UkPigeonRacing

Tony-P- wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2026 1:58 pm

Andy wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 10:18 pm

Tony-P- wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 7:26 pm Thanks Dave, I'll just be glad to get the late bred birds in next month, I know they will only be very young birds so it'll be me getting use to them and them getting use to me and the set up.
Can I just ask, on feed for young birds what would be the best to get in for them
do they stay on the same feed for a while
how much do I feed them and is it morning and night or just one feed a day
anything in the water or just fresh water
Thanks all

If I was in your position Tony with late breds that won’t be raced this year I would just give them a good all round mix. That will see them right through the winter. Nothing in the water.
I would feed twice a day. Certainly until the days get too short to be able to. This way you will be able to get them nice and calm and friendly.

Thanks Andy and roughly how much food per bird would you say in both sittings

With the late breds I would put a reasonable amount in the feeders and just remove what’s left after around 5 minutes. You don’t want to be under feeding them at this stage. Especially as they will soon be going into the moult and winter will be approaching.

So don't leave the feed with them just remove it after 5 minutes mate.
is this once or twice a day ?
Thanks again Andy

Tony-P- wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2026 3:24 pm So don't leave the feed with them just remove it after 5 minutes mate.
is this once or twice a day ?
Thanks again Andy

I wouldn’t leave it with them as you won’t get much control of them. Remove it when they’ve had enough then they will be ready for their next feed. Twice a day.

Andy wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2026 6:27 pm

Tony-P- wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2026 3:24 pm So don't leave the feed with them just remove it after 5 minutes mate.
is this once or twice a day ?
Thanks again Andy

I wouldn’t leave it with them as you won’t get much control of them. Remove it when they’ve had enough then they will be ready for their next feed. Twice a day.

Ok thanks Andy

Getting back on this subject, I have become very enthusiastic about young pigeons as breeders.
I am not criticizing old stock birds, just for the record.
I have a young cock bird which was hatched late last year from a pair of eggs I was given. No pedigree was given and when I inquired, i was was assured that it was best that I didn't ask.
The yearling blue cock in the shed isn't the best pigeon I've ever had, he's the best pigeon I've ever seen.
Being a late bred, he chose and mated up with a granddaughter of the Billion baby.
She was a late bred too, and a little, speedy, athletic wee thing.
And a bit different.
She'd come zooming home from a toss, and when they all dived in the Sputnik, she'd wander off and pull flowers of my wife's garden and poke about. She wasn't being naughty or disobedient, she is just a wee free spirit. In many cases she would have been removed, but I was seeing something.

The Bendigo club had their first race on Saturday, David had 5 on the drop to win. One was their son.

On Sunday the Horsham club had a race and the sister of the wee hen was second.

I think we can disregard young pigeons in the stock loft at our own cost.

Murray would you race your Y/Bs before putting them in the stock loft, to see how they get on in races or would you just use them to breed from and no races

Back in New Zealand I always raced young birds brought in for stock to make sure they were actually racers.
Here in Australia, probably not. Nearly all my stock pigeons arrived as eggs or squeakers and were never trained. It's just too risky. The falcons are murder here.
I have a few younger stock birds that went through all the tosses or had one race before being stocked.

@murray as a breeder we often have to breed from 12 months old never flown birds from expensive pairings to simply get the numbers bred quicker for stock to be able to get enough from them the following year for testing, and I consider that breeding period to be some of my most successful, my personal opinion is year one is gold year 2 is silver year 3 is bronze anything after that with crosses isnt the same hit rate or quality with a few exceptions

Murray wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2026 9:10 am Late breds can be very good. Well worth it if you have the space and the time to put into them, especially if they are bred off your top breeders or racers.
I think the time factor has a lot to do with it. If you can't train them as youngsters they tend to be the first ones gone the following year.
Yes, you will hear about lots of late breds that were good yearlings, but for every one, there's a lot that weren't.
Being retired to the country, I have a bit of time. So when I had three 'surprise babies' at the end of a busy breeding season, where we bred 92 and they were all sold or went to various outside breeders races, I went a bit soft and sort of adopted them. But all three are cocks and are nuisance.
One was such a menace that I put him in a breeder box with a hen and he's paired up and just sitting eggs. At 4 months old last Saturday.
In about 7 weeks they get jumped into a short race with the old birds.
This one will just about win, too.

I was talking about this cock a while ago, he was born on the 3rd of March.
He has a pair of youngsters which are little crackers and he looks amazing. The cocks had a toss yesterday and they'll get another one today. Probably 20 miles.
He's got one problem, living in the breeding box he doesn't trap, but I see him starting to look at the hen again so he'll be on eggs in a fortnight and he'll drop in.
An hour after I took these pictures both those babies had jumped out of the nest!

Looking nice there Murray