Why I do not like Individual breeding pens

Рет қаралды 2,423

Күн бұрын

In the video Frank McLaughlin will tell his reasons he no longer uses individual breeding pens for pigeons raised to race in One Loft Racers or his in team. For more information and many articles written by Frank see mclaughlinloft...

Пікірлер: 26

@fishinthriftin Жыл бұрын

Great videos! I'm thinking about starting pigeon racing in 2023... so all your videos are so helpful! Thanks and keep 'em coming!

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

Hope you join the sport. You will love it. This sport is not difficult if you keep to the basics and give great care to your pigeons. Healthy birds, trained moderating, with excellent body weight fly to the top.

@alejandrocerdenia1235 Жыл бұрын

Secretariat was a result of breeding selected by the Owner. The sire was a sprinter and the mare was a long distance racer. These animals were not free ranged, the pair was selected by the owner based on genetics and race records.

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

Great point but there are a million horses bred and selected by pedigree and genetics and only a small percentage are any good. Same with the pigeons. We can always keep trying. All my pigeons have super bloodlines so most matings have the great chance of success.

@win6587 Жыл бұрын

Thank you watching from Philippines

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

Very cool being so far from me.

@dxprofit Жыл бұрын

We like the. Keep em coming.;-) Thank you.

@Pigeonmaniacom Жыл бұрын

Totally agree. I find those individual pens so sad. The only problem with community breeding is that sometimes you can't be sure about the father of some youngsters. You can probably lock them on the nest boxes when a special female is fertile and they mate but that is very time consuming. Another thing with community breeding is that you must watch closely to help the female with access to food, grit calcium and water when some males drive to the nest in a very crazy way. In this community setup, I'd be curious to know your procedure when changing the couples from the previous year. Even with pre-mating some females fight strongly to get back to their old nest box from the previous year and it is annoying you have to spend many days in the loft to release them from the nest boxes pair by pair. Some of my females do that even after 6-7 days (although they mate with the new male in the new nest box) and that is close to eggs appearing = risk to break some eggs and ruing the first round of the year. For me it is one of the worst parts of the year with pigeons.😐

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

All great points you made. I am lucky to have small breeding sections where I can swap pigeons easily or move problem cocks or hens to new sections. Usually after a week or so things settle down. You are doing great!

@AdamArcherPigeons Жыл бұрын

You can NEVER be sure of the parentage of a pigeon not bred in a closed pen. Infidelity is the norm in open breeding setups.

@kerbyjackson88 Жыл бұрын

I'm an advocate of individual breeding pens for the purpose of breeding control and have 50+ individual pens. That being said, I agree with you. Individual breeding pens control parentage (which is always questionable in an open loft), but ... the level of reproduction is not there. Pairs housed in this manner often start the breeding season well, but tend to slow down as the season wears on and are soon outproduced by pairs in the open loft. I have seen this time and time again over the course of 40+ years. I believe that for one, it's not natural to them, and for two, that the lack of exercise soon adversely impacts the hens and sometimes even the sex drives of the cocks. I think in order to do it properly, each pair would actually need a decent sized loft compartment to themselves so they are insured enough exercise to be physically active. Rather similarly, when penned laying hens stop laying, one of the most sure fire ways to get them back to laying fast is to simply open the pen door and allow them some liberty to act like chickens again.

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

Hi Kirby, Great points. Exercise is very important both physically and psychologically for the pigeons. I use my individual pens at the end of the season for special matings but this is the end not the beginning. Pigeons are flock creatures and enjoy the stimulation of the flock environment. My birds are lucky to have flight pens to enjoy the weather and sun. Sunshine is also so important for health and vitality where most individuals do not have the sun.

@kerbyjackson88 Жыл бұрын

@McLaughlin Lofts I think sunlight is a big factor. When I first set my individual pens up, I put transparent fiberglass panels over each row of pens. That worked well until those panel tops grew dingy and stained. After that, production began to slowly drop off. Some pens covered by solid covers (roofing paper) showed an even more dramatic slow down. It's also my opinion that the lack of sexual competition/stimulation from other pairs tends to result in the cocks showing less interest in the hens as time goes on. Production goes down. I think your method of doing it late in the season or alternatively, early in the season, is probably a better situation than trying to carry them for 5 or 6 rounds over as many months.

@Welshfeather Жыл бұрын

Hi frank, what strains do you keep, and do you export young birds ? What is your preferred distance to race. Thanks 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

You can find my pigeons here. mclaughlinlofts.com/ I do enjoy racing all distances but my favorite is from 300 to 600 miles. I feel you can really determine the best pigeons at those distances.

@brucecummings3238 Жыл бұрын

I like the way you think so tell me how to train them to go in and out of there hole or nest box

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

My cocks have a nest box and they lure their perfect hen in with them.

@robertlingo7714 Жыл бұрын

Thanks l agree, l have two 4.5' × 8' × 7' tall individual breeding lofts in my basement with a pair in each on eggs 🥚 at the moment should be hatching around Christmas. Anyway the birds love it! They can take a bath fly up and down gathering pine needles for nesting etc. They twirl around for exercise though out the day and get to be pigeons. So the more room they have the better. Exercise is very important for all God's creatures and a bath once week rather you think you need it or not is a good thing too... lol... FLY STRAIGHT LOFTS in north Idaho.

@StratosLoft Жыл бұрын

Is all about what you have in the breeding large loft I have many different strains i don’t like to mix them up I see hens mating with different cocks so that will not work for me I have large individual breeding loft for high quality birds and I put my racers for one round breeding but what pain it is , cock will fight for nest boxes with other birds that already lay eggs in the nest breaking the eggs look my last two videos you see . But if it works for that is what counts.

@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons Жыл бұрын

There are many systems that work. If the cocks are settled into the section and nest ahead of the hens, things go fairly smooth.

@StratosLoft Жыл бұрын

@@FrankMcLaughlinPigeons I had them separated the cock was in the loft with the breeding boxes ahead of the hens by two months . I think is the inexperienced of the young cocks that always are confuse . I never had any problems with individual large cages away from all the nonsense in the loft with 40+ birds