The Possible Benefits of Training Late-breds in Winter

by John Clements

I have mentioned this before but I am so enthused by what and how it is panning out I am about to mention it again. I am currently training twenty ‘late-breds’ this winter. Up to now they have not put a foot wrong but it is early days so until I have a bad weather disaster my hopes continue to be high. They have, as I write, had four tosses from different locations in an arc from south-east to west. The distances have varied from about 12 miles to not more than twenty-five miles. For the fourth toss I released them in twos in and around Rudyard Lake just south of Leek in Staffordshire. They all made it home in good time without my losing any.

These youngsters have not had any sign of Young Birds Sickness this may be because it is winter and the dreaded yearly sickness has run its course or my pigeons have so much natural immunity they have resisted it. I think it is the former because three of these young birds are not from my loft they have been bred by others and the breeder of two of them I know for a fact has had Young Bird Sickness earlier in the year.

Anyway, I intend to continue training and testing throughout the winter, tossing them in twos or if I have less time available, in threes. My procedure is to toss a pair and then drive on a mile or so in a circular route, and toss another pair until they all have gone. I have done this sort of thing in the past with older birds but not with ‘late-breds’ in the year of their birth. My intention is to find the natural leaders in the flock for it is only pigeons that are natural leaders that have any hope of flying 700 miles successfully later in life. Whether it is possible to improve leadership by training them in this way is open to question but at least I have a working plan trying to do just that.

Getting back to Young Bird Sickness it occurred to me, when I was in one of my thinking moods, that if Young Bird Sickness exists in a loft that houses both young birds and old birds in the same loft  then the likelihood is that the presence of a viral sickness will affect  the form of the old birds even if they show no symptoms. This simple to understand fact is that the old birds will still have to fight infection and by fighting the infection the energy that would normally be used to improve fitness and form will be used fighting the virus.

This may account for why some lofts that are normally top performers suddenly are not performing as well as they might despite the fact they have a previous good record and possess pigeons of top quality. Young Bird Sickness may indeed have some influence but this time the influence it has plays a role in loss of form in tried and tested old birds.

I intend to keep a detailed record of these 20 late-bred pigeons, what their future is and how they eventually emerge into mature competition and what it may be. What proportion of them will make it to 700 miles is obviously uncertain but I hope some will. Being realistic I expect five of them will successfully fly races of 400 miles by the time they are two years of age and possibly two will make it to the 700 mile stage at three years of age. I hope the strike rate is more but realistically this is my forecast figure. I hope it will give other fanciers who are maybe inclined to attempt this kind of experiment a clearer idea of what we are up against and the odds that are stacked against us. I wish they would also keep records for the rest of the fancy. If this is done at least at last an honest appraisal will be in the public domain exactly where it should be.

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Elimar - November 2014