Re-paired the widowhoods
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2024 9:45 pm
Today I decided to re-pair the widowhoods. I let the cocks out as usual early this morning. The cocks flew for an hour and a half. After they had been fed I then basketed the cocks up. I let the hens out for a fly and allowed them to trap into the widowhood section. The hens haven’t been out for a few weeks and weren’t in any hurry to come in. The cocks were kept in the basket until the hens were all in. This for me was the first part of training the cocks. I want them to associate them with the basket meaning the hens are waiting in the loft. If things go to plan these cocks will never go into the basket without the hens being in the loft when they come out. So after the hens had finally all come in I let the cocks out in the garden. Of course as this was the first time I had done this they had no idea that the hens were in the loft. They had another good fly and kept on landing in the tree and clapping off again. Once they started coming down onto the loft they quickly realised that the hens were in there and quickly trapped. I had lost one of the hens from the original pairings and a couple of cocks had changed boxes which did make for the odd problems as the hens just went back into their old boxes. I have got a couple of spare hens. They settled quite quickly although there are a couple of pairs that I will have to keep an eye on for a couple of days.
As most were paired together earlier in the year they should all lay in around 8 days. They will be allowed to sit for around 10 days before the hens are removed again and the cocks will be back on widowhood. This should be about 10 days before the first race. It’s during this time while paired that the cocks will get 2 or 3 short tosses. Of course because they are paired the hens will be in the loft on their return.