Weaned my first few youngsters today.

[Murray]

I posted a reply to two other posts, then when I wrote one to this thread, it logged me off. This thing still has issues. I shall try again.

Here are three of my late bred youngsters. They are a bit bigger and more forward than yours, Andy.
The big blue bar is a half brother to the Billion Dollar Baby, by the same cock out of a better hen. He is worth a few bob. Stock pigeon.
The mealy is off one of the 'Red Boys', the youngsters off the old Jos Thone' imports. It is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful.
The wee blue hen is off my good pigeon, 'The Diver'. Diver had three races and won them all. Maybe not as flash as the imports, but still well enough related.

[Murray]

I admit I cheated a bit there
The big blue bloke I bought home a week ago, he was still only just feathered up under the wings, and just ready to go. Only just. Fortunately I had the other two almost exactly the same age. I put them in a top nest box with a feed and a drink, and only let them out when I was home.
They have ventured out the last couple of days, and are going in and out like old hands.
I am still going to keep them in their box for another couple of nights, some of the bigger young birds are really adults now, and knock them around.

[Murray]

And yes, that is their box with the clean paper.
While they were out I put clean newspaper in, a bowl of food, clean water and a wee bit of grit.
I looked in there a minute ago, three babies, lying sound asleep.

[Buster121]

Very nice Murray

[Andy]

They look very nice Murray. I do like a nice Mealey.
Mine aren’t fully feathered under the wings yet and won’t be up in the perches for a few days yet. So will be a little bit before they are coming out of the loft.

[Trev]

They are looking very nice Muzza, their feathering looks immaculate, the Mealey does stand out but the others certainly don't look out of place either, a credit to you mate.

[Andy]

All the youngsters are doing well. The 2 weaned yesterday have full crops along with all the others. None have had their beaks dipped in the drinkers.
I do generally find that weaning earlier causes less problems and stress on the youngsters. Yes you can go the other way as some of our members do and not actually wean them but let them wean themselves. The problem I have had with this is youngsters leaving the nest and then getting set on. Mine are weaned before the are looking to come out of the nest box.
Things can be made worse if the parents have relaid and stop taking as much notice of their youngsters.
Again I relate what I do with the pigeons on my experience with cattle. Being in dairy farming I found that both the calves and their mothers done better if the calves were taken away with in 12 hours of being born. As long as the calf had had a good feed of colostrum. Both would get much more stressed when separated if left together to long. Also it was much better to get the calves onto concentrates quickly as they grew much quicker than those kept on milk. I would only feed milk until they were 35 days old.

[Murray]

Those really are a good kit of youngsters, Andy. Lovely even bunch.

[Trev]

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All the youngsters are doing well. The 2 weaned yesterday have full crops along with all the others. None have had their beaks dipped in the drinkers.
I do generally find that weaning earlier causes less problems and stress on the youngsters. Yes you can go the other way as some of our members do and not actually wean them but let them wean themselves. The problem I have had with this is youngsters leaving the nest and then getting set on. Mine are weaned before the are looking to come out of the nest box.
Things can be made worse if the parents have relaid and stop taking as much notice of their youngsters.
Again I relate what I do with the pigeons on my experience with cattle. Being in dairy farming I found that both the calves and their mothers done better if the calves were taken away with in 12 hours of being born. As long as the calf had had a good feed of colostrum. Both would get much more stressed when separated if left together to long. Also it was much better to get the calves onto concentrates quickly as they grew much quicker than those kept on milk. I would only feed milk until they were 35 days old.

They look well Andy, I hope they do well for you bruv.
If I had the space for a young bird section I would probably wean the youngsters, as much as anything to make it easier to get them under control. However since starting up again I've found it easier to just let all the birds fly together and let the youngsters wean themselves. Up to now I haven't had any problems with doing it like this and have only had one youngster scalped in five years. When the youngsters are about 14 days old I put a second nest bowl in each box, some pairs lay their next round in the new bowl whereas others lay in the old nest and the babies move to the new one. The birds are fed in their boxes so the babies learn how to feed quite early, some youngsters stay in their boxes longer than others but eventually they all leave.

[Andy]

2 more lovely youngsters weaned today.

These 2 are out of Muzzaboy, a son of Pete’s Muzzabella and a hen from George.