Santandercol
71 posts
May 22, 2006
9:40 PM
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I have a 7 week old bird in my one and only kitbox.Need to build some more,I know but,I want to feed the youngster a little more food as I beleive he needs some extra to grow strong.How should I go about giving him more without ruining his trap training??
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Kellinos
Last Edited by Santandercol on May 22, 2006 9:41 PM
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upcd
248 posts
May 23, 2006
1:05 AM
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Greetings, are you in a hurry? Relax, let the the baby eat and train later.
Put him though the trap by hand. Let him bulk up.
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Tony Chavarria
Site Publisher
619 posts
May 23, 2006
2:28 AM
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Hey Santandercol, give him a little more each day until he does not want to go through the trap on your command then cut back ever so little until he does. The feed amounts can vary just slightly one way or the other so you will need to give precise measurements.
Birds and the amount they want to eat can vary, even within a family so you will have to monitor the amounts carefully.
I have some young bird dark checks and red bars that are in my A-Team kit box along with some 5 and 6 month old birds well as some old Ruby hens, they are all eating the same daily ration and usually trap within 30 to 45 seconds of landing.
I will give some (small amount) seed when they go in on my command as a reward to responding to my whistling, but the older ones can get really worn out from working in the kit, so I wait and serve the bulk of the grain after about 2 or 3 minutes sometimes 5 minutes rest, this extra time gives these harder working birds a chance to rest and so have a better shot at getting their fair share of the meal.
If I get a young bird that just doesn’t get enough among the other kit birds, I will generally put this young bird with the C-Team (which is primarily made up of young birds at various stages of weaning and settling) this way he gets more food and goes through remedial training again.
I will only “coddle” a young bird for so long until I consider it a cull.
With my family of Ruby Rollers, if I pamper an individual with too much food, he gets fat and doesn’t seem to fly as well, and then it seems all he wants to do is come in early and eat! LOL
So be careful about conditioning your young birds to want “a lot” of food, which can happen if they are allowed to pig-out and eat as much as they want.
Remember, with kit birds, “less is more”.
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FLY ON! Tony Chavarria
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Santandercol
72 posts
May 23, 2006
6:09 AM
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Thanks Tony and UPCD for your valued advice.
Salud a las Palomas,
Kel.
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maxspin
34 posts
May 23, 2006
6:40 AM
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Santendercol,
As long as you are building kit boxes, make sure to build at least a double box if you have the room. 3 kit boxes are about the minimum if you are trying to make any progress. The cost of materials is not much more to build a double than a single.
The sooner you can treat your young birds different than your old birds the better. It is more than just how much you feed. You should be feeding your old birds a different mix (less protein) than young birds. Most also fly their old birds less often (every 3 days), where as the young birds should be flown once or even twice a day.
Have fun with them.
Keith Maxwell
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Santandercol
81 posts
May 26, 2006
6:07 AM
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Thanks Keith,and the rest,
Kicking me to get building more kitboxes is working!!Finally I've finished all the pressure washing I had to do and today is raining to much to go paint any houses so I'll just have to stay home and play workshop!!!Next report will be to tell ya how well my young birds are doing in their new kitbox.NOW I'm excited!!!
Salud a las Palomas,
Kelly Waugh.
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Kellinos
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Perfect Drift
10 posts
May 26, 2006
6:16 PM
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Building 3 boxes, could someone help me what they should look like and the size and about how many birds would be ideal for each box
thanks ,, PD
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Santandercol
83 posts
May 26, 2006
10:04 PM
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Damn,That pissed the wife off when she came home from work and seen me building a double kitbox in the garage.Might have to move 'em to the backyard.Oops!!Then again,,she'll probably get over it!!
Ducking flying objects,
Kel.
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Velo99
457 posts
May 27, 2006
1:32 PM
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Look up the ventilation vs draftiness thread. Brian has an awesome design for the multi box.. I will be copying this design with a peaked roof instead of flat. My wife said I had to next spring. She doesn`t like seperate boxes. She wants me to landscape them in and pour some slabs and all the kind stuff to make them nice.No pigeon ghetto here buddy.
yits
v99
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