Boxes

[Tony-P-]

Morning Tony.
I think you would be ok using the late breds you’re getting in to breed from next year. You’ve only got a relatively small loft with no real provision for keeping prisoners. The last thing you want is birds that you can’t let out. Keep it simple. There is no need for you to breed in January. You could wait until February or even March and still get 2 rounds from each pair that would be old enough to race as youngsters. If you feel you need a few earlier youngsters, and I don’t think you would, buy a small kit in early next year.

Thanks for the tips Andy, so get the birds in, once old enough train them to the loft, then around January / February start breeding from them.

I can then race the late bred birds as old birds ?

And my own bred Y/Bs I can race them later next year ?

Yes Tony. What I would do is you say you have 20 youngsters coming in July/August. I would start letting them out shortly after you get them. They should be young enough when you get them to not be able to fly much. Get them used to a routine of coming out and trapping. You may lose the odd ones off the loft but it will make things so much easier for you if they are broken.. Then around November/ December time I would separate the cocks from the hens. I assume you have 2 sections in your loft? Then by end of February early March you should be able to pair them up ok. I have a pair of hens here that hatched out on the 23rd June last year. They were paired up on Boxing Day and laid early January. Hatched and reared 4 nice youngsters. About 6 and a half months old when laid their first eggs. If you’ve got youngsters coming in July/August they have either already hatched out or not far off. So by end of February/March they should be around 8 months old.
It would be up to you if you wanted to race the ones you’re getting as old birds. I would be tempted to not race the ones that give you the best first round youngsters and take a second round from them.
The youngsters you breed you will certainly be able to race next year.
Also I would aim to breed a round from every pair that you get paired up. You need to prove their breeding potential as much as their racing one.
Others will certainly have different opinions but these are mine.

again Andy thanks so much for your feedback on this.
Would you (if possible) pair the birds together from each fancier I get the birds from or would you let the birds pair them selves up mate, that saying out of roughly 20 birds I get 10 cock's and 10 hen's I know I would be very luck on this but you never know.

[Andy]

If they are all for racing from the same sort of distance ie all distance or all sprinters I would let them pair themselves up. You won’t really know the best ones until you have tried them. If a mixture or sprint and distance I would be inclined to keep them with their own type. Being new to the sport it is going to be very difficult for you to select pairs yourself. The other bonus of letting them choose their own mates is that you shouldn’t have to much trouble with settling pairs to nest boxes. Have the cocks in the section with the nest boxes in over the winter months so that they claim their own box. Then when ready just let the hens in with them.
Yes you will be lucky to both still have 20 birds after the winter, as I said you may well lose the odd one off the loft and even luckier still to end up with equal numbers of cocks and hens. But no need to worry about that right now.

[Tony-P-]

All the birds are from sprint fanciers, so no issues with different distances ect.... which is ideal for me.
Bit of a daft question but is it easy to find the cock birds from the Hens to split them over the winter months

[Andy]

All the birds are from sprint fanciers, so no issues with different distances ect.... which is ideal for me.
Bit of a daft question but is it easy to find the cock birds from the Hens to split them over the winter months

With a bit of observation as they mature you should be able to determine the sexes reasonably easily. You could have the odd one that throws you. Very often youngsters are raced as one sex and turn out to be the other. The youngsters cocks will start to show themselves by the way they act. Cooing at other pigeons and turning circles. When you split them you should relatively easily be able to tell if you’ve got one around the wrong way.

[Tony-P-]

All the birds are from sprint fanciers, so no issues with different distances ect.... which is ideal for me.
Bit of a daft question but is it easy to find the cock birds from the Hens to split them over the winter months

With a bit of observation as they mature you should be able to determine the sexes reasonably easily. You could have the odd one that throws you. Very often youngsters are raced as one sex and turn out to be the other. The youngsters cocks will start to show themselves by the way they act. Cooing at other pigeons and turning circles. When you split them you should relatively easily be able to tell if you’ve got one around the wrong way.

Thanks again Andy for the tips everything is helping me mate, wait till I get them I'll be asking a thousand questions each day hahaha