Sports pigeons are becoming more and more popular. The days when the winged were used as proxies to deliver letters are long gone. Sports pigeons are often white, namely white birds are associated with carrier pigeons, but now such birds have been re-qualified as top-class athletes.
Sport pigeons
The content and training for "recruits" in the pigeon sport is strikingly different from the usual. Pigeon sport takes time and effort. And not every dove will become a great athlete, and those who are close to this must be constantly kept in shape. To raise a real champion, you need to start by choosing the right chick, creating all the necessary conditions for him, regular training. You will have to put a lot of perseverance and labor into your pet before plunging into the joy of victory.
Before you buy a sports breed, you should study a lot of information about sports pigeons and read reviews. Kennels of sports pigeon breeds are best chosen according to recommendations or based on reviews. A qualified nursery will have all the necessary documents, and on the site can be represented breeds of pigeons and their photos for review. Champions among birds can be represented on the honor board, such individuals are valued by breeders more than others.
Sports pigeon nurseries and clubs
Sports pigeons in a photo or video always look very beautiful. Many collectors have such champions. Sports pigeons in the competition are able to bring glory, honor, win many medals and diplomas. In Russia, the existence of sports pigeon breeding, and many poultry farmers try to give birds to sports pigeon distances. Nurseries are located all over the world, but most of all they value pigeon breeding and all races of pigeons in the Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, Belgium, Holland. The Czechs speak especially fondly of these birds. In their homeland, the Czechs have opened many clubs for sports pigeons.
Sports pigeons from Holland are as popular today as Czech ones. In Holland there are many breeding plants that breed this breed of birds. Championship pigeons, competitions and nurseries can also be held in Romania, Belgium, Poland and in the center of Lviv. Belgian medium pigeons have repeatedly become flying champions. Belgian individuals are the most recognizable and popular among all breeds. In Russia there are many clubs where they can even arrange championships of sports pigeons. Medium tape Volga pigeons are especially popular with Russian breeders.
Preparing a new bird house
When deciding to breed sports pigeons, it is first of all important to take care of where they will live. The basic requirements for housing pets-athletes are no different from the requests of decorative and flying individuals. The conditions are quite simple: pigeons should live in a house made of natural materials, the room should be warm, dry and light. The house may be small in shape, some farmers keep pigeons in their attics, but it is best to build an entire enclosure for the birds, where they can move freely and go outside.
Particular attention should be paid to the cleanliness of the house. The first rule of a successful breeder is a clean dovecote. Keeping a bird house clean is not difficult at all. Cleaning will be required daily, but this process will not take much time, since birds of this breed do not sit locked up, but periodically fly. They would rather spend time in the fresh air, and will return to the house for feeding and overnight. It is necessary to get rid of bird droppings every time after its formation. You should also replace the old water in drinking bowls with fresh and be sure to monitor the cleanliness of the feeders.
Twice a month must be carried out
- boiling drinkers and feeders in a soda solution;
- clarification by boiling bath bath;
- bedding replacement.
In warm seasons, bathing tubs are installed in the dovecote. Doves gladly bathe in them, cleansing their plumage not only from pollution, but also from parasites, and in the summer in especially strong heat they also cool. The water in the pool must be changed very often, since the bird not only uses it for its intended purpose, but also drinks from there.
House for young animals
Sports pigeon breeding pays special attention to the maintenance of champions. Features of cleanliness control in a children's pigeon room are very important. It is necessary to periodically change the litter in order to protect young growth from parasites. If you breed white pigeons and such individuals will participate in competitions, then the room for the birds should be perfect cleanliness, since white and smooth feathers get dirty more than others in unsanitary conditions. It is necessary to sprinkle the litter with wood ash, tobacco leaf, wormwood, this measure helps to protect against parasites.
If the shell is dirty, then it should be cleaned, because otherwise it does not pass all the necessary nutrients for the chick. You should also pay attention to the bird's nest, because it must be kept clean. For the nest, materials such as small twigs, straw, feathers, burlap will fit. At the bottom of the nests you need to lay out the litter. This will prevent the bending of the fingers in young animals.
Thoroughbred athletes
Among the great number of breeds, only a dozen stand out, of which champions are raised. Why so few? Endurance and the ability to develop high speeds are possessed only by birds that have a certain set of physical characteristics. Among the sports breeds, there are four main, most common and demanded:
- Guests from foggy Albion - English quarry. Features: straight posture, wide chest, long neck and beak, wide leathery growths around the eyes and on the beak.
- The Belgians adopted their external features from their wild counterpart: a wide chest, a powerful torso, a small rounded head, a proportional body, a classic color. Distinctive features by which this breed is well defined are dark eyes against the background of pale eyelids, short plumage, narrow tail and short paws.
- Russian carrier pigeons are distinguished not only by the highest indicators of endurance, but also by their appearance. They are strikingly distinguished by their appearance among the rest of the breeds: a pointed beak, lack of plumage on the legs, red-orange eyes in a hoop of white stroke.
- The German breed is the result of crossing the Belgian and English quarries. The result is a small breed with long legs and neck, but also a short beak and tail. Distinctive characteristics are high speed combined with excellent endurance.
Features of the maintenance and nutrition of sports pigeons
Pigeons sports should have normal development, therefore, healthy nutrition is the key to their success in competitions. Reinforced loads are assigned to each individual participating in the championship, and therefore the nutrition will be different from that inherent for decorative representatives of the genus. Also, the requirements for health indicators are slightly higher. The main task of the breeder is to provide pets with everything necessary to maintain basic indicators at the highest level.
The future champion’s ration should be based on grain and beans. In this case, it is better to give preference to corn, red millet, hemp seeds, oatmeal, wheat waste. From legumes, farmers feed yellow peas and lentils.
Note that pigeons sometimes get intestinal upset from green peas.
You can add bread, sunflower seeds, rice, barley, boiled potatoes, rape, cabbage leaves, grass, lettuce, sorrel to the main diet. But this nutrition should in no case be independent. These are just additives to the grain mixture. Pigeons are fed 2 times a day. This diet is enough. The availability of clean drinking water must be constant. Ideally, it is necessary to equip a running water system, especially if the pigeon house contains a large number of individuals and the water quickly becomes polluted.
Don't forget about vitamin supplements. They are used during feeding not only in the winter period, when it is time for vitamin deficiency, but also during the training process. Vitamin supplements are best purchased ready-made. It is imperative that they are for special purposes: for sports breeds. They are intended both for individual feeding and in the form of admixtures to feed. The choice is determined by the number of birds in the house rather than other characteristics.
Sports pigeons by Anatoly Weber. Minsk 2017.
Sports pigeons of Leonid Dobrovolsky. Minsk 2017.
Prevention of diseases of pigeons
It is impossible to tell everything about the wonderful sports pigeons without mentioning diseases and methods of dealing with them. The farmers do not hide any secrets; the basis for the prevention of diseases and the appearance of parasites is cleanliness in the premises where the bird is kept. If you maintain an adequate level of hygiene, monitoring the cleanliness of the floor, nests, water and feeders, then problems can definitely be avoided. In addition to these preventive measures, it is necessary to conduct sanitary days with the use of disinfectants and sanitation of all surfaces. Every day you need to watch the birds: how they behave and look - this is the main indicator of their health.
The pigeon should have a good appetite, with pleasure flying to feed. If the bird loses its head, closed its eyes, pulled its neck into its head, lowered its wings, then it is possible that it is sick and should be immediately isolated and treated. The pigeon paws on the floor from the formed lumps of litter on the claws, which means that the bird is weakened and unhealthy. Each individual showing signs of malaise should be isolated from others and examined. It is best to keep her in quarantine until she recovers completely.
Choosing a future champion
With self-rearing chicks, culling begins with the appearance of eggs. So, any defects in the size, shape of the egg are the reason for its rejection. From 3 to 6 days, the presence of a blood stain or streak in the egg indicates the death of the embryo. A newly hatched chick should not have a large yolk sac, bad fluff, or bloody shells. Starting from the third week of life, the chicks are assessed for the respiratory opening, pupils, and if they are large, the pet must be discarded.
If the goal is to buy a grown-up chick, then this should be done in a nursery, at an exhibition or on the market. I immediately want to note that a passport is issued in the hands of the nursery, guaranteeing breeding selection and good pigeon genetics. His parents are guaranteed healthy and have good physical performance. But in the poultry market, you can also find a future champion, you just need to be more careful about the selection of birds. It is not in vain that many experts pay special attention to the eyes of a bird. By the brightness and saturation of their color, you can determine the age, state of health, the duration of being locked up, readiness for the reproductive period.
Eyes should be bright, shiny, wide open. Any healthy bird has dense plumage, healthy shiny eyes, and good appetite. The specimen is active and does not have a lot of fun sitting on the sidelines. The physique is developed, muscular. Broad, strong chest and wings. Increased sense of homing (craving to return home) and dim color of the city pigeon. All this is the guarantee of the ability to survive on long flights and achieve high sports performance.
The training process
Training sports pigeons requires a human investment of time and endless patience. In order for sports pigeons to show good results in competitions, you need to know all the nuances of how to go through competitions and distances. The basis of any training process is the taming of birds. First you need to follow some rules: it is better to come to the birds in the same clothes; show patience, love and warmth that birds feel intuitively; come closer gradually (to begin to pour food into the feeders, then around yourself and, finally, in the arm). When the habituation period is over and a relationship of trust and some kind of attachment has been established between the bird and the person, training can begin.
Avoid the following actions
- Take a dove 2 days before or after laying an egg.
- Wean both parents from small pigeons 3-5 days old.
- Release paired birds (males and females are trained separately from each other).
- Give heavy feed before a long flight.
- Release birds in rainy or foggy weather.
You need to consider
- For training, it is preferable to choose the morning hours.
- Flight distances should not be too tiring and long. The best choice is a short distance of 50 or 60 km.
- For transportation of birds, spacious and clean transportations are used. Do not allow the crowding of pigeons in the cages.
- Only birds of the same sex are placed in carriers.
- The start of training should fall in April, and the age of the chick should not be less than 4 months.
- Experienced birds and young animals are not allowed on joint flights.
- The initial flight distance should not exceed 5 km. It is a workout for both muscle mass and orienteering ability. Gradually, the distance increases: pigeons conquer medium and long distances.
- Between repeated flights, there must be sufficient time intervals for rest and recovery.
Raising a champion from a sports pigeon is difficult, but possible. Pets must be kept in shape at all times. Orienteering training is carried out in two stages, the first of which is to release the bird first in the aviary to get acquainted with the house and the weather conditions, and then, when the sports pigeons return from the race, they are released in different directions. All sporting races should undergo a similar training: this way the pigeon will study the surrounding area well and adapt.
At the second stage, pigeon breeding includes preparation. The bird is taken farther and farther away, which already becomes the very preparation for the competition. Upon returning, the pet should wait for nutritious and tasty food to restore the spent energy and as a reward for good work. Only after successful orienteering classes should you start endurance training. Competitions for the sports training of pigeons should be held only after the bird has been fully prepared.