1st round of youngsters

[Devo1956]

I let mine pretty much wean themselves, when they start jumping out of the nest box. I know others wean at 21 days or 23 days, and are very successful.
It's what suits the individual.

I've usually looked to wean mine between 24 and 28 days depending on the feather coverage under the wings, as I say, these days I leave them to wean themselves as I don't have space for a youngbird section at the moment.
As you and Devo say, it's another of those individual preferences.
If you go by the survival of the fittest then weaning early could mean that any week youngsters probably won't make it so you are only left with good, strong babies.

I would leave mine until 28 days, if they are going to the new owner 31 days old. Trev. I just like to know they have had a good start in life.

[Andy]

I have weaned youngsters at 18 days with no detrimental effect. They learn to feed and drink very quickly. I have never dipped a youngsters beak in the drinker either. Never had one not find the water.

[Trev]

I let mine pretty much wean themselves, when they start jumping out of the nest box. I know others wean at 21 days or 23 days, and are very successful.
It's what suits the individual.

I've usually looked to wean mine between 24 and 28 days depending on the feather coverage under the wings, as I say, these days I leave them to wean themselves as I don't have space for a youngbird section at the moment.
As you and Devo say, it's another of those individual preferences.
If you go by the survival of the fittest then weaning early could mean that any week youngsters probably won't make it so you are only left with good, strong babies.

I would leave mine until 28 days, if they are going to the new owner 31 days old. Trev. I just like to know they have had a good start in life.

I get that mate, as I say, mine wean themselves

[Andy]

Some lovely youngsters there, Andy.
I have to say your account of the raising of this round set off alarm bells for me. Watery droppings in most of the pigeons, a few babies failing to thrive, it sounds very much to me like your pigeons have wet canker.
You are breeding in the middle of the English winter, and it seems to have been a wet one. I know that you are like me, you don't use medications, but if I were you I would make an exception. I would get some Emtryl and give every pigeon a course of it at about 2/3 the stated dose. Emtryl is pretty potent, and I think that unless they have visible canker using it at full strength is risky.
I bit the bullet and did mine last year as some of the pigeons I bought in had trouble, wet nests and babies not thriving the year before. I gave them a 5 day course at 2/3 strength, and every baby was perfect and all the droppings have been spot on since. I won't have to do it again.
You will recoil at the suggestion but you want the babies getting the best start and those widowhood cocks need to be in super form, which will not happen if they have underlying canker.
Feel free to disagree with me, but I suspect I might not be far wrong.

Thanks for the advice Murray. I don’t think there would be much point in treating them now. I lost those youngsters over a couple of days but that was over 2 weeks ago. I haven’t lost any since. Although the droppings were, and some still are, loose, not that many now, they weren’t of any colour. Just normal colour but very watery. They are generally now getting better with a bit of down being dropped as well. I have looked at a couple of the old cock birds that seemed to suffer the most. Their throats are as clean as a whistle, their breathing is fine showing no sign of respiratory and their weight is fine. The cocks have been going out every morning for a while now. Some fly better than others. This morning when I let them out at 8.10 6 disappeared straight away. The other 5 didn’t go very far. I cleaned out and let the 5 that were here in at 8.40. There was no sign of the other 6. I went up the garden at 9.15 and 1 of the 6 dropped. I did get a bit worried then that maybe they had been struck by a peregrine whilst out. I checked again at 9.35 and 4 of the other 5 were back. The last one wasn’t there at 1.00 but was at 2.00. They show no sign of any ill affects from this this evening. So I don’t think there can be to much wrong when they flew for nearly an hour and a half in a strong NE wind this morning.

[Andy]

I've usually looked to wean mine between 24 and 28 days depending on the feather coverage under the wings, as I say, these days I leave them to wean themselves as I don't have space for a youngbird section at the moment.
As you and Devo say, it's another of those individual preferences.
If you go by the survival of the fittest then weaning early could mean that any week youngsters probably won't make it so you are only left with good, strong babies.

I would leave mine until 28 days, if they are going to the new owner 31 days old. Trev. I just like to know they have had a good start in life.

I get that mate, as I say, mine wean themselves

If I have youngsters in I prefer them to be around 24 days. I want them before they are able to fly as I can then get them into a routine of feeding before they start going out. I have had youngsters wean themselves but find that they are more likely then to come out of their box and either go into the wrong box and get scalped or get scalped on the floor. So I prefer to have them away before this. Even weaning early they will very rarely have any fret marks. But this is just my preferred way of doing things. Already these youngsters that are only just over 21 days old come running around my feet while cleaning out, I have to be careful I don’t step on them. They will feed out of my hand if I have time to let them.

[Murray]

Yep you have to be careful not to step on the little blokes.

[Andy]

A week on the youngsters are coming on nicely. The elder ones are now flying up into the perches and one in particular is going out into the aviary every day when opened up. The droppings on a lot of the birds both old and young has improved but the odd ones still have quite watery droppings. It’s only the cocks that are going out. 6 fly well but the other 5, which are probably the ones that still have wet droppings don’t fly much. They are looking ok and handle well. Really don’t know what the problem is. It’s the same with the hens. Most ok but the odd ones still not quite right, but they are still feeding some of the youngsters. The naturals which are in the other loft are the same. I did try treating a couple of the old naturals that were the worst and one of the hens with a 4 in 1 spot on three days ago but no difference in them. I don’t think any are likely to die but would like to see the droppings better.
I’ve been reading all sorts but not getting any answers. I still think that some of the problem was the amount of grit they were eating. Also I opened a different bag of corn which seemed ok but maybe one of the grains weren’t right.
I am going to go back to doing what I always used to do. No treatment and those that survive are the ones worth keeping.

[Buster121]

A week on the youngsters are coming on nicely. The elder ones are now flying up into the perches and one in particular is going out into the aviary every day when opened up. The droppings on a lot of the birds both old and young has improved but the odd ones still have quite watery droppings. It’s only the cocks that are going out. 6 fly well but the other 5, which are probably the ones that still have wet droppings don’t fly much. They are looking ok and handle well. Really don’t know what the problem is. It’s the same with the hens. Most ok but the odd ones still not quite right, but they are still feeding some of the youngsters. The naturals which are in the other loft are the same. I did try treating a couple of the old naturals that were the worst and one of the hens with a 4 in 1 spot on three days ago but no difference in them. I don’t think any are likely to die but would like to see the droppings better.
I’ve been reading all sorts but not getting any answers. I still think that some of the problem was the amount of grit they were eating. Also I opened a different bag of corn which seemed ok but maybe one of the grains weren’t right.
I am going to go back to doing what I always used to do. No treatment and those that survive are the ones worth keeping.

Good to see they coming on Andy and I hope the other ones pick back up as well, glad you put that up about the 4 in 1 as I considered trying it the other day and was going to get some next week but won't bother now, I did mean to ask other day how they was doing but totally forgot sorry, but weather really not helping lofts stay dry at present

[Andy]

The only real way to find out would be to have droppings tested. But I’ve never done it before and think that some of these testing companies just want to sell their treatments. I don’t think treating blind for the sake of it does any good. I do think it’s a case of survival of the fittest.
As the 4 in 1 done nothing, either the product isn’t any good or the birds aren’t suffering from cocci, canker or worms.

[Murray]

The only real way to find out would be to have droppings tested. But I’ve never done it before and think that some of these testing companies just want to sell their treatments. I don’t think treating blind for the sake of it does any good. I do think it’s a case of survival of the fittest.
As the 4 in 1 done nothing, either the product isn’t any good or the birds aren’t suffering from cocci, canker or worms.

You might be right Andy. The people are doing the tests so they can find a problem and sell you a cure.
It's a bit like fanciers with microscopes. Some of them spend so much time looking at the droppings that they stop looking at the pigeons.