Pigeon Pal's News Racing Expert Interview and Pigeon Radio Announcement
Today's blog will be a lengthly one with an Interview with Oscar DeVries from the Ottawa Valley area here in Ontario, also look to find the Pigeon Radio announcement for tomorrow night's broadcast. The Racer's Catalogue and Insider's Guide results can be viewed in the player below.
Here is the information compiled from the interview with Oscar DeVries, it was conducted by our Sr. club member Rae Lewis and I would like to Thank Rae for his hard work. This is a great insite into one of the sports more accomplished breeders and racers. follow this link to his web site.
Pigeon racing is a competitive sport enjoyed by many people from all walks of life. For some the sport is a passionate hobby and for others a professional business. Today we interviewed Oscar DeVries who has one of the best performance lofts, in
As foundation genetics he decided to go with the world famous Hans Eijerkamp & Sons pigeon empire in
He has carefully blended these families that are now capable of dominating at the highest levels of competition, in both old and young bird racing, especially in the futurity distances of 250 to 400 miles (400 to 625 km) for young birds.
He keeps these bloodlines straight and also cross them and then breed back to one line. All birds get thoroughly tested in the races, all widowhood cocks are expected to race every weekend from 100 to 420 miles (160 to 670 km) and then 1 week off before the 500 & 600 mile (800 & 1000 km) race weekends. The young birds also get fully tested by going every weekend (usually 9 or 10) from 100 to 400 miles (160 to 625 km) Any birds not able to score consistently and/or scoring at the top a few times will not make the team. Recuperation after the race is also a very important selection tool, if not looking sharp again within ½ an hour to 1 hour after arriving from a race, even when scoring early, we will not breed from those since they do not show the required constitution we are looking for and we do not want to breed that into our family.
The following describes his operational system.
The 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 2nd 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 1st race and get shipped to the 1st race sitting on eggs for 4-5 days , they go on widowhood the evening after the 1st 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 nest box 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 2nd race .
B.S. is a Dutch product from Belgica deWeerd which is very affective against cocci , canker and hexamitiasis .
The 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 1st 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 mold 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 3rd week will be about 75% barley .
We usually keep them on the darkening system until about 2 ½ -3 weeks before the 1st 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 1st race , this is actually too late to get them going real strong for the 1st 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 1st or 2nd 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 2nd race , other then that we try to stay away from medicating and only use it if needed .
Oliver DeVries races with the Golden Triangle Racing Pigeon Club in the Ottawa Valley Combine. The Ottawa Valley Combine includes a large geographical area, which is about 120 miles (200km) deep (short end to long end) and 95 miles (150km) wide. Our racing distances range from 100 to 620 miles (160 to 1000km) for old birds and 100 to 345 miles (160 to 550km) for young birds, we also compete in several young bird "opens" up to 425 miles (680km).
I will leave you with a link to one of the events from the website.... http://www.ol-DeVries.com/OVC.htm
The staff at Pigeon Radio is happy to announce that this week's guest will be, Alan Gregg – Jr Flyer –Pigeon Moon Loft
Alan is a Jr Flyer in
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Glenn West
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