Thursday 27 December 2012

Pairing Up

I have started the task of pairing up the birds in the last few days. I must say its not a job I enjoy but this year is going quite smoothly at present. I have 17 pairs of race birds and 6 pairs of stock. I have 5 spare hens which is a bit of a pain. I have had the hens locked in the boxes for the past 3 days. The majority of cocks have now picked a nestbox but still a couple who are not too sure! I let the cocks and hens in together today and 18 of the 23 pairs mated which was pleasing. Hopefully tomorrow the other 6 pairs will settle as well. I have left 6 pairs out of the boxes tonight and hopefully they will get to know the nestbox they are supposed to be in. I will let a couple of pairs a day out until all are settled and no where they are supposed to be nesting. I will update when more news. Roll on eggs and youngsters :-)

Friday 14 December 2012

Changing Club!

I am pleased to say that for 2013 we are hoping to be flying from Abergavenny Kings club. This is a massive change for us and one I have been thinking about for some time. We have been in the Gurnos club in Merthyr for the past 3 seasons. They are directly south of us by 20 miles with the Brecon Beacons separating us. It has been incredibly hard to obtain a club position given the direction the birds fly and have never been on a level playing field since being in this club.
Abergavenny however offers us something much more competitive. They are at the base of the valley our birds have to travel up to return to Brecon so that itself a huge positive as there own club birds will be flying up the same direction. The mileage works out 18/19 miles overfly which is a fair a reasonable amount for them to cover the distance they will have to. If they are good enough they will obtain clubs positions next year of that I am sure. I cant wait to start racing now and see how we get on.
The birds are good and settled at the moment. I did pair them up provisionally for a day a couple of days ago so they get to know their partners and nestboxes. I am hoping to pair up around Christmas time if all goes to plan.