# When to separate young bird sexes



## DonnyVillanLofts (May 5, 2017)

*When to separate young bird cocks & hens*

This is my first year keeping race pigeons. I purchased my birds at the end of April they were mid March birds and I put them straight on the darkening system. I plan on starting racing them early August. When should I separate the sexes? And after they are separated do I loft fly separate? And training toss separate? The birds are doing really well loft flying for 1hr 30mins coming to the whistle, Ive tossed them twice from 3 miles and then 5 miles we're having bad weather this week, high winds and a lot of rain so it's slowed us down slightly.


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

You shouldn't have to worry about it as they aren't really mature then, if they were hatched earlier in the year yeah you might be able to fly the cocks on widowhood. Do you belong to a club? When you say that you have tossed them twice is that once from each spot? I'm also a newer flyer and your starting training early most of the guy's in my club don't start until the end of June first week of July. I also start training earlier but I toss 3x's from every location and distance. I also train around the compass out to 30 miles so that if my bird's get pulled by the flock rather than breaking they have been worked from all directions. The majority of my club is east and slightly north but I do have a bunch south. Once they have been out to 30 then it's all about the course. I open loft until the season begins,once training begins I train every day until they are out to 75 miles then it's every other day. As for feeding I feed at 8am and then again when I call them in , comes season once a day at 8am so they are flying home to eat.


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## DonnyVillanLofts (May 5, 2017)

Thanks for the reply, yes I'm in a club I'm due to start racing at the beginning of August. I've Tossed at 3 miles then I took them a further 2 miles on the same line, yesterday I tossed them from 10 mile and they beat me home with a good tail wind. All our races are from south to me so I'm doing the majority of my training from that direction then I'll take them east and west just to cover any overshooting. Sounds like your really committed to training don't think I'm going to have the time to train at your level. Have you raced yet? if you have how have you done? How long have you been keeping pigeons I did have pigeons going back when I was 12 I really wanted to start again so I got a new 12x8 loft and just plan on keeping a max of 40 birds. How many birds do you have?


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

Welcome back to the wonderful world of pigeons. Yeah I am committed to training as like you I have members in my club who have been raising and racing pigeons for 60 plus years and a lot of retired guys, so the only way I can even think of competing with them is to work hard on having my bird's in condition and well trained. Also like you I raised pigeons as I kid and loved it, I got back into them a few years back and was keeping all different breeds. I had Serbian high flyers, Iranian high flyers, shaksharli,and Portuguese tumblers. Unfortunately for them I live in a very rural area of NY surrounded by wood's and fields with a lot of hawks. I lost so many bird's to them getting chased off or taken by the hawks that I got very discouraged. The final straw was when a fisher (15 lb weasel) ransacked the loft and killed most of my bird's. But you know how it is once a pigeon man. .....So my next step was just to adopt a hand raised feal and well you can't just keep one lol so I began looking for a mate for her and the next thing you know I have a good pair of late hatch homers. Initially I was just thinking that with homers at least they would be able to find their way home if they got chased off. Then while looking for more bird's I found a gentleman who I went and visited and well being willing to work on his lofts soon had a dozen. Funny thing about it when I was flying the performance breeds I couldn't find a club or even any other flyers in my area. Luckily for me I actually have a few guys from my club who are on here and when I put it out there that I was looking for a club they invited me to the club. So now I am a club member and entering my second season. Last year was my first season and unfortunately the first race I entered turned out to be a smash race, and I lost all but one of my team. My fault really because the week of the race I had an invasion of wood rat's that killed 35 bird's in 1 night. Also the first 2 years I was experiencing 60% losses to the hawks. I open loft my birds until the week before the first race so that they are almost always in the air. This year new loft in a new spot in my yard (luckily I have 2 acres ) the breeding section is 8x8, yb side 10 x 8 but built so that I can convert it into my old bird/breeding loft. Right now I have about 40 bird's and I am working on figuring out who works. My first team of yb's is 18 and they are flying and routing for 30 minutes and I will be starting training next week. I will have to get to the library and use the WiFi and upload pictures of the loft and yb's. Although if you go to Facebook and look up the group show your racing pigeons I have them there. I know how you feel when you toss your bird's and then race them home, last year's bird's would be 2 minutes behind me from 50 miles away with me able to cruise the highway at 70 mph for the first 45 miles. I would walk in the door and grab my feed can and look out the window to see them coming in over the trees. My goal is 30 pair's. Interestingly enough after 2 years of high losses to the hawks this year so far not a one. But since I only bred from bird's that have survived maybe they are developing into hawk resistant bird's lol I know that last year the beginning of the year was terrible but by the time the season was getting ready to start they were messing with the hawks flying circles over and around them as if they were tempting them to try to get them.


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## DonnyVillanLofts (May 5, 2017)

Sounds like you've had your fair share of knock backs, I know a lot of members at my club can only let their birds out at certain times because of hawks, I seem to be ok think having hundreds of crows in my neighbour hood helps. Whens your first race this season? I was planning on just training up to 40 miles my first race is 80 miles going up to the last young bird race of 310 miles from France to me. I'm enjoying looking after the birds and giving them a varied diet I still have the odd bird thats giving me watery droppings not every day though. They have all been treated for cocci canker and wormed, think they watery droppings are a diet thing. Its interesting to see all the different sizes and shapes to all my birds don't think I have the experience to tell a good bird in hand yet so I plan on racing all 21 and seeing how they do. Good luck for the season keep me updated.


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

Setbacks are just part of the sport. My old loft was set up for just plain old bird's not a real racing loft and set back against the woods figured that the shade would be good for the summer. New one is in the front yard and raised up 3 ft off the ground.


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

Yb's side almost done, and some of my yb's out and about. The Mt in the background is where they are going to be tossed from the first time. It's around 5 miles but they are able to see home. I use it to get them comfortable with the basket and build confidence on the first few tosses.


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

Sorry for the pictures being upside down


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

She is square, plumb, and level, maybe not pretty but it was done by myself with rough cut lumber and OSB using only a hammer, cordless drill, hand saw, level and speed square. Outside is done paint is rubberized roofing.


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## DonnyVillanLofts (May 5, 2017)

95SPORTSTER It's all looking good brilliant scenery! When does your season start and finish? It's really good to see other peoples loft and the work they've put into getting it right.


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments, now it's time to get out there and start training


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## White Homers (Sep 22, 2016)

Loft is looking good and some nice birds. I also like to having the loft off the ground.


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## 95SPORTSTER (Jun 30, 2011)

Thanks White homers, yeah I have it 36 inches at the high end partially because of the slope but mostly because it gives me a clear shot at any critters under the loft. As you can see from the pictures I am out in the country and deal with all kinds of hungry critters.


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## White Homers (Sep 22, 2016)

Being off the ground lets my dog also go under so nothing can live there.


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