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How to Select Young Pigeons? These Selection Tips You Need to Know

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The rise and fall of a pigeon loft, from a breeding perspective, depends to a great extent on the selection of young pigeons. The young pigeons produced should be selected. If they are all kept regardless of quality, it not only wastes energy and resources, but also leads to a decline in the overall racing performance of the loft. Conversely, carefully selecting high-quality young pigeons is very beneficial for both breeding and racing. Therefore, pigeon fanciers must pay attention to the selection of young pigeons. How to select young pigeons? 1. Bloodline is the foundation. Based on racing practice, select and keep young pigeons with good bloodlines and outstanding performance from the loft as breeding pigeons for the next generation. For crossbred pigeons, young pigeons with the most outstanding hereditary bloodlines can be selected and kept for competition preparation. In this way, you must clearly identify your own @#@247@#@, which bloodline should serve as the main bloodline, and which ones as the pairing bloodlines. Keep the main bloodline for breeding, and use the crossbred bloodline for competition. 2. When selecting young pigeons, look at body type. For a racing pigeon to win in fierce competition, facing thousands of strong pigeons like a forest, even in a contest decided by a few thousandths of a second, besides having a superior bloodline, appearance, and eyes, the remaining condition is physical fitness. Physical fitness includes body type, and pigeons with a streamlined body type should be selected. Understood from the principles of aerodynamics, streamlined racing pigeons have low flight resistance, good balance, longer sustained flight time, and less physical exertion. Therefore, when selecting any breed, streamlined body type pigeons are the first choice. In terms of overall form: length, width, and thickness, that is, body length, back width, and chest thickness. Judging from the data of winning racing pigeons, most winners in short- and medium-distance races are short and stocky, or short and compact. Such racing pigeons often have strong explosive power but short sustained flight time. This is determined by their body type characteristics. In other words, the body type characteristics of short- and medium-distance pigeon breeds and long-distance and ultra-long-distance pigeon breeds are different. Therefore, when selecting young pigeons, the body type of the young pigeons should be chosen in accordance with the competition category. 3. Selection of young pigeons' eyes. Because they are young pigeons, everyone's method of judging pigeons differs, and some people still cannot see much of anything. But practice tells us that bloodline pigeons with good iris texture, pupil, eye sign, and inner line are beneficial for both breeding and racing. 4. The skeleton of young pigeons is also very important. "Judging bone when releasing" was Zhang Wanzhong's profound theory 300 years ago. Unfortunately, it has still not been taken seriously by all pigeon fanciers to this day. The skeleton is the foundation that constitutes a racing pigeon. The skeleton is the support for all the moving parts of the racing pigeon and for the muscles that produce movement. Only a strong, supple, and solid skeletal structure can provide a suitable support for different muscle groups. When a young pigeon is held in the hand, it should feel hard-supported and solid. The keel should be long, thick, and curved. One end of the pubic bone should tilt slightly upward; the pubic bones should be short, thick, and solid, and close tightly. The humerus should be thick, strong, and hard, and when flapping it is powerful, which can increase the frequency of flapping. 5. Muscles. The large pectoral muscles appear full and strong, giving a sense of firmness and composure. After training and competition, a racing pigeon's fat has all disappeared, and its large pectoral muscles change from soft to elastic. When the pigeon is held in the hand and its wings are spread, the two wings produce a soft and elastic feeling. 6. Feathers. The feathers should have good downy softness, be smooth, glossy in color, with feather barbs as fine as silk, closely arranged into flat and thin elastic feathers, clinging tightly to the whole body, giving a feeling of slipping out of the hand when held. 7. Overall appearance. Young pigeons should have a strong physique and an intelligent, calm, and confident demeanor. They should give a sense of balance. The two legs should not be too long or too straight, nor should they appear too short. Male pigeons should have a natural and poised masculine appearance; female pigeons should have a dignified and elegant feminine appearance. They should be "still as a maiden, moving as a dragon." They should be affectionate toward their owner and highly alert toward strangers. Regarding the selection and views on young pigeons, this is merely my humble opinion. At present, in the pigeon-keeping field, there are no professional schools, no fixed teachers, and no fixed models. One must rely on oneself to learn and explore, and communicate more with fellow pigeon fanciers. Therefore, one should not fear failure or setbacks, nor should one become complacent and stagnate after achieving results. One should humbly learn from others' strengths, understand the merits of other pigeon lines, and introduce good bloodline pigeons at the appropriate time, which will add new vitality to one's own loft and may also produce unexpectedly good results.

The rise and fall of a pigeon loft, from a breeding perspective, depends to a great extent on the selection of young pigeons. The young pigeons produced should be selected. If they are all kept regardless of quality, it not only wastes energy and resources, but also leads to a decline in the overall racing performance of the loft. Conversely, carefully selecting high-quality young pigeons is very beneficial for both breeding and racing. Therefore, pigeon fanciers must pay attention to the selection of young pigeons. How to select young pigeons? 1. Bloodline is the foundation. Based on racing practice, select and keep young pigeons with good bloodlines and outstanding performance from the loft as breeding pigeons for the next generation. For crossbred pigeons, young pigeons with the most outstanding hereditary bloodlines can be selected and kept for competition preparation. In this way, you must clearly identify your own @#@247@#@, which bloodline should serve as the main bloodline, and which ones as the pairing bloodlines. Keep the main bloodline for breeding, and use the crossbred bloodline for competition. 2. When selecting young pigeons, look at body type. For a racing pigeon to win in fierce competition, facing thousands of strong pigeons like a forest, even in a contest decided by a few thousandths of a second, besides having a superior bloodline, appearance, and eyes, the remaining condition is physical fitness. Physical fitness includes body type, and pigeons with a streamlined body type should be selected. Understood from the principles of aerodynamics, streamlined racing pigeons have low flight resistance, good balance, longer sustained flight time, and less physical exertion. Therefore, when selecting any breed, streamlined body type pigeons are the first choice. In terms of overall form: length, width, and thickness, that is, body length, back width, and chest thickness. Judging from the data of winning racing pigeons, most winners in short- and medium-distance races are short and stocky, or short and compact. Such racing pigeons often have strong explosive power but short sustained flight time. This is determined by their body type characteristics. In other words, the body type characteristics of short- and medium-distance pigeon breeds and long-distance and ultra-long-distance pigeon breeds are different. Therefore, when selecting young pigeons, the body type of the young pigeons should be chosen in accordance with the competition category. 3. Selection of young pigeons' eyes. Because they are young pigeons, everyone's method of judging pigeons differs, and some people still cannot see much of anything. But practice tells us that bloodline pigeons with good iris texture, pupil, eye sign, and inner line are beneficial for both breeding and racing. 4. The skeleton of young pigeons is also very important. "Judging bone when releasing" was Zhang Wanzhong's profound theory 300 years ago. Unfortunately, it has still not been taken seriously by all pigeon fanciers to this day. The skeleton is the foundation that constitutes a racing pigeon. The skeleton is the support for all the moving parts of the racing pigeon and for the muscles that produce movement. Only a strong, supple, and solid skeletal structure can provide a suitable support for different muscle groups. When a young pigeon is held in the hand, it should feel hard-supported and solid. The keel should be long, thick, and curved. One end of the pubic bone should tilt slightly upward; the pubic bones should be short, thick, and solid, and close tightly. The humerus should be thick, strong, and hard, and when flapping it is powerful, which can increase the frequency of flapping. 5. Muscles. The large pectoral muscles appear full and strong, giving a sense of firmness and composure. After training and competition, a racing pigeon's fat has all disappeared, and its large pectoral muscles change from soft to elastic. When the pigeon is held in the hand and its wings are spread, the two wings produce a soft and elastic feeling. 6. Feathers. The feathers should have good downy softness, be smooth, glossy in color, with feather barbs as fine as silk, closely arranged into flat and thin elastic feathers, clinging tightly to the whole body, giving a feeling of slipping out of the hand when held. 7. Overall appearance. Young pigeons should have a strong physique and an intelligent, calm, and confident demeanor. They should give a sense of balance. The two legs should not be too long or too straight, nor should they appear too short. Male pigeons should have a natural and poised masculine appearance; female pigeons should have a dignified and elegant feminine appearance. They should be "still as a maiden, moving as a dragon." They should be affectionate toward their owner and highly alert toward strangers. Regarding the selection and views on young pigeons, this is merely my humble opinion. At present, in the pigeon-keeping field, there are no professional schools, no fixed teachers, and no fixed models. One must rely on oneself to learn and explore, and communicate more with fellow pigeon fanciers. Therefore, one should not fear failure or setbacks, nor should one become complacent and stagnate after achieving results. One should humbly learn from others' strengths, understand the merits of other pigeon lines, and introduce good bloodline pigeons at the appropriate time, which will add new vitality to one's own loft and may also produce unexpectedly good results.

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