MOULTING START PROCEDURE

This chapter teaches us "How To Cheat Nature". When a pigeon first commences the moult he drops his No 1 Tail Feathers, to explain which are the No 1 there are Twelve Main Tail Feathers. The No 1 being those just to the outside of the two centre feathers, which if you were to count from the outside towards the centre would be the number 5 feathers. Approximately three weeks before the first race in these winter conditions if you close up your loft, feed ample protein and oil seeds, do not over train, you can remove these two tail feathers and within three weeks these birds should start coming into form.

Illustration of the Tail Feathers of a pigeon, the two dark feathers being the ones that need to be removed to start the moulting process.

These things and many more can halt the moult, then it is beneficial to extract these feathers after rectifying the bird's problem. One famous fancier on tour in South Africa said that if you have a bird that is listless and no amount of medication will cure the bird, then pull his tail out and in three weeks it will show a great improvement in its general health. The person was right, although he only needed to pull out the two feathers as I have illustrated above. What he failed to explain and although he had discovered this cure was maybe not aware. The reason for this improvement in the bird's health, was the fact that the bird through shock or previous illness had stuck in the moult and that once this had been jump started again, the bird returned to its natural well being.

The idea was to try and induce the bird to drop its first primary flight, to overtrain will halt the moult procedure, to undertrain can keep you out of the prizes.You must use a very keen judgement on this one. Once a bird peaks and shows a drop in performance you must not use him again until next year, this way he will do it regularly for several years to come.