UkPigeonRacing

I am already thinking about what changes I need to do for next season. I have decided that I am going to have some on widowhood. The section I’m going to use is 92”. Standard widowhood boxes are 29”. This means I could get 3 rows of 4 boxes. 12 pairs. Or I could have 4 rows of 4 smaller boxes. 16 pairs. I welcome your thoughts.

Only my thought Andy but I would probably put 12 full size widowhood boxes in that section. I think widowhood cocks like having plenty of space and it would be more peaceful with 12 rather than 16 cocks in there.

If you are having 16 pairs then you will need at least 16 boxes

Thank you. I think I probably will go for the 12. Although the smaller boxes would allow me 4 more cocks to race it would mean having to cut the widowhood fronts down to fit. It would be much easier to have them full size. I only used to keep a small team for racing so quite happy with that. I would look to just race the cocks on a proper widowhood system and not go for roundabout or double widowhood.

I think i will be doing roundabout .

DarkPiedCock wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 5:32 pm I think i will be doing roundabout .

I don’t think I have the right sections to do roundabout. It would be a lot of messing about moving birds from one section to another. I wouldn’t really want the hens in the section next to the cocks. Also the section I plan on using for the widowhood hens isn’t big enough for more than about 20 youngsters. I am also going to have 8 pairs of naturals. I would only be “sacrificing 12 hens to use as widowhood hens. I have 7 hens that won’t race anyway, either old, been hawked or stock. These would be used as widowhood hens along with 5 others, probably yearlings.
These are my lofts. My plan is from left to right.
Far left 8 natural nest boxes will go in here. Currently young bird loft. Next section will be for the widowhood hens. In the main loft the big section is where I am thinking of putting the 12 widowhood boxes. The final section on the far right with the little aviary on which has currently got 8 nest boxes in will be used for the young birds. Should get around 30 box perches in there.

Good luck with it all Andy

That all sounds like a good scheme, Andy.
The best racing I ever had was when I was using the widowhood.
I am of the opinion that the roundabout is best played with yearlings. I had never done it, but I knew a bloke who had a team of yearlings split up and they were dynamite!
I suspect old cocks get sick of it pretty quickly.
Best of luck with it.

Murray wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:12 pm That all sounds like a good scheme, Andy.
The best racing I ever had was when I was using the widowhood.
I am of the opinion that the roundabout is best played with yearlings. I had never done it, but I knew a bloke who had a team of yearlings split up and they were dynamite!
I suspect old cocks get sick of it pretty quickly.
Best of luck with it.

Same here Murray. The best seasons I had also both in Sussex and Cornwall was when I raced widowhood. I only had a small team in those days. 12/16 cocks.

Hope you find the happy medium Andy.