LATE BREDS

A NECESSARY EVIL???

….FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE???

by John Marles Sylvan Lofts

Pigeons hatched in July, August or September are labelled with the title "LATE BRED". For some fanciers just the mere mention of this word elicits a very negative response, but for others like myself these birds have proven to be invaluable. It is very important for the fancier to understand his/her objectives before either breeding or purchasing late breds. In this article I will first outline a historical perspective on late breds by some very famous fanciers and then discuss some of the ways in which late breds can be of value to the fancier.

While doing some research for this article I read a piece entitled "Late Bred Birds" in the Homing Pigeon Annual of 1916 (many thanks to Dr. G.. Chalmers for the book). It was very interesting to read contrasting views on late breds made by such fanciers as A. Hasenne, P. Sion, L. Bastin, A. Jurion, to name a few. All of these comments were confined to the actual racing of late breds. They really had diverse opinions on the keeping of late breds. However, they did agree that if late breds were to be productive in racing then they would only do well when they were two years old. There was general agreement that to deviate from this would prove disastrous. Hansenne starts off by saying, "Late-bred birds cannot race with success the following June with old birds...a fact no serious fancier will deny." Jurion states, "Since 50 years that I have occupied myself in the fancy, I have never been successful in racing a late-bred in the year following its birth. I have nearly always lost them before getting them to Noyon." Bastin considered himself, "a warm partisan of late-bred birds." He continues, " I couple the cock bird which has won the most prizes with the hen having had the most success during this present year." This is a practice that I would advocate for all new fanciers to try. Bastin also mentioned that these August youngsters were very often better built than those of spring. Bastin then remarked on a few of the Late Bred Champions that he has owned. Those fanciers who favoured rearing late breds also mentioned that a number of their Champions were late breds. I feel that there is a fundamental reason why late breds who are reared for racing do not do well as yearlings and that is because they are not trained in the same year as their birth. All of the above fanciers did not train those late breds in the year of their birth. Years ago European fanciers did not train their young birds. It has been only recently that the Specialists have started to train their young birds like the North Americans do. I feel it is imperative for a fancier who wishes to race these birds as yearlings to then train them extensively in the fall. I realise that due to a shortened day and sometimes poor weather it is not always possible to do this. If it is not possible to train them, then I feel the racing value is very limited. I have been fortunate in that I have had two sabbaticals from teaching which have allowed me the time during the day to train the late breds in the fall. If I raise late breds for the purpose of racing them, then I will train them rigorously in the year of their birth. During October and November (sometimes December) I will take them as often as possible usually not exceeding sixty miles. On occasions I have trained them two and three times on a nice day from five, ten or fifteen miles in three different directions. All I want to do is to develop their orientation skills. The actual distance they are trained is not the most important factor. If possible they will be trained sixty miles in three different directions and usually single tossed at all of these points. It is imperative that you cull all of those late breds that do not possess excellent orientation skills. The remaining late breds can and sometimes will rival any of your most successful old birds the next year. I have had this happen many times. As long as they were trained well in the year of their birth they have the ability to top the Combine. Back in 1964 as a young teenager I had a very poor hatch. I well remember Frank Blackburn giving me a few late breds which I trained up to about 40 miles. Two of these birds went on to fly very well for me. It was this experience that taught me the value of training late breds before the winter sets in.

So…let us say you do not have the time to train late breds. Then I would suggest breeding very, very few and only from your top stock pair or best flyers. I like to experiment with linebredding or inbredding at this time of the year. Inbreeding is a double edged sword in that unless the source birds are from a long line of consistant winners then it just is not worth the experiment. Many people have tried.