Winter Late-Breds

by

John Clements

As most of my readers know I have been winter training a few late-breds for the last two years. The 2016 season will be the year of reckoning for them. These 2014 winter trained late-breds have been tossed singly or in pairs from relatively short distances for the last two seasons. (80-90 miles maximum)  The 2014 birds, will be entered in cross channel NFC races this year, it will be their first experience of actual racing. Some will no doubt fail but (fingers crossed) I hope some of them will come through and make good pigeons.  I might even find a champion if I am lucky. I expect the best of them to race in the NFC Saintes race in July - a distance of 532 miles to my loft here in Stockport. The proportion that survives will be interesting.

My other pet subject, apart from 'late-breds' is the Importance of the group or more directly the importance of flock behavior in pigeons.  I have been to many moots over the years and I cannot ever remember the subject ever coming up or a question being asked about it. Yet, understanding the 'flock' is probably the most important thing in how pigeons race, navigate, fly fast or avoid getting lost. Strangely enough late-breds and flock behavior are linked. I will attempt to explain why.

Late youngsters, or 'Late-breds' as they are commonly called, are never bred in great numbers. In most lofts only a few are reared simply because of the degree of patience required to get the best out of them in later life is frustrating. Some fanciers explicitly pit themselves against the 'late-bred' and will confidently announce to anyone who will listen, late-breds are rubbish.  Others like myself take an entirely opposite view. We think they can be special.

The fact that only a few late-breads are reared each year, when the few that are reared start running (if they run at all) - they rush about in tiny groups usually in an empty sky with hardly any other pigeons about. Small kits of late-bred pigeons running like all youngsters tend to do, is a tremendous asset for later life.

These early lessons reap dividends when they have to compete in long 'National' races two years down the line.  The experience of running in a tiny flock when young helps them to gain enough confidence to fly on their own or in tiny groups later in life. It gives them the confidence to pull away from the majority as have to do in International races when good pigeons are forced to pull out of thousands that are going into Belgium and The Netherlands.  Really good pigeons in National and International races often have to finish their journey alone. The very best can and do fly for the last hundred or more miles as single pigeons.  These are real champions.

A flock of pigeons the natural behavior characteristic of all pigeons we either use it or we try to break it down.

Both ways are aspects of this intriguing sport of ours.

Of course the opposite is true in sprint flying. They (sprint fanciers) should not breed late-breds at all and should definitely not encourage them to fly alone.  This is because speed not navigation is the aim of the game. Lone pigeons do not fly as fast as groups of pigeons.  What the true sprint man should be attempting to do is to encourage flock behavior but more importantly for the flock he has encouraged to be able to recognize each other in the air join up and break immediately for home without circling.  Top Sprint fanciers treat their pigeons as groups or as a single flock unit.

Following this method the sprint fancier can often boast to having the first ten or even more in a federation race, especially on a good clear day in a head wind. Occasionally a really fit and well motivated pigeon from another loft will break with them and steal their thunder but this is rare and the stranger will almost always be from a location very close to the designed flock who are flying at great speed  as a group. In short the sprint fancier has to encourage flock flying and group navigation while the long distance man has to encourage lone flying and lone navigation. How they both do it is the BIG SECRET but the sprint man must have either a dedicated willing wife or an equally hard working available partner to do this sort of thing. It is impossible to train a group of sprint pigeons by oneself because you cannot be at the home end and the liberation site at the same time.  The work is too intensive for one man or one woman, it needs a partnership.

2016 could hopefully be my year I know my late-bred and flock theories are somewhat contentious and not for everyone but without contentious ideas this pigeon game becomes repetitive useless and close to being boring.