HOMING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 58

HOMING NOTES.

m Br Mausta Mealt.

Training will coon be in full swing. The mistake is frequently made in taking it for - granted that the training commences only when the birds are packed in a liamper and sent several miles along the iine. In my opinion this part of the business may generally' be looked upon as the important •'finishing touches" of the training process prior to actual racing. Buf. with the careful and thorough fanciers, long before these spins down the line, training 1 proper has commenced. As soon us the worst of the winter weather is broker- up the business of training ought to commence. The regulation flying twice or thrice a day ought to be initiated. If light food has been used' during the winter, beans and partridge peas have to be introduced in the daily ration, and the proportion to other grains gradualy increased as the flying around home become more and more severe. In my opinion this is an much a portion of proper training as putting birds in a basket a-nd sanding them to a stationmaster — in fact, if a. fancier has a loft of well-trained two and three-year-old birds it is, in, my opinion, the most important part of theii training, and if thoroughly conditioned by this homo flying such birds for flock races need but one — or, at most, two— training tosses prior to being put in their first race; and many a good old stager need not be tossed at 1 know many fanciers find it difficult to get their birds to take these " home flics " with the well-sustained swing necessary to properly condition them, owing to their lofts being low down between houses. This being so, there is nothing for it but to jfivo their birds plenty of tosses on the road. These fanciers have- to subject their old stagers to 4he same treatment, not because they need teaching the road, but because pverv bird must be in "condition," and "condition" cannot be attained without exercise, no ajatter how well a fancier feeds, conccquently if the birds cannot be properly exercised " round home," exercise must be forced by sending them " down the road." Speaking from the point of view of fa-irly well-seasoned birds, I am sure many young fanciers make a mistake in_ valuing tho training tosses they give their birds, for thp distance they do, rather than the time the toss compels them to be on the wing, For seasoned birds the great business of training 13 to develop and harden the muscles, which during the period of moult *t*d winter laziness have become soft, like those of an idle man, and quite unaccustomed and incapable of long-sustained flying. This is best achieved by steady, e»ey flying from an hour to two hours' flying per day at home, or, failing this, a spin over the racing route occupying the same length of time, about three times a week, augmented with whatever flying can be done at homo. But this amount of flying should only be reached by graduated steps. For instance, the first fortnight half an hour's flying round home or ten-mile tosses would suffice; the second fortnight, an hour's flying or 20mile tosses; the third fortnight, two hours' flying or 40-mile tosses; after this any previously trained old bird ought to be ready for tho first race Thug the man who can compel his birds to take well-sustained home flies needs little tossing for old stagers, but he who is not so fortunate has to give them plerriTy of tosses up to a moderate distance to accomplish the same .end. In my opinion such regulated flying on a time basis is a far better plan than bundling the birde 80 to 100 miles down a road they already know and risking a bad-weather smash before the birds are thoroughly fit. Repeated tosses at the same place do not hurt the birds. On tha contrary, for fanciers who cannot exercise their birds thoroughly at homo it conditions them with the maximum of safety. What the young fancier particularly needs to remember with respect to old birds is that his work in training them is not that of teaching them the road, as is the case with young birds, but that of getting them into tip-top condition to do the work they have done previously. To reason that old birds need "teaching" the road is a contradiction of the wonderful memory with which the racing pigeon is gifted. The question of late-breas and other little-trained birds is a rather different question. Home flies and ea=y distances, however, hold good. The difficulty is largely che. weather to be contended with in the early part of the year. Home flics and easy tosses must be the principal work until a spell of fine weather gives tho opportunity to "teach" the little-trained birds the road over which they presently will "have to race. Such birds need to be taught the road up to within about 20 miles of the first race, for, unfortunately, the " instinct " so much enlarged upon by some writers is a very " lame leg " to rest upon Avhere anything like racing is concerned. For interval racing a fancier has to select four of his medium-sized birds, and ■with the home training and plenty of tosses along the line they will soon be very fit. if a cock. I have been most successful with cocks in interval racing. You require to understand in which condition he races best. Of course there are certain conditions generally to be avoided, and cortair conditions that generally give satisfactory results; but it is the individual disposition of the bird that a fancier must try and discover. (To be continued.)

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