training question

[bluebeagle]

i have west of england tumblers....im in the process of building my first kit for flying around the yard.....however i do have a few questions. 1 should the kit be kept in there own pen? 2...should all the birds be the same sex? 3.. how do i go about training them to come back....i know there needs to be a trap door...how do you train them to use it?

 

[Timmy]

Ok so I'm far from an expert, but here's what little I do know. First you have to handle them a lot, like every day. Get them tame and make them pets. whistle and shake a can of feed when you feed them, this is how you will call them in later. Also give them just enough food to eat in a short amount of time you don't want to starve them. What you want to do is keep them lean and teach them to associate you with food. Yes they need to be in there own pen called a kit box it is a small pen were they live that limits the flying they do in it. You want to do this for at least a month before you start to fly them. by then the kit box is home. Also you want to use young birds for flying and old birds for breeding. This way your training a new kit each year. When you start breeding your own kits you can start to handle them when they are in the nest and some breeders will feed the parents small amounts while doing the old whistle shake trick in the nest to start the food association even younger as far as training them to the trap prop it open when you start to train them. then when they figure out that's were they go you can start to close it. leaving some birds in the kit box at first also might be a good idea to draw them in. Also I don't think the sex of the birds maters. I'm sure I've missed a lot but I hope this helps.

 

[Lofty Dreams]

1. Yes, the kit shouldhave their own pen.
2. Depends, some people only fly hens because they perform better
3. Put your food in a cage outside the window then remove the food put the bobs up and then call them out of the cage put food on the floor then whistle that is what I have been doing.