# Breeding for one loft races



## FT33 (Jan 27, 2005)

I am curious as to what peoples opinions are for breeding for one loft races. When breeding birds for the races.... do you pair the birds up as early as possible so that the yb's you're sending to the races are as old as possible or do you try to send yb's that are as young as possible. I was thinking about it the other day and I could see the positives and negatives in both. Was wondering what others think. Thanks


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## FT33 (Jan 27, 2005)

ProPigeon Loft said:


> Check out this study:
> 
> http://www.nemelkarpl.com/doc/Sierra_Ranch_Classic_2010_Check_in_Analysis.pdf
> 
> ...


Thank you for that. Personally I think that the younger birds the better... which in this study that is the case. I always thought that you don't want them to old and again for this specific race it shows that the January birds did not do so well. But then again that's just for this race and I know each one is different.


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## anil_pigeon (Dec 2, 2010)

ProPigeon Loft said:


> Check out this study:
> 
> http://www.nemelkarpl.com/doc/Sierra_Ranch_Classic_2010_Check_in_Analysis.pdf
> 
> ...


Those stats are inconclusive! In my opinion (and I am NOT an expert on one loft races), you have to breed in conditions for the race course. For example, If you are breeding in sub-zero temps for a race that is in 100 degree temps - you probably don't have a prayer.


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

I don't think when you send makes that much difference. Its what you expect to win in the race. When sending a bird to Florida you would send your best speed bird. If you were going to send birds to So Africa you would have to send 2 teams, one for the shorter car races speed birds, and a tough hard weather team for the final race. The last race is in January but that is thier summer time.
Dave


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## warpaint (Dec 10, 2008)

I think sending birds later is better. If you think about it, birds that are sent early tend to get lazy when it comes near to the start of the races. Early sent birds will be fully molted at 3 months and will start to act like old birds driving hens/males and loft sitting during training. And when they do fly they tend to want to come back to the loft quickly which makes them lazy. Now when you compare that to a younger later bred bird, you know how young birds are. They are adventurous and will like to fly and explore for long periods of time and can fly four hours on end. So when the begining of the one loft race is about to start, the later sent bird will just have passed the 3 month period and will still be in their prime while the earlier sent birds would not be as enthusiast.

My opinion to my above statment is from my own experience with my birds in comparison with me breeding early breds in november vs my later bred birds in March. By the time the november breds have molted all out after 3 months they have to be forced to loft fly and the won't route as much vs the march bred birds who are always flying and routing.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

FT33 said:


> I am curious as to what peoples opinions are for breeding for one loft races. When breeding birds for the races.... do you pair the birds up as early as possible so that the yb's you're sending to the races are as old as possible or do you try to send yb's that are as young as possible. I was thinking about it the other day and I could see the positives and negatives in both. Was wondering what others think. Thanks


 I have not detected any benefit from breeding very early, either for the One Loft events, or the local races. For me, the better YB's appeared to be in the 2nd round. So for 2011, I gave up on that whole thing of pairing the birds very early in order to have YB's banded on Jan 1st. It is now Jan 28th and I only started pairing them this last day or two. And this is still early compared to the good ole days when the traditional day to pair the birds was Feb 14th.

I am thinking it is the quality of the bird which will make the biggest difference, not the fact that a bird may be a couple of months older or younger then the rest of it's peers.


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## anil_pigeon (Dec 2, 2010)

ProPigeon Loft said:


> I don't think breeding in one temperature will affect the pigeons racing ability in a different temp, they are pigeons after all.
> 
> .


There are some thermal studies out there (I can dig it up if you are interested) about breeding in the heat to fly in the heat (not your typical RPD article). 

Of course if you don't live in the heat, you have to artificially simulate with heating pads/bowls. The "theory" is that youngsters panting in the nest is a good thing!


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