Sunday 30 June 2013

Time to get a move on!

The 2 old birds raced yesterday from Maidstone (176 miles) but were off the pace which surprised me. I was quite disappointed with them to be honest. Oh well, at least the young bird season is nearly upon us!
With that in mind I have decided to start training both my first and second team together. They are not flying as well as I would have liked around the loft but that is more to do with the stop start weather we are having. How long is that going to continue though? So I have decided regardless of that I need to start pushing them on a bit now. I basketed 59 tonight and decided to go straight to 9 miles. I am missing 6 at present with the other 53 arriving togther, which is a bit odd but now is not the time to moddy coddle them and on they must go. I will go again tomorrow to the same place and then we will look at twice a day training and pushing them on at a fair pace. The first race they could enter would be this Saturday as its an any age race in the fed, but I dont think they will be ready for this. It would be lambs to the slaughter. The first young bird race is on the 13th July so 2 weeks of intense training to come and we will see where we are at come that race!

Sunday 23 June 2013

Rain stopping play!

This weather is ridiculous! It has been raining here in Brecon for the past 4 days so the birds have barely been out of the loft let alone in the basket. It is a real problem at the moment but I guess it is affecting everyone and just us. On the plus side we have now got both teams grouping very well and flying out together. Hopefully when the nicer weather arrives we can then push the two teams on quite quickly.
I have been reading on the Somerset One Loft race website and see 3 of our 4 entries are still in the loft. It is always a bit of lottery to see which birds come through the settling, breaking in, flyway and illness periods when going to the loft. We have fared ok, but shame the 4th bird has gone. I spoke with Terry (Loft Manager) and he said he thinks the missing bird was one of 60 odd birds he lost when they had a flyway a few weeks back. We have 3 of the 4 entries still in the Pigeon Pixels One Loft Race and I believe all 4 entries still in the Welsh Classic Challenge. I will update on all these races as and when I get news. All information regarding the last two events can be found on www.pigeonpixels.co.uk

Saturday 15 June 2013

Pleased & Change of Plan

I sent the two old cocks to Newbury (97 miles) and they raced this morning. The wind was supposed to be South Westerly but infact turned out to be more Westerly than anything which didnt help us. However, I was very pleased with the two cocks. They returned home about 2 and half minutes after the club winner and I had clocked the two of them within 6 minutes. This will have done them very good and I now plan to send them t Maidstone (147 miles) in 2 weeks time.
The club announced a change to the race programme last night and they have now put in a Swindon race where any age birds can enter. I am very pleased about this as my youngsters will now be aimed towards this race which is 2 weeks earlier than first planned. They are progressing nicely and should be ready in plenty of time for this race.
I gave the youngsters a training toss from 18 miles yesterday. I libbed them in small groups of 4, 3 and 2's. I rushed the 2nd lib and the first two teams joined together. I continued to lib the rest with plenty of time between them. On return home I was missing 12 birds and the entire 8 that had merged together. The others returned in singles up until 9.30pm On going to bed I was missing just 4. 2 of these were on the loft this morning but as it stands we are still missing 2 from the toss as we speak. Hopefully if not injured or dead they will return later today or tomorrow.
We have given the birds another trainer today again from 18 miles. I sent the 2 race birds to this as well despite racing this morning. They need to claw back that 2 and half minutes!! All home and now have had a good feed and can relax until tomorrow. 

Thursday 13 June 2013

Progressing nicely!

The training is going very, very well at present. We have now had 10 training tosses over the last 13 days. 7 of those have been at 12 miles with the birds liberated in groups of 3 and 4. They are beating me back everytime and are doing great. We will look to increase the distance in the next week or so. We will probably now go directly to 27 miles which is a big jump for them but one I am confident they will take in their stride.
I have decided I will not rush the 2nd team to make them catch the first race. I have instead decided to take my time with them. The first race is on the 20th July (5 weeks away). They have just started grouping at the moment and I would like them to have at least a month flying around the loft and ranging before they see the basket. So that would leave just 1 week to train them so realistically without rushing them they aren't going to be ready. I am now looking at the first comeback of the young bird season on the 30th August which allows me so much more time to get them where I want them to be prior to racing.
We are planning on sending our 2 old cocks to this weeks club race from Newbury (97 miles) and they have been training the last 13 days with the youngsters and are looking sharp. I am hoping they perform well in this race. I have just fed their racing mix and hopefully they will perform well on Saturday.

Sunday 9 June 2013

Training has started!

We have been busy training the birds the last 9 days! They have had 7 tosses in total to date. On the 1st June we went to 6 miles and let all 33 go together. We had 32 return in a group. 2nd & 3rd June we took them 9 miles and libbed them all together and all home. On the 4th June we took them to 12 miles and let them go in groups of 6. We had them all home from there. On the 5th we went to the same place and let 5 groups of 6 go but this time at least 2 of the groups we attacked! We had 6 return the following day but ended up dropping 6 in total. We gave them a rest on 6th June and 7th June. 8th June they returned to the 12 miles spot and all home but this time in groups of 4. This evening they went to the same spot again and were liberated in groups of 3 and 4 and pleased to say all home. We have 2 in the injury bay, one with a sliced throat directly under his beak! The other a hawk attack around the loft and these two are recovering well. In total we have 26 young birds in the first team. So 7 tosses in we have dropped 7 youngsters which I am quite happy with at this time. They arrived very promptly tonight and that is pleasing.
My 2nd team now has 39 birds in total and these were out this afternoon and joined the first team for a fly around the loft. They are just starting to group and another 3 or 4 days out flying and I sure they will be grouping very nicely. In total then we have 65 birds which is a very nice number. Hopefully I can push the 2nd team on quite quickly. The first race is just over 5 weeks away so plenty of time to get them ready. I am not too concerned if the 2nd team dont catch the first couple of races but they will be ready sooner or later for the coming season.