GETTING YOUR KIT READY FOR COMPETITION DAY

In order to get your rollers ready for competition there are two primary aspects that should be considered in the following order, first the PHYSICAL condition of your rollers and second is the PSYCHOLOGICAL aspect.

Rollers have to feel good physically in order to WANT to roll and must be in good condition to roll hard with speed. Feeling good is part mental brought on by being in good health and physical condition.

Psychologically you need to stress the birds to reduce their natural resistance to rolling, stressing the birds mentally puts them on edge. The stress created excites the birds when released and induces the full measure of roll that your rollers are capable of doing. This doesn’t mean it will make silk purses out of sow’s ears, it means it will help you get the most out of what your birds are capable of doing.

You have seen this mental stress, maybe without knowing it, for example, when a hawk fly’s in near the kit. The kit will group up closer to each other and in some instances will break into the roll at exactly the same time, this is what we will try to induce artificially during our kit preparation.

 

PHYSICAL CONDITIONING

 

If your birds are into the roll and are in fair condition, you should start getting your kit ready about 10 days to two weeks before a kit competition. The idea is not to break down your rollers to make them roll, but to put them in the best possible condition health wise so they can roll at their very best.

On the tenth day before the fly I start my preparation by worming my birds. I use TRAMINSOL which is a sheep wormer, use 6 tablets to 1 gallon of water in the summer and do not hold the water. In the winter use the same amount of wormer, but I hold the water from the birds for a day, this will insure that they drink enough of the wormer to do the job.

On the 9th day before the fly I use epitsom salt which is a mild laxative to clean them out, use a full table spoon to a gallon of water, and be careful you can over dose them, especially in the summer time when they will drink more water than in the winter. This will, in it’s self make the birds start to feel better. On the 7th day before the fly put the birds on a broad spectrum antibiotic like AUROMICIAN to knock down any health problems that might be present. This will also make sure the irritation and wounds that the worms leave will heal without infection or irritation. Give the Auromician to the birds for the next five days, making sure to mix fresh antibiotic each day in fresh water.

It goes without saying that the water and feed and kit box should be clean at all the times. Fly your birds every day and feed them regular pigeon feed containing peas and pop corn, try to make them fly 30 to 45 minutes and feed them to that extent. If they are flying longer give them less feed, if they fly less more feed.

It should not be necessary to starve your birds or take the water away from them for 2 or 3 days to get them to roll, there are rollers strains that roll because they like to roll when in good health and condition. I change the feed from regular pigeon mix to red wheat on the 3rd day before the fly and feed a full ration for that day. The 2nd day before the fly I again change the feed to milo and feed them a 3/4 measure, on the day before the fly I again feed milo, which is a carbohydrate for stamina, this time I feed 1/2 the regular ration of milo and 1/4 regular grain. Feed the kit at least 25 hours before you are scheduled to fly to insures that the birds are empty and have digested all the grain before being released. This feeding method will insure that the birds don’t feel hungry at fly time and will have the necessary energy to roll hard.

I have seen more kit competitions lost because of birds being too hungry to fly the time or not flying high enough to perform at their best, all because of the owner messing with cutting the feed back too far or too soon. Some say to remove the water so the birds are dry when they are released, and being dry is important. Most birds only drink after eating, so no need to remove the water; if you do, remove it after the birds have eaten 25 hours before the fly.

This should put your kit in good physical health and the continual flying should put them in good condition. Stop flying the kit two days before the competition, unless your birds are very deep. If the kit is very deep keep them in one day as I do. You know if you keep them isolated to long, you will be picking them up off the ground the day of the fly.

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONING

 

The second part to getting a kit ready for a competition is the psychological conditioning. The things we are going to talk about work, but they must be used with COMMON SENSE, REASON and OBSERVATION. You must observe and know the mental state of the kit before you use them, this is a must.

These stratagems tools or what ever you want to call them can be used singularly or in consort, but should depend on your observations of the kit as you work up to competition day. If the kit is working at its best or at least at 90%, DON’T DO ANYTHING, in the spirit of the old adage “if it’s not broken don’t fix it”.

If the kit is not kiting close together you might try adding a strange bird to the kit the night before the competition, add the bird after dark, if the competition is early in the morning. If the fly in later in the day add the bird just a few minutes before the fly this will prevent the kit from becoming familiar with the bird. This seems to make the kit pull in tighter together as they would in the case of the hawk coming close or a stray pigeon flying into the kit.

To have consort in performance you must have excellent kiting, you can help the kit to tighten up, but good kiting must be bred for and should be a top goal in your breeding plan. Kill any bird that will not kit or fly’s at the back of the kit all the time, the flier who has the fortitude to cull these birds will have the best kit on competition day.

You can try adding some mixtures to the birds water which can improve the birds alertness and mental state. Try brewing up some regular tea the day before the fly, hold the water that day, mix some honey in the tea and give it to the birds the night before the fly. The sugar and caffeine will give them a boost and put them on edge, I have also tried Humming Bird mix, it seems to work to a lessor degree, but does give extra energy. I have heard of people trying pills and alcohol and other things, but the best is the strong tea and honey, I have even used coffee. How long before the competition do you give this elixir to the birds should be experimented with and will depend on the weather, mental state and strain of rollers you are flying.

Psychological stimulation or stress can be induced also by adding something strange into the kit box. A rubber snake and party balloons can be put into the kit box the night before the fly. Rollers are scared to death of snakes as most of you know, the rubber snake alone will not work well if left in the kit box over 2 or 3 hours without moving. If you add a small party balloon or two to the floor of the kit box all birds will be on the top perch looking down at the floor. This will induce the desired stress, each time a birds moves it’s wings the balloons will move and seeing the snake too will do the job. The snake and balloons should be removed about 10 minutes before the kit is released or you might roll some birds down, time should be called on the kit as soon as it gets together, they are going to be , very excited upon release, and should work their best in the early minutes of the fly.

If your kit is flat you must do something different to stimulate the kit to roll. I move the kit to a different kit box the night before the fly this will also stress the birds. In the new kit box the birds are alert to every sound and movement and will not settle down for a few hours after daylight. The Old Timers stressed the birds by darkening the kit box, this did two things, it kept the birds from moving around and quite because of the darkness, there by conserving their energy for flight. The darkness also dilated their eye pupils, which meant upon release the brightness of the day would make them pull together and kit tight and roll when any other bird rolled. This darkness effect will only last until the birds pupils retracted and adjusted to the brightness of the light. So this spell would dissipate quickly and if the birds were not bred for close kiting and rolling the birds would seem to go flat after about 5 to 10 minutes.

The size of the kit box also induces a certain amount of stress on the birds until they get used to their close quarters, close quarters seem to make the birds kit tighter. 10 days before a competition I keep my birds in a larger well lighted open cage, then move them to the smaller dark kit box the night before the competition. When I move them to the new kit box I get the full effect of the darken close quarters environment. The trick here is not to leave the birds in close/darken quarters long enough for them to become acclimated to it.

To fly a good kit is hard work and you must have the self discipline to watch the kit and understand what is going on in the kit, then make any necessary adjustment. Knowing how the kit feels, what they are thinking requires self discipline to take the time to watch the kit and the knowledge to know what makes a good kit and what kind of adjustment will work to correct any problems.

 

If you are up to the challenge you will be a consistent winner, and we will see your name on the list of the top 25 competitors in the world next year after the World Cup fly. Support the NBRC, IRA and local clubs they are the life’s blood of our sport. – Jerry Higgins

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CONDITIONING ROLLER PIGEONS FOR COMPETITION
By Walter C. Harter

Let me first give you some of my definitions and descriptions of items I use in my conditioning program:

FEED – equal parts by measure of Purina Pigeon Checkers And Pigeon Grain – 13% protein with NO corn. NO Exceptions. NO substitutes.

The above mixture is one which I have always used – whether the birds are young or breeders makes no difference. This way, there is no changes in their feeding programs. The only time the mixture is altered is just prior to actual competition. Which I will explain later.

MEASURING CAN – 4 oz. can, one in which you would purchase canned mushrooms from the grocery store.

KIT BOX – 4 feet wide, 32 inches deep, and 40inches high with a partition from floor to ceiling separating the two sides. A hinged door should be installed in the partition for ease in sorting birds. Floors may be wire. Depending on size of kits being flown, ne or two entrance doors with traps may be used. The reason I particularly like this layout is that I fly both hens and cocks in competition and keep them separated all other times. With this partition and hinged door, it is much easier to sort the kit once they have returned from flying and have been fed.

Fourteen days before competition is scheduled, I select 14 or 15 of my best birds and put them into the kit box. The first 7 days the birds remain in the kit box and are fed once a day all of the feed (above mixture) which they will eat in a 15 minute period. At the end of this 15 minutes, remove all of the remaining feed. Never remove their water and never give them salts.

On the 8th day, release the kit at about the same time of day which you will be competing. On this day you will begin measuring their feed – one level can for each 10 birds. Always remove any remaining feed after 15 minutes. Close the partition door and separate the hens and cocks. If some of the birds return late and find there is no feed available, they will not be late the next day.

On the 9th and 10th day, follow the same instructions as the 8th day – release at same time of day as you will be competing, one level can of feed for each 10 birds, remove feed after 15 minutes, separate hens and cocks.

On the 11th day, do the same as the 8th day, with the following additions: if you have wire floors, cover them with paper feed bags. Also cover any outside openings like wire fronted doors. And on this day, change their feed mixture to consist of ¾ pellets, but the feeding time will remain 15 minutes.

Then on the 12th day, follow procedure for 8th day with their feed mixture consisting of all pellets. Feeding time and flying routine should remain consistent.

On the 13th day, do not fly the kit and reduce the number of birds to your competition size kit. Also, again, feed only pellets, and feed 22 hours before the time you plan to release them the next day for competition.

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Loft Blindness

By not bringing other people and a judge into you backyard you are risking being inflicted with “LOFT BLINDNESS”!  Because you have nothing to compare your birds to you may begin to feel that your birds are truly champions and you will never endeavor to improve and increase you bird’s value.  By putting a judge in your backyard you could quickly realize there maybe better birds to be found in someone else’s loft and there is work to be done in your own loft.

Of course there are those who upon finding out their birds did not score as well as others will say outlandish things like the judge does not know how to score “real Birmingham Rollers.  That flier will probably soon quit competing and will live with his Loft Blindness forever.  We recommend that you get out of your backyard as often as possible and into another fliers backyard.  Watch as many other fliers fly their birds as time permits.  I strongly encourage that you follow the judge as far through the competition as you can so you can see and understand what he is seeing.  If you think you can do a better job then any given judge then you do it.  If you don’t want to do it then keep you mouth shut and enjoy the experience.  There is always a shortage of people who have the time and love for the hobby strong enough to volunteer to judge.

There are two different kinds of fliers.  One is the competition flier and the other is the backyard flier.  We have given you reasons why we feel you should fly in competitions, but we want to make one thing perfectly clear; not all backyard fliers have the lesser value birds.  We have seen many a backyard fliers with birds that will make your jaw hang open in amazement of how good they are.  They don’t fly in competition for a mired of reasons so I don’t want you to believe for one second that all backyard fliers suffer Loft Blindness, but it must be understood that all who suffer from Loft Blindness are backyard fliers.

There are many, many more backyard fliers then there are competition fliers.  For every 10 competition fliers there are more than a 100 that don’t fly competition.  There are more Roller people that do not belong to the NBRC then there are that belong to the club.  It is estimated that for every member of the NBRC there are 6 and up to 10 who are not members.

With all of that being said; we still encourage membership into the NBRC and to fly in competition just for the fun of it; to be around and in conversation with other Roller people; and gain the information and knowledge that can be gleaned from the written word.

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How And When To Compete

There are at least two competitions a year that any flier in the United States can participate in.  There is the World Cup Fly and the NBRC National Championship Fly.  They are separate events and separate organizations.  Both fly’s start out on the regional level with the top of each region going to the final with the top scorer in the final being declared the champion.  Of course it is understood that the judge comes to your loft location, but beginners sometimes are not sure how the judging is accomplished.

The World Cup Fly is regionally conducted starting (usually) in April with the final in May for the United States.  Contact your Regional Director long before April and indicate that you are desiring to fly.  He will mail you an application which you will fill out and return to him along with your fee.

The NBRC National Championship Fly is flown in most regions in the early Fall with the final being flown in late Fall.  You must contact your Regional Director early enough to be included.  Once that has been accomplished you will be mailed a fly application to be filled out and returned to the Regional Director along with you fee.  It is also a requirement that you be a member of the NBRC (National Birmingham Roller Club).

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ADVICE – You do not have to build yourself what you think is a champion kit before you decide to compete because what you built will probably not be a champion.  You cannot buy a champion kit, either.  To be a great baseball player will not happen in your backyard without competing against other baseball players.  Grow some balls and just put’em up when the judge shows up.  Don’t make more out of it than what it  actually is.  Everybody to include the judge are just pigeon folks with no pretenses and are just like you.  You will be embarrassed at times, so get over it right now!  All fliers have had that happen to them no matter who or how successful they have been.  Make no excuses and please know that if the judge is a hour or two late that it will make no real difference in your bird’s performance.  If you ever use that as an excuse for a poor showing you will be required to surrender all of your birds and lofts to someone less ignorant.

We are being sarcastic here, but damn it fellas just put them up and be happy that you can!