My young birds are fed a light mix from the time that they hit the kit box until they are 5-6 mos old. And they will get all they want once a day from weaning time until they hit like a pivot point in there young lives where they start trapping slow due to they just no longer need all that they can eat on a daily basis.

At this point feed is regulated so that there is no screwing around on the roof when they land. I fly these young birds daily also until they start coming well into the roll and which point they start being flown every other day. With these birds that progresses them.

Once they hit this stage they are starting to fly strong and a bit fast on the mix and that is when the wheat comes into play, I will give them a light mix on fly day and wheat on rest day. Once I get enough Young Birds that are well into the roll through out the kit boxes I will put them into the same kit box.

Out of these I'm looking for potential A team birds but not until they have matured and are solid as far as depth and quality of the roll. As for the A-team, these are the old birds and what works well for them on a general basis is the yo-yo system that Monty Neible came up with for managing his birds. Which is three day fly rotation, one day fly and two days rest. The base for the old birds is wheat. But will get periods of a light mix depending on where they are at in condition.

There are times that they will be flown daily such as when I am conditioning for a competition or when they have been locked up for a bit for whatever reason. As for releasing the A team, never do I just blow the entire team out of the kit box all at once, I let them out in 5-7 at a time as it cuts down on the initial excitement of release and helps keep the hotter birds off of the ground.

As for my light mix I use 2 parts wheat, one part Milo and one part that is 2/3rds Austrian peas and 1/3 Safflower lour. This is just a broad general guide and over all condition of the kit also dictates what and how much they get also.

In other words if I feel that I need to put some wt. on them they will get the mix for a period of time, If I feel that they need to peel a little wt off then to the straight Wheat we will go along with some hard fly time.

If they are heavy into the moult then it's a mix and heavy on Safflower and performance isn't even an issue, The only thing that matters is getting them quickly through the moult so that I can them back on track.
Scott

Submitted by Mother lode lofts

Mother Lode Lofts