# Loft for breeder,young birds and old birds



## JL185 (Mar 11, 2011)

Hi All,
I am new to racing. I was all excited to race young birds this year but ran into a few training problems and with the heat and work schedule is was not able to get the birds fully trained. Now i am thinking of keeping the team for old birds. 

However now i have a space issue. My loft is 8x20 breeder section is 8x12 and the race team is in 8x8. I was wondering if there was space where i can set the loft up so i can race old birds and still be able to breed a young bird team. 

right now i have about 46 on the young bird team and about 50 breeders. I do think one of my issues is i have too many breeders but its hard for me to part with any b/c i haven't raced there young ones yet. 

any suggestions would be very helpful i am kind of at a loss right now. My wife will kill me if i build another loft at this time!


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## Ladygrey (Dec 10, 2016)

At 96 birds in an 8x20 and you want to breed more next year, I would say you have to sell off some birds. Unfortunately you do not know how the young ones perform , to keep the best ones. I would keep training and do some releases and note your best birds , keep those.. try them in ob next year. Then, The good performers can be breeders later.. 

If you can part with any breeders you don’t need sell those as well. At some point you can not allow more birds if you can’t build another loft.. so you have to sell some. 

IMO your loft is over crowded as it is. Husbandry and health really should come first. This may not be popular , but breed only your best to best and hone down the breeding for practical purposes and enough room. Breed with more purpose.


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## wildcat hunter (Jan 17, 2014)

I agree, get rid of a lot of birds. send the young to the races, there is no other way to find the good ones. Another thing, if not raced as young birds you will lose a lot of them in OB season because they do not have the "lessons" learned as YB racers. I know, done that, started with 30 yearlings and ended up with 10 after OB season. Its not fair to the birds forgo the training they need as YB's. You do not have to clock them, just send them. Seems you might not lose any during training but when released with other birds they have to sort it out and not rely on the group to follow home. They will be on their own.


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## beachwood45789 (Jul 15, 2014)

Hi, i was going to post something but ladygrey and wildcat said it all listen to both of them, you say you have 50 breeders do you know with your first round of young you will have 50 young ones and when those young are 2 weeks old you will have 50 more eggs, can i ask where did you get these breeders? do they have peds. or were they given to you by club members? you have to get rid of some of those breeders you have way to many. Beachwood


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