A bit of a dilemma

[Trev]

I just thought I'd share my dilemma and get some feed back and advice from the members on the forum.
As I said in another post I have been gifted 4 sprint cock birds to try and inject some speed into my team. Now three out of the four have been raced, the other is a stock bird. They will have to go into my small shed and be kept prisoner for the time being, I am going to try and put an aviary on the shed to give a bit more space and light. Now I need to find suitable hens for them now ideally I would use the best of my racers, but I don't really want to lose these from my team. I have several hens that don't race but these are more distance birds, I do have babies from these already in the loft but they haven't proven much as of yet. Another option I have are a few late breds that possibly won't race this year anyway, the trouble is with these is that can be a problem to get paired up.
I'd be interested to hear others opinions on this !!
I have put the old hens in them today to see how quickly they'll settle but they aren't showing much interest at the moment !!

[Murray]

What I would do is pair them up with young hens off your best racers, picking the nicest types to mate to the cocks.
It's still early and cold, don't be in too much of a panic. Another week or two won't matter.
Just my two bob's worth.

[Buster121]

I'm with Murray on this

[Andy]

If your thoughts are that these cocks are better than the cocks you already have, especially for sprint races, pair them to your best sprint hens regardless of whether you would prefer to race them or not. You have plenty of birds to race so putting a couple of the best hens back to improve your loft is a no brainer. As you know my hens won’t race this year as I’m racing widowhood. Among these hens is my best 2 old bird racing hens and my best young bird from last year.

[Devo1956]

It really depends on what is the best way forward Trev, myself i would select some of your best racing hens. And pair them up and take some youngsters from the pairs. now these youngsters can become your new foundations of a new breeding team. You could always race the hens back to the cocks, go with a system that is good for the birds and yourself. Keep it simple mate.

[Trev]

Thanks guys, I have to say that is definitely my initial feeling and as you makes more sense as my youngsters should be my better pigeons. The trouble I have at the moment is I haven't got any of what I would call proven pigeons especially sprint birds. I've got a few birds that are showing promise and have been consistent but as I have been focusing on a distance team I really don't know for certain which my best hens are. I'm never going to set the sport alight with my sprinters as my methods just don't support consistency, I'd just like to be in the mix a bit more regularly. I don't like widowhood anyway and for me to go down that line I would have to change my whole set up don't have the space for it even if I wanted to. I'm not looking for major success as my competitive edge just isn't there anymore, I just love keeping and racing the birds but I do still want to strive towards improving my stock for my own satisfaction which is why I've taken on these birds.
I think I will have to go through my young bird results carefully and see who I can spare. I'm certainly in no hurry to breed as I don't really want youngsters before March but I do want to try and get these cocks settled asap.
Cheers all.

[Trev]

Well I spent some time today with the birds, I went through my paperwork first and made a note of some potential suitors. Unfortunately as I've not split the birds up some of the birds have already found their own mates even though most haven't gone down on eggs yet. I do however have a couple of pairs on eggs and sod's law, 2 of the hens are ones that I'd shortlisted, one being my most consistent youngbird last year. My second best young hen unfortunately is now looking more like being a cock, I did give her/him a few minutes with the cock bird but had to remove him/her before he ended up getting scalped. I have however now got 4 hens in with the cocks and tonight 3 of the 4 pairs are already calling to the bowl, I will need to keep an eye on the 4th pair as again I'm not 100% convinced that she is a she
I did also vaccinate this lot so probably won't keep the first round of eggs.
The hens I selected in the end were a 2018 Crammond/Langstaff who is the Dam to one of my best youngsters last year, 2 are youngsters I was given by Dave Bridger, one of them was my 6th best youngster, the other was bit down the list but there is just something about her that I like, the other one I've chosen was my 3rd best youngster.
So now it's just wait and see.

[Trev]

Here are the pedigrees for the two hens from Dave Bridger.

It says cock but it is definitely a hen.

The other yearling if she is a hen is bred down from a pair of Rich's birds crossed with Des Coulter/Brasspenning lines.

[Devo1956]

Here are the pedigrees for the two hens from Dave Bridger.

20240117_192136.jpg
20240117_192234.jpg
It says cock but it is definitely a hen.

The other yearling if she is a hen is bred down from a pair of Rich's birds crossed with Des Coulter/Brasspenning lines.

very good pedigrees giving plenty of information, just the way they should be. I am sure you will choose well mate. good luck with your breeding.

[Andy]

Good luck with the breeding Trev.