Winter Breeding
There are some differences to consider between normal breeding and winter breeding. Breeding usually involves longer daylight hours and warmer weather. Breeding in winter means the daylight hours are short and cold. Breeding in winter you have to take more precautions.
Preventative Treatment
The first thing you need to do during any breeding season is to treat your pigeons regularly. We usually vaccinate against Newcastle disease and Salmonella, and deal with coccidiosis, internal parasites and trichomoniasis. Ideally you should have a stool sample to check for parasites and a culture should be done to rule out the presence of Salmonella before starting to breed.
I am not a believer in disinfection of pigeon lofts. For me, disinfection of pigeon lofts is not done much because as long as you put the pigeons back, they will be contaminated again. Initially it is not the same level of contamination, but within a short period of time it returns to the level that was there before.
Turn on the lights before pairing
After you have completed the preventive treatment, start introducing the pigeons to longer daylight hours. That is to get the pigeons active before pairing them. Some pigeons require no stimulation and remain sexually aroused throughout the year, but some are sexually inactive for short periods of time, however increased exposure to light does help to stimulate the pair's arousal and sexual organ readiness for pairing.
Place nest material
Of course, nest material is more important in cold weather than warm weather. When you use ceramic nest bowls, you need insulating materials. This is especially important. Separate the eggs from the nest bowl. If you do this, the impact on the eggs will be dramatic. When the surrounding temperature is relatively cold, the ceramic bowl will cool the eggs, slow the development of the embryo, and delay the hatching of the pigeons, thus reducing the success rate. A felt pad for the nest bowl is a good insulator, and a little bit of nest material is great.
Feeding
If you have a clear feeding time, the breeding breeder in the nest will easily leave the nest bowl at the expected feeding time. In very cold weather this may cause them to leave the eggs for too long and the eggs will get cold. If you keep the feed in front of them, they will eat a lot and be less likely to leave their eggs for too long when they are not in the nest. If they are too hungry they will tend to leave the eggs and wolf down the feed, again allowing their eggs to get cold.
I think it's a good idea to keep feeds in front of them at this time. I recommend adding pellets to the feeding of breeding pigeons twice a day. I think it is the best supplement when they are unable to convert vitamin D from sunlight. The same applies to any period of breeding. . The pigeons receive a balanced supply of minerals in the pellets. If the pellets are prepared correctly and fresh, the pigeons also get their vitamins.
水
If you live where the weather is cold, you have to be very careful about your drinking fountain freezing. If you don’t have a water warmer, I think ideally you should provide drinking water 3 to 4 times a day, not just once a day, preferably lukewarm water.
Feeding young birds in the nest
For the same reason we don't want the parents to be away for too long, you can have an open feeder supplying pellets so the parents don't spend too much time away from the nest of young pigeons. Although the feed is always placed in front of them, the advantage of adding new feed or portions of feed is that they mostly eat it immediately.
As long as they have young pigeons that are more than 5 days old, feed should be added regularly during the day. The reason is that the young pigeons are fed immediately after the parent pigeons have eaten. So if you can get them to eat more often, they will feed the pigeons more often. If you give feed regularly, the parents will feed the youngsters interchangeably so the youngsters will actually be well fed.
My suggestion is to use small round pellets as the feed base for the pigeons and then feed them grain so that they can feed more to the young pigeons. With artificial lighting, feeding at 7am and again at 4pm can then be done at 9pm with lights off at 10pm. This way your chicks are bottle-fed 3 or more times at different times after hatching and the light lasts a little longer in the winter. We don't want the chicks to go 16 hours without being fed so we leave the light on if possible. Extend the daylight hours when the pigeons are being fed.
has some tips on turning the lights on and off when using the timer at night. For example, when pigeons leave the nest to drink water, many pigeons are trapped outside the nest because the timer happens to turn off the lights so that they cannot return to the nest. Ideally turn off the lights manually to make sure each pigeon is in its place. Ideally, the light should be dimmed down and then brightened again to completely darken the loft.
Floor covering
I think there are some benefits to putting straw on the floor in winter. Of course it is not easy to keep completely clean, but it adds warmth to the loft. At least the young birds are sitting on straw instead of the bare floor when they first leave the nest.
Weaning
Once you have weaned the young birds, you will want to extend the light hours so that they can eat feed for most of the 24 hours, but the extended hours will be slightly less than before weaning. I'm a little concerned that the extended light hours may have triggered premature moult when it was interrupted. This can happen in the middle of winter and may not be what you planned for.
More light is helpful during the early post-weaning period so they have more time to move around and eat but not as much as they can adjust their feeding times. Young pigeons can do well if fed twice a day, but it is a good idea to use a feeder in the early stages. Use the "light method" of long periods of light to maintain them for a while until you are ready to moult them.
When the light is interrupted, the pigeons moult quickly and have brand new body feathers before the start of the race, allowing them to avoid this slow and constant loss during the race. Some people place warmers on the loft floor or hang them on the loft walls. Some people hang heaters at intervals to keep the breeding house warmer. I think this is ok, as long as the heat source does not become a fire hazard and you don't have to make the loft warm as in spring or summer but slightly warmer to make the pigeons more comfortable. The biggest thing I've seen that helps is a floor heater, besides the temperature it keeps the loft dry. When the loft is warm it will stay drier. Not only that, heat rises, so the ideal place to supply heat is at the bottom, where it will rise naturally.
Feeding
The food needs of pigeons should be assessed as having four main periods in a year: breeding, competition, moulting and wintering. Each period has different food needs based on the requirements of our pigeons.
breeding
Previously in the chapter on bent keel, I mentioned my views on feeding during the breeding period. To recap briefly, I breed my pigeons with a 50:50 mix of pellets and grain. Give them high-quality minerals supplemented by oyster shells to provide the hens with a good source of calcium. I don't think it's necessary to provide more minerals or vitamins or vegetables like lettuce or kale when feeding pellets.
Fresh, high-quality pellets contain all the vitamins and minerals our pigeons need. In my breeding feed mix, 14% are small round pellets for laying eggs.
It is the right idea to feed newly weaned youngsters a higher protein diet as they are still growing. They will tell you they need more peas. Give them a variety of peas and let them choose, so they know how much they need. What is the highest possible protein requirement for young birds? Since the young birds are still developing, they may need 14% and up to 16%.
I will put forward my thoughts when I talk about salt in the future. Later during the breeding season it is often found that the water in the young birds is the result of the breeding birds using up their body salt stores. Young birds, lacking salt, have difficulty preserving body fluids. Adding salt and charcoal to the feed will help both parents and youngsters, but you must be careful as birds can die from salt poisoning and from absorbing too much charcoal from some foods.
Moulting
My views on the feed during the moulting period have been mentioned in the chapter on feathers and moulting. In short, I know that feathers mainly contain protein, so protein should be increased during large-scale moulting. In addition to high-protein seeds, high-fat seeds are also needed because the pigeons have great energy needs during feathering.
Overwinter
Feeding in winter should be changed according to climate conditions.Winter temperatures anywhere don't often fall below minus 12 degrees Celsius, I would call it a mild winter. Pigeons fed during mild winters will do well on the simplest low protein grains such as barley.
I think barley is a great grain to keep your pigeons alive when you don't want them to get too fat. At this point they have completed their moult and there is no need for them to breed. Some people feed only barley all winter long. I've actually done it myself, however I don't think it's the only way to keep them over the winter.
The reason is that barley is a real winter feed and pigeons don't like barley. I think it doesn't taste good so the pigeons don't want to eat more of it, and the lower nutritional value of barley helps prevent the pigeons from wanting to mate. It is high in fiber so the pigeons produce more droppings. If the cold temperatures are only for a few days then this is no problem but when you have long periods of cold weather and the birds need more calorie rich feed to maintain body heat, I would suggest corn. Corn is high in carbohydrates and one of the most rapid sources of energy.
Racing Race
I think pigeon fanciers often make two mistakes during racing: racing pigeons are too fat and racing pigeons are too thin. Racing thin birds in fast, effortless races may be a good strategy, but if your race is difficult, it will be cruel to the thin birds and they will not be able to give their best.
In order to get the energy they needed, they began to stretch their own body muscles. Muscles are only destroyed when the bird uses up other sources of energy. That only happens when a bird is asked to perform beyond its capabilities or when it is sick and still races. Pigeons should not tear muscles during the racing season. If forced to do so, they will either give up or return to the nest in a very bad condition and will not recover that year.
I think another mistake is feeding too much protein too often. Protein is more laborious to break down in the body and use as an energy source. If the pigeons are forced to eat peas at the beginning of the week, the body has to work harder to digest the protein and you will notice that the color of the muscles remains blue for a longer period of time.
As long as you stop feeding protein feed , the muscles will turn back to the pink color we want. The pigeons don't feel good, they don't perform well and their condition is not good. Just too much protein makes the pigeons less active and less healthy. A protein content of 12% or less is desirable in competition feeds.
Fat and carbohydrates are what the pigeons need during racing. What is the difference between fats and carbohydrates? They are both sources of energy but their metabolic pathways are different. During hard or strenuous training periods such as flying, the pigeon's body uses fat as energy more easily than carbohydrates. Fat produces more energy per volume or gram than carbohydrates. So it's more efficient fuel.
There is a limit to how much available fat you can add to a pigeon. The fat they gain during the winter is not used as energy for flight. Only fat, called new or recently stored fat, is a useful source of energy and is mostly stored within muscles. When pigeons race they burn fat stored in the muscles and add new fat after the race to equalize it.
During the season I think it is good to feed a light to rich range of food until you have a few difficult races in a row, in which case your birds may not have enough stores in their body over the following weeks and start Keep you behind. To me, light means not a lot of protein, not a lot of carbs. Rich means more fat within more carbohydrates. Feeding richly is to feed a lot of corn, a lot of safflower seeds or some peanuts. If you are coming off some very difficult races then you really should be feeding rich feed all week and letting your pigeons rest. Give them more time to grow back.
When you feed your pigeons during the season always take into account both the previous race and the next race. The event they just finished requires you to replenish their depletion with any food available. But you also have to consider how much you need to grow and cope with upcoming events.
I won't give them rich feed until Thursday unless we are handing in the pigeons for a 300km race. In other situations, especially longer races, I start loading them up with carbs on Monday or Tuesday. I usually start adding corn until about Wednesday afternoon or Thursday in preparation for Friday's delivery.
started adding fats and oily seeds on Thursday. Safflower seeds are my "fat" seed of choice but it is peanuts that are often given to older birds. Sometimes I let them eat all the peanuts on Thursday evening, and they eat as much as they can. On Friday morning I fed them their usual feed, mostly corn and safflower seeds and then went back to peanuts and let them eat all the peanuts they could handle. If we turn in the pigeons on Thursday, feed them a moderately rich diet on Wednesday night and Thursday morning to give them all they want.
Open the feed bag
Better quality feed is cleaner. There is always dust in the grain and some feed manufacturers clean their feed better than others. Some dust is not a serious disaster. Large amounts of dust may point to grain weevils. Grain weevils break down grains and produce very fine dust. Pour the feed into the pan and check if any insects have moved in it.
The grains that will make up the feed should be properly dried before mixing. If this is not the case, the feed company is not fulfilling its responsibility. All grains should be dried in the kiln to certain specifications. The heated, dry air in the kiln passes through the grain to give each grain the proper moisture content. This is a factor that favors grain longevity.
Sometimes opening a bag of feed can actually reveal moldy grain. If there is a lot of broken grain, you can see the typical mold on the kernels, especially corn. I have also seen some grains in the feed that seemed to be clumped together, indicating that it had been wet and then dried out. This is an invitation for mold to grow within the feed. Feed that has mold or lumps like this inside a newly opened feed bag should be returned to the seller.
Don’t wash the feed
I occasionally know that some people buy feed, pour it into a bucket, wash the feed with water and let it dry.
I don't think this is good practice. I think they were trying to make them prettier by washing all the dirt and particles off the grains, but they were attracting mold growth so trying to make adjustments tended to be negative. If the feed is delayed waiting to dry, some mold will grow, especially on grains that do not dry quickly to the touch. Likewise, after washing, the moisture content in the grain is higher than in kiln drying, making it more conducive to mold growth.
Storage
If the feed is good and dry, it is best to store pigeon feed in a covered container. The reason is that the covered container prevents contamination from excess humidity in the atmosphere or from rain, loft dust (a combination of feather meal and pigeon droppings) and rodents or insects. Sometimes I see recommendations for placing grain in a screened grain bin. If the feed is already dry, it does not need to "breathe". In fact, if you live in a humid area, this type of feed storage box may absorb moisture from the atmosphere, causing you even more potential trouble.
I think air-conditioned glove compartments are not necessary in most cases. By the way, Madoka is very sensitive to everything. Because they are made from grains and other nutritional supplements. Those other nutrients make the organism a better place to grow. Therefore, the storage method of small round pellets is more important than the storage method of grains.
Specific Problems ーMold
Mold or mildew occurs where there is a lot of moisture, either from rain or in very humid conditions. Sometimes mold grows on grain while it's still in the field. Even if it is handled properly after harvest, it can still have mold, and there are many different types of mold that can grow on grain. It ranges from non-toxic to others that are notoriously highly toxic.
Some Aspergillus molds produce aflatoxins , which are very toxic in very small amounts, especially to the liver. Usually pigeons do not show many visible signs but their liver function is much compromised. Whenever a pigeon's liver function is compromised, it cannot metabolize or process food.With a damaged liver, it will never be a competitive racing pigeon, but a poor racing pigeon .
You may not even know your cereal may be moldy. Testing grains for aflatoxins is a complex test. Aflatoxins are tested with great caution. Fluorescence under ultraviolet light is sometimes an indication that individual mold is growing. For a while it was thought to be a reliable indicator of mold contamination but was later found to be not.
There is no real practical test for a fancier to find out if he has moldy grain, so all he can do is visually inspect it, do not create an environment for mold growth after purchase and keep it in good condition. If you see moldy seed, you should never use it. Even if the mold is washed away or killed with heat, poisonous substances have already penetrated into the grain.
Maybe I should talk about cracked grains. The grain itself has a natural exterior protection and once you destroy the outer covering such as in the tearing process which actually exposes every nutrient inside the center to the air it will tend to absorb moisture and provide a good place for mold to grow the more humid the climate Having cracked grains means you're going to have bigger problems. Cracked corn has a greater potential for mold contamination and should never be fed to pigeons, as it may be more susceptible to aflatoxin production depending on local climate changes.
turning sour
This is a step further than moisture. We let the grain get wet, either through a leaky roof or by opening the front of the loft and letting rainwater pour into the open feed container. In winter it is not such a big problem. It's temperature dependent so the warmer the grains are the more likely they are to sour or ferment or have microbial growth including mold. Mold is probably the most toxic ingredient.
If it ferments at the bottom of the barrel, does that mean that the grain at the top of the barrel is also destroyed? Hard to judge, maybe not. I don't think the boil-off gases are particularly toxic but the remaining grain is closer to the grain that has gone sour, gradually having a possible chance of aflatoxin, as well as other less toxic microorganism by-products of increased growth.
contamination
Contamination may be from animals or animal by-products. By themselves, grain weevils are a nuisance and they reduce feed quality but they are not poisonous. They simply consume some of the nutrients intended for the pigeons. What can you do, if anything, to kill them once they are inside the grain or still save your grain? You can't, I know the only way to kill them would be to heat treat to but that's probably totally impractical. So when you have worm feed, the best way is to feed it quickly or throw it away. It is a nutrient-poor racing or breeding feed.
Other types of pollution in terms of animals are rodents. They also excrete on grains when they eat them uncapped. I don't know if pigeons eat rodent droppings, but even if they don't, small amounts of droppings do stick to nearby grain. This contamination can cause many different problems that may harm the pigeons.
For the most part they are of very low impact except for Salmonella spp.. It is well known that Salmonella is spread by rodents. In fact, the Salmonella that infects pigeons takes its name from rodents. Its partial name S "murium" means mouse (or murine typhus). . This is Paratyphi we are talking about so you need to protect your feed so that rodents cannot get in or even stand on top of the container to contaminate it.
The same situation is quoted for wild birds. Bird droppings are a sufficient source of contamination. There are many things in wild bird feces that can infect pigeons because it is bird-to-bird contamination. You must not leave open dovecotes or uncovered grain bins accessible to wild sparrows or feral pigeons. They will find their way into the grain and contaminate it, just like rodents do.
Root dust is also a problem for uncovered feed. In every pigeon loft there is dust blowing around and from pigeon droppings so keep the feed away from these as they can spread diseases.
rancid fat smell
All grains can become rancid to some extent due to the oil or fat content in the grain, especially in the sprouts. The rancid fat smell is caused by the breakdown of fat or oil into certain fatty acids.These rancid fat-smelling fatty acids are mildly poisonous, and feeds with rancid fat smell must not be fed to pigeons.
Peanuts are easily rancid and the fat smell is number one on the feed list. Others are safflower seeds, sunflower seeds and several small oily seeds. The typical characteristic is the smell of rancid fat. The slight rancid fat smell is subtle and the way to avoid it is to use fresh grains whenever possible.
The rancid fatty smell usually comes from a period of heat. You can put problem-prone seeds in an airtight container in the refrigerator or refrigerate. Why put them in an airtight container? When you store anything in the refrigerator there will be moisture, and unless it is sealed, things tend to become even more humid in the refrigerator. You should put it into a covered container or closed plastic bag, as even some kind of mold can grow in cooler temperatures.
The lifespan of grains
Grains are food, and their value will never increase with age. The fresher, the better. If you notice that the grains are wilting and fading, this may be a sign of age. But also remember that there are varieties of barley that have a higher percentage of wheat flour in the center and that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad grain. It just has a small amount of carbs in the center but it may actually provide more carbs.
Have you ever heard of the experiment of putting grains in a glass of water to see if they sink or float on the surface? The theory is if it's floating it's old grain and the essence inside has dried up. I have heard this experiment used on barley. It is uncertain whether it will work on safflower seeds, which contain air cells. If you open one and look, there is always space inside the shell. It is never completely filled with "meat".
END
Author/David Marks Veterinarian Compiled by ∥Feng Jun Pigeon House
[smile] Thanks for reading! If you like this account, you can add a follow. If you like it, please like + comment. See you in the next article!
