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Pigeon Gas - Performance - Page 45-61
PERFORMANCE
Having good pigeons is the biggest part of the battle. Any fool can clock a pigeon in when it arrives home, and any fool can send a pigeon to race one lucky day and by accident have to fit enough to win.
The target of course, is in knowing how to have the pigeon fit and motivated every time it is sent to the race, so that it wins every time. Not necessarily the same pigeon every time, but whatever pigeon is sent from the team.
The difficulty lies in those other fanciers, who are also trying to get their pigeons fit and motivated too, and lots of them do!
Most fanciers commence with the Natural system, which is as the name describes flying the pigeon in its natural state. i.e. when it is living as near to its natural state as man permits. The bird is sent to races in any state of its existence.
Either sitting on a perch, or actively looking at, chasing to win a partner, cock or hen, or mated to a partner.
Admittedly the natural racer doesnt have to cope with messy nappies and teething, but the wakeful nights, fretful feeding, etc, are as much part of its lot as ours.
In the natural state, the birds reactions to given situations are exploited, such as when the cock bird is driving, when he has but one instinct paramount above all others, to keep his hen close to her nest where he, and he alone can mate with her, and drive off any rival. Because the cock bird can become so excited in this state as to literally lose his senses however, fanciers usually only care to use this tactic on older, more mature cock birds, rather than on yearlings.
When eggs are first laid can prove to be added inducement for the bird to hurry home, and the longer the bird sits and consequently the nearer it become to hatching those eggs the keener the bird is to return to the nest to welcome his long awaited new baby into the world.
Humans are not alone in this world with a large fund of affection for their newborn progeny.Each and every stage of development in the natural pigeons life can be exploited, with the view to making the bird return home faster, but the very duties of parenthood can tax the strength of the racer, and the effort expended on those duties can affect the birds abilities to race home.
Our Belgian cousins evolved a system almost a century ago, which they named Veuvage Widowerhood for it entailed from him. Naturally, without the quite tiring duties of parenthood, the cock bird very quickly regains his strength and energy, and is fit and ready for considerable effort at short notice.
A Manchester businessman named Fred Shaw brought the system over to Britain in the 1930s, and within a few short years he had smashed the once mighty Manchester Flying Club, some 300 members strong, with the system.
For some extraordinary reason it was another forty years before the system gained any popularity with the British Fancy, despite shaw writing a book, clearly illustrating how to fly the system, and notwithstanding the outstanding success of Widowhood racing, at all distances, there are still many thousands of fanciers who shy away from trying it out.
As I pointed out earlier, it is the fancier who can motivate his pigeon best who wins most, for the pigeon only comes home when it wants to, and as fast as it wants to. Nothing the man can say or do will make it move one inch faster than it wants to, so the bird has to be made to want to fly faster. But it, the pigeon, must want to, never forget that.
Remember what I said earlier on about motivation?
If I want to catch a fish I offer it something it wants on the hook. If I wrap a couple 24 carat diamonds round the hook the odds are that the fish will go and inspect the nearest boulders, looking for grubs.
If I select a fat strawberry and put it on the hook Im likely to get the same response as before, but if I start thinking fishy thoughts, and put a large, fat juicy looking grub, or worm, on the hook, I greatly increase the chances of the fish swallowing it, and thus my catching the fish;
Now lets start thinking pigeon thoughts! Food, yes, that attracts when the pigeon is hungry.
An attractive looking female pigeon, attracts even better, and - Natures biggest carrot on a stick - a nice looking female pigeon cooing come up and see me sometime , best of all.
I recall many, many years ago, an old Gamekeeper shaking his head at me saying that a women would draw a man a hell of a lot further than gun powder could blow him. think about that. Its true!
Woman is a biological mantrap, in any species of life anywhere in the world. If a female beckons her finger a man will follow, anywhere. Except when she has burnt the mans fingers once too often, then he will go where his head dictates, not his heart. And remember that too, for it is just as true.
So, within reason, we can use the female pigeon to make the male come home faster, by promising him Natures greatest ultimate reward. Sex. There are, admittedly, those strange individuals who would prefer a bacon sarnie, but I am referring to the majority, who would prefer the bacon sarnie afterwards!
Now to race pigeons successfully, you need three things going for you. The first is good pigeons. There is absolutely no use at all in housing the birds in a palace, feeding them the finest grains and wasting valuable time on them, if they are duds.
Ergo, go out and obtain good bloodstock, If it hurts then you have the right sort, for good pigeons cost money.
If you are intending to fly widowhood, and it is a system that will destroy a club faster than fire if it is practised by only a few of its members, then you need a widowhood loft. This sort make Old Hand weep, for they are built very contrary to his fresh air, more fresh air, and yet still more fresh air system.
The third must has to be a good system of management, and it has to be detailed down to the last tiny facet. It isnt hard, but it is detailed.
The family of pigeons you use in not necessarily de riguer. There are many families that lend themselves well to Widowhood. It boils down to the individual bird, rather than a family, or strain, though there is ground for belief that some families take to the system better than others I do have to admit, but even so, there will always be birds within such families that will not fly on the system, no matter what you may do.
Before i embark on more detail of widowhood, may I mention that among the many varied top strains of racing pigeon families I have flown over these many years, I have come across pigeons that possess far more than the average amount of intelligence, and which will bid you farewell - off the loft top - if they take a dislike to your management. Yet these same pigeons, if you can gain their amity and trust, and promote a mutual respect with them, will make the finest racers you have seen in your lifetime.
I have bred six pigeons like this in my life, pigeons that have told me as plain as pikestaff, that this repeated chucking into the basket will not do, and they have flown their training and races as it suited them, taking hours, days - even weeks - to come home, from tosses of ten miles if it suited them, or to do the same distance in ten minutes if that suited them either.
When they wanted to, they won by miles, but pigeons like these are few, but when they are found can be worth their weight in diamonds, for they have a strength and intelligence that is matchless, and will find a way when everything else is grounded and lost.
However, racers, bred from racers, bred from racers, ad infinitum, are the sort of pigeons you should be stocking your loft with, and there is no sense at all in keeping half decent birds. If there is doubt, out!
Probably 97% of all races in the average club are below 500 mls, so there is little point in acquiring acknowledged 700 mls racers - at the price they cost - for this sort of competition. Go after the regularly winning demifond racer and you will be following the horses for courses dictum.
Balanced pigeons, with their weight up front are the sort to be looking for. When this bird flies that weight sits on the cushion of air and is held up by it, while the wings propel the bird along with minimum of effort. If the weight is midships or aft then it is a burden that has to be dragged along, and the bird is soon tired or slowed.
Plentiful powerful musculature is necessary, it is the motor that must lift open and close shut those wings, for hour after hour, to drive the bird through the air. It must be coupled of course with the skeletal structure I have mentioned in the previous chapter.
The intelligence to enable the bird to navigate, improved by sensible training, and a excellent respiratory system complete the package. The slot in the roof of the beak must be wide and clean, (and racing fitness will illustrate it far more clearly than ordinary average health) and the windpipe needs a small, lozenge shaped aperture, not the wide, sagging and sloppy great hole that so many pigeons have, which indicates a sagging and sloppy respiratory system.
If you examine the curtain at the back of the throat, it should be complete, with a noticeably fringed edging to it. If that edging is eaten away then the bird has suffered ailments and will again - and lacks the protection to its breathing and aural (hearing) system that Mother Nature designed for it, and will consequently lack the attuned balance it should have in these departments.
I go into detail of the loft structure elsewhere, it is too important to gloss over here, for in this chapter I am concentrating on motivation, and improving the performance of your pigeon.
The widowhood loft section is - in most British lofts - about twelve birds strong, but I have seen 60 strong sections in Belgian lofts which have flown, and won with distinction for decades on end against the strongest of competition.
Pigeons are gregarious creatures, so numbers are not important, except that if they get very low, or conversely - very high, then some pigeons are apt to leave to seek fresh perches, they feel safer that way! A point that is overlooked by many fanciers who should know better, but dont.
The temperature must be kept constant inside the loft, and absolutely bone dry. Any dampness is bad.
The bottom nestbox should be a yard off the floor for preference, for fighting can take place on the floor, and if a bird is trapped into a corner it can be damaged, or cause damage to its opponent that will cause you grief. I prefer to have a false front down to the floor, rather than a recess.
The windows to a widowhood section should be translucent plastic or glass, with two shutters, one of bluee/green, the other red/orange, that can be lowered one over the other, to cause darkness inside the loft, or if preferred - a roller shutter to enable you to darken the loft to make the birds rest, rather than have them eternally raking about, fighting or hunting their hens, as they can do at times. I have seen lofts where the occupants were shut into their boxes when they entered, and not permitted to leave their boxes except for exercise, and they have been successful too!
Many fanciers make their nestboxes huge. It isnt necessary. Small is beautiful in pigeon parlance! It is easier to defend for a start. A doubled-sectioned nestbox, each section 14 square, with a dividing partition of wire bars from top to bottom is preferred, with a door that can be slid up or down to open or close it off.
Both sections should be closable from the front, so that a bird can be taken from, or put into, either without opening the centre dividing access door.
If you have the room, then build into your loft a spare, single section box between each doubled sectioned nestbox, or - better still - make each and every 14 box accessible from either side, right throughout the loft, with a solid partition capable of being opened out or closed to the rear wall of the loft, between every dividing partition. this system enable the fancier to practise real estate or property widowhood, in addition to the normal play, and can enliven even the most jaded of widowers at the end of a season when little else can. I will expand on this in a moment.
A communal drinker and a communal feeding hopper stimulate eating and drinking. Individual pots in nestboxes have their uses at time, but broadly speaking the communal feeders and drinkers promote a more avid intake of food.
It is also far easier to supplement the water with Multivitamins, lemon juice, garlic, or medicinally dose the birds if necessary, via a communal drinker via individual ones.
If the reader thinks that I am time wasting describing all these little facets, may I remind him that the little details are the important ones.
The only place for a widower to perch should be inside its own nestbox. the bird will defend its own territory, but if there is no especial territory, or many spare territories, then the bird has no desire to spill blood to defend any one special part of it. I should mention here that i have seen a bird defend its nestbox so vigorously that it has actually killed another cock who had taken over the box on the enforced absence of the owner!
Front to back of your widowhood section should be no more than 6 ft deep. The ceiling - of small meshed wire netting - should be about 6 ft 6 high, to prevent birds flying up out of your reach and into a situation on return from a race when they may be inaccessible to you.
If you can build a double sliding shutter system under that wire meshed ceiling, so much the better, for then you can open or close off overhead ventilation, and thus warm or cool the loft more easily.
Your widowhood section(s) must be completely separate from other sections, for if the widowers can see or hear hens in other sections, then they will expend their energy in attempting to find a way into those sections, and when it comes to racing they will be spent forces.
The loft floor has to be one complete section if at all possible, with no seams or splits in it to handle nice tasty filthy germs and droppings. Many modern lofts use half inch deep metal grills on the floor supports, allowing droppings and feathers to fall through underneath, where they can be collected and cleaned at the loft owners pleasure. No draughts are to be permitted of course. Many loft owners also provide these grill platforms in the cocks half of nestboxes, which makes cleaning a matter of seconds daily, for the grill is lifted and the droppings brushed out into a dustpan, thus avoiding the necessity of scraping out.
To commence on the widowhood system, one must introduce the birds to the section. Ten cocks for ten nestboxes. Put them in and let them get on with it. In a few days each cock will have claimed the box that is his and apart from perhaps one or two that will not accept being on a lower shelf at first, all will soon settle down. Within a few weeks they will have arrived at a settlement, and you should have no trouble at all when you bring their hens in. Shut the hen you intend to pair with each cock, into that respective cocks nestbox - in the right hand half - with the intervening wire door closed. Feed and water her in there for a day or two, then release her - and by this time she will have sightpaired to her intended cock, possibly even be billing through the bars with him.
When all have properly settled down and gone to nest, you are well on the way to flying widowhood! The first pairing will be in mid-January, and the pair should be permitted to rear at least one youngster. Prior to the actual pairing however, you should have treated your birds for lice and mite parasites, against worms and canker.
Against lice I recommend a slightly warm, one gallon bath with a mothball (Naphthalene) crushed and dissolved into it, plus a half teaspoonful of washing-up liquid. Repeat again a fortnight later.
After the first treatment youll have difficulty finding a louse, and after the second - not one! Once a month repeat the bath and never a single louse. If theres a cheaper, or more efficient method of ridding pigeons of lice Ive yet to hear of it. It pays dividends I assure you. It also prevents moth damage to flights.
I stop the treatment a month before pairing up, the fumes can asphyxiate newly hatched babies, and restart it after rearing is over. One crushed mothball scattered underneath four nestbowls will keep them free from mites.
If your birds ever contract feather rot that patch of baldness on the crop, caused by a tiny mite, often noticed because of the patch of feather stubs left by mite which lives below the follicle, you can shift it by washing the affected area with Carbolic soap a couple of times. It kills the mite.
If there is a safe harbour for parasites, internal or external, depend on it they will find it, and live parasite exists on the life blood and sustenance of your birds, so make it your sacred duty to kill all parasites. If you think I make too strong a case against parasites, you will be better of reading something else, for you will be wasting your time racing pigeons.
Scrub every perch, nestbox wall, nestbowl with Jeyes Fluid, throughly, at least once a year.
Treat against worms, for what the warm eats the pigeon doesnt, and what sense is there in feeding worms?
Treat twice against worms within a fortnight, and look at the droppings the day after treatment to see what you are shifting, it may well surprise and sicken you!
Coceidiosis is present in almost every form of avian life in a state of balance within the host bird. I make no bones about removing the state of balance, rendering it into one of imbalance, i.e. no Cocci. They are easily shifted with either a dose of White Sesqui ( a tablet you can pop into the birds beak), or by Sulfamethazine in the drinker, but some birds do not like the taste and refuse to drink for even three or four days.
Canker too is by treatment of the drinker, using Dimetridazole, and a five days course should render this enemy of health null and void. Despite treating the birds, watch for signs of it in the first month of the squeakers life in the nest. It is so easy to cure most ailments if you catch them with their pants down, i.e. before they have marshalled their forces into mighty hosts. Mind you, if you use 1 teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda, or Andrews Liver Salts, in the drinker on one day a week, you will rarely contract Canker or Cocci in your birds.
Having shifted the parasites inside the birds and loft, then shift the enemies outside, in the shape of cats. If you have installed a loft system of Ultrasound then you should have little to worry about, but cast an eye on it from time to time. Fuses can blow and let you down, and the cat rarely missies an opportunity.
Apart from the dangers of the cat attacking your birds, there is also the filth that these animals insist in digging into their neighbours gardens (never their own) when they bury their faeces - and not very deep at that - under the soil where your birds are likely to be pecking around.
There is another danger, not always evident, of the sitting pigeon seeing next doors Moggie looking in through the dowels, licking its chops, and there can be little else more upsetting for the nervous bird than that.
My own garden is surrounded by a wire mesh fence of four inch squares, called Sheepmesh , interwoven with a bright orange sisal thread, atop the walls on insulated supports. An electric current is fed in through a cable at one end, and a 12v pulse can be felt every second if you take hold of the fence anywhere along its length. On a dry day it is only just enough to make your arm muscle twitch, but if it is wet then that pulse can be felt like a belt from Mike Tyson, enough to make you drop it PDQ and vow never to pick it up again. Cats can sense electricity, but will touch the fence once, or maybe even twice, before they connect the electricity smell with the clout they receive. Then they keep clear of it.
I have two Siamese and they treat the fence with care! My neighbours cats (seven of them) have all hit the fence once or twice, but do not do so now. My garden - when I bought the house - was like a Cats Picadilly Circus. Nowadays it is like the inside of Battersea Dogs Home - No Cats - apart from the flower beds around the house up to the fish pond. Beyond that the only things that move is me and my pigeons!! In addiction to the electric fence to keep the cats out, I also have a ultrasound generator in the loft, situated above and in between the two section doors, pointing downwards, which in effect presents a wall of screaming sound that cats and other animals - but not pigeons - can hear. No cat, dog, fox, stoat or weasel, squirrel, rat or mouse, will approach the loft, and the birds seem to understand that they are safe.
The generator was made by Dazer of London LTD, and is their Mark II machine. It is most effective. I originally contacted Dazer because I had read in the press of their dog control hand generator, so I bought one. It worked a treat on my cats, and when I told the managing director, Richard Wylie, of its effects, he advised me that the loft model was to be produced and, in fact, donated the model to me that I now use in the loft.
I have another, similar, sound generator in my stock loft made and donated to me by Electron Electronics of Kempston, Bed, - which effectively keeps the section free of mice, which used to be a problem, and also ensures that no cats jump up at the glass window and mesh screens. Both these units are extremely effective and I would not be without them. The increased safety and security they afford is well worth the cost in any loft, particularly if one is affected by cats or other animals which can ruin an entire seasons sport with only one visit!
A pigeon that is happy and feeling secure at home, is a pigeon that will try that little bit harder to get back to it, but can you expect the same effort from a bird that fears its home environment?
That same fear can be generated in the birds by the fancier himself, if he is the sort of man that causes his stock to flap around the pen like mad things the moment he enters it.
Think, be honest. Do your birds behave like that? If so then the fault is almost certainly you. Not nervous pigeons , not a wild strain but fear, of you the fancier. Why? Almost certainly because you move to swiftly within the loft, you scare the life out of the bird by pouncing on it, instead of a slow and gentle movement that conveys your intent without generating fear.
Willy Clerebaut, Ace Belgian fancier, who has won no less than twelve 1sts in National races against competition running up to 47,000 birds once told me that he never passes a single bird without he speak to it, or nods his head and makes a soft noise of acknowledgement to it, and whenever he handles a bird, from squeakerhood onwards, he always replaces it on the spot he took it up from - unless it is destined for the basket of course. I try to do the same.
My birds fly to my shoulders the moment I enter the loft, they sit on my hat, shoulders and arms, on the scraper when Im cleaning out, and never stop telling me about their goings-on. My friends marvel at their behaviour and ask how I get them like this. The answer is contained in the above paragraph, and also in the fact that every day, before I leave my loft, I will always give my birds a little pinch of mixed seed, hemp, linseed, black rape, and either Hormoform or Golden Boost mixed in with it.
To my mind this daily treat is very important, not least for its feeding value, but mainly to overcome the pigeons instinctive fear of man, building confidence and affection in them.
Now bearing in mind that all this preamble is part and parcel of the preparation of the birds for widowhood racing, let us get back to the nestbox where the birds are down to eggs by about the 22/23rd January, and about to rear their first nest.
I should make a point here of mentioning that you should try to ensure as far as you possibly can, that the hens chosen as mates for the widowers are ardent, so much so that they will almost fling themselves at their cocks, fussing and cooing, whenever they are united. Their suitability as breeders is of no importance at all - at this stage - what is vitally necessary is that they make a fuss of their mates. The hen that hardly stirs an eyelid when the cock is presented to her might be fine for rearing YBs but she is a dead loss far as being widowers mate is concerned!
Be sure to fit an electric lighting time switch that will switch the lights on early (about 0500 a.m.) and off at 0900 a.m; then on again at 3.30 p.m. and off at about 8 p.m. by dimming out so that the birds settle down on their nests and babes to keep them warm for the night. This allows the squeakers to be fed both early and late, and ensures fat, well grown youngsters early in the year, without setbacks and the consequent frets and checks in growth they cause.
When those first YBs are about 14 days old, the cock will start looking at his hen and chasing her to eggs again, and usually be down on the second round of eggs by the time those babes are about 18 days old. At this time you remove both the hens and the eggs, and leave the YB in the nest with the cock. If you can ensure a hen squeaker, so much the better, for the cock will become very fond of the baby, all that is left to him of his first love affair of the year.
The cock will continue to rear his baby, despite the loss of his hen, and becomes very possessive of his box during this period. I personally leave the babe with him until it is around 28 days old, or when the precocious ones fly down to the floor, then remove all the babies together.
The nestbowl is cleaned and returned to the nest section, but turned upside down.
For a day or so it is quite possible that the cocks will sulk, or mope, but after a couple of days, and a bath, they begin to recover their spirits and start swaggering about again. Exercise will have been continued every day, both morning and evening, but at no time are you to allow any other birds out during this period.
Any natural racers, hens or YBs should be kept well away and exercised on their own when the widowers are inside the loft. The widowers should be shut out of the loft during their exercise period, but not flagged. They will very soon begin to chase each other, flying first in a bunch, then in twos and threes, then on their own, off and up, down and around, striking up at the slightest excuse as they become fitter.
By the time this process is reached, some seven to ten days after the YB has been removed, the widower is started on his training. Firstly, before you basket him for a 10 mile toss you turn his nestbowl the right way up. Be sure that the cock sees it, but dont let him in to that half of the nestbox.
After he goes into the basket, and when he is out of the loft, his hen is returned to his nestbox and shut in.
If you can arrange for someone else to toss the birds, so much the better.
The widower returns and traps, and Lo and behold, he finds his hen in the nestbox, sweeping and calling to him. Note the time it took him to fly those 10 miles.
Now, after two minutes at most of his swaggering at her through the bars, put him back into the basket and take him to that 10 mile toss again, and watch the smoke as he takes off!
This time when he traps in, allow him in with his hen, and shut him in with her, dont allow them room to mate up or fly out of the box. Within a few minutes he will be chest down in the nestbowl and bawling his head off. Permit him two minutes, no more, then remove the hen (from the front of the nestbox) - and at the same time turn the nestbowl upside down again. Many a fancier believes that the cock begins to connect the nestbowls position with the hens disappearance, and suggest that the bird thinks the hen is underneath it! I wouldnt argue this point.
Close the loft, feed, and let the cocks settle down.
Repeat the next day as before, but increase the distance to 25 miles. Dont permit the birds to be together this time, just seeing and touching through the wires. Remove the hen after a couple or so minutes. repeat the process every other day for a week, and on a couple of occasions allow the cock in with the hen for a couple of minutes only, by which time you will be putting the crosses on the entry form for your pool bird, for - if you paired in mid-January, laid + 24th January, hatched at 18/19 days later (12th Feb), weaned the YB at 28 days, (12th March) started training after another week, and take a week to ten days over this, you should be very close to 1st April and those very early Open races when a seasons corn can be won with one fit and well motivated widower belting home for his nookie!
Watch the weather though, for one of these ghastly cold wet race days can ruin all the well planned start to the season.
If the basketing for that first race is on a Friday, dose the drinker on the Monday and Wednesday with Super Tune ( Old Hands Vitamin C compound) a level teaspoon to a 3 1/2 pint drinker, and on Thursday and Friday, add two soupspoons of Cytacon B12 liquid to the drinker, with one teaspoon of Collivet (Both Norvet and Harkers market this product under their in-house brand names, or you can purchase it from your vet).
When the birds return on race day, feed with a light mixture, damped with pure lemon juice (you can buy it in the Supermarket) and dusted with Natural Brewers Yeast, and add a crushed clove of garlic to the drinking water, and a level teaspoon of Vitamin C, then give each cock one Magnesium tablet. This will aid a speedy recovery from the effort, and help prevent any infection gained in the basket from taking hold.
When the cock returns on race day, permit him to join his hen in the nestbox for five to ten minutes, and feed and water him in the nestbox. Remove the hen after ten minutes at most on these early races.
Many fanciers will feed a depurative or breakdown feeding mixture the day or so after a race, I dont, and I continue feeding the full strength mixture all year round. What sense is there knocking a bird off form, only to try to build him up again?
If the birds have had a hard race, slightly dampen their food with Ground nut oil for the next two days (you can buy this at the Supermarket too). It enriches the feed immensely, but too much is worse than too little.
There is another aspect of widowhood racing that is easily applied, and is the reason I mentioned having entry and exit on both sides of every nestbox section in the loft. This trick is one I call Property Widowhood for want of a better name, and utilises the pigeons acquisitive desire to own every little piece of useful nesting area within its sight.
Basically what is required is a spare section between two widowers nestboxes. It must be equipped with both a wire and solid door on both sides, the wire wall to have a means of entry i.e. a sliding door, and the solid wall to be hinged to permit it to be closed back against the rear wall, or opened to form a barrier.
When the solid door is hinged back against the rear wall, the widower on that side of the box can see in, but can not enter if the wire door is closed. If that nestbox has a bowl in it, it becomes doubly attractive, for it takes the place in your widowers fertile brain of a little bijou shack where he can have a little bit of spare or, in short, another place to make love with some desirable female.
If you will examine the diagram page you will form some idea of the situation. If the left side is closed off you have a nestbox for Cock A. If the right side is closed off you have a nestbox for Cock B. If both solid doors are open, you have a potential dynamite situation, where both cocks can see into the box - and believe me they will want it as they have wanted nothing in their lives, simply because it is there. Place a hen in it and they will fly through soup to get home in record time.
Cock A can see into the box and he mentally lays claim to it. Leave him for a day or so and watch him work himself up to fighting mood over that piece of property. The following day open the wire door hatch and allow him to enter that box, and sure enough, hell walk right in and bellow to the world that this is his.
Help him along a little, give him a few seeds in there, make him feel at home for a couple of days.
Then the day of basketting, open the other side solid door, and watch his reactions when he finds Cock B staring in at him, inflating his crop, and clearing his throat ready to start bellowing What the hell are you doing in my box - because as soon as he sees it, B will want the box as he never wanted anything! Within seconds there will be a fracas, and this is where you step in and remove Cock A to the basket. Depend on it, he will come home as if a blowtorch were fastened to his rear.
When A is away at racepoint, you permit Cock B to enter the nestbox through his side door, and allow him to make himself at home. You can envisage the situation cant you? both cocks will want that box with all their hearts, and both will break records to get back to it. You can alternate the solid doors, open or closed, and permit entry from either side, depending on which cock is in the best form for racing to your considerable advantage for quite a few races.
The same trick can be worked with hens, though they are not usually quite so territory conscious as cocks, but if they are spare - i.e. unpaired hens, it can be worked a treat. I have seen an entire widowhood section with every cock (12 0f them) in it, all being motivated on this same system for three weeks in a row, and then being returned to their hens, freshened, revitalised, and ready once more for the fresh efforts having overcome that mid-season staleness that sometimes affects the best regulated lofts. Keep it in mind, it is a useful tactic.
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