UkPigeonRacing

Im wondering if splitting my young birds cocks and hens into different sections will improve their loft flying at the minute I can only get 20 odd minutes out of them loft flying then they want to be down and when they are down they just chase each other round ive got them on gerry so I doubt its the feed thats too heavy ive started training there at 8 mile at the moment took them 40 minutes yesterday 28 minutes today any ideas would be appreciated cheers

You need to have them in a routine Mark, if they are not loft flying and they are healthy enough. I would get them on more roadwork, in the routine of fly and trap. Racing for young birds not far off, so have them ready. Just my thoughts others may differ.

Do they trap well ? Unfortunately ybs do like to mess about, dose all the seed get eaten ? From when I was racing I was slightly over feeding which made them because a little lazy and would only do 10-20mins and then sit about chasing each other didn’t matter if I tried to force them, once I got the feed right and took them down the road 3 days aweek they did start to improve and would log fly for 45mins and then straight in for there food. Ofcourse they did chase each other in the loft lol

They are in a routine im gunna continue road training them everyday miss Saturday road train them all next week and then try loft flying them they seem healthy just cant seem to keep them up

Devo1956 wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2026 10:37 pm You need to have them in a routine Mark, if they are not loft flying and they are healthy enough. I would get them on more roadwork, in the routine of fly and trap. Racing for young birds not far off, so have them ready. Just my thoughts others may differ.

I agree, you may need to get a bit more serious with them, cut the feed back just a little and lighten it up with a bit of extra barley, and get stuck into the road training. Get their minds off messing about.
You can split them up if you have the loft space, but it's making extra work for yourself.
On a lighter diet you should find they exercise better and trap better looking for their dinner.

chrisroscoe wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2026 10:45 pm Do they trap well ? Unfortunately ybs do like to mess about, dose all the seed get eaten ? From when I was racing I was slightly over feeding which made them because a little lazy and would only do 10-20mins and then sit about chasing each other didn’t matter if I tried to force them, once I got the feed right and took them down the road 3 days aweek they did start to improve and would log fly for 45mins and then straight in for there food. Ofcourse they did chase each other in the loft lol

Some days they trap better then others but overall they trap well and I feed by handfuls until they slow down or leave a touch of barley at the minute there on maybe an oz a day and sometimes they aint even finishing all that in good time split twice a day

If they are doing the work, they will eat up Mark. You need to get them moving to be ready, if they are not doing it themselves. Make them work, like i say routine down the road. Release and trap.

As someone that does actually split the young birds which we done about 3 weeks ago. i haven't seen a difference since we started doing it 2 years ago in training.
We only use it because we breed in december most birds up until this point were already paired up hens were laying eggs and the cocks chase after the hens. we dont like that and thats why we seperate.
Also has motivational purposes since on race day we let them together almost like a total widowhood system just without boxes
but training wise i see no difference they done 2-3 hours on the house before and they still do exactly that now still not more not less

I never had a problem getting YBs to fly. As somebody has already said it's about routine. Pigeons can tell the time, they know when it's feeding time. I could easily get my birds flying up to 2 hours (running) and I knew within 10 mins what time they would return.
A tip for anybody wanting YBs to fly well. Is choose a feeding time and feed that time everyday. I normally fed my YBs at 4pm (just once a day) (You can choose anytime to suit yourself) When they are just learning to fly I'd have them out at 3.30 and as they got stronger, I'd let them out earlier and earlier. Always feeding at 4pm. The amount was adjusted by time flown.

Absolutely. When I was jockey sometimes you had to firm and show them that one of us was the boss and one of us was was the horse.
Same with the pigeons.
Being smarter than a pigeon, hopefully, we have to get them doing what we want. As king says, a set routine teaches them what is expected of them.