Breed From Leaders Part 3 – Breeding is a Numbers Game
Breeding is a numbers game. If we find a bird and his ancestries are full of leaders and champions, the chances greatly improve the possibility that its children will possess these same qualities. You always have a better chance of success to breed from a bird with an outstanding performance pedigree and family, rather than a champion bird from a poor background with no other champions in his family.
You can tell right away if a breeder can pass these leadership and intelligences traits to its children by single tossing their young during training tosses. These single tosses force the bird to think on its own, and not to rely on other birds to follow home. This is the first step to bring out the independence, confidence and leadership qualities the bird needs to navigate successfully during a race. When we train at short distances such as 5, 10 or 20 miles, you can make these single tosses 2 or 3 times in a day. The true leaders will navigate and home safely, the followers will not.
Beside excellent health, single tossing your birds is the best way to create and teach mental maturity, intelligence and to evaluate your breeders. If young are lost frequently from certain breeders in these single tosses, cull the breeder. It is of no value to you.
Many times the trainer or breeder spends all his time to develop and search for the physical qualities in his birds he feels are important, and he overlooks or neglects the most important traits of intelligence, confidence and independent thinking that the birds need to lead and navigate for themselves.
In other articles, I REFER TO PERFORMANCE PEDIGREES TO BE OF GREAT VALUE TO THE BREEDER. Every pigeon has a pedigree; father, mother and grandparents. Look for these leadership qualities in the first 3 generations. (REMEMBER A PEDIGREE IS ONLY AS ACCURATE AND HONEST AS THE FANCIER THAT PROVIDES IT.) ALWAYS REQUIRE PROOF BEFORE YOUR MAKE ANY PURCHASE.
Breed From Leaders part 3 By Bob Prisco
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For me this was “a kicking an open door in” story. He is so right. In stead of tossing young and old birds 1 by one, and 5 minutes inbetween is not enough, at 5, 10 or 20 kms I go directly to a 100 kms. Pigeons in good shape which are flying for hours fly the same distances by themselves and get confused tossing them nearby.
Hi to all Pigeon Friends seems to me pigeon racing is very difficult to pin point, for most
Toss in singles,two’s three’s four’s.Anything is better than all together.In each group you will have at least one to take the lead.Some birds seem to develop their homing ability much slower than others.i have lost a bird in a single up training who only returned months later.Because of her blood i kept her over to the next year when she was 7 times in the first ten in the club.Agree however that this is more the exception than the rule.
Hi All its good to have good blood in the breeding loft.I have brought some junk over the years , people saying they will fly through Hail storms BUt they did not fly over the back fence. So be carful percasing stock birds you need race Prof.AS for single tossing i think it is a good idear, but tossing the hole loft is a Must . Brain wash them Out and strait in when the arive Home.
trev Australia.
Personally there isn’t enough hours in the day for me to do single up’s.I have to rely on a lot of flying at home and tossing whenever time allows.I also feel that single up’s are not necessary because the race season is long enough to find your best birds.When your birds go into the club baskets and are mixed up with strange birds and liberated with hundreds of other birds they have to learn their own way home.In order to win races they must break and head straight for home.They can’t follow their way into the prize list.The leaders or thinkers in your loft will usually always be your first ten home.The tail enders seldom turn things around and win races.I had a race team of around 70 birds and culled all but 4.These 4 birds were nearly always my first one’s home,and if i was going to be in the prizes it was one of these 4.The others were reliable but not winners so they got culled.The 4 good birds will breed a new team from which will be raced hard,and at the end of the season,again all will be culled except the few winners.These winners will get paired to the last seasons winners,and breed the new team,from which again all will be culled except the winners,and so on,etc.
I have to disagree here. If you had single tossed a bit, you might have had a few more, maybe some surprises even. I myself have had a small team (20-27) youngsters,for the last 2 yrs. I single tossed last year, not this one, and I can see the difference in how both teams act.Next yr, I will be single tossing again. In Jim Wiley’s book,The New Winning, he single tosses before flock training. It works folks. Some things you need to try yourself before you believe,worked for me.Keep-em flying.
Agree 100% Terry. I have a small team like yours. Single tossed everyone one of them at least ten times and as far out at 30 miles. Didn’t lose a one. In fact, I didn’t lose a bird until my 6th race of the YB season and only then because our liberator made a huge judgment error and let birds out at 12:30 for a 200-mile race 🙁
I have a friend that had a first place winner in our club and it was his best pigeon and got lost single tossed from 10 miles. I single tossed many times last year (2010) and did not see any difference in the race results. You have to have a lot of time because if you release one pigeon per 5 min. its 12 pigeons per hour. If you have 36 pigeons it takes 3 hrs. 2-3 times a day? and if you feel tempted to release them sooner you may see no pigeon in the sky then all of a sudden theres 3 pigeons circling. I read all of Bert Braspenning articles and He did not see the benefit in it. It may work in some lofts.
If you mark you birds, blues on monday, checks on tuesday, whites on wednesday etc, its easy and time effective.
Single tossing is a must even for older birds.
Great article, something that a novice like me can easily do.
“ALWAYS REQUIRE PROOF BEFORE YOUR MAKE ANY PURCHASE”
I like having the pedigree for my own record keeping. But the only proof would be the race sheet not the pedigree. That is not always as easy to get.
Lee,
Thats very true. I have found its almost impossible to verify any results if the bird is rung IF. The AU on the otherhand, is an open forum for checking results by band number or flier name. When Im in the market for a bird, sure I check all the major auction sites, if one catches my eye, then I immediately review the results through the AU Natl. Database. Alot of people boast about the performance, but its a different story when you look at the results online.
GOOD HONEST PEDERGREES MAKES GOOD SENSE. IF THE PARENTS CAN’T PRODUCE GOOD BIRDS THAT ARE HEALTHY AND PRPERLY TRAINED THEN IT’S BEST TO CULL THE ENTIRE FAMILY.I BELEVE THAT TO BE TRUE.
RAY BROWER