Double D
261 posts
Jul 21, 2006
10:13 PM
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My oldest kit of birds are about 5 months old. I open the kit box door yesterday to find an egg laying on the wire bottom. At 5 months of age! I have also been watching this particular cock who has always been mature beyond his months in the way he acts, looks, etc. When I fly the kit, as soon as they land, he's dancing and showing off for any bird he gets close to the last week or so and I'm sure he's doing it all day in the kit box also and probably had something to do with that egg that was laid. I moved him to a younger bird kit yesterday, (2 to 3 month old birds), thinking the younger birds wouldn't pay any attention to him. When they landed today, he was quite pushy with one particular young bird who normally traps pretty quickly but wouldn't today and I wonder if she didn't want to go in the kit box because that new, pushy cock had already trapped.
Anyway, my question is: What do you guys usually do with young, "spunky" cocks in your young kits? Do you pull them out? Do you cull them? I've heard cutting the feed will help with this problem. However, I'm only feeding 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of feed per day per bird - straight wheat right now, so I don't think I have much room to cut.
Thanks in advance!
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Darin Olson
Checkerboard Lofts
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fhtfire
540 posts
Jul 22, 2006
12:24 AM
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Darin,
Some fanciers hate it when they get eggs in the kit box...because some families lay egg when they are fed up and feeling healthy. My birds have had eggs in the kit box every know and then...I just simply toss them...and move on. I have found that you can't fight biology...a hen will lay even without a cock...and I have hens lay when they are in lean shape preparing for comp...it just differs between families...I have friends that NEVER get an egg in there kit boxes....It does mean to much right now because they are so young...but when they get older and you find an egg in the kit box...try and keep a record of the perfomance the day before you found the egg the day of and the day after....that will kind of help you gauge how it affects your birds...if you fed them up and they felt good...do you have your birds over the edge...sometime you can use it as a sign to the condition your birds are in.
As for cocky cocks...you can't fight biology....only worry about the cocks if they start effecting the performance of the team...I myself really do not think a hard working kit landing and acting like a cock on top of the kit box..then I am fine...if he is in the air flapping..rolling by himself...or pulling the kit...then he is a goner...a cull..
So do not get to worried about that cock when they are young...I have had cocks go through a short faze of be more cocky..the stop. But if that bird is out of control..then it is a cull...Just have a little patience with the young birds.
rock and ROLL
Paul
Darin..call me
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nicksiders
724 posts
Jul 22, 2006
5:14 AM
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wear him out. Put them in the air everyday if not twice, cut the rations just a bit. He won't have the energy and time to do his pursuit and the hen(s) won't put up with it. You will always get an egg now and then; just toss it or eat it.
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Snicker Rollers
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C.J.
458 posts
Jul 22, 2006
6:09 AM
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Boys will be boys. As long as you keep removing the eggs and they are rolling don't worry about. All of your birds in the kit are eventually going to mature sexually, no biggy.
C.J.
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
659 posts
Jul 22, 2006
12:20 PM
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When I get a cocky young cockbird in the kit that struts in the box and tries mating up, or act cocky when landing and showing little interest in trapping in, that bird doesn't get to eat for days. I lock them up in an individual pen and put the no-feed screws to them. They still get to fly with the rest but on return, they go right back into solitary confinement. After a few days of this I generally get their attention. In fact some of them actually start to perform pretty good, proving they are a strong pigeon that has be kept on a tight leash. If even after being screwed down with no feed for an extended period of time they show little to no improvement and continue on their hormonal rampage, they are culled and forgotten about.
Brian.
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Ballrollers
406 posts
Jul 24, 2006
1:23 PM
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I think it's just easier to house the cocks and hens seperate, next to each other, and fly them together. It's a little more trouble, however, separating them afterwards. When they come down, sometimes the cocks go into breeding mode, but if you keep the feed right they won't waste much time before they hit the traps! No more eggs in the kit box or risk of flying eggy hens.
YITS, Cliff
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