When they are weaned, the young birds stay on the 22% turkey
grower pellet. This helps them get everything they need to start
the moult, especially for the darkening system. They drop so many
feathers so fast, that they need the extra protein to develop good
feather and body size. Birds grow and develop when they moult.
When I am racing, I use high quality grains. Most of the time,
I feed the birds individual grains separately, so they get all
the
different grains, not just what they like. I use three
different types of peas, Austrian Peas, Trapper Peas
and Maple Peas. I also use whole corn, wheat, milo, millet, safflower,
rice and barley. This keeps them in balance and form. Young birds
need plenty of barley during the first part of the week when racing.
It keeps them conditioned.
This may vary depending on how hard the race was. If they are
not flying around the loft well, I put more barley in their feed.
I
always feed the barley first, since they don't like it as much,
then I put in a small amount of each grain, wait till they eat
it,
then give them the next grain. This way, they are eating all
of the grains and not just their favorite ones.
As the week progresses, I increase the amount of each grain and
reduce the amount of barley. I use less peas and corn close
to the race because they are harder to digest. I use a
higher percentage of safflower and rice closer to the race. It
gives them extra carbohydrates.
On Thursday night, I throw in some raw Spanish Peanuts, about
a cup per every 25 birds, after all the grains have been fed.
They
love the peanuts and even if they have stopped eating the grains,
they will gobble up the peanuts.
You have to teach the birds to eat peanuts when they are young
or they won't eat them when they are older. I just put them
in and
let them pick at them at first. I do this when they are very
hungry. Once they start eating them it is like candy for
them. They go nuts
when I feed peanuts.
On Saturday, I give the birds safflower and millet. They
get as much of it as they care to eat. I feed it several
times
during the
day and evening.
What I feed always depends on the condition of the birds after
the race. If it was a tough race, I feed differently than if it
was an easy one. I also look ahead to the upcoming race and what
I expect the conditions to be like for that race. Most of the time,
I feed correctly for the race conditions, but occasionally, I mess
up and feed too heavy or too light.
Most of this is learned from
experience. You have to feel the birds regularly to see how they
are doing. You have to develop a feel for what weight a bird
should normally be and then you will be able to tell if a bird
is too
light or too heavy. Look at the condition of feathers, the activity
level in the loft, the droppings of the birds. All of these are
signs that tell you how to feed and how much to feed. Watch the
birds eat their feed. Do they attack it with gusto or just nibble
in a bored way.
Proper feeding takes time and attention to detail. You can't
just walk in the pen, dump a can of feed in the trough and walk
away
if you
want to win races. On average, I spend three hours each night
out at the coops taking care of my pigeons. That time that I am
regularly investing is bringing
me the results I want on the race result sheets.
After the young bird season is over, I put the birds back
on the 22% protein turkey grower. Being on the darkening
system,
the birds
will go through another body moult and will moult the
flight feathers. Here again, they need the extra protein to
grow all the feathers. |
