Getting the right nutrition fed.

[killer]

Cold weather they do that ,Maize warms them up ,what’s left are lead sinkers throw them overboard ,Lol

[Buster121]

Looks a very nice mix does that

[Buster121]

In that picture you see a tin, a cup, and a plastic scoop.
Those are my measures.
6 scoops to a cup, 3 cups to a tin. It would mean nothing to anyone else, but I know exactly how many cups and scoops the young birds eat in the morning, and how may at night.
With the pigeons in boxes, they each have a bowl, and I know exactly how many scoops each will eat.
The funny thing is, I had a baby a while back that was getting pushed out of the feed trays. So I put it on a perch and fed it with the scoop. Guess what?
Now I have about 15 pigeons on perches all looking very excited while I go along feeding them with the scoop!
Even if they have had a feed on the floor, they seem to like the contact with me. They really aren't hungry, they just like to be given a little bit of food off the scoop. I don't mind, it strengthens the bond, which may be the difference between winning and losing a race one day.

[Buster121]

It's a bit damp and cold here this morning, and they were looking a bit too keen for the feed. I like them to have good appetites, but when they start rushing at me they are too hungry.
They had a bit of a fright yesterday when the resident hawk gave them a tickle up, and they flew for a couple of hours. Probably made them a bit hungry too.
So I gave them a couple of extra spoons in the trays, just to fill them up a little bit. 005.JPG
This is what they left.
004.JPG
They left the peas, beans and vetch.
Ate up all the maize, wheat milo and safflower.
There's about 20% peas and only about 1% of the beans and the vetch, but that's what they didn't want.
Interesting.

They look like proper old school tic beans like our Dad used to feed, you struggle to find beans like them over here these days. The beans you can get are much smaller and paler, I'm afraid I'm still a fan of beans and do hopper feed them. I know they won't do me any favours from the short races but if we do ever get any distance again I hope they will pay off

Look the same as the ones in my mix now, we used to have the smaller which my birds preferred but for some reason they have changed to the bigger ones few months ago

[Buster121]

They certainly enjoy there veg mate wish mine would they only seem to eat cress

[Buster121]

That looks a really nice mix

[Buster121]

Very nice mix Andy do you mix it before going in bin in smaller amounts

[Buster121]

Very nice mix Andy do you mix it before going in bin in smaller amounts

No not really Buster. I emptied one 20kg all round into the bin then half the bag of conditioner. Mix those then add the second 20kg of all round and put the other half bag of conditioner on top. Then mix that together. The bin holds about 55kg. They are fed in the morning with the food left down all day. In the evening I just remove any uneaten food and tip it back into the bin. I mix that in. It does mean that as it is mainly only peas left the bin does contain a bigger percentage of peas towards the end.
Now the days are getting longer and the evenings lighter a will probably feed a bit less in the mornings and give a bit of fresh mix in the evenings. I do have to remember though that in around 8 days time I should have the first eggs hatching and there will be youngsters to feed.
As I’ve said before on this topic if I handle any of the birds at any point during the day they rarely have more than a few grains in their crops even with food constantly in front of them.

Do they seem hungry though if you was to say throw a bit extra in on the floor or something, I ask that as since I have started to hopper feed when after cleaning in morning and shutting up I throw a bit on floor and they are as if starving even though hoppers full

[Buster121]

They are like that if I give them any peanuts or sunflower hearts. I can fill the troughs up and let them feed for a few minutes and they would go back to sitting on their eggs etc but if I then threw some peanuts down they would all shoot out of their boxes to pick up a few. With the mix yes to a degree. They do go for the maize first along with some of the small grains and it is this that’s eaten quickly meaning that what’s left is the more less desirable grains. They will eat these during the day if left down. But if I threw a handful of fresh corn down they would fall on it. But only to pick out their favourite grains. It does keep them relatively easy to trap when wanted.

Thanks mate did think they not getting enough but now I can see it's not

[Buster121]