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This Years Feeding System For The World Cup

14 Day Program: Goal to break the bird down by feeding wheat but still be able to fly 30 minutes and build back up a couple days before fly and rest. Want a surge of energy culminating in release on competition day.

Days 1 – 11:

• Release for training flights everyday
• Provide 1 tablespoon wheat per bird; reduce/increase by 1 tablespoon each day until flying 30 minutes
• Water with Pro-Bios and Vitamins
  

Day 7 - 8:

• Add Wazine or Piperazine Wormer with Water, Pro-Bios and Vitamins. Remove it after 30 minutes
  

Day 12:

• Do not release for training flight
• Feed pigeon mix for 3 minutes and remove tray
• Water with Pro-Bios and Vitamins. Remove it after 30 minutes
  

Day 13:

• Do not release for training flight
• Do not feed anything all day
• Water with Pro-Bios and Vitamins. Remove it after 30 minutes
  

Day 14:

• Competition Day (do not provide feed OR water before release)
• Secret Weapon (if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret)

My World Cup fly time is May 6 at 3PM and 4:30PM. I am not particularly happy with these times. I am hopeful that maybe one of my two teams will do well despite the afternoon winds and gusts and possible bop. These are certainly not optimal conditions for THE premier competition fly. I usually like to fly my teams in the morning before 10AM. But it IS important to support the WC.

Recently it has been windy and cold. Birds had been on an all wheat diet for WC training. I can see where the mixed grain diet I normally use on the kit birds would be better for them in the colder weather, so I have put them back on mixed grain. (for now) I want to keep my team around to fly another day rather than only focus on WC preparation and risk losing a team or two.

Virtually 99% of the birds I am flying are 2006 birds. A couple are older hens that do not lay eggs any longer. I have several good birds from this group that deserve a shot in the breeding pen and it brings no joy to risk them in order to compete in the WC… 

As for training, not really getting a chance to fly them as much as I would like, been too windy. I put them back on mixed grain and let them feast on it, kept in for 2 days and the third day let both kits out. They were excited to be out and feeling better with the mixed grain.

Watched lots of action, good deep rolling and birds flew for over 30 minutes. Rolling quality was good and lots of scorable turns. Kitting was good.

Upon release, I had a red check roll down and hit the loft roof with a loud bang. Got right back up and flew with the kit, did not see any problems with it afterwards.

The recent severe change in weather from 60 degrees to dropping into the low 30’s in 1 day does influence kit well-being and behavior. Getting the feed right when dealing with these kinds of conditions will be a little challenge I am sure.

Made a big mistake and almost paid a heavy price. Let the A-Team out when the wind was blowing strong. I thought the winds were calming down and would have time for maybe one team today. Joni said not to let them out it was too windy. She said she watches some trees over by the pond, and if they are blowing it’s too windy to fly rollers.

So, what did I do? I let the A-Team out and the moment the last bird is out and I walk out from around the kit box, I can feel the wind become REALLY strong. I am instantly regretting letting them out and so immediately grab the feed can. By then they are at least half a mile downwind and getting further away!

I start waving my florescent green kit flag in the hopes that maybe they will see me waving it frantically and want to head toward it. Well, I don’t know if it worked, but after being totally gone over half a mile away behind the trees and with the winds just getting stronger, they come up fighting the wind and heading back toward normal air space.

By now I grabbed the feed can and am shaking it for all I’m worth and whistling to get them to come in. Now these birds are about as light from wheat feeding as they have ever been, I really thought they were goners.

The good thing is I keep good control over my birds with the feed can and once they heard me calling to come eat, they did everything they could to come down. It took probably 5 minutes to be able to finally get to the point of landing on the kit box!

Every bird was there except that red grizzle. I thought maybe some might roll down since they flew less than 10 minutes and the strong winds kept them hovering over the kit box for about 20 seconds before they could work it down to the kit box. Not one even rolled.

They landed and were in the kit box ready to eat within 15 minutes of letting them out. The red grizzle showed up about 20 minutes later. I put him away to feed him up.

I did a huge blunder today but feel due to good training habits, I was able to cover my mistake by being able to get the birds to trap way early than they normally do. Next time I’m listening to Joni.

Today was an overcast day and the birds flew much lower than normal. Not much wind to speak of so birds were flying at a perfect speed to do a lot of breaks. Saw many ¼ turns and a couple ½ turns. Birds were rolling very deep today. Observed good velocity and style some were going well over 40 foot and pulling out perfectly and going quickly back to the kit.

I got the sense that a couple birds were surprised by their depth they were rolling! LOL One of them, a red grizzle cross of a Ruby Roller and a jaconette was VERY deep and would wander some before going back to the kit.

This is the red grizzles 2^nd year flying and he did not do that last year. I thought he might be a trigger bird as he flew with the A-Team last year and was one of those individual birds you like to watch and as he went, so went the kit. Unless he gets this wandering resolved fairly quickly, I will pull him and suffer the consequences of pulling a trigger bird.

I will examine him later and see if he has any health problems or if he is just thrown off by the change in diet and if because he is wearing himself out die to his working so hard. I will put on some mixed grains for a couple days and see if that doesn’t help him out.

No one bounced or even rolled on landing. I saw a lot of tired birds as they worked hard the entire 30 minutes they were up. Birds trapped within 30 seconds.

I will be moving a few B-Team birds to the A-Team as they are doing really well and deserve to be there. I am a little concerned that I might have some too deep, but if they can make it back to the kit without a lot of trouble then it will be okay with me.

Birds are getting really light! Feeding 1 teaspoon wheat per bird, some eat faster than others so I will be watching for this. Could be problem with the red grizzle??

I am training 2 teams for the World Cup Fly. They both are showing lots of action and about half started busting deep today after a 2 day layoff due to winds.

I have them on 1 tablespoon of wheat per day for last 2 weeks. Like I thought, the cocks and hens are not showing as much interest in one another and trap right in upon landing.

Right now I am just trying to get as much “airtime” with the 2 teams and get them back to top flying and performing conditioning. I have had to pull 2 birds as they were losing too much weight and feed them up a bit.

Nothing is bouncing (knock on wood) and all birds are showing good control on landing. They are kitting well and slingshot back to kit after a deep roll. It is cool the way they seem to circle back around to get a bird that has went deep.

I added a red grizzle cock from last years team which is a Ruby and Jaconette cross, this bird is really deep and holds it together all the way through, I am thinking he triggers (challenges) the others to roll deeper.

This is getting really fun again. Getting up early, grabbing some coffee and out the door I am.