For The Novice Flyer

By: Ken Burgess / England
Date: Unknown
Category: Feed-ups

Once you have settled your tipplers that you intend and hope to enjoy their
flying performance, you will select a kit of the better performers. I would
suggest you try for a five bird kit in that way you will have lee way should
any go off form when you approach your intended long flying day. I train my
birds for about five hours every other day, weather permitting. The flying
birds are housed in flying boxes about 18" square and are fed once a day at
the same time of the day.

During the training period, the birds are fed on good barley, not farm
feeding barley, but good meaty malted or malting barley, dry and clean. The
birds get 1 oz. of this during their evening feed, but after they have
completed a training fly their ounce of barley will have the addition of one
teaspoon of linseed. My birds have a cod liver oil capsule every Tuesday. On
this diet, providing you have decent tipplers, your kit will fly well and
look and feel good.

If you wish to increase your flying time without going into the teens of
hours, mix the barley with a percentage of wheat or white dari. My birds are
always flown on an empty crop. Many fanciers are now using growers pellets,
the poultry type and the birds that I have seen fed this way looked well and
have flown good/very good times. It is a matter of choice, but I would
suggest anyone who decides to use the pellets seek advice from flyers who
have learned the hard way.

Once you have got your kit flying as you want them to and they respond to
the droppers/lights with no problems, it is time to prepare them for the
day's sport. There are many feed-ups and most of the very good flyers have
their own ideas, but the basic idea is to supply your kit with a feed that
will give them energy and endurance properties. Your training flights will
have got them fit and well. Always remember that no matter how well you
train and feed your kit, they will only fly as long as their breeding allows
them to, so get good birds to start with!

Below, I will pen a few feed-ups that I have used in the past, with
reasonable success. All based on a Sunday release. The last training flight
being on the Wednesday prior.

Wednesday: 1 measure (oz.) of mixed canary seed

Thursday: 1/4 Red Rape, 1/4 Hemp, 1/4 Buckwheat, 1/4 White Dari, 8 maple
peas, tonic drink

Friday: 1/4 Red Rape, 1/4 Linseed, 1/4 Mixed Canary, 1/4 Niger, 4 Maple
peas, tonic drink \

Saturday: (a.m.) 1/4 mixed canary, p.m. 1/2 mixed canary, 1/2 plain canary
Tonic drink tablespoon of Parrish's chemical food - 1 pint of water One
measure = 4 teaspoons

Sunday: Drink of water boiled and gone cold This is a no nonsense old
fashioned diet, the fancier who gave it to me years ago was a top flyer,
recording 18 hours plus.

Wednesday: 1/2 measure Tares, 1/2 measure Wheat

Thursday: 1/4 Wheat, 1/4 Tares, 1/4 Red Band, 1/4 Hemp

Friday: 1/4 Wheat, 1/4 Rice, 1/4 Red Band, 1/4 Peas

Saturday: 1/4 Wheat, 1/4 Tares, 1/2 Red Band Hormoform with each meal

( 1T/S) Tonic Wed-Friday (As above) Rue Tea Monday and Tuesday

Top Midlands Fanciers flying diet.

There are many good flying men who prefer to feed their birds prior to
release and their results would suggest that this is good management. It is
up to the individual which method he adopts. the main snag I see is getting
up about 2 1/2 hours earlier as the birds need about 2 hours to settle the
food. After the kit has flown the day in good style and dropped when you
wanted them to, I suggest you leave them for a while before feeding them.
Then give each bird a little canary seed and a drink of warm water, with a
little milk added. record details of the fly weather, winds, etc. for future
reference.

Note! Parrish's Chemical Food is an old time Iron Tonic. Tares is Vetch. Red
Band is a mixture of whatever grains and seeds, quite popular in the UK.
Hormoform is a mixture of wheat and a few other grains with cod liver oil
and powdered iron all mixed together. Rue Tea is a tea made from the herb
Rue which is a grass, I believe. Many of the old time flyers used Rue Tea in
their feed-ups.
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