DEEP KEELS

[Diamond Dave]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that deep keeled birds are easier to condition?
What are ppls thoughts......

[Diamond Dave]

The advantage in the long deep keeled bird is that he will not put on extra weight or fat easily, whereas the short keeled apple bodied pigeon must be kept constantly in racing trim with strict rations and extra exercise. What is known as paying for your wins with high fuel costs for training.

Does that make them better for the distance then Devo?

[Diamond Dave]

Not a fan of deep pigeons
But my best sprinters who won 3 times against 900-1200 birds plus had 2nd etc was all front and a little deep
No rump he was like two pigeons joined together
I was embarrassed to give him to top fanciers at marking as I knew he was horrible in the hand
I lost him at a east 150 mile races when the cocks fell in so never new what happened he was only 2
I bred 2 babies off him only in his life one was 4th combine plus 5 times top 6 against 850-1200 birds
But you wouldn’t want him in the hand

Does that make deep keeled birds bad handling birds then NeilA or is that just your preference?

[Spieker-Loft]

Alot of the hardy kruger pigeons i handled are very deep keeled. The ones i have myself are aswell. Done me good so far tho on short and on "long" distance. I dont like the way they handle to much when they have a deep keel but besides that atleast so far i cant seem to see a difference in races wether deep or not deep keel

[goose1]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that deep keeled birds are easier to condition?
What are ppls thoughts......

If anything I would've thought they were harder to condition if anything

Exactly.

[Buster121]

Racing pigeons, like other pigeons, store food in their crop:
The crop is where food is temporarily held before it moves through the digestive system.

Also it depends how you cook the breast of chicken Neil.

They don’t store energy fat in there crops that’s just corn Devo and of no use at that point to them

No matter how you cook chicken tne breast is naturally drier to start with adding fats / covering etc obviously makes it moist but it’s still the more drier of any cut and you couldn’t feed a pigeon so fats just stored in the breast

Pigeons are no different to any other bird and store fat both Subcutaneously and within the muscle, the trouble is that they do this depending on how far they are planing to fly and for how long, if they are able to take plenty of refuelling stops then they will store less fat and the majority of this will be stored Subcutaneously, they will not store more fat than they require as in doing so can become costly. Unfortunately with our pigeons they have no idea how far they are going to have to fly or for how long so how can they possibly know how much energy to store !! So that is completely down to our management to ensure they have all they need for we are asking them to do.

As for deep keeled pigeons, I would imagine it makes no difference really. In nature it usually follows that the bigger the creature the more energy efficient they are, so with our birds, the smaller ones will actually burn up more energy than the bigger ones.
Don't laugh but I don't even know what folks are on about deep keels etc
I've had some big birds over the years but this obviously doesn't necessarily mean that they are deep keeled !! I've not had too many that I would actually call Deep Keeled,
in my experience most deep keeled youngsters generally muscle up and fill out by the end of their second year so the deep keel isn't an issue. However there are, as there is in people, some that are just big boned and under no circumstances will ever put on weight !!
I have had one or two proper deep keeled birds but don't recall any of them being any good, but that's just my experience. As with all things pigeon, it's a matter of personal preference, and something that is a good trait in one family won't be so good in another.

[Buster121]

They don’t store energy fat in there crops that’s just corn Devo and of no use at that point to them

No matter how you cook chicken tne breast is naturally drier to start with adding fats / covering etc obviously makes it moist but it’s still the more drier of any cut and you couldn’t feed a pigeon so fats just stored in the breast

Pigeons are no different to any other bird and store fat both Subcutaneously and within the muscle, the trouble is that they do this depending on how far they are planing to fly and for how long, if they are able to take plenty of refuelling stops then they will store less fat and the majority of this will be stored Subcutaneously, they will not store more fat than they require as in doing so can become costly. Unfortunately with our pigeons they have no idea how far they are going to have to fly or for how long so how can they possibly know how much energy to store !! So that is completely down to our management to ensure they have all they need for we are asking them to do.

As for deep keeled pigeons, I would imagine it makes no difference really. In nature it usually follows that the bigger the creature the more energy efficient they are, so with our birds, the smaller ones will actually burn up more energy than the bigger ones.
Don't laugh but I don't even know what folks are on about deep keels etc
I've had some big birds over the years but this obviously doesn't necessarily mean that they are deep keeled !! I've not had too many that I would actually call Deep Keeled,
in my experience most deep keeled youngsters generally muscle up and fill out by the end of their second year so the deep keel isn't an issue. However there are, as there is in people, some that are just big boned and under no circumstances will ever put on weight !!
I have had one or two proper deep keeled birds but don't recall any of them being any good, but that's just my experience. As with all things pigeon, it's a matter of personal preference, and something that is a good trait in one family won't be so good in another.

I don't even know what a deep keel is

[Diamond Dave]

Are there any muscles over the breast bones?
Dont know much about the anatomy but what is it that gets "pumped-up" when a bird is extremely fit and "corky"
I thought that was extra muscle so assumed that a deep keeled bird would have extra muscle for the distance.
Can somebody put me right on this please....