UkPigeonRacing

Zwols pigeons wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 10:13 am I have a 2015 hen in the team this year, she has many prizes over the years, racing both North rd and south rd, earlier in her life in sprint racing and in later years from the longer races, she has around 25 positions. 2023 was the first time she did not score but that was mainly due to the fact she was badly hit by a hawk at the first Guernsey race. The reason she is still racing is because she is barren and never lays.

i will keep you posted if she does anything this year, her first race is pencilled in for 27th April.

Albert wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:31 pm R. Carruthers, of Bonnyrigg in Scotland won 1st Open Sartilly, 1989, flying 496 miles, with a 9 year old hen.

Albert wrote: Tue Apr 09, 2024 1:31 pm R. Carruthers, of Bonnyrigg in Scotland won 1st Open Sartilly, 1989, flying 496 miles, with a 9 year old hen.

NeilA wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2024 9:39 pm I see yearlings and two year olds winning here on the sprints not often a old pigeon
I don’t think I have raced one past 3 for some time
If they get to the end of 3 years they really deserve a go at breeding as they have come through 4 years of selection

MIL wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 11:57 am I think the further the distance the more likely you are to find a pigeon with a bit of age about it appearing in the results. When you're getting to 550 miles and beyond you quite often see "older" pigeons appearing. In part I think that this is often because the pigeons have been brought along quite steadily - epecially in their earlier years. Ther 600 miles guys who I know aren't too bothered about how much racing these distance prospects get as babies - and even as yearlings aren't often punished. To me this is the "traditional" method and somebody like say Mark Gilbert is much more progressive in asking his extreme distance pigeons the acid question much earlier in their lives. This is an approach that I have a lot of time for.

When you're sprinting (to me where I live in the Mildands we can ge down to the coast in 150 miles) then its all about youth. Yes I've had pigeons score at 4 and 5 years of age - but they're the exceptions rather than the rule. Sprinting with OB is all about yearlings and 2 year olds. There's little substitute for youth. Of course there's examples of good pigeons performing well sprinting at an older age - I had them at my loft too, but i'm generalising. All of my RPRA Award winners in the 0-250 miles category won that award either as yearlings or 2 year olds - without exception.

A pigeon at 2 rarely surprised me. This is because there wasn't a 2 year old in my team without damn good reason for it being there. It'd have had say 5-6 races as a YB and then 12 as a yearling. That's say 18 opportunities to show me how good it was. If it hadn't done "something" on several occasions then there was no place in the team for it. This is because I'd got young cocks coming through that wanted the box.

So distance, yes, you can get examples of older birds doing well - but the more you shorten the distance the more it becomes a younger pigeons game.

Mike

MIL wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 7:57 pm

king wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 12:37 pm

MIL wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 11:57 am I think the further the distance the more likely you are to find a pigeon with a bit of age about it appearing in the results. When you're getting to 550 miles and beyond you quite often see "older" pigeons appearing. In part I think that this is often because the pigeons have been brought along quite steadily - epecially in their earlier years. Ther 600 miles guys who I know aren't too bothered about how much racing these distance prospects get as babies - and even as yearlings aren't often punished. To me this is the "traditional" method and somebody like say Mark Gilbert is much more progressive in asking his extreme distance pigeons the acid question much earlier in their lives. This is an approach that I have a lot of time for.

When you're sprinting (to me where I live in the Mildands we can ge down to the coast in 150 miles) then its all about youth. Yes I've had pigeons score at 4 and 5 years of age - but they're the exceptions rather than the rule. Sprinting with OB is all about yearlings and 2 year olds. There's little substitute for youth. Of course there's examples of good pigeons performing well sprinting at an older age - I had them at my loft too, but i'm generalising. All of my RPRA Award winners in the 0-250 miles category won that award either as yearlings or 2 year olds - without exception.

A pigeon at 2 rarely surprised me. This is because there wasn't a 2 year old in my team without damn good reason for it being there. It'd have had say 5-6 races as a YB and then 12 as a yearling. That's say 18 opportunities to show me how good it was. If it hadn't done "something" on several occasions then there was no place in the team for it. This is because I'd got young cocks coming through that wanted the box.

So distance, yes, you can get examples of older birds doing well - but the more you shorten the distance the more it becomes a younger pigeons game.

Mike

I totally agree with your opening paragraph Mike, but the "traditional" method is used by many simple because of the size of their set up. Many back garden lofts don't have the luxury of HUGE teams like the like's of Mark Gilbert and Jelle Jellema. We often hear of their successful yearlings but never about the amount of the birds that don't succeed?
It's very much easier to get yearlings a lot of channel/National experience the further South you live? And I'm sure Mark's progressive approach would be tweaked if he lived 200 miles further North.

I don't think his appproach would differ that much. 580 mls is 580 mls (as a random distance) wherever you live

What is especially impressive with Mark's approach is his willingness to turn his pigeons back around within 2 weeks of flying a distance race.

For instance when "Southfield Gold" won the BICC Pau race in 2023 and was 6th International 12,631 birds (14 hrs 25 on the wing) -- that cock was back in the basket for another long distance race like within 10 days. This is an approach that requires balls. How many of us would retire and covet a cock like that?