Starting out

[George and Morgan]

plenty of good advice Daz just asked

[Daz71]

Yes getting a 6 young bird kit, what age will we be able to tell the sex & what would be the best time of year to buy them? also at what age do they start racing from sorry for so many questions

As far as sexing is concerned sexing can be difficult even with experience. Tumley lofts will probably attempt to determine what sex they are but won’t guarantee them. It is generally easy with red pigeons but that’s a different topic lol. Blue pigeons are more difficult. Even after all these years we can get it wrong. I raced 2 youngsters last year as cocks that turned out to be hens. The best way is observation. Watching the youngsters as they mature and start cooing.
If wanting to race youngsters this year you would want them anytime soon. Although this would give you a chance to test them you could quite easily lose half of them during the season. As you are just starting out I would advise you to just use your first year as a learning curve in keeping pigeons and enjoy having them. Then early next year you can pair them up and breed yourself a few youngsters. If you wanted to you could then race the ones you buy this year as old birds after breeding off them. Then if you lose any you still have some to replace them with and youngsters to race. So for this there isn’t as much hurry to get the youngsters. I would still have them by June time though. They should be around 4 weeks old when you get them.

so at what age can they enter their first race

[Andy]

Yes getting a 6 young bird kit, what age will we be able to tell the sex & what would be the best time of year to buy them? also at what age do they start racing from sorry for so many questions

As far as sexing is concerned sexing can be difficult even with experience. Tumley lofts will probably attempt to determine what sex they are but won’t guarantee them. It is generally easy with red pigeons but that’s a different topic lol. Blue pigeons are more difficult. Even after all these years we can get it wrong. I raced 2 youngsters last year as cocks that turned out to be hens. The best way is observation. Watching the youngsters as they mature and start cooing.
If wanting to race youngsters this year you would want them anytime soon. Although this would give you a chance to test them you could quite easily lose half of them during the season. As you are just starting out I would advise you to just use your first year as a learning curve in keeping pigeons and enjoy having them. Then early next year you can pair them up and breed yourself a few youngsters. If you wanted to you could then race the ones you buy this year as old birds after breeding off them. Then if you lose any you still have some to replace them with and youngsters to race. So for this there isn’t as much hurry to get the youngsters. I would still have them by June time though. They should be around 4 weeks old when you get them.

so at what age can they enter their first race

Last year I was quite late pairing up so had quite young young birds. The youngest was 14 weeks old on her first race. She went on to fly all 8 young bird races. I’m not big on training and last year the youngsters only had 3 tosses at 9 miles and 2 at 18 miles before the first race. Training started 2 weeks before the first race so the youngest was only 12 weeks old when training started. I started with 23 youngsters on the first race and ended the 8 races with 11. Most of the losses came in 2 bad races.

The topic of young bird racing is a good one but you’ll get many different views. Some say youngsters need to be raced others say they don’t. I raced mine last year but didn’t at all the year before and my best 2 old birds last year were yearlings unraced as youngsters.

[Murray]

Who do you guy's use for supplies please, also thinking of making the perch boxes from melamine faced ply for ease of cleaning is this a good or bad idea?

There are a few different suppliers that you can find online. The main ones are Boddy and Ridewood or Pallets. It’s not to difficult to make your own. The pigeons won’t mind what they look like lol. It’s only you that may worry about the look. I have used melamine in the past and yes it does make it easy to clean but the problem is that although generally the droppings aren’t wet there is dampness and the plain plywood has the benefit of soaking up any moisture but will quickly dry out in decent weather.

Yes I have used melamine before too. I found the acid in the droppings eventually attacked the surface and it broke down. As Andy says, plain unpainted wood is best, especially if it is dressed timber with a smooth surface.

[Daz71]

As far as sexing is concerned sexing can be difficult even with experience. Tumley lofts will probably attempt to determine what sex they are but won’t guarantee them. It is generally easy with red pigeons but that’s a different topic lol. Blue pigeons are more difficult. Even after all these years we can get it wrong. I raced 2 youngsters last year as cocks that turned out to be hens. The best way is observation. Watching the youngsters as they mature and start cooing.
If wanting to race youngsters this year you would want them anytime soon. Although this would give you a chance to test them you could quite easily lose half of them during the season. As you are just starting out I would advise you to just use your first year as a learning curve in keeping pigeons and enjoy having them. Then early next year you can pair them up and breed yourself a few youngsters. If you wanted to you could then race the ones you buy this year as old birds after breeding off them. Then if you lose any you still have some to replace them with and youngsters to race. So for this there isn’t as much hurry to get the youngsters. I would still have them by June time though. They should be around 4 weeks old when you get them.

so at what age can they enter their first race

Last year I was quite late pairing up so had quite young young birds. The youngest was 14 weeks old on her first race. She went on to fly all 8 young bird races. I’m not big on training and last year the youngsters only had 3 tosses at 9 miles and 2 at 18 miles before the first race. Training started 2 weeks before the first race so the youngest was only 12 weeks old when training started. I started with 23 youngsters on the first race and ended the 8 races with 11. Most of the losses came in 2 bad races.

The topic of young bird racing is a good one but you’ll get many different views. Some say youngsters need to be raced others say they don’t. I raced mine last year but didn’t at all the year before and my best 2 old birds last year were yearlings unraced as youngsters.

so was they born in May? first race July?

[Andy]

Hatched out 21st April. First race 29th July.

[Daz71]

Has anyone else had a problem with the Defra Magic Map I have pulled up the map & got my latitude & longitude ref but when I put the info into google maps the location is about a mile away from my location?

[Andy]

Has anyone else had a problem with the Defra Magic Map I have pulled up the map & got my latitude & longitude ref but when I put the info into google maps the location is about a mile away from my location?

I haven’t tried it so don’t know myself.

[Buster121]

Never tried it so sorry cannot help

[Murray]

That may be deliberate.
There is a distance device on a pigeon racing site here in Australia. It calculates your distances okay, but shows your loft as being some hundreds of metres away. It's mainly a privacy thing. It might be better that random people cannot find where you live off a pigeon program.