Bicc Pau

[goose1]

I'm sticking with this thread for this post, maybe should have started a new one but the subject is relevant to this thread.
Well, I got not nothing from what appears to have been a brutal race from Bordeaux where I sent 2 x experienced 2 yo cocks.
I must admit, it wasn't the type of race I expected it to be and yes before anyone jumps on me - I did know what the conditions were going to be like ( maybe not quite as harsh as I expected) and thought that experienced birds would cope with the conditions anyway, which if you were up to speed with this thread you will know is the reason I didn't send my yearlings.
However, I would just l8ke to point out that there are plenty of yearlings clocked and most notable for me is that Mark Gilbert only sent his yearlings and plenty of them were clocked. Perhaps his success in the international races comes from the experience these yearlings gain from such a race.???
Obviously different birds to mine but are they that different?
As Albert suggested in an earlier post - may need to have a rethink about what we should expect from yearlings - food for thought???

I wouldn't compare yourself to Mark Gilbert. The number of pigeons he keeps and sends isn't comparable for just about any other loft in the country. And he didn't only send yearlings as he has timed a 2 yo. I see he's timed 17 yearlings. Got nothing on the day. I notice 600+ birds away in his section you can guarantee he'll have had a good number away. Maybe he can afford to lose a large number to get a small number back. But the question you've got to ask yourself is can you? Yearlings can and will do it. We topped the combine with a yearling last year 497 mile 11 hrs 27 minutes. But its about catching them right and not just sending them on mass. I personally feel too many people are sending yearlings to the distance now because they have nothing left to send and hoping more than expecting.

[Diamond Dave]

Thanks for the reply Goose.
Ha- ha, I wouldn't have the audacity to compare myself to MG. he is in another league, on his own.
- And how ironic that the 497m where you won the fed is exactly my distance from this Bordeaux race.
In some ways, I guess it's what you consider to be " the distance". At 497 miles and all coming in the same direction, this was always going to be one of my target races but to MG this was probably just a training test for his yearlings.
Yes, he plays the numbers game and the duffers fall away as yearlings instead of investing 2 or 3 years in the birds and then dropping them as "experienced" old birds. However small my loft is and however many I send, pro-rata, wouldnt the principle still be the same?

I have said where the basis of my birds are from before and they flew 430miles successfully as youngsters. The guy who bred them said they don't always make good old birds which is fair enough.
But the principle remains the same that if you breed from birds that have done that, their progeny should be able to reproduce at least one similar performance and is there any reason why that can't be at the yearling stage?

[king]

I don't think there is a set distance for yearlings Dave. You have to work around the race program. I've sent yearlings to every old bird race point my club flew. The 500 mile race often changed from year to year from Bourges 501, Poitiers 514, Nevers 517, Niort 529 miles ect. In the NFC I sent them to Saintes 568 miles. As Goose says its about catching them right and not just sending them on mass. I recall jumping a blue yearling cock from 148 miles to 514 miles for his first channel race. He was in the clock late 2nd day, when the race was won early 2nd day.
My aim at the start of the season was always to get the yearlings to a couple of channel races.

[Diamond Dave]

Thanks King, it's difficult for me to say as I don't know if I prepared them correctly but losing those two 2yo from
Bordeaux that went over the channel twice as yearlings then seeing all those yearlings on the result from Bordeaux is just making me think that young birds and yearlings without too much experience may have more "guts" than experienced birds.
I guess some will say that my birds aren't up to it but both of them were the same way bred as thr bird I got back from Pau, so I assumed they would easily be good enough.
I am beginning to think that you can't apply any 'logic' to this game anyway!