Racing Birds - The use of Propolis in our racing birds diet

skeleton

-feathering

-size

-shape

-weight

-color

It takes time and patience until we will be able to see the overall results .

It takes will and experimenting trials because we all know that bringing two birds together with excellent results in racing does not necessary means that those birds will produce excellent ofsprings .

The way i see it is that a fancier breeder must have a lot of knowledge and on the same time a lot of patience .Quality must always be the first priority in the breeding aspect of this sport and not quantity.

Fifty young birds produced each year of an exceptional quality, sounds more appealing to me than one hundred and fifty youngsters of good quality. Good is simply not enough especially when we decide to compete on National and International races. The young birds we produce each year will inherit their parents body features and hopefuly their homing instincts but above all will have our name written all over them and this is why quality should be our main goal in the breeding season.

Pedigrees with fancy names should mean absolutely nothing to us .The bird we decide to bring in our loft to be tested in the breeding section must be equiped with phenomenal body characteristics while the pedigree for that particular bird should confirm us that we have made the perfect choice. When my busy life allows me to compete i find great joy taking part on the long and marathon distance races, and fanciers competing in these kind of races should be able to confirm the fact that perfection in body is demanded from our birds if we aim to achieve top results .Such races demand power,

endurance, stamina,and will.

Good birds are simply not enough when competing against a large number of birds over such great distances.

I will always advice the long and marathon distance fanciers one thing :

"If you decided to take on this path ,well baby, you better be prepared with the best birds you have got because the good birds will simply not be able to win." Whatever bird we decide to bring in must be minimum of the same quality in body and performances as our best birds, if not better. This is the way of going forward and succeed in this sport.

Mathematics don`t work .

I could talk for quite a while about breeding and perhaps i will do it on a future article but before i conclude i would like to give fanciers a tip like on all my past and future articles, that can be implemented straight away in their lofts, something that can be succsesfuly used and can guarantee better results.To be succesful in breeding, when we make the pairings with our birds a situation we must always avoid is to bring two birds together that are of a different size.

If we are to write down on a sheet of paper the differences between their body features, they just simply pile up .

Simple straight forward mathematics tells us that:

3 + 1 = 4 ; 4 : 2 = 2 ...well, we will be amazed how in pigeons breeding 4 : 2 can actually equal 1,3 ( one point three), meaning that a large size cock coupled with a small size hen in most cases will Not breed a medium size bird but rather an off balance bird .

So, What is balance ?

I do not intend to treat the Hand Bird Selection topic now so i will be short and to the point:

The balance of a bird can be expresed by comparing, on one side the size of its wings, while on the other side we will have its weight and the length of the bird. In other words:Has the bird the right wings size to propel itself through the air in the fastest time possible, because after all my dear fellow friends this sport is extremely related to speed isn`t it ? Balance must never be mistaken with the posture or stance of the bird,which can also be expressed as leaning backwards, straight or leaning forward .

To be even better understood let us think about the possibilities here when coupleing such birds together and see what exactly the young birds will actually inherit from their parents - their body features:

- a large bird in size ( inherited from the father) with small wings (inherited from the mother), the result is an off balance bird

- a small bird in size ( inherited from the mother) with large wings (inherited from the father), the result is an off balance bird

We can continue with these realistic posibilities and fill up an entire A4 page by making combinations in between the two different sized birds with the following:

-their feet, and these could be - thin , thick, medium, short, long, medium, light, heavy, medium

-their tails - long, short, medium

-their neck - long, short, medium,thin ,thick, medium

-their weight - light, heavy, medium

So as we can see the variables and the combinations between these variables are just too many and my question would be: Why risk it?

So instead ot this type of pairing i strongly recommend the following pairings:

Small x Small

Medium x Medium

Large x Large

Medium x Small

Medium x Large

From this little scheme we can easily see that the most prefered bird in size for pairing will be the medium bird. To conclude my ways into breeding, the young birds we must breed in order to achieve top results are birds with a perfect balance regardless of their bodysize. To have a succesful breeding season we must always make sure that our breeders are in a perfect state of health ,meaning - Absolutely Bouncing.

One of the main cause of unfertilized eggs in our breeding birds is the presence of internal parasites so in what follows i will present you an 100 % natural product that can be used in our pigeons diet as a preventive and cure treatment.

Propolis is a beehive product ,produced by bees through their secretions and through various natural products found in plants and trees. In the hive Propolis is used to seal cracks and repair alveoli ,but above all to sanitise and disinfect.

Propolis is a 100% natural antibiotic that can be used used in our pigeons diet to :

Boost immune system.

Boost respiratory system.

Prevents and cure infections.

Prevents and fights against a wide range of bacterias .

Fights and kills internal parasites.

Fights against fungi.

Fights against germs.

Antioxidant effect.

Antiviral effect.

Anti inflammatory effect.

Excellent wound healing properties.

It is considered the most powerful natural product that fights with success against the negative factors mentioned above.

It is composed of 40-50 % resin, 20 -30 % of wax and fatty acids ,15% essential oil , 5% pollen, trace minerals Iron ,Zinc, Silica.

Dosage:

In our pigeons diet we can use 8-10 drops of Propolis per 1 litre of water 1-2 times per week.

Because of its high content of resin i always recommend propolis to be diluted first in 100 ml of warm-hot water, and then we can add this quantity to the 900 ml water. We can also use propolis in the case where we have an injured bird with an open wound. Firstly we will need to isolate the bird and keep it in a clean environment. In this case we will use propolis on a cotton bud and we will gently apply it on the open wound in the morning and evening until the wound has completely healed.

We can find Propolis in specialized bee products shops and even supermarkets.