Pigeon Racing In August

Pigeon Racing In August

During the month of August a number of racing fanciers give more attention to their young birds. This stage is very crucial yet enjoyable. On the other hand, we should never forget that breeders and old bird racers should get their ample share of attention and time as well. After the racing season, some fanciers allow their old birds racers to lay and raise their young one time to replenish natural hormones on a more natural state which also allows pigeons to setting the bird’s chemistry to the molt. A lot of newbies in this field would wonder why their breeders are very distant along in the molt compared to their racers durinf this month. The reason is that racing during the month of August causes a slowing og the molt since it disrupts the natural hormone cycle.

Basically, breeders experience a cycle which reflects what can be seen in the natural environement.  Progress only happens with their molt everytime they lay and raise their young. The pigeons’ body cycle starts with the body molt during the shredding of the fifth primary flight as well as the breeders at the same time shed one primary flight everytime they lay their young. A great example that if a pair of pigeons raise four clutches at the last part of June, once August kicks in, they should be in the advanced stages of the molt.

Breeders and old bird racers should be separated so that molting should happen. This practice relieves the old birds from stress as brought by rearing the young as they get to use all of their strength to build new feathers. There are lots of products that can assist in the shedding of old down feathers of pigeons as well as in supplementing the body with the required vitamins and minerals for a good molt. It is beneficial for birds to use products such as Murium from Comed, Biochol from Oroparma, and Naturaline from the Natural Company. Colombine Molting Seeds is another super product.

We would highly recommend fanciers to allow their race team to experience raising at least one round of young after the racing season. This is to help jump-start the molt while slightly decreasing in daily minutes the amount of sunlight to start loosening of feathers for molting. It is only normal to see raced birds to lose two flights at the same time. It is a natural process of catching up in he molting cycle so it is very essential that proper supplements and nutrition should be used during this period.

Youngsters born into race teams can have many options—they can be held as late hatches and donated to Help-A-Beginner programs, to the club to help new flyers, or to many fall auctions to help raise money for clubs. It is a great idea to purchase these late-hatch babies from a really successful fancier. Fanciers during this time of the year usually have more than enough birds so he might be willing to sell some of these late hatches at very reasonable prices. It is a great move if you take a set of young from his top two or three racers. It is very possible that the se super successful racers would be in his breeding loft in a year or two and that the fancier would be selling these babies at a much higher price.

Fanciers should be updated with this serious plague that has affected birds in the States for a number of years. This young bird disease has killed numerous babies which have affected the youngest babies. This young baby disease has the symptoms of a virus and birds affected by this are unreceptive to any kind of treatment.

Europe is experiencing great young bird losses. Many young birds are being lost on training tosses and die in their lofts at alarming rates. United States has been experiencing the same phenomenon for the past five to six years. Europeans are more advanced with their knowledge about these problems as they do more research on these fields than Americans. The European veterinary community has made a consensus that it is the disease is a metamorphosis of Paramyxovirus or it is probably Cercle Virus, or it is Adeno Virus with a E.coli secondary infection. It called Adeno-Coli.

Pigeons face health problems. Viruses attack pigeons and these are more difficult to deal with than bacteria because they can undergo rapid metamorphosis and they change their genetic make-up much faster than bacteria. Viruses are difficult to deal with and impossible for long term treatment with medications. The best solution is to have these pigeons vaccinated. However, it is very expensive to develop these vaccines.

There are various developments that can help in the health management of these pigeons. One of these is through oral vaccine which is to be administered five days every month on the feed. This is called “ADCO” (Adeno-Coli) which is made of E.coli antigens. It is neither a drug nor a bacterial agent. Its mechanism works by acting live a sieve in the blood stream of the birds. It eliminates the E. coli bacteria and identifies the Adeno Virus Carriers. Statistics shows that one out of every forty pigeons may be casualties from the treatment. The carriers are the ones that die; thus, it is crucial that the loft should have a continuous culling of these birds that would possibly re-infect the entire flock. The body of a pigeon undergoes complete blood replacement within its system for every four to six weeks. It is advised that this oral vaccine be administered in six-week intervals. Not all fanciers would be amenable to this plan, but the more serious ones should include this in their plan as the disease carriers will be constantly eliminated.

Reports show that staph infections in Australia have shown signs of strong antibiotic resistance. This is not great since antibiotics that these staph infections show resistance are the best, latest, and greatest that are available. This means a great deal to the medical world of health management of pigeons.

It is important that fanciers should be conscious of culling pigeons because of the resistance to disease. Lofts should place babies who are not shipped to futurities or are not placed in the racing lofts in large aviary lofts and be given with vitamins and supplements. However, they should not be any medication. These birds should be vaccinated only after four to five months as the weak ones eventually die. Those that are left are the ones that have a strong immune system.

Jean-Louis Jorrisen highly recommends NOT vaccinating young birds until they are at least three to four years. The logic behind is that these birds should develop their immune system without stressing them too early in life. There are lots of cases when fanciers vaccine their birds that these ones easily get sick and die.

Jorrisen reported that birds that were vaccined a little bit longer seem to have better results. Birds should stay as long as it is possible to be in a natural environment with few supplements but no medication. Birds that are able to survive when vaccinated have more highly developed immune systems and they can handle the pressure.

Medications should be administered only for the required duration to cure the pigeons. Health Guard and Digestale or Pro-Diges probiotics will allow these birds to maintain their high levels of health for the rest of the year. It will be a disaster if fanciers use mild antibiotics like Sulmet or Terramycin.

Fanciers should be well-educated not only on how to race the birds, but as well as on how to medicate them and choose the best breeders for their capacity to resist disease.