40 mile toss

Trained the whole YB team 40 miles this morning. Thundestorm half way home. Heavy rain at 20 miles. The birds had to fly through 8 miles of heavy rain. Released the birds in three groups of 15. All came home in 1.25 hours. The birds were dry when they hit the landing board, which means they flew east around the storm.
The birds feel really good, all are healthy and are ready to race.

30 miles again

Trained from the 30 mile training spot. Birds did not mix with local pigeons. They were home when I got home. I drove 75-80mph down the highway and they were circling the house when I pulled up in the drive way.

30 mile training this morning

Trained the birds 30 miles this am. Where I released the birds, there is a loft and the guy was flying his birds this morning. All 50 of my birds mixed with his. Only 35 of my 50 birds came home. I am sure they will trickle home throughout the day. I think I will end up loosing a few.
I think training them there might be good. The birds will learn that they can circle with the other pigeons or come home. My thought is they might learn to not circle and break away from a circling flock. On the other hand it may teach them that when they come out of the basket they are supposed to circle for a while before they head home. I think I might avoid training there again.

Loft flying well

The birds have been loft flying very well the past few days, so I haven;t taken them up the road again. I will probably give them 2 road trips next week. There are only 4 weeks of training left before the first 125 mile race.

Road trip for the young birds

Recovering from a stomach bug I felt well enough this morning with some help from my wife to take the whole young bird team ( -2) up the highway 20 miles. I let them all out together and all but 1 came home together. The lone ranger came home by himself 15 minutes later. He is probably just out of shape.
I live right along an interstate highway that runs north and south. Our race stations are all straight north along this interstate 95. The best way to train, for me, is to teach these birds to simply follow I95 home. It is proven that homing pigeons will follow rivers and highways on their routes home. It is my training theory and I am sticking to it. I know it doesn't help me when the wind blows hard out of the East and the birds end up inland.

Maybe Wed.

I got sick Sunday night so I wasn't able to train them down the road. I am starting to feel better so maybe wed. I can train them.

First training toss

Monday I am hoping to train them for the first time since they had there flight feathers pulled. I will pick back up at 20 miles. There are 2 birds that I wont send 1870 and 1878, both grizzles. These particular 2 have not been keeping up with the flock while flying around the loft.

Feed

If the birds are hungry they trap right in after exercising. If they are not hungry they will lounge around the roof and the yard.
I have 2 pigeons that aren't mine. I counted 52 last night and I only have 50. They were all wearing 2010 bands so that means 2 were not mine. I will go through them when they finish flying this morning and see which ones they are.

The New Loft built June 2010

Last night the birds trapped oh so nice. This morning when I whistled them in only half trapped. The other half sat on the roof. Finally Mr. Hawk scared them and they are off flying again. They will not get breakfast this morning. We will see how they trap this evening.

Trapping nicely

This morning The YBs trapped nicely. I definately have been overfeeding them. I am now timing their feeding instead of measuring out the amount of feed. I am giving them about 10 minutes. I am watching them and when a few fly to the perch I remove the food.
Feed is the only way to train. They didn't sit on the roof yesterday or today. They are coming right in when I whistle them.
Gave YBs provital in their water. A mix of vitamins and probiotics.

Monday

The birds flew nice this morning. When it was time to come in after 40 minutes of flying 12 didn't want to trap. They didn't get breakfast.
This evening a sharp shinned hawk decided to make a play for the young birds. They flew for 2 hours and then trapped straight away. The hawk knocked one bird down in front of the loft but the bird got up and flew off. He didn't get a scratch on him. I don't think having the hawks around is such a bad thing. I say that now but when I loose a good bird I will change my mind.

Begining

I have begun to train my young birds for the 2010 season. Here is where I am at: I have pulled 1 to 3 flight feathers depending on the age of the bird. The older birds only needed 1 feather pulled because they were already moulting Their 8th feather. I figure by the time racing starts they will be naturally completed with their moult. 2 birds didn't need any feathers pulled. I moved these birds to another loft section and allowed them to continue flying.
I pulled feathers a bit late. June 23rd. I clipped the ends of the feathers and waited 2 weeks before I pulled them. Some guys just pull them. Other guys will pull one feather at a time so that they can keep the birds flying. I must admit the time off of training while the birds were kept in was nice. All of the young birds were kept inside while they grew their feathers back.
All of my young birds were trained out to 20 miles before they were locked up to grow feathers. I figure when they start training again they can start right back at 20 miles. They were all trained from 20 miles 4 times. I did not start at 1 mile and work my way up. I started at 20 miles for the first training toss. Joe Rotando recommends a first toss from 40 miles. I have done this for the past 2 years but guys in the club thought I was crazy. Some said I risk losing my whole team with a crazy stunt like that. I got scared and and only went 20 miles. I lost only a couple the previous years from the 40 mile toss. I lost 2 from the 20 mile first toss. Rotando says that short tosses are a waste of time since a pigeon can see 12 miles in every direction around the loft.
I am right at 50 young birds today.
For the last 7 days I have been letting them fly around the loft twice a day. Earlier this week I wasn't forcing them to fly but for the last 2 days I have been kicking them all out of the loft and making them fly. They have been flying for a few minutes and then landing on the roof and panting. This morning they flew continuously for 45 minutes and when they came down they were not panting. They are ready to go up the road again. I will probably take them 20 miles on Wed.
I now have to break them of the habit of landing on the house roof. They land on the roof and sit for a minute and then hop down on the loft's landing board. I will make sure they are really hungry when I let them out and then when they are finished flying I will whistle them in.
This year I tore down my three lofts and built one large one with four sections. The difference this year is the landing board is too close to the house roof. I am thinking it could be a problem. I don't want the birds returning from a race and landing on the house first and then hoping on to the landing board.