"The most important thing no one should forget is that this is a hobby and a hobby should be for fun!
The pleasure in the hobby and the friends are more important than the quality of your birds."
Heine Bijker - 4 time World Cup Roller Fly Champion
BREEDING
(HOW I DO IT)
On the following pages I am going to share how I set up my breeding program.
I am not going into in-breeding, line-breeding or any other genetic breeding systems. I am also not going to tell you how to breed "Champion" Birmingham Rollers. There are a lot of people out there that will gladly tell you how to do that.
What I am going to talk about is general, common sense breeding techniques that anyone can use for any breed of pigeons. As I had mentioned earlier I am no expert in raising the Birmingham Roller Pigeon and I don't claim to be. I just want to share how I do it and what has worked for me.
Wormout Gel - works on all worms, Wazine - only for roundworms, Quest and Ivomec - works on all worms except tapeworms. (Quest Plus - works on all worms)
PREP
The breeding season for me actually starts before I put the pairs together.
The first thing I do is worm the birds about 2 months before pairing. If I do see worms being shed in the droppings, I will re-worm them again about 3 weeks later. I like to do the worming process early just in case I do have to re-worm the birds so that they can recover from the worming before being put together. I also use different wormers and rotate them so the parasites don't build up a resistance to any of the drugs.
Aside from the worming I don't usually medicate the birds while prepping them for breeding. I feel that if the birds are not showing any symptoms of illness it is not wise to medicate, it can cause more harm than good. If there was a problem the year before with some type of disease like coccidiosis or parathyphoid I would treat the birds for it before pairing them up, but only if I had a problem the year before.
The next thing I do is prepare the lofts by giving them a thorough cleaning and disinfecting by spraying with a solution of Virkon S. I also check the pens to see if there are any repairs to be done at this time.
Virkon S - Multi use disinfectant
Individual breeding pens and foster loft cleaned and prepped for the breeding season.
