Re: Loft Registry

Hi E man
             You mention putting salt and vinegar in your birds water bath
to get rid of fleas, what sort of quantities to how much water? and I
presume it does not harm them if they drink it.
                   cheers
                          Jane




"E-Man" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Onorio Catenacci <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Just to spark some discussion since things have been so quiet here
> > lately, let me pose the following question:
> >
> > What kinds of information do you record about your birds?  Matings and
> > youngsters, I would guess most everyone records.  What about medication
> > and illnesses?  Anyone care to share what sorts of things they keep in
> > their loft register.  Or am I the only one that bothers to keep a loft
> > register? :-)
>
> Hi Onorio,
> good questions. I raise rollers, so it is important for me to know what
family
> of birds I'm dealing with, and their performance and stability (or lack
of)
> over time, so I'm always jotting down notes of how old they are when they
start
> trying to roll, how deep, how fast, whether it is a clean or sloppy roll,
> whether they are in control of the roll, or whether the roll is in control
of
> them, whether they get better with time, or do they deteriorate, whether
they
> are calm birds or flighty, stance and stature, eyes, feathering,
size.........
>
> All of these things help me determine which birds I breed, which has
another
> set of standards itself. (You have to breed a bird a few times to see if
it
> can reproduce itself.) I used to just breed my best roller to my best
roller,
> but have since found that there is other criteria to determine what is
best.
> I used to have a bird roll so great in it's first season, that out of fear
of
> losing it to the hawks or something, I'd lock it up and breed
it............
> but if I had flown it out for 2 seasons, I would have found that it became
> unstable and became a roll-down in it's second year. This is why now, no
bird
> makes the breeding loft unless it has been flown for 2 seasons.
>
> I would think, especially with the racing people, that they need to keep
> records of medication, illnesses, which birds got medicated, or all.
> I personally, do not medicate. Survival of the fittest. But my birds do
not
> take trips, nor mingle with ferals or other birds. However, I DO medicate
my
> loft. I use SEVIN dust on my perches after scraping, and use salt and
vinegar
> in the bath water. My birds have NO pigeon flys, no feather lice, no bugs.
> And during the summer I use mothballs and spiders for mosquito control.
> The mothballs help mask the smell of a fresh victim, and I let the spiders
> put webs all along my wire openings, where they  catch mosquitos
galore!%^)
>
> Observation is one of the best things for helping you with your birds, but
if
> you can't remember squat, you need to write this stuff down. I had this
hen
> once, that everytime I let her out, she would do a couple of the fastest
and
> cleanest spins you would ever want to see, then immediately drop out of
the
> kit and land. I thought maybe she was eggy, but she never tried to nest,
never
> acted like she was mated to anybody, and I never saw her lay an egg. Well,
> after a couple evenings of observation in the loft, I saw that this bird
was
> the (excuse my language) resident Ho of the flying loft! She would land on
the
> loft floor and let ANY cock bird have at it! I mean ANY! I keep the loft
floor
> covered in cedar shavings, and she would lay an egg from her perch, and it
> would fall and break on the floor, then get covered in the shavings, so
you
> never knew it was there. Once I removed her from the cock birds, she
kitted
> and rolled just fine for the duration. However, it seems ( I may be wrong)
her
> whorishness might have even been a genetic trait. ( Is that possible?)
> Her first clutch was 2 hens that behaved the same way!%^) But you can
always
> refer to your notes and say "oh yeah, her mama was a Ho, so I need to
separate
> this hen!"
> Anyway, the more information you can garner, the better. I know most of us
> can look at any bird in our loft, and know how old it is, and where or
what
> birds it came from, without looking at bands or notes. But occasionally,
> your gonna miss one or two, and they might have been the great ones.
> Sorry Onorio, I didn't mean to get so long winded!%^)
> E-Man