Racing Pigeons - The Racing Systems
The Widowhood System
In the beginning of the year you will start making the pairings for the widowhood cocks .After mating, and the first batch of eggs have hatched, the pair will rear one youngster only (at least that what i do). After they have finished rearing, the hen will be removed on a different loft and the cocks will remain on the loft without any bowl in his box .
Letting the cock to finish the rearing is very important as this will make him very attracted by his nest .
Begin the training with your pigeons as described in the Training Topic .
Be consistent in your training as this is very important and you need to make sure that your pigeons are in top condition for their first race.
In the day of basketing your pigeons will stay inside the loft ...One hour before you put them into the basket you will place the bowls back in the cocks box and then you will bring the exact hen that he was rearing the youngster with ,after you will lock them inside the box with no possibility to exit the box and let them for an hour together.
After one hour you will take the cock FIRST and place him into the basket...cocks are going ,hens are staying home. When you return home you will take the hens out and put them back into their loft or you can just leave them inside the loft by opening the boxes out .
It`s the day race ...One hour before the pigeons arrive home (in normal weather conditions a pigeon can reach 80-85 km /hour speed...you will take the hens back and place them inside the half box where the bowl is... lock her inside .
HERE is your first pigeon arrived on the landing board from the race...he steps inside ,he sees the hen - his REWARD ,he flies right to her on the other half of the box and he starts diplaying, go inside the loft and put the cock together with the hen and let them sit in the bowl for 1 hour with the box locked .after one hour take the hen out and put her in her loft and let the cock out from the box .
This is the widowhood system my friend and you can do exactly the same thing with the HENS ...
You can always find more advice on my published books
The Darkness System
The Darkening System is a pigeon racing training technique which is very often applied to young birds right after you`ve separated them from their parents. What is actually doing is accelerating the process of maturity by making it happening faster, BUT also DELAYING the moult of the pigeon's body feathers, and of course keeping the flight feathers. The advantages of doing this is that your pigeon will become bigger, stronger, and faster on a shorter period of time than normal (if you apply this system you will be able to notice that the flight feathers don t moult and so there will be no gaps on your pigeons wings to slow them down on the racing season) ...which will give you an extremely high advantage over other fanciers which are not using this system.
Because this birds are getting mature very fast their sexual life develops at the same rate and speed and if you have planned to use the widowhood racing method, you can apply it without any problem on these young birds and the results will not disappoint you .
Another fantastic advantage that this system has to offer is that there seems to be less health problems in the pigeon that under go this system. Many fanciers have reported that they have notices less health issues in their pigeons that have gone through the Darkening System, than pigeons that have not .Also their immune system will develop much faster and will be able to fight against diseases.
One of the disadvantages of the Darkening System is that occasionally the pigeon will start to lose their flight feathers near the end of the season. This is not a common occurrence, but does happen however.
To make the loft dark, you have to use blindings but also at the same time the way your loft is built should provide a lot of ventilation for your young birds.
Right after you ve separated the young birds from their parents you can start apply the darkening system by creating the darkness into your loft from 16.00 pm - 9.00 am the next day . You will want to do this for around 3 months to get the full effect. That is the basics of the Darkening System... best of luck...
I ve allready presented the young birds training in the home page ...please take a look at it...here
The Natural System
The natural system is very often used on both cocks and hens with very good results for hens in the long and marathon distance races. If you don t have a lot of time to spend with your pigeons than this is your system and if you apply it the right way i repeat especially on the hens ,then the results can be amazing.
The pigeons will be paired up and race on the eggs and youngsters .
For the cocks the best position to race them is when they been sitting on eggs for 8- 14 days maximum
For the hens the best position is on the eggs 8-14 days but even better results are obtain when raced on one youngster 5-10 days old ,when her parenthood instincts are at the top.
For the pigeons to arrive on this positions you will need to plan you pairing accordingly for the special races.I personaly use this system only for the hens on long and marathon distances on 5 days youngster .
Jealousy System
This system will require more work from your side and here is how i recommend you do it .
You ll need to have for example three boxes on the shelf...on the left side will be the box for the cock nr 1, in the middle the box for the hen ,and on the right the box for the cock nr 2.
One hour before basketing you will place the cock nr1 in the hen box together with the hen ...cock nr 2 will see the two together but can not enter inside the hen box ,leave the cock nr 1 with the hen for 10 minutes ,take him out and put him back on his box ...now take the cock nr 2 and put it together with the hen and let them 25 minutes together ,all this time cock nr 1 will see them together but won t be able to access the hen box .
After 25 minutes take the cock nr 2 and put it in the basket nr 1 .
After that you will place in the hen box cock nr 1 and leave them for 25 minutes together...after 25 minutes take the cock nr 1 and put on a different basket (basket nr 2).
The reason you need to put them on different baskets is because these two cocks will be really jealouse to eachother and you don t want them to give them the oportunity to fight eachother by placing them on the same basket.
You can apply the same system for the hens jealousy .
When the cocks arrive home from the race you will let them have 30 min each with the hen after that you will remove the hen and put it in her loft until the next race arrive. During the week the hens box remains close and none of the cocks can access it.
You can always find more advice on my published books
