Major-ret
20 posts
Jun 24, 2006
9:42 AM
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I am wondering - would it be best if you have a separte cock kit box and hen kit box? The reason I ask is that I seem to have cocks that are very interested in mating up in the kit box (maybe I need to cut back food- I feed 1 cup/10 birds) and hens that are willing to participate. Would think that this may affect performance as they would be interested in following their mate in the air, maybe pushing them to stop the roll, and also anxious to land early and get "busy", also screwing up the kitting. Of course separte boxes would require more of them and more precious space. Thoughts/suggestions. Thanks Steve
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Tony Chavarria
Site Publisher
668 posts
Jun 24, 2006
10:01 AM
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Hey Steve, when I have cocks in the kit box too preoccupied with chasing hens, I found that I tend to be over-feeding them.
I will reduce the feed, make sure I close-up the trap door to reduce lighting. If this does not work, I drop him down to another kit box. I just remove the problem. After a few days I will put him back and see what happens and repeat as needed.
Sometimes I have found that nothing works. Want a good recipe for pigeon pie?
Or as you suggest, you can have separate kit boxes and divide them up that way. Hope all works out!
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FLY ON! Tony Chavarria
Last Edited by Tony Chavarria on Jun 24, 2006 10:20 AM
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fhtfire
495 posts
Jun 24, 2006
12:00 PM
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Steve,
If you try and fight Biology...well you will lose...LOL! During the summer a lot of new fanciers continue to feed the same rations as they do in the Winter...Most older birds that have the mo-jo are getting to much feed. I feed almost half as much food the birds in the summer compared to the winter. Of course if they are into the moult that is a totally different story.....I will feed them up to get them through the moult and when you do that your perfromance goes down and the cocks and hens get a little gitty..I just call that...the price of doing business. Now if I am getting the birds into comp shape and there is a cock that is screwing things up...he will be pulled immediately...he has to much mo-jo. But if you keep the feed down and they still feel good in the hand..they will 99.9% of the time stop the trying to hump everything in site. They go into survival mode when the feed is cut...they will rest to save energy. For example...I just pulled two Ruby Roller cocks to put with hens..they were both in my A-team. In the kit box..The cocks would rarely act cocky....even when I locked them up with the hens...they were real mellow...after about three days of getting all they can eat breeder food...it is like they came out of insulin shock...the just all of a sudden..get horny. Now they chase everything..flap flap flap to that hen and flap flap flap to that perch...you would not believe that they are the same birds..LOL!! just cut the feed back...but if they are coming into the moult then...I would let them have more feed and take the lumps.
rock and ROLL
Paul
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
600 posts
Jun 24, 2006
12:48 PM
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I'm a strong advocate of separating the sexes of my old birds and A team. It gives me much greater control over the birds and allows me to concentrate more precisely on each bird and how much feed they require. My older birds don't need to be starved to make them roll. They roll on their own every day, so hence, they require more feed than a family you have to be more stringent with the feed. Since I have to keep them fed at least fairly decent, they will take liberties and want to screw around. The separate kit boxes eliminates this. Some of the cocks will mate up in the cock box, but the activities are limited and ceases when the kit is liberated. I fly the cocks and hens together and because they don't get to frolick in the kit box with the opposite sex, they don't do it in the air either.
If a person has a problem with horomones in the kit box and sparse feeding isn't conducive to that family, the by all means separate them. It's easy to do and takes no more work to do it. I find that many of the people who don't separate them either have a family that they have to keep on feed fumes or are just plain too lazy to take action.
You will be amazed at what you will learn about your birds when you separate the sexes. I find the cocks are a helluva lot easier to manage than the hens.
Brian.
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