Young Bird Racing

Young Bird Racing

This past winter I received several e-mails on young bird racing maybe, because I had a great young bird season last season.  I thought I would write a few lines on my experiences in young bird racing here in Canada. Years ago in early winter, I would pair up some of the birds so I could band young birds in early January.  However, breeding early for me always ended up in a disaster.  Our Canadian winters, the hawks and late springs takes its toll, and that put an end at my attempt of early breeding.
This winter I had a conversation with a pigeon flyer, and he told me that his first year flying pigeons was his best. When he got started he said various fanciers had given him some young birds, mostly from their second and third round, and that young bird team was hard to beat that year.  He only had 28 young birds, practically all the same age, and they trained easy and were just about the right age when the races started with very few losses.

That was a very interesting statement, when I compared it to my way of racing young birds today. He went on to say, now things have changed considerably in young bird racing, he was referring to the modern methods of today.   Years ago flying young birds up to 600 Km was unheard of, and I couldn’t agree more. In today’s method we have the dark and the light system which allows us to ship birds in excellent condition feather wise.  A lot of these races are completed on the day with very good returns.  Something we could not do years ago.

In the transition from being a young bird and yet not a yearling, young birds somehow seem to lose interest in flying.  It is my opinion that a lot of young birds are past their prime when the young racing season starts.  There is a time when they lose their zip as I call it.  You may have noticed that they slow down considerably as they mature. Older youngsters are generally raced on the widow-hood system.  We separate the sexes, and have to exercise them separate twice a day.  Or, we can fly them as mated to the nest.  Here extra roadwork is needed if we want to exercise them.  A lot of this is aimed for 500 and 600 Km racing.  In all cases motivation is needed to fire them up in preparation for race day.  Here adding extra stress can lead to a lot of health problems in the loft, such as wet droppings and also to the point where the birds would bring up their food.  Some strains perform better under stress than others.  Over crowding and too much stress are the number one cause of bird losses in my opinion.

I have the best luck racing them not mated at the age of four and five months old, before they really come too attracted to the opposite sex.  I feed and exercise my young birds twice a day, and after ten weeks of darkening they are nicely moulded and ready to be trained.  Up to this point the length of their daily exercise has not been a concern.  At the age of 14 weeks, they now have their new feathers and love to exercise for long periods of time.  At this point, they are ready to be trained.  I definitely take my time in training, and during the racing season I take them down the road once a week for a 50 Km hike.  I have experienced that at this age they exercise together longer with a minimal amount of stress.  I would like to point out in all my years of flying young birds it has been my experience if they don’t exercise at home during the week, I will need a lot of luck come race day.

For instance, this year my birds started to hatch on March the 8th and our first club race is July the 13th.  This gives you some idea of how old the birds are when the races start.  I race my young birds up to 450 km. Then I select my cock birds for next years yearlings and they are held back, the rest of my youngsters are raced to the end of the season. Breeding early young birds is okay, it depends on where you live and when young bird races start.  For example, in places like Belgium they start racing young birds in May.  In Canada most young bird races start in the first week in August.  If you see what I mean that’s a big difference.  The method I use has worked the best for me.  It’s simple and very effective, and allows me to compete at all distances and minimize my workload.

I have a saying that happy young birds are hard to beat on race day.  If you can minimize the stress in your loft, and don’t overcrowd, your chances are good on having healthy young birds.  I thought some new comers to the sport would find this an interesting conversation or maybe some will disagree with me.

Young Bird Racing By Roland Paret

The Leading Online Pigeon Racing and Racing Pigeons Magazine – The Pigeon Insider

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28 thoughts on “Young Bird Racing

  1. I believe 30-40km on the road five days(from the same spot at different hours of the day because hawks are very clever)of the week and one 120-150km (once you have gradually took them to 120km mark with no more than 20km jumps and one day rest (open loft and a bath)

  2. Very interesting. I fly in Malta and the season is from November until may, with a ten bird limit and YB`s compete against old birds. losses are high, say 30% at least. We can only road train a maximum of twenty miles before the first race 60 miles across the sea to Sicily/Italy. Fanciers here do not use the dark or light system, at least to my knowledge anyway. If we breed late, say June/July there is a problem with the heat and they are not reared as good. I understand that a young bird on darkness will beat an old bird on natural, if the races are after August. But how long after, I do not know. I have only just started racing here and have moved from the UK where systems are different. Any advice please?

  3. I must raise young birds in Jan. If I wait too long the weather warms and the snakes come out and eat eggs and kill young bird. Kansas winters can be hard but birds do fine and lose very few young to the cold. Being busy I can’t train until just before August young bird season and I do lose some birds but the lose ratio from earlier hatch to the younger or later hatched does not seem to vary. Some birds you lose and some you do not lose it is more the bird and less the age. As you breed your family your birds take on the habbits of the flyer a lesson in evolution so to speak.

  4. Here in Oklahoma, USA our young bird races start in early September. We fly a % b races with a 10 bird shipping limit. We haul our own races and the limit is in place so we do not have to pull a trailer. I raise 30 young birds, hatched in mid January and raised on 24 hours light until the first of May, loft flow unitl the lights are turn out May 1st. Road trained in August out to 50 miles. With the exception of hawk loses I seldom lose a bird in road training. The Oklahoma morning dove hunting season opens the 1st of September and accounts for some loses.
    I cull the young birds that I keep for old birds based on their race records and person feeling for what will be, ( they seldom do anything later but I keep them anyway.)
    Jerry

  5. Yb racing unfortunately is a nessasary evil, to build your Ob team you need to start with youngsters. How many of those yb’s do you loose before the 1st race, and how many were champions? Myself I like to breed starting on valentines day, but 1st I have the breeders on 14hrs of light, to stimulate them a bit.Our 1st YB race is late August so they have plenty of time for training an experience.
    Now if you read Bob Kinney’s book, the will to prepare, he tells us that you should expect to loose 50-70% if you are flying them correctly.I have never lost that percentage and must cull at the end of the season, even though I raise only 20-25 YB’s.It’s something I hate to do, but it too is a nessasary evil if you want to keep the best, and be at the top of the race sheet.Breed what you need, not what you are told you need, remember fewer birds keeps a loft healthier, and is more fun as well as cost effective.

    Terry

  6. ye i have to agree breeding early ybs is a waste of time, im gone back to hatching march ybs since i did fewer losses and more time for the old bird race team.

  7. interesting to hear the differant yb seasons here in NZ first ybs are hatched 1st August and our 1st yb race is 14 Feburary

  8. these are very good methods nice and simple to learn be a new flyer i know this could help me come race day in August.

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