Our racing systems

Old birds

  We only race on the classical widowhood system , it is a very easy system and it suits us the best due to our time constraints in the spring . The widowhood cocks are mated at the same time as the breeders , which usually is between the end of January and the middle of February

The first round of eggs from the breeders gets moved under the yearlings . Most pairs will raise 2 young birds until they are about 12 days old , then 1 is weaned and moved to the young bird loft with the hen . We do not want the widowhood cocks to have a 2^nd set of eggs at that time since that would trigger the start of the moult. All cocks keep 1 young and raises it till they are about 24 days old , then those young birds are moved to the young bird loft also . While they finish raising the young the widowhood cocks start their loft exercises. They stay lock in the loft during the winter (October till the end of March)

The widowhood cocks are mated up again about 2 weeks before the 1^st race and get shipped to the 1^st race sitting on eggs for 4-5 days , they go on widowhood the evening after the 1^st race . When they are sitting the eggs they will get their road training . Once the races start we do not road train anymore except for birds that miss a race , those will get a training toss of between 70 and 110 km depending on conditions .

As a rule we do not show the hens before shipping , we do not have the time to bring in the hens and we like to ship the cocks as calm as possible . The hens are always in the nestbox when the cocks arrive home from the race .

We use the light to heavy feeding program , when they arrive from the races they will get some light feed and in the evening they get a good feeding . The next 2 days they are fed only the light mix and then gradually back to the regular mix .

Unless there is a health problem , we stay away from medication , the only scheduled treatment is with B.S. ( for 3-4 days ) after the 2^nd race .

B.S. is a Dutch product from Belgica deWeerd which is very affective against cocci , canker and hexamitiasis .

Young birds

  We race our young birds on the darkening system . A big misconception about the darkening system is that you have to breed early , nothing could be further from the truth , young birds that are weaned up to about 9-10 weeks before the 1^st race are fine on the darkening system . 

The young birds are generally weaned at the age of 24 days and go on the darkening right away . They are in the dark from +/- 5pm till 8am , giving them about 9 hours in the light , during their light period they have free access to go outside into the flight cage , it is very important that they can get out into the sun as much as possible at this time .

While on the darkening they are fed once a day with a regular mix with about 20% green peas , 10% safflower and 5% wheat added to that , they also receive at that time about a cup of flaxseed for 60 young birds . They are fed after their morning exercise, usually about an hour .

Once they have finished their body mould their feeding changes to 50% mix and 50% barley for the next 2 weeks , this will usually get them flying real good , if not the 3^rd week will be about 75% barley .

We usually keep them on the darkening system until about 2 ½ -3 weeks before the 1^st race , this way they stay in excellent feather condition for the whole racing season .

Most years we do not start road training till about 2 ½ weeks before the 1^st race , this is actually too late to get them going real strong for the 1^st two races but those 160 and 195km races are not the interesting races for us .

Before we start the road training the young birds are put in shipping baskets for 2-3 days and teach them to eat and drink in the shipping baskets .

Once the road training starts we go every day weather allowing  , we start with 2-3 tosses from 10km , then 2-3 tosses from 20km , then 3-4 tosses from 40km , then we jump them to 100km once or twice . Once the races have started we usually give then 1 toss a week two days before the scheduled race date from between 70 and 110km depending on what we feel they need .

We usually separate the sexes after the either the 1^st or 2^nd race , they are raced separated the rest of the year , We do not let them together before shipping , after arriving home from the race they do usually stay together till the following morning .

Once the races start they go every weekend . They are fed the same way as the widowhood cocks from light to heavy .

One of the most important aspects of racing young birds successfully is health , healthy young birds just want to fly , if you have to force your birds to fly there is something wrong . You have to start with top quality stock that has natural health , trying to get and keep them healthy with medication is only a temporary solution and will not work for long . We do give them 1 scheduled treatment with B.S. the same as the widowhood cocks after the 2^nd race , other then that we try to stay away from medicating and only use it if needed .

Some frequently asked questions

  Do these darkened young birds finish the flight moult ?

Most do , there is the odd one that does not but I don’t really worry about whether they finish or not . I have not noticed any difference in the performance whether they carried 1 or 2 old flights or not .

  Do they race well as yearlings ?

Some people feel that yearlings that were darkened as young birds do not race as well but I feel there is no difference at all , what some think is that if the birds were too long ( number of weeks ) on the darkening system as young birds it may affect their performance as a yearling . I do expect them to race well as yearlings but to be realistic I do not see the yearlings beating the good 2-3 year olds consistently , if your yearlings are better then your 2 , 3 or 4 year olds then you either have a very good yearling or your old birds are not up to par .

  What would you say is the most important factor in the success of your young bird racing ?

A consistent system , do not change much , and all the other regular things like , quality birds , feed etc. , also cull any birds with bad habits .

  Do you have any special ventilation in your young bird loft ? That seems to be a problem for many who try darkening … lofts too closed up and then respiratory problems .

We do not have any specialized ventilation system , there are 2 sections of 7’x 6’ and each has 50 box perches , the most young birds we will have per section is 30-32 , so enough room is a good start . The ceiling can be opened up 2 feet but when darkening the loft it’s closed down to 2” , there is an air inlet of 4’x 4” in each section in the front wall at floor level and this keeps the air circulating good enough . The air inlets are hooded to prevent too much light from coming in and to keep the wind from blowing in . This system has been adequate for us so far , if you that you do not have enough you could consider installing some sort of electrical fans like bathroom fans.

  How dark is your loft when it is darkened ?

It is not totally dark , once your eyes have somewhat adjusted you can easily see the birds and can read large print . Birds can and will go down for a drink also .

  How many tosses do you give before the 1^st race ?

Since we usually start late ( 2 to 2 ½ weeks before the 1^st race ) the most we have ever had was 11 , most years it’s 9 or 10 .

  How long will your young birds exercise for , once the races start ?

Usually only 20 to 30 minutes at the start of the week when we are feeding them light and increase that to 1 to 1 ½ hours later in the week as we start to build them up for the next race , also “the way” they exercise is more important then length , for example , near the end of the week  when I open the widows to let them out , I better get out of the way , they will burst out of the loft and do not even circle , they disappear in a semi straight line and are gone for 45 min. to an hour , that is 100x better then flying little circles around the loft .

  Do you force to keep them up ? Separate times for hens and cocks ?

If your young birds ( and old ) are healthy they want to fly , if they refuse there is a problem somewhere . We do not flag them , at the start we may throw a ball the odd time so they discover that they can fly , the once that continually do not want to fly ( lazy , bad habit ) are eliminated .

After we have separated them , after the 1^st or 2^nd race they are exercised separately also , 1^st the cocks and then the hens , we have noticed that the hens sometimes go a little stupid ( seem to scare themselves ) and we have had them fly for 5 to 7 hours .

  On the toss , the day before shipping , are they or are they not allowed to mix ?

Normally we do not allow them to mix , Linda usually takes them for the toss and I chase the cocks in as soon as they get home and then move them into their own section before the hens arrive , it does sometimes happen that they do mix but it does not seem to affect the results any but it is just more work separating them again .