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Let’s take a look back at what we have done in the loft over the last four weeks, and then I’d like to share my ideas about training for races and caring for breeders. Our birds have been vaccinated in June for pox and PMV, have been given tablets for worms and for canker, have had their ninth and tenth flights pulled, have been dipped in a 57 percent Malathion solution for external parasites, and have had a follow-up worm tablet. We have semi-darkened the lofts and left the birds undisturbed to begin a good molt. In the third week of June, we have given the birds a three-day canker treatment, followed by one day of Digestal and Pigeon Power or Ferro Prodol on the feed.

I have started letting the birds out to start “getting their wings back under them” by the end of June or early July, and at the same time, I have begun a 14-day respiratory treatment using Doxyvet or Doxy-T and Suanovil. I have also started a 30-day treatment for malaria immediately after the respiratory treatment, with Quinacrine.

It takes a week to ten days before the birds will readily take to the air at this point. But that is all right with me because they are still being medicated, and they still need a little more time to let their flights finish growing. By mid-July, with a little prompting, we can have the team back on the wing around the loft for 30 to 40 minutes every morning and afternoon. Only now are we ready to start training. Usually, it takes us a week to ten days to progress from our first toss, which is not more than 1 ½ miles, to our 12-mile station. It seems that once they have mastered 12 miles, we can jump them fairly quickly to 20 and then 30. Once we are at the 30-mile station, we are on our way.

We don’t do the “30-miles-first-toss” or the “train-in-all-directions” thing, because we train our pigeons to be racers, not homers. I know some fanciers who do this, and some of them are quite successful, but the method I choose is different. I want to keep the birds as confident as possible by training them along the general direction of the race-course, so that they become somewhat familiar enough with the terrain to head for home straight out of the box. This I call “training to race,” which means a lot of short tosses in the general direction of the race station.

I’ve had discussions with fanciers who have told me that they do the “around-the-clock” type of training to teach the birds how to think. My response is that first, I want racing pigeons, which means race winners. The old adage “think long, think wrong” can be like an anchor to a racing pigeon that cannot decide which direction to take on race day.

Our pigeons have ample homing ability, thanks to the many generations of breeding behind them. When they need to use it just like migrating geese, they’ll know how. If they’ve made a mistake and gotten off course, chances are they have already lost the race, so it doesn’t matter how long they take to come home. I have to trust that the class of their breeding will eventually bring them home to race again. We want our birds to race home, every toss if possible. I believe that practice makes perfect, and practice racing makes for fast pigeons, as long as the distance of the tosses doesn’t take the race out of them. Then on race day, they’ll be coming home fast, because they are accustomed to doing it.

I’ve been fascinated for years by the Cornell University research on homing instincts and training techniques. I’ve spent many hours studying it, and I am well aware that pigeons develop habits, even in homing. If taken in a specific direction often enough, they will begin to head “home” by taking the same route all the time. If taken in a completely opposite direction, the birds will still head out in the same direction that they are accustomed to, before they eventually figure out that they’ve been tricked.

My thinking, therefore, is that I want my team to separate from the flock right from the release, if that is possible. So if the flock is circling a few times to figure out where it is, my hope is that mine are the birds that invariably leave the flock early. The theory is that my birds have been trained so often from the same direction that they just take off, without having to think about it. Because my birds have been “trained to race” if they get a jump at the start, they should be hard to catch during the race. This method has worked successfully for us and for quite a few other lofts around the country that have asked about our training techniques.

My most frequent recommendation to fanciers at this time of year is not to neglect the breeders during these months. It would be quite easy to let them slide since the young birds need a great deal of attention now. Also, in some areas, old bird racing is still going on. These circumstances can demand long hours in the loft, but when the breeders are separated, it is always a good idea to treat them for canker. Turbosole is very effective for canker. Dipping the breeders in the same solution of 57 percent Malathion (mixed 1/4 cup per one gallon of water) that I use on the young birds will kill any external parasites that they may have picked up during the breeding season. This Malathion dip also promotes a great start for a good molt.

In my opinion, many lofts around the country keep their breeders much too fat in the off season. Overweight breeders could be one of the underlying reasons that so many fanciers have fertility and laying problems once the breeding season begins. Current studies of animal health in many species are proving that animals kept on a somewhat restricted diet live longer, are more energetic, and are fertile longer. Proper nutrients must be given, of course, but heavy feeding is detrimental. There are so many good dietary supplements available today that it is not necessary to give huge amounts of high carbohydrate feed to our birds.

I have been in many European lofts whose managers have told me that the breeders are put on restricted diets for weeks. Some make only water available to their breeders for an entire week. Though some might think that this is a bad practice, the evidence points to healthier pigeons as a result of this restricted diet. None of the lofts that I know who do this have ever had a bad breeding season.

Our breeders receive a diet made up like this: ¼ barley, ¼ wheat, ¼ milo and ¼ Purina Nutra Blend pellets for up to six weeks just after the birds have been separated. Then we give them a regular breeding mix, measured, so that the birds don’t put on any extra weight during the winter. This “purging mixture,” as I call it, is given for varying periods of time, depending on the weather and the state of the moult. This kind of diet will certainly ensure that the breeders will not pack on extra fat, and it also helps to jump-start the moult.

Many European fanciers use “moulting seeds” combined with tea as their breeders are coming into the moult.  The theory is that a special combination of herbal seeds, when boiled into tea and given in the drinking water, will actually stimulate the hormones that control the shedding of feathers.  The most popular one of these products that Siegel’s carries is Colombine Moulting Seeds.  This product is really helpful in setting the tone for shedding old down feathers and the promotion of a healthy moult, especially when it’s used in combination with tea.

It’s the condition of the breeders starting from the time they are separated at the end of the spring, throughout the summer, and into the fall, that is most important in producing a first-rate group of young birds for the following year. Don’t neglect your breeders during that six-month period from the end of May to the latter part of November. Fanciers who take extra care during this time are the ones who most often enjoy the best breeding seasons.

I also should mention a product called Cometabol Drain to help you achieve optimum health for your birds. It’s from the Comed company and provides the perfect amounts of minerals, trace elements, iron, sulfur, silicon, and vegetable extracts-essentially all the nutrients that I’ve been talking about. I’ve tried the product myself and was very impressed at the effect it had on my birds.

July in the Loft by Ed Minvielle

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