UkPigeonRacing

NeilA wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 11:30 am Anthony is the boy for this so I can only go on my old way that worked for me and for the last 7 years I based it on 3g a hour

The first 1/2 hour they need no fats or enough that’s in most mixtures
Every hour after you need fat is always used 3g per hour in my method
So your feeding 35g Wednesday
You need probably 2 1/2 hours fly
So you need 2 hours on fat 1/2 hour on carbs
So you want 6g fat on Wednesday to Thursday morning ( 3 hours)

If you had say 3 gerry 1 VL energy believe from memory that a combined fat percentage of 14 pc if gerry is still 10pc VL energy 26pc
14pc of your 35g is 4.9 pc fat

But you need 6g
So either just increase that to about 35pc VL energy or run it to Thursday morning but not evening or in future start it Tuesday
Or add a little oil like sunflower but that can make the dropping a little damp
When I use oil I keep a little barley in the mix for fibre

So it’s always the combined fat in the mix you make not the percentage of fat the bag when people buy 25 pc energy in they say I fed 25pc fats but they are not there feeding 25 pc from a bag based on fats

If you have something like beyers energy and that’s maybe 15per cent fat then it’s the same calculation but obviously the amount from that bag would need to increase to hit the target
If you made your own with hemp sunflower peanuts that would be about 40pc fat ( roughly ) so you would add less

I have a simple chart made up so it’s there to look at each week pinned up
Easy to do just base it on 3g fat a hours and work back on the days for the hours predicted
It can still go wrong with a wind change which is why keeping Thursday morning clear is a smart idea like Anthony says you can keep that spare

One thing to remember is to add on the fat for the daily work in the week if they fly a hour there using 1.5g so don’t include that in the load sums for Saturday
If your training a hour twice a day that’s 4.5g off your loading as they have used that

Like I say that worked great for me upto 300 miles
I used it last year at 412 miles and had 5 in 43 min all yearlings on a 1290 vel but that could well have been a total fluke as I haven’t t got a clue over 280 miles

MIL wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 8:04 pm

Harry's Loft wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 10:51 am
Most antibiotics really are a minimum of a 5 day treatment but I worry about doing more damage than go if treating like this every week

Short doses are just to lower the counts of bacteria in healthy birds or I like to think so at least

I like the way you come across Harry, and I can appreciate your logic. However, I'd absolutely put anybody off using amoxycillin for just one day.

It's actually doing the bird more harm than good by bouncing a 24 hr treatment at them rather than a structured 5 day course.

It's kinda like going to the Doctors, getting a course of something and being told "finish the course" but you stop after 24 hrs.

If you're gonna treat, don't flirt with the idea - treat them

There's plenty of products out there that help support the pigeons whilst on the treatment

You won't kill em by treating them properly

NeilA wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 8:14 pm

Harry's Loft wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 10:51 am

NeilA wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 9:34 am Did the instructions say 1-2 days
I know loads do these treatments
I tend to like one as instructions but not saying your wrong as loads do it that way

What was the reason behind the one day amoxicillin

Most antibiotics really are a minimum of a 5 day treatment but I worry about doing more damage than go if treating like this every week

Short doses are just to lower the counts of bacteria in healthy birds or I like to think so at least

Why not get a test for the 4 obvious things and treat on that
That leaves Respo and bacteria to deal with
Think these 1-2 day things don’t really do much is there a issue
So blind treat for respo and bacteria
For 4-5 days Saturday to Wednesday morning at least
Treat the rest on test results

Anthony webster wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 9:09 pm The best performance enhancing thing with racing pigeons is a well timed antibiotic Harry this ain't me saying this ,this is from the top testing team in South Africa nothing gets a bird to fly faster ,,
The fanicers who say they don't treat that are winning well are the ones that have mastered it .

MIL wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 2:20 pm

Harry's Loft wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 8:28 am

I can imagine Tony

To be honest the best flyers in our club use them with great success both fed level and higher

It's gaining the knowledge of when and how

But I suppose you only learn that from listening as well trial and error

Out of interest Harry what Fed are you - and can you tell me say 3-4 guys you'd like to be ahead of this weekend

MIL wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 8:48 pm Thanks for that Harry.

So, let's get down to it - and I'll try not to offend because I come from a good place in wanting you to improve. Sometimes it's easier for me to be blunt as opposed to fannying around though. So, the competition you race against is good. I've raced against Sherwood & Jones and the Brelsford's at NMCC level and I know them to be good fliers.

Firstly, if you want to be better then the clue is on the tin. You have to BE BETTER. That means fighting fire with fire. It doesn't necessarily mean spending more time at the lofts, or training harder and further than before - but it means switching your eyes and your ears on to EVERYTHING as you approach the loft. The attention to detail has to be PERFECT. You can be better - you will be better - but it's not a simple road to go down.

Secondly.. I don't know why you'd only play at showing the sexes to one another on a Friday night. A bird that lacks motivation isn't going to give you everything it has in its locker. 99% of the time my birds went away seeing their partners before the race. If I didn't it was to give something a short sharp shock if I thought it was under-performing.

Thirdly. Health. If you're in good competition then birds that are 90% well are gonna win seven shades of fack all. Simple as that. My policy served me in good stead, and it continues to do so in the current climate with many fanciers adopting the principles I put into place. Start with the gut. The gut has to be right. If I were you I'd use Coli-Amox for 5 days in the water. It's a Pantex product. One you've got the gut right you can move up the body (i.e throat, head, nostrils).

MIL wrote: Fri May 15, 2026 5:03 am Well done Harry

You've got to be switched on and you've got to be desperate in your desire to improve and to win - cos if you aren't putting in at least the equal of the guys you aspire to be better than, then how do you think you're going to beat them? They're not gonna sit there and just give it you