This page is about my day to day managment in the loft:

22/11/00 Today I began preparing the yearlings for mating in the second week in december,the way I do this is by removing all the old widowhood cocks from the loft,closing there boxes.I then introduce 12 or 13 hens for the nine yearlings so they can chose one.This stops all the hassle when mating of cocks fighting.

Feeding at this time is any moulting mix,all the birds are seperated after the last race(which is usually the second week in september)

3/12/00 All the cocks today will have their mates for the weekend and next weekend they will be mated and all going well everything should go smoothly(fingers crossed).Also at this time I use lights in the loft from 7am-9am and 4.30pm-7pm this brings the birds into good condition.

10/12/00 Today all birds were mated with the preparation of the above most of it went smoothly alway there is one pair that take more time to mate,this year I will have 21 widowhood cocks for my races upto 200mls(to see my race program goto http://isrf.50megs.com/index.html )while all the birds are sitting I will give them a treatment for canker(remember when treating do not use the same product every time)for 7 days.Remember do not breed from unproven birds ie. yearlings all my widowhood cocks rear one youngbird only I switch the eggs from the stockloft and the 1st prize winners to the yearlings.

29/12/00 Today began a treatment for tricomonoas(canker)the product I use is rondizole from Pantex for 7 days the first eggs began to hatch today.

25/1/01 When the cocks begin chasing the hens to nest(this is usually 17 days after hatching)I remove the hen and let the cock finish rearing the youngbird.

10/2/01 When I remove all the youngbirds to their own loft all the widowhood cocks and their hen are now fed 100% depuritive up until the week before the first race.

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARAGRAPHS THIS WILL DEAL WITH WHEN TO PAIR UP FOR THE SECOND TIME,MY FIRST RACE IS 14/4/01 SO WE WORK BACK FROM THIS DATE 10 DAYS FROM SEPERATING THE PAIRS,4 DAYS SITTING EGGS,10 DAYS TO LAY EGGS SO IN TOTAL WE HAVE 24 DAYS SO THE DAY I MATE THE BIRDS FOR THE SECOND TIME IS 21/3/01.FROM THE TIME ALL YOUNGSTERS ARE REMOVED FROM THE WIDOWHOOD LOFT THE BIRDS ARE FED ON DEPURITIVE WRITE UP UNTIL THE TUESDAY BEFORE THE FIRST RACE.

7/3/01 Today I began letting the cocks out for exercise from 7.30am to 8.30am its not important that they fly for long at this time because they’ve been locked in the  loft from the end of the season only out at weekends I had the droppings tested and they were free from worms,cocci,samenella.Feeding at this time is 100% depuritive also in the drinking water for 14 days is Broncofit(HERBOTS)this is a natural product to help with the respitory system.

22/3/01 Today I am treating all the racebirds and their hen for ornitose for 2 days with Orni-cure(De Weerd)

31/3/01 Today I gave the cocks their first toss from 10kms,the same tomorrow back to their hens.

6/4/01 the same as 31/3/01

7/4/01 gave the cocks a toss from 35kms this was my first mistake this year 10mins after putting the cocks on the transport it began to rain and did'nt spot until 6pm the birds were coming back all day and I lost one yearling cock I kept all the cocks in their loft until the 10/4/01 am

9/4/01 No cocks out today because of yesterday feeding 30grams of depuritive per bird in the water Vital(natraherb)Broncofit(Herbots)

10/4/01 The cocks are exercising very well 40mins at every exercise period feeding 50%depuritive50%Leige in the water Vitamins.

14/4/01 First race today New Ross(73mls) ended up 2nd,3rd (111birds)about 3 mins behind the winner

28/5/01 Began to basket train the youngbirds the way I do this is to place the youngbirds into race panniers for three day feeding and watering them there.will begin training 2/6/01 from 5kms 10 times then 10kms 10 times then 20kms 2/3 times per week.

9/6/01 Began to train the youngbirds from 5 mls each night (weather permmiting) I let the youngbirds out at 2pm to 4pm to burn off some steam feeding at the moment is 33% depuritive 33% youngbird mix 34% race mix. Feeding 1/3 of this feed am and the rest after the evening training.

24/6/01 With the youngbirds going backwards I knew there was still something wrong even after having their droppings tested.So today I began treating all youngbirds with mycosan-T (cevita) for 10 days so we'll see what happens !!

8/11/01 Began treating all birds for ten days with Altabactine as while on a trip to Holland found out a lot of the top fanciers do this.

6/12/01 Began treating all birds for ten days with baytril 10%