Changing Corn

[Diamond Dave]

Can you change the feed abruptly ie go from a racing mix to say barley from one feed to the next or should it be done gradually over 2 or 3 feeds please.

[NeilA]

I change Saturday mix to barley Sunday no problems , for some reason I do put a couple of handful of Saturdays mix down first
I don’t think it matters although many say doing it gradually is more sensible which I guess it is

[Murray]

I know I'm going to regret this, but...
20 years ago in New Zealand I had a team of widowhood cocks that were so good that people hated me
There were 9 cocks and 8 of them had won at least one race.
I did the traditional breakdown on Sunday- Monday, hold them Tuesday - Wednesday, build up Thursday Friday morning.......
That was 20 years ago. Now I don't believe in that at all.
One of the great flyers, Jos 'De Klak' Van Limpt was an early convert to one feed. He fed every pigeon the same feed every day.
In Belgium, Jos Thone' is feeding one mix to every pigeon every day. And so it goes.
On a much more modest scale, I have my own mixture which they all eat all the time. It must be alright, the pigeons flew an hour this morning and half an hour this afternoon. And two years ago I sent them to the races on it and won a race.
I really think that constantly changing the feed has a couple of disadvantages.
1/ The pigeons have metabolisms which are geared to their diet. After a race, when they want to refuel, their regular feed isn't there. I think this can slow, rather than improve recovery.
2/ The 'break down and build' up plan is what the fancier decides. The pigeons don't get a say.
As I said, I will have started a shit fight, but in 2025 more and more people are moving away from what was always done 50 or 25 years ago.
If you have modern pigeons, it might pay to use modern training techniques

[NeilA]

I don’t really see it as a break down Murray I know most do and thats the traditional thinking we had years ago
Take barley very good grain as high carb as most and low protein
So you know the birds won’t over eat on it so you can offer there ration of mix then barley
I like them to it more the end of the week
By using more barley for 2/ 3 days the birds appetite will increase end of the week with there more favoured corns. and intake increase and at the same time it’s still a quality grain being fed

[Murray]

I don’t really see it as a break down Murray I know most do and thats the traditional thinking we had years ago
Take barley very good grain as high carb as most and low protein
So you know the birds won’t over eat on it so you can offer there ration of mix then barley
I like them to it more the end of the week
By using more barley for 2/ 3 days the birds appetite will increase end of the week with there more favoured corns. and intake increase and at the same time it’s still a quality grain being fed

I see your thinking there. So it's more keeping the energy up to them than lowering it?
I like that.

[Murray]

I don’t really see it as a break down Murray I know most do and thats the traditional thinking we had years ago
Take barley very good grain as high carb as most and low protein
So you know the birds won’t over eat on it so you can offer there ration of mix then barley
I like them to it more the end of the week
By using more barley for 2/ 3 days the birds appetite will increase end of the week with there more favoured corns. and intake increase and at the same time it’s still a quality grain being fed

I see your thinking there. So it's more keeping the energy up to them than lowering it?
I like that.

[NeilA]

I don’t really see it as a break down Murray I know most do and thats the traditional thinking we had years ago
Take barley very good grain as high carb as most and low protein
So you know the birds won’t over eat on it so you can offer there ration of mix then barley
I like them to it more the end of the week
By using more barley for 2/ 3 days the birds appetite will increase end of the week with there more favoured corns. and intake increase and at the same time it’s still a quality grain being fed

I see your thinking there. So it's more keeping the energy up to them than lowering it?
I like that.

That’s it Murray plus with the barley doing no harm anyway feeding it
So Like 3-1 to 2-2 to 1-3 as the week goes on feeding a bit at a time
Or weigh your race mix and increase the weight or volume as the week goes on with unlimited barley after say the evening feed
It’s kind of fool proof and that’s what I need

[Murray]

Nothing is fool proof.
Never underestimate fools.

[MIL]

A straight swap wouldn’t concern me Dave

[Andy]

I don’t think changing the feed abruptly would matter. They will only absorb what nutrients they require from what ever they are given. I am using depurative a bit at present as that’s the way I used to do it when racing widowhood in the past but I know things have changed so will see how things go. It does seem that breaking down isn’t done the same as it used to but nor is the method of racing. Not many race true widowhood anymore. They either race roundabout or celibate hens flown to the perch or other methods involving racing both sexes. The top fancier in our club had the first 3 in the combine this week. The hen that won has now topped the WOESRC for a record 4th time. They race on the chaos system, don’t break down and their birds never see a grain of barley. Different methods of racing require different methods of feeding.