Breeding Part One

Most years I have some hens laying 8 days after pairing up. This year the birds were a bit slower, the first egg was laid 10 days after pairing. We checked the loft every evening after supper to see how many had laid. Most evenings only two or three pairs had deposited a new egg in the bowl. Only 10% laying each day, it looked like it would take a while, it did.

After two weeks only half of the 33 pairs had laid. A week later, all the birds were down on eggs except for two pairs. Two yearling cocks, each one being way to aggressive towards the hen, practically chasing the hen out of the nest box instead of quietly calling from the nest bow. They are now finally paired and we are waiting for the hens to lay.

I believe that the reason for the slower breeding season so far can be blamed on two factors. One is the cold weather that set in shortly after pairing up the birds, one morning the thermometer sat on -28 C. This is the area on the temperature scale where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. Whatever the thermometer says becomes irrelevant at these temperatures. It’s just plain cold. I am sure these extreme temperatures slowed the pairing process down by several days. The other factor I put down to the fact that over half of the birds are yearlings and they are just slower than the old birds.

In another day or so I will float the eggs from the 10 pairs of breeders under the lesser quality racers. One cock the “Yonge Grijse” in the breeding loft is being paired to two hens. There are 4 pairs of feeders in the breeding loft and they will be used to hatch and raise the youngsters. Last year he and a daughter out of “Gretha” produced the very best young bird I have ever flown. The young hen 08 CU TD 1833 only raced six weeks. She flew combine 24th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 2nd and 1st. She was the Best Young Bird in the club, won the CRPU Ontario Provincial Award and earned the most points in the history of the CRPU Award of Excellence using either the new or old system of calculating points. What was most impressive about her performance was the last race she flew. It was an Open race from Smiths Falls, a 300 miler where the birds hit a weather front and they had to race the last 100 km into rain. It didn’t hold her back, she flew 27 minutes ahead. She was immediately stopped and moved to the breeding loft. I have a full sister to her mother and both she and 1833’s mother will be paired rotationally to him. I hope to get 8 or more youngsters that I can race out of these 3 birds. One set of eggs has already been moved and the “Yonge Grijse” is now paired to the other sister.

Since the racers are all on eggs but for the one yearling cock, the lights have been turned off and they are now on natural day length.

I took delivery of 1,000 lbs of breeding mix last week. Jack a friend took 250 lbs, which should leave me with enough to last the breeding season. More on the breeding mix in my next post.