4/30/2006
The week was not good in regards to lost birds. The 12 birds or so that I mentioned on the previous update, eight are still not back. I was called by another fancier that lives ~20 miles to the north, and had trapped one of the birds. I suspect that the rest of the missing went up to the north too.
The birds were on 20+ hours of light, natural sunset, awaking at ~12 PM every evening. I have a problem with a night flight last year too. Perhaps it has something to do with the lighting system. They were all loft flying fairly well, all in a flock. That evening they all flew over 3 hours. Some of them were ranging prior to that evening too. Looking back, I should have thrown out a few old birds to help them out.
I have updated the Young Bird inventory; you will see that several flyers have again been hit a bit hard by the losses. A couple of breeders were knocked out of the race. It seems that this year I am having unusual trouble keeping the birds in the loft. Last year I had 52 out of the original 55 birds out to 10 miles. The year before was even better.
One of the birds that got a one-eye cold succumbed to the sickness. He was getting very light, and would not respond to antibiotics or Terramycin ointment in the eyes. I was actually getting ready to remove it permanently from the team, but the bird gave up anyway. That is the first bird I have ever lost from being sick. It was in my quarantine area, so the other birds are still very healthy.
I have decided that with only three months to go, and the oldest birds only on their 5th flight or so, there is not enough time to leave them on lights and get a natural wing molt, without hurting the older birds in that group. I am following the same strategy as last year, by darkening both teams. If I had all of the birds by February 15th, it may work out with the lighting system. In mid-July, they will again be on 16 hours of light.
They will get a good body molt and the wing molt will stop by race season. I am beginning to be convinced that darkening is a better system, as the time needed to molt the wings on a young bird is not there before race season. Perhaps by the Gold Band race there would be enough time, but I race these birds throughout the season. This gives them plenty of race experience.
The first race of the Old Bird season was cancelled due to rain. The birds went for a ride, and spent two evenings in the basket. They were trucked back home. I am looking forward to racing again.
4/24/2006
I have not lost any birds over the past two weeks. The hawks have been around, but I am able to stop the challenges before they occur. I hope that they lighten up a bit soon. The birds that I have been received after March 15th so have not been out of the loft. The others are loft flying pretty well.
I may be speaking a bit soon, as ~12 birds have decided that it was too windy and dark to come into the loft tonight. They tried several times as it was getting dark, and finally decided to set down somewhere, close I hope. I am not too worried about them, as they have been ranging a bit and should be able to get home at first light. They flew two hours and it got a bit dark on them.
I will get the second young bird team out in the next couple of weeks. They are in the dark for most of the day, but they do have 8 hours of light, with a natural sunset. I plan on soaking them down and letting several out at a time when I finally settle them. In the meantime, they are all going through the trap daily, and coming when called.
My 777 returned after a couple of days. Evidently 777 is a lucky number.
I have been having a couple of problems with one-eye colds. I have a Terramycin ointment that I have been using. Most of the birds have not been affected, but ~5 have been.
On my Old Bird team, I dropped a couple of hens in training. Luckily I was able to take a couple of my spare hens and re-mate them to the race team. Lucky for the hens that is, as they were scheduled to be demoted to the Dog Training team.
I finally split up my breeders and got them out of the young bird loft. I had them in the ‘B’ section, but now I have birds in that section, and all of the youngsters are weaned, they had to move to the prisoner section. It is a pain breeding birds so late; I much prefer the earlier birds. Now I can focus on racing.
4/09/2006
I had another Hawk attack this week. The hawk caught a bird, but before I could come to the rescue, it was gone. During the 10 seconds or so while I was getting my rescue equipment ready, the hawk left. I am not sure if he took the pigeon with him or not. It did remove two tail feathers though. I suspect that he let the bird go. I did have a bird in the loft missing two tail feathers, so maybe 0018 was the one caught. Two birds did not return, including my 777. So much for lucky 7’s. I am now down 7 birds. I have never had this much of a problem.
Most of the birds are loft flying fairly well. I had two come down with one-eye colds, but the antibiotics are helping and the birds should be back in the saddle in another couple of days.
I received a few more birds this week. All of these birds, plus any I receive later, will be on team B. That way this first team can get going and loft flying well, without younger birds holding them back. The younger team can be settled in when all birds are finally in.
My breeders will be moved to a different loft next week. That will give room for my young birds that are still arriving.
The Old Bird team has been out to 10 miles. They are starting to shape up nicely. I hope to have a better Old Bird season than I did last year.
My pigeon permit is being delayed. I need to get a variance from the City in order to have additional “accessory buildings”. I should still be OK, but it’s another hurdle. After I get the variance, I can get a building permit for my lofts that are already built. I also need an electrical permit. Then I can get the pigeon permit. It’s quite a bit of paperwork, but I am glad I have the area (2 acres) to have birds, now I have to hope the City thinks that too.
4/02/2006
I have received several more birds from fanciers across the country. The race is shaping up well, with many of the birds already on their 3rd or 4th flight. I have not yet pulled the 9th and 10th flight of any birds, but will do that as soon as all of members of the first team are loft flying well. I do not want to do anything to slow down their progress.
We had a windy day last week combined with a late peregrine attack. The Falcon made several runs at the birds. Most of the birds flying were Old Birds, but I had let the young birds out earlier. I wound up losing eight that evening, but three have returned. One returned this morning in good shape. I hope the others do too, but at each passing day I lose hope. I always anticipate some losses, but each one really bugs me, especially when they get lost off the loft after they have been out a few times without problems.
The losses hit one breeder especially hard. Be sure to check out the young bird inventory on the web site.
http://home.comcast.net/~edrenckh/PigeonArea/2006/BirdInventory-2006.htm
I actually needed to lose some before the end of the year, as I cannot keep all of them until the 2007 Old Bird season. But I would rather have 60 on the drop during the Gold Band race, talking all of the money places, and then make my decision on whom to keep.
If I wait too long to get the birds out of the loft, I think you lose a lot of learning that the birds need at the youngest age. I am currently of the opinion that the sooner you get the birds settled and flying, the less chance that a hawk will scare them off.
The weather is warming up, and daylight savings time has started. The birds now will get out every evening, weather permitting. Many of the birds are loft flying well, but some are still learning to flock. I have mostly been exercising on weekends, due to the shortened days.
I gave the Old Birds a five-mile toss. They are looking good too. They gave the falcon a run for his money. It’s amazing how quick some of them trap when a falcon is in the air. On my goose hunting trip last weekend, I would have liked to have the geese as close as the falcon was. A goose that close would have been in serious danger.
I have applied for my loft permit, and do not anticipate problems, but I may have to get a variance from the city for in excess of two “accessory buildings”. I may also need an electrical permit too, depending on how they look at my situation. It’s sort of a PITA, but such is life. So it’s not completely a sure thing, but I will know more before the end of this month.