# When to start training



## coldskins (Jan 24, 2011)

My birds are starting to range really well leaving for an hour and a half or longer at times. My question is when do you take them down the road in regards to when races start. I know they are ready to go down the road now but my first race isnt until aug. with gas prices as high as they are now I am not sure I want to take them down the road for the next month and a half. Also how far do you take them out I took mine out to 100 mi. last year.


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## millerloft (Jun 3, 2012)

*Down the road*

Not sure if this is what would happen to your birds, but when my birds where routing I was very excited and started to take them down the road, but as soon as I did this they stopped routing as well around the loft. 
Also they would take a really long time to get back home I assume they where flying/ routing during this time but it did not seem to matter how far I took them it always took 1.5-2 hours for them to get home. This was 2 years ago, last year I only took my birds down the road 4times @ 5 miles, 10 miles, twice at 25 miles, about 12 days before the first race. They did ok during the races, but as old birds I don't road train at all and when we shifted course for a special race I think they really had problems. when we release in a combine that had birds going in all directions I had a lot of birds that just followed other birds home 480 miles in the wrong direction into head wind, my loft was 320 with a tail wind so they where not thinking just following. This year I think I will work on more tosses and doing single or small bird tosses.

I am still new but I hope this helps


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## Hareloft (Jun 26, 2011)

You can start road training as soon as they are routing good and once you have them say 30 or 40 miles you can start single tossing them. That way as soon as people in your club start truck training yours will be ready.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

coldskins said:


> My birds are starting to range really well leaving for an hour and a half or longer at times. My question is when do you take them down the road in regards to when races start. I know they are ready to go down the road now but my first race isnt until aug. with gas prices as high as they are now I am not sure I want to take them down the road for the next month and a half. Also how far do you take them out I took mine out to 100 mi. last year.


 It is June now, so if your not going to road train in the next month and a half, then there is no point IMHO, trying to train in the heat, a week or so before the 1st race. 

Do your best with loft training then, and if you send birds in good health and condition, they should return just fine. Some years I have shipped birds to their first toss at 192 miles, and they would beat some birds home which had gotten traditional road training over dozens of tosses. 

My theory being it is not necessary to train a homing pigeon to find home. That is bred into them. Now coming home in a speedy fashion and going in right away, that and conditioning is the purpose of road training IMHO.


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## Hareloft (Jun 26, 2011)

DON'T ship your birds without road training under any circumstances. That is not good advice for newer flyers I have seen to many people lose almost every bird because of bad advice. Road train as much as possible our young bird races start in mid July and I have been rd training my youngsters for at least 2 months already not so they learn to come home as much as making sure there in condition to handle any distances and weather.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

Hareloft said:


> DON'T ship your birds without road training under any circumstances. *That is not good advice for newer flyers I have seen to many people lose almost every bird because of bad advice*. Road train as much as possible our young bird races start in mid July and I have been rd training my youngsters for at least 2 months already not so they learn to come home as much as *making sure there in condition to handle any distances* and weather.


Please note, *I did not advise not to road train*, I just suggested that homing pigeons can find home without road training. If a bird is in good health and condition due to "good" loft flying, then the bird should be in condition. 

Back as a Jr. member the longest just about anyone trained was about 7 miles. I doubt that really had much of anything to do with conditioning. Now the open loft, or several hours of loft flying a day, that provided the conditioning. This idea of countless dozens of road training tosses, is a relatively recent idea that came about since the 1950's and 1960's. 

Now for some folks, spending several hours to catch their birds and drive over a hundred miles in order for their birds to get a good hour of exercise is the way to go. While some might contend that several hours of flying around the loft might not only be cheaper, but better as well. Just putting that out there, everyone make your own choices.

I am curious, after months of road training, how far have you taken your birds ? Some hard road trainers do a lot of tosses at shorter distances, while others do fewer tosses but at longer distances. Regardless if one does one or other, or both, how would say 25 or even 50 training tosses at 50-60 miles, in any way insure they are in condition to "handle any distances and weather" ?

Not trying to sell anyone on not road training. Just would like to know why one thinks that say an hour of road work, is worth more in terms of conditioning, then flying around the loft for say two or three hours ?

To answer the original question, I start training at four weeks of age. That is the age at which the YB is placed on the landing board and taught a bit of trap training. Road training starts about four to six weeks later.


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## coldskins (Jan 24, 2011)

I plan on road training and planned on starting around the last week of this month and all through next month my main question is lets for example I paired in nov. and had all my ybs routing say in april or may would you start road training that far before the races or is there say a certain time period out from the races that you start training like a month or 45day etc. also how far out do you train? My point here is I dont wanto spend a bunch of money training earlier than i have to or training them out farther than I have to. also keep in mind I have about a 100 mile over fly so the first race which is suppose to be 100 mi is more like 200 for me and my team. I am a second year flyer and trained out to 100 last year but unfortunatly we had a really bad smash race due to weather the first race and I lost everybird I sent along with the rest of the club out of 227 birds sent 4 or 5 came back within the weeks that followed. just wondering if I am better off training more often at distances of say 40 or 50 mi or training out to 100 miles


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## Alamo (Nov 22, 2008)

Single tossing YB`s is a waste of time....If you have 40 + YB`s,and you let one go every 5 minutes,your wife will divorce you....Release in groups of 4 or 5 birds...They will RACE each other home.....Single tossing YB`s will make them wait around for a couple of buddies to fly home with....Single toss OLD BIRDS >>> YES>>>YES>>>YES indeed !!!! Alamo


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## Hareloft (Jun 26, 2011)

Alamo said:


> Single tossing YB`s is a waste of time....If you have 40 + YB`s,and you let one go every 5 minutes,your wife will divorce you....Release in groups of 4 or 5 birds...They will RACE each other home.....Single tossing YB`s will make them wait around for a couple of buddies to fly home with....Single toss OLD BIRDS >>> YES>>>YES>>>YES indeed !!!! Alamo


I was sugesting single toss because i know he doesn't have to many young birds.


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## Hareloft (Jun 26, 2011)

coldskins said:


> I plan on road training and planned on starting around the last week of this month and all through next month my main question is lets for example I paired in nov. and had all my ybs routing say in april or may would you start road training that far before the races or is there say a certain time period out from the races that you start training like a month or 45day etc. also how far out do you train? My point here is I dont wanto spend a bunch of money training earlier than i have to or training them out farther than I have to. also keep in mind I have about a 100 mile over fly so the first race which is suppose to be 100 mi is more like 200 for me and my team. I am a second year flyer and trained out to 100 last year but unfortunatly we had a really bad smash race due to weather the first race and I lost everybird I sent along with the rest of the club out of 227 birds sent 4 or 5 came back within the weeks that followed. just wondering if I am better off training more often at distances of say 40 or 50 mi or training out to 100 miles


I start traing as soon as they are routing even if its 4 months before the first race and I train out to 100miles then they are trained 30miles a few times a week


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## coldskins (Jan 24, 2011)

Hareloft said:


> I start traing as soon as they are routing even if its 4 months before the first race and I train out to 100miles then they are trained 30miles a few times a week


Thanks, The birds are flying great eager to fly and fly for hours. open the loft they shoot out and leave for an hour hour and a half make an apearence and poof gone again. when the come back I call them and straight in the loft they go.


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

coldskins said:


> Thanks, The birds are flying great eager to fly and fly for hours. open the loft they shoot out and leave for an hour hour and a half make an apearence and poof gone again. when the come back I call them and straight in the loft they go.


 That sounds real good, and now as an ole pigeon guy told me one time, *"Now don't go and change nuthing" 
*

This is how you want things to be, healthy, happy, flying.


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