigeon though
Gilbert isn't winning Inland with "Golden Barcelona" blood. He wouldn't expect to - and when Bulled went 1-2-3-4-5-6 Fed the other week it was with Bulcks not his Legacy family

It's like Trevor. He has a decent sprint man in his Club in Andy Still
That's good for Trevor because he has a target to aim at
You wanna beat him Trev?
From behind a keyboard its easy - You fight fire with fire
You have to be every bit as hard working, disciplined and well managed as he is, otherwise he'll pull your pants down every week I'm afraid

Mick, as a returning novice to the sport, I have to say please do not apologise for being direct or forthright with your views. I don’t know who you are, therefore the context of your comments, but clearly you have the respect of the group here, therefore mine also by default.

As a late returner to the sport, personally speaking, I cannot afford the time for anyone not being anything but direct when it comes to sharing the benefit of your experience to novices like me so, thank you for sharing and for not sitting on the fence. Reading the responses for the rest of the group it see,s I’m certainly not alone with that sentiment