[Backwoods Loft]

I want to know how to make my birds come home faster because it shouldnt take them 2 days to get home from a 30mile toss!!!! And my other question is do you want fast birds on a short toss and slow birds on a long toss or the other way around?

 

[Goodger]

hi Backwood Lofts, your birds should do the 30 miles in under 30 minutes with all being well, how long are they flying around the loft? and how many tosses have they had from 30 miles?

On the long tosses say over 100 miles, if you average their flying speed out at around 45mph you'll be close enough most of the time

 

[Backwoods Loft]

This is their first second 30 mile toss!! And they loft fly every day for about 2 hours and then when they come in from a tossthey dont trap they just fly down to the grass and peck around and then just set on the loft for a while i know they need to trap fast when racing

 

[Crazy Pete]

Drop back to 10 mi cut down on the feed, hungry birds will trap in faster. You want fast birds on both long and short tosses.
Dave

 

[MaryOfExeter]

Birds who won't trap quickly are one of two extremes - too hungry, or too full. More than likely they are too full, as my birds will trap immediately after coming out if they are really hungry. Then if the door is still open, they'll come back out again and go straight to the ground. They'll also pick on the ground a lot if they need grit. Make sure there's a steady supply of it in the loft.
How much are you feeding them per bird? Or rather, how many birds are in the loft and how much do you feed them at a time (a cup, 2 cups, etc)? And how often?


If they take a while on short tosses, that is fine. They know where they are and are just getting their energy out, just like when they route for 2 hours. However, it should not take them all day. No longer than they would normally route. Unless they got scattered by hawks, in which they will stay out overnight and you may have birds trickling in for a couple days depending on how far out they got spooked, how far/which way each bird flew to get away, how many times they met a predator (can be a lot on their way home this time of year), and how old/experienced the birds are. Motivation to come home is another factor. So really, it may not be the birds fault that they are slow, but rather they just had some unfortunate events happen on the way home or while they were "playing around".