In Europe, US and most part of Middle East too the races for both Tipplers and Tumblers are held for a kit of birds. The minimum kit size if 3 birds and the flight time is considered as the flight time of the bird which lands first. If a bird fly separately from its kit for more that 1 hour or 30 minutes in some clubs, the bird/whole kit gets disqualified.
In TamilNadu, most of the races are for individual birds and not for kits. In some clubs although the race is for individual birds, they are allowed to fly as a kit. But in Chennai, flying as kit is not allowed. Here if a bird joins with other bird, its considered useless. People put lot of effort to breed birds such that they get the bloodline which can fly alone. These blood lines surprisingly fly alone even if several birds are released from same loft at the same time. All of these keep flying alone for several hours. They fly as a kit but not more than few minutes.
Its surprising to see such varied kind of interest among fanciers. Pigeon fanciers here say that its very easy to have birds which fly as kit but the real challenge is to get birds that can fly alone. I myself have 3 tipplers which are flying now and they are flying for 4-5 hours daily. But they are flying as a kit. I cant participate with them in race as they will get disqualified. The good thing is that if I release just one of them on a day, the bird if flying alone for same 4-5 hours . This is a good sign because many birds wont fly for long hours if they are released alone . I can try to selectively breed them somehow and try to get the "flying alone" capability.
5 comments:
Hi Prabhu hope you manage to get your pigens to fly solo.
I duggest flying them solo as soon as you have the youn birds settled and flying. I would also suggest separating the sexeson mature birds. Otherwise they will come down for the mate.
Tipplers I have seen from experience tend not to kit well as the best flyers separate themselves and will fly higher than the others.
Have you any pictures of your pigeons? And by the way I am Gujarati Indian.
Hi Maj:
Thanks for your comments. I do not have picture now. Will take and upload soon. I have started training the pigeons to fly alone. The 3 tipplers I have are flying alone for 4 hours if I fly any one of them on a day and rest others. But if I leave them together, they always fly as a kit. There are pigeons here which fly alone even if you fly them along with other birds. I have(hope) such bloodline but I am yet to breed and fly them.
Prabhu
I'd love to see pictures of them when you can uplod them. I think I might start flying my pigeons solo too. I am not joining any clubs or competing so basically just flying for own pleasure.
As I am new to pigeons I was actually wondering if high flyers need to be rested?
Hi Maj:
I have my tipplers flying for past 4-5 weeks and I dont rest them.You can fly them continuously for couple of weeks and may be rest them for a day or two. We fly the birds for 3-5 months, look at their performance, rest them and never fly them again. Good birds will become stock birds or will be given to friends for breeding.
Hmm, intersting. I have been told the breed I have (iranian HF tumblers do not peak untill years 2 and three) also after reading about the tipplers in the uk it also seems it takes more than one season for them to peak. Reading those books suggested to fly one day and if they flew more than 3 hours to rest them. I think this makes sense too an Athlete can not run a maraton everyday. Also reading made me realise the pigeons are made to peak for a certain day without making them too tired.
Who knows right?
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