First and foremost, if you are interested in flying rollers at a competitive level, then you need to locate a breeder of your choice that is already flying a family of birds that have the qualifications it takes to compete at a competitive level. In order to do this you must take the time to view as many kits in the air as possible and remember even though somebodies birds cost less you have to ask yourself, do they really if you get rid of them in 2 years or keep them and are not happy with them for one reason or another. Spend the money for the birds that you want the first time, you will save yourself a lot of time and money in the long run. You should not purchase anything that you have not seen in the air and only choose the best available to you, and remember depth doesn’t equal roll.
Second is to pay close attention to the person you get the birds from because he has already done the work for you. Take his advise on pairing the birds and also on how to feed and fly them, because it really does matter from loft to loft. After a couple of years you will have a pretty good idea of what you want to pair together, and this is were it gets fun, you get to start creating your own birds . At this point you should pay close attention to the young from each pair and keep good records of which birds come into the roll early, late,or not at all. Also note the differences in quality, meaning the wing placement during the roll and the velocity of the spin. REMEMBER you should never breed for depth. If you breed for depth then your quality will surely be compromised. Breed for the best quality and velocity and the depth will come on its own . If by chance the family of birds you chose don’t roll at least 10 feet, then you chose the wrong family in the first place, but if you chose the best there was available then the chance of them not rolling 10 feet is highly unlikely so don’t worry, depth will come you just worry about the quality.
After you have gotten your young out of the nest then it is time to train them. This can be challenging at times but also fun and rewarding. First thing I do is make sure the young recognize me as their only source of food. This is done by feeding them on a tray and feeding them only enough that they will readily eat, and then remove any extra. I make it a point to put my hands down on the tray with the young birds so they are not afraid of me. After only a couple of days they should be climbing all over your hand wanting feed. This is when I place the homing pen on the roof and remove the center bob off the traps allowing them free roam in and out without being able to get lost. This teaches them that they have to go back through the trap to get back inside. After a couple days of this I lock them on the roof for a couple of hours and then reinstall the center bob, put food on a tray inside and open the door to the trap. After a couple days of this they will be trapping as soon as you open the door, this is when I put some MASKING tape on the first 4 flight feathers on one side and release them onto the roof. You use masking tape that is preferably of the painters quality because it comes off easy without pulling feathers. This tape is put on the birds to keep them from flying to far and getting lost, they can still get up off the ground and fly from roof to roof but they wont want to go very far bacause they are off balance when they try to fly. After a week of this I remove the tape and just open the door and allow them to come out on their own because you dont want to spook them. In no time they will be taking short flights and in a week of so they will be kitting and then you just have to fly them as much as possible so they can build their muscles and stamina.
When choosing a kit remember that if the bird wont kit then it’s a cull, regardless of how good the bird is. You should not breed from it because it doesn’t represent what we would consider a stock able bird. It has an undesirable trait and should be treated as a cull. If a bird is to deep to stay with the kit then this is also not a good trait, however to deep is determined also by the heart of the bird, a 10 footer that cant stay with the kit is no good and a 40 footer that gets back to the kit isn’t to deep to me but if it rolls out and looses the desire to get back to the kit, then it is to deep. If the bird rolls loosely or switches wings then it is also a cull. Often times these birds will hurt you more then they help you because they are more of a distraction and take your eyes off the better birds in the kit, thus bringing your quality points down. You will find that most flies are won by the quality and depth and not by the actual amount of turns.
Your first season you will kind a have to separate and fly small kits until you get a group that work well together, but after the first year you will be able to start building on holdover kit. A holdover kit is the group you will be constantly changing as your young birds come in and improve. If your breeding program is moving in the right direction then you should be adding better birds each year and steadily improving your standings in your local flies. I would encourage everyone to compete in your local flies and in the JPMF and the World cup. You will never know if you are improving if you don’t put them up, and you must be able to take constructive criticism. What I mean by this is when you are flying and you have experienced fliers watching your birds then you should listen to what they have to say and try to encorporate it into your birds if possible. I realize that not all families are the same, nor do they fly the same so it is best to use the advice of somebody that is flying the same family as you.
Another very important point I would like to stress is to try your best to hold on to your stock and you future stock. By this I mean as soon as you start winning flies you are going to get a lot of new friends that want your birds. Not to mention the predators that are going to be trying to get them, and they will. If they move in to heavy then you must lock the birds down otherwise you will loose your kits each season to predators and wont be able to build a competitive hold over kit. Not many flies on a national level are won with young birds so it is very important to build a good hold over kit.
These are just a few of the many experiences I have encountered over the years and I think that if you use these ideas then raising rollers will become a much easier and fun hobby for you. Thanks for reading and remember to keep- em flying.
Joe Urbon