KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE

We must always remember that we are dealing not with human beings, which can reason,
but with pigeons. Do not try to reason with the birds….always remember to keep it
simple for them and for ourselves. Each year most flyers beat their own birds by being
too complex. Far more race positions are lost by handlers than by inferior birds in the
loft! REMEMBER to give our birds every opportunity to excel by giving them simple
rules & regulations to adhere to. If they must be beaten on race day, let it be by superior
birds rather than us--their owners.

Someone once asked me what I thought was the greatest virtue a young fancier needed to
be successful. I immediately replied..PATIENCE! Time is needed to build a team of
competitive racers, time to build a family of birds, and time to understand and practice all
of the little details needed to be an Ace flyer. It is necessary to use patience when you are
tempted to fly those 300, 400, or 500 mile races with youngsters or the 500 or 600 mile
events with your yearlings. There are those times when weather threatens and you must
leave them home and not take a foolish risk.
The hardest thing a novice must learn is to cull a bird that is a weakling in the nest, is
injured in training, does not home in race time, or is slow to recover from stress. We
must always remember that we keep our birds in artificial conditions. In nature the
strong survive and the weak quickly fall by the wayside. We must look at each bird &
ask if it can honestly fly 500 - 600 miles in a day? Does the individual have the brains,
heart, stamina, physical structure to fly 11 - 14 hours without a stop? If the answer is no,
we must dispose of him / her for the good & progression of our family of birds.
QUALITY ALWAYS PAYS DIVIDENDS IN THE LONG RUN!

Pigeon keeping is a worthwhile, yet time consuming hobby. Since it's beginning in
Ancient times it has spread to worldwide popularity. The hobby used to be easy to get
into but with the growth of cities & residential areas, we must emphasize quality in our
efforts and continue to change and improve things in pigeoneering approaching the 20th
Century.

Four basic elements are needed to strt your career as a flyer….. Structure
(Loft)…..Fixtures (nests, drinkers, feed hoppers, etc.)…..Ace (established
breeder & racer)…..Birds
The Structure A loft or coop should be divided into tow and better yet into three
sections. The main features to look for ate lots of ventilation, dry, draft free, neat
exterior, plenty of sunshine and facing in the direction where the warmest winds will hit
the front of the structure. Proper air flow is our first concern since the birds inside need
clean air at all times. By placing an intake vent or vents at floor level in each section we
allow the clean, fresh air to enter the loft. Old, stale air rises so we must also have an exit
or escape vent or vents in the top, front roof line of each loft section. This system allows
air exchange without creating a draft across the inhabitants. Holding form or
conditioning in our race birds cannot be done in a drafty loft. To avoid this we build the
loft off of the ground to permit air circulation underneath the structure. NEVER HAVE
A CONCRETE FLOOR IN THE LOFT! Plenty of windows should also be planned to
allow sunlight inside. This is always beneficial to the inhabitants and aids in keeping the
interior dry.

THE FIXTURES Unlike humans, birds do not think or reason. The three main
things that serve to causes our birds to home each time are FEAR, HUNGER, and
TERRITORIAL POSSESSION. A bird does not know how to forage for food like his
feral cousins because we have always fed him. His loft is his security (perch or roost) as
a young bird. As an adult his perch and his nest box serve as his motivation. Perches are
10" x 10" box type & one should be available for each bird in the section. This is "home"
to your bird. At one year of age you need to provide your bird (s) with a mate and an
individual nest box. 20" x 20" x 20" is a good size. Birds must have water at all times
offered in a water dish or pan covered with bars or dowels so they don't bath or deposit
waste in the water. They will stick their heads through to drink. A smaller covered
container is needed for grit. The feeder or hopper should have dowel sides similar to the
water arrangement. A hinged lid facilitates feeding. Nest bowls are needed for each nest
box. Consider the medium sized plastic dog bowls from a good wholesale pet supply
outlet. They are able to be scrubbed & reused year to year. An outside aviary with cat &
dog proof netting (wire) should be added to the outside of each section so that the birds
can bath and enjoy the outdoors. They need to become familiar with the loft
surroundings and an aviary will serve to accomplish this. A bath pan will need to be
available for each aviary. Last but not least are the three main tools of success, a loft
scraper (wide blade putty knife), a plastic dustpan and a sturdy broom. A large wet-dry
shop vac is a very nice addition if you wish to eliminate feathers and dust in the nooks &
crannies about the premises.

ACE (BREEDER & FLYER) The word "novice" means inexperienced or

untrained. You now need to seek someone who will gladly answer your questions on
what to look for, what is needed and how to go about building your success. This is your
ACE. He is highly skilled & a respected flyer among his peers. ACE is skilled in
breeding and racing quality specimens. His loft offers a neat, orderly and very healthy
environment for his pigeons. ACE's motto is "QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY" and with
that in mind he has most likely developed a family of birds that look alike and, more
importantly, breed alike. His pigeons have that hard to attain quality called
PREPOTENCY…….They not only breed well, they race well!
Now comes the secret of your future success……obtain 10 pair of birds from the local
flyers in the club, birds that are healthy but do not come up to their owners standards for
one reason or another. Pair up these birds on the same day that your ACE pairs his up.
Your ACE probably has a race team & a stock team. The flyers are from his stock pairs
and flown successfully on the course you will likely fly in the future. ACE probably lets
his flyers raise one youngster and places his proven flyer's chicks under his yearlings.
What does ACE do with the eggs of the yearlings?????? Throws them out because he has
no place to put them. Here is where your 10 pair of discards from other flyers come
in…..take the eggs from your ACE's yearlings and place them under your discard pairs.
Throw away the discard bird eggs. Now I will admit that your ACE has probably
retained the best for himself and let you have eggs off of his unproven birds, but your
ACE is a skilled breeder and owns a family of related birds. Because he is an ACE he
breeds better youngsters every year and that means his yearlings are better or at least the
equal of his 2 & 3 year old flyers and probably, in some cases, better than his prized stock
pairs. Granted, you are trying chance matings, but remember your ACE was the one who
mated them! However, let's not leave all to chance. When your 10 pair of duds lay their
second round so will your ACE's champions. What does ACE do with these eggs????
He throws them away….because he must prepare the birds for racing. Again, pitch out
the eggs of your duds but this time take home your ACE's champions eggs! If all goes
well, and the duds foster these eggs you will have 20 youngsters off of ACE's yearlings &
20 off of his champion racers. You now have 40 youngsters that are the envy of
everyone in the club. My dear novice please note that PATIENCE PAYS DIVIDENDS
& SAVES FUTURE FRUSTRATION in so many ways. By the way, you must now
repress the 10 pair of duds. Your loft only has room for the best specimens and only
those that fly to your loft.

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

Adapt a management system similar to your ACE's and stick to it. Regularity is very
important to your birds. ROUTINE is the key. Feed & water (give or take a half hour)
daily. Like wise, when you train your birds.

Keep a clean loft (scrape daily when you can), clean water pans daily & provide fresh
water 2X daily whenever possible.

Never overfeed (handful until the 1st two birds take a drink) and NEVER let your birds
out unless they are hungry.

Offer bath water once a week and empty the pan after one hour. Epsom salts added in
moderation give soft feathering when added to the pan.

Give lettuce once a week (sprinkled with salt), alfalfa pellets (small) are an excellent
alternative in colder weather.

Keep grit & iodized salt & minerals (pick stone) in front of birds always.

Fall in love with the betterment of the breed, not specific birds.
Building the stock loft & nests becomes important once you have decided which
of the three sections (hopefully three) to use. Try to select an end section with plenty of
light if you can. Now I can hear the murmur of disagreement from some of the old hands
in the sport, but please listen dear novice….build your nest on the inside wall about 1ft
off of the floor. As I said earlier, 20" x 20" x 20" is good. If your loft is six feet high you
can build 3 nest high. If the lot is 9ft long you can build 5 nest across. So you have 15
large nest. After this year they will be your old flying nest. If your coop is 7ft long you
can build 12 nice nest. You can build on two walls but DO NOT allow the nest fronts to
face each other! THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you can have a solid wall separating this
section from the others it will be of great benefit as you shall see. Try to have a large
window in front & on the side of this section for plenty of natural light.

Nest fronts may be ordered or made 19" wide x 19" high with openings on left, right, or
in the middle or a combination of each. Bars (dowels) are opposite side of the opening.
To the sides of these fronts place a 9" wide x 9" wide x 9" high piece of plywood. Now
the front will stand by itself. You will notice that the front fits nicely into the 20" x 20"
nest area. The front will fit all the way forward, sideways, or back far enough to make a
roost. Remember you built no perches in this section. After your pairs of birds are
mated, move the front back 6" and you will find the one bird sitting on eggs and the other
sitting the ledge or front shelf created when the front is slid back into the nest. This
develops a strong attachment in your birds for the mate, eggs, young & home territory.

KEEPING BIRDS UNDER YOUR CONTROL Nothing is worse than a team

of wild, uncontrolled pigeons. Much of this can be avoided in the loft plan by NEVER
having a section that is wider than you can reach across with both arms extended. You
should be able to touch both walls with the palms of your hands. The ceiling should be
2" above your head at the lowest point. These dimensions encourage calmness in the
birds in your loft section. As the youngsters in the nest start feathering, & their parents
lay the next set of eggs, each time you clean the loft & nest, put your hand into the nest &
let the chicks puff up & peck at you. This allows them to get used to you on a regular
basis. Make sure they don't strike their wing butts on anything hard. When you fee the
parents softly repeat over & over "come, come, come, come". The babies learn to
associate this familiar sound of your voice with feeding time…an asset later on.

MATING YOUR BIRDS If you have 3 sections & have built your nest as
described you will have no problems mating. Watch the cocks to see which nest front
they sit on & make sure all other fronts are pulled fully forward so that there is only ONE
NEST PER COCK. Lock the hen inside the nest and when the cock flies to his roost he
will discover only the hen you have chosen for him. He will court her through the dowel
bars but cannot peck her or otherwise injure her. ACE mates the birds on a Friday
evening after feeding & watering them about a half hour beforehand. You'll note that for
2 days after mating the birds they will eat very little…Saturday, about noon lock the
cocks inside the nest and turn the hens out. Watch to see if the hen finds her cock. If so,
all is well. Saturday evening allow the birds together. ACE puts the nest bowl upside
down or places a block of wood in the nest so that he hen can jump up on it if her mate
gets too aggressive in his courtship. Watch the yearling cocks as they sometimes get
excited & mean. After the cock is calling his hem to a corner and she rushes at him
dragging her tail you can let one pair at a time out of the nest to eat & drink in the loft.
She will follow him back to his nest. Your nest are large enough for the cock to tread the
hen. When he hops on the female & balances himself he is fertilizing the eggs. In 8 days
the hen will lay the first egg. Add straw or pine needles in a pile on the loft floor and the
pairs will carry them to the nest to line them. Do this for three days after the birds have
mated. This gathering process builds a love of nest and bonds the pair together. The hen
skips one day and lays the 2nd egg. Often yearling hens do not sit too well on the 1st egg.
If the weather is cold, take the 1st egg inside and place a wooden dummy egg in the nest
until the 2nd egg appears. Then you can return her 1st egg.

RAISING THE YOUNGSTERS You now have the 12-16 pairs on eggs awaiting
hatching of youngsters & you must be sure to give the birds bath water once a week in
the aviary. ACE does this about 9AM on Saturday or Sunday. WHY??? Because cocks
sit on eggs from 9:30 AM until 4:30 PM and hens sit from 4:30 PM until 9:30 AM the
following morning under normal conditions. By leaving bath water in the aviary from 9
AM until 10 AM both parents have a chance to bathe. This is important for the molt of
your birds & also for the unborn youngsters. Let me explain. You have a sunny, well-
ventilated, dry loft building according to the earlier specifications & your flock is calm
and heavily feathered because of the high protein diet you fed them as youngsters so they
faithfully sit on the eggs. Their body temperature will dry up the nest & eggs more than
the ventilated loft will. What does this mean? Your youngsters must pick through the
shell to escape the egg. Dry eggshells are very hard eggshells! By bathing and returning
to sit on the eggs the old birds allow their damp warm bodies to soften the egg shell and
provide the youngsters with an easier escape from it. Wild birds employ this method and
its is important. When weather does not permit a bath you must fill a spray bottle with
water and gently mist each nest & eggs with 3 or 4 squirts to insure that the shells do not
become to dry. Don't drown the nest. Just moisten it with three or four squirts of water
and things will go according to plan. Your birds should not have any medication in the
drinking water for at least 4 days prior to the 19th day after the first egg was laid since the
adults are forming pigeon milk to feed their offspring. KISS novices don’t worry about
this because we avoid medications whenever possible. Between 17 – 19 days the
youngsters begin to pick through the shell & the following 4 days parents feed “milk.”
The 5th day they start to feed hard food and you will notice an increased consumption of
grit at this time because the food must be ground to tiny fragments for he young. The
adults also drink increased amount of water to soften the food in their crop prior to
feeding the youngsters. At this time peas become the preferred grain over corn because
peas have protein and corn has high carbohydrate levels. Protein is needed for the growth
of the squabs….ACE is hopper feeding during this period and putting down one ounce of
food per bird per feeding, rather than the normal one ounce of food per day. Before
leaving for work he also places a cereal sized bowl of pellets in the loft. Remember to
keep the water pans filled at each opportunity during this period. When AC E arrives
home in the evening, he checks to see if the food is gone. If not he cuts back a bit the
following day. At night, hoppers are filled again. Before dark the hoppers are pilled out
until the following morning which stops food from being thrown about on the floor. If
food is in front of the birds all day the parents keep a full crop & therefore think the
young are full too. By having hunger twice daily they remember to feed the young &
their digestive systems have time to rest & recover in good fashion.
 At 8 or 9 days the youngsters can be banded. It is now that decisions must be made.
Are both good healthy youngsters? Is one a weakling? We check nostrils to see if they
are dry; check rectums to see if they came out of the egg properly……if not they will
exhibit a swelling or sore in that region. It labels the chick as a weakling because it was
not strong enough in the hatching process. Check the crops to see that they are full of
food & nest bedding to be assured that droppings are well formed & not wet. Wet
nostrils & wet droppings usually mean that young birds are getting a draft. Now any &
all weak specimens NUST be eliminated! Only the strong and best must survive. When
the young are about 12 days old, the cock will start to drive (chase) his hen for the next
round of eggs. Now nest are cleaned out & nest fronts are turned sideways with clean
shavings added to the inside of the enclosure. Here we place the two youngsters.
Outside is the nest bowl where the hen will lay a second round of eggs. The cock can
still enter the closed section to feed his young. At 20 days of age we close the door to the
dowelled enclosure and the cock feeds through the bars thereby assuring us that no young
birds will be injured by another cock should it wander into the wrong nest. It is about
this time that ACE also puts a water & a pellet can in a corner of the enclosure to teach
the young to eat & drink a little on their own. Pellets are digested easily without grit.
The BENEFIT is that when you wean the youngsters at 28 days of age in a loft of their
own, they already know how to eat & drink a little.

WEANING THE YOUNGSTERS means taking them away from the adults at 27
days of age & placing them into their own loft section. Each bird needs its own perch
but most will initially huddle on the floor begging for food from each other. Have pans
of food & water available for them and soon the more adventuresome ones will have the
entire group exploring the loft. Remember your youngsters are developing, growing
rapidly, and are also molting feathers which are 100% protein. Watch for any youngsters
that sit in a corner and slowly blink their eyes. They need a drink & you must catch them
and place their beak in the water pan to give them a drink. You may have to repeat the
process a time or two. Be alert to this when you are weaning the birds because if you
miss this the individual will rapidly deteriorate and never grow into its potential for you.
Every so often, despite your best efforts, a youngster will not figure out how to eat or
drink. It is a dummy and must be eliminated! Be sure to remove the food pan one hour
after putting it in the loft or you will have food all over the floor of your loft section.
This is not good sanitation.

REMEMBER: Protein equals growth & repair.

Carbohydrates equal energy.
Feeding these YOUNGSTERS will require a good high protein diet which might include
vitamin enriched Purina brand duck pellets, medicated pig starter pellets, high protein
puppy chow in small pellet form, small alfalfa pellets, etc. Any high protein grain mix
will also suffice but ACE has better results with pellet feed because birds don’t pick out
only the seeds they prefer but are made to eat a balance mix by using the pellets.

After the birds have settled in the new space for about 4 days, get a low stool, & your
feed can with a little feed in it and seat yourself in the center of the loft. Now rattle the
feed can lightly and call your birds softly saying over & over “come, come, come,
Come-e-e-e.” From this point on you will repeat this call & rattle of the can each time
they are fed so the youngsters always associate this process with entering the loft to come
to you & eat. Make yourself a feeding board or clean the loft floor each time before you
feed. Throw down two handfuls of food in front of you and watch the birds crowd
around you & eat. When the 2 handfuls are gone, toss out 2 more and repeat the process
until 2 or 3 birds go to the water. When this happens, STOP feeding. You will still have
birds milling about looking for food but DO NOT give into the urge to feed them more!
Allow youngsters out in the aviary to get familiar with their surroundings. After they
have done this about 4 days, you can put them outside for the first time. Put them out in
the evening the first 2 or 3 times, but be sure they have been fed at least 8 hours before
you put them out. Just about dark, enter the loft & call them in from outside and feed
them. Allow an hour to pass and return to the loft. By now all of the birds will have had
a drink, and eaten. The food in their crops will have swelled & they will appear full &
contented. If you had overfed, they would have been stuffed.

TRAININ THE YOUNGSTERS is now the key to the success or setback of you
KISS plan of action. You now have 40 specimens which any of your competitors would
be proud to own and I know you are anxious to race them against the world, but PLEASE
FOLLOW MY ADVICE! Now it is time for you to apply the secret…...PATIENCE !
KISS won’t knock those who fly a rough young bird schedule & let the basket and
elements, etc. do their choosing for them. But remember, these fellows have an
established old bird team to rely on if things fall apart for them. To succeed in young
bird racing, you must starve, mate & feed many things that are not conducive to the
maturing process KISS will outline for your birds…..PATIENCE PLEASE !!!

If the March, April & early May youngsters have been allowed out once a day (see
section on settling) they will be routing (exploring the surroundings) from 25 to 45
minutes, when they fly in the mornings. If they exceed one hour flying, let tem out in the
evenings also before you feed them. If your young bird races start in August you should
start roading your birds in the last week of June. Allow the youngsters out morning &
evening 2 weeks prior to going on the road. NOTE: YOUNG VIRDS MUST ROUTE
BEFORE YOU ROAD THEM !!!!!! If they don’t there is a problem (bad feed, water,
poor ventilation, internal / external parasites, canker or respiratory problems of some sort)
with them. Never, never, ever take a bird on the road unless it has lost it’s 1st &
hopefully 2nd primary flights…..Place the 40 youngsters in your training baskets. DO
NOT CROWD THEM. Plenty of room in each basket for each bird is a must to keep
them healthy. Take them 5 miles. Allow them to sit in the baskets on the ground for 15 –
30 minutes & calm down a little. Then open the small TOP DOOR (here the old hands
start to protest once again) and let each bird discover the exit and take to the sky. This
allows them to learn to break away without the mob confusion and injury caused by
flipping the large side door on most training crates open. Birds learn nothing from such a
procedure. Wait 15 minutes & release the 2nd basket, and so forth. The next day is 20
miles and the next day 30 and so forth as long as they are returning good. Make certain
the weather & wind are always good and be sure to mix them up in the baskets on each
training toss. This will enable you to tell which group is coming best should you manage
to beat hem home. NEVER release your birds for training near wires or passing traffic as
some will likely be injured or killed as they swirl & loop getting into flying position.
Now you should consider finding someone reliable to train with. Make sure this person
or persons live in your vicinity since you only have 40 youngsters and you are only
interested in showing them the proper line of flight. They will probably have more
youngsters but you will have an edge due to your previous training & conditioning, plus
the protein diet. Your fellow flyers have probably been involved with the old bird season
which has now concluded.

KEEP IT SUPER SIMPLE

KISS roads birds with 5 other club members on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,
both in the morning & evening (early) before dark. In our rotation system this means I’m
only on the road once a week. Once we start road working the youngsters they are never
left out around the loft again until the race season ends. These other 5 gentlemen are very
successful young bird flyers. When I choose to fly the young birds I AM
SUCCESSFLY ALSO. We take them on the road 6 times, between 20 – 35 miles & all
birds pull the same way and learn to break for home. People say we are crazy for doing
this much road work…but you decide….they fly 30 – 45 minutes morning & evening
(when the weather permits) & learn something in the process. KISS is also able to handle
them each day, and when something is wrong with one of them he quickly discovers
it…..plus, the pigeons enjoy flying & exercising themselves into top condition.
KISS will concede that this is not the only way to go, but the intent is to instill and fine
tune this unknown homing instinct in our birds as early in life as possible. Pigeons, and
man, become bored & flying must be fun for them, therefore you should never force your
birds to fly. This must come naturally for them. When birds are road worked they fly
home out of fear & a bit of hunger. When flying around your loft in circles they tend to
get bored and a lot less fearful & the bad habits start to be picked up at this point, like
landing on wires, trees, & flying slowly around the loft while being trained. Training in
bad or questionable weather takes the fun out of it for your birds. Rest assured that they
will be anxious to fly after missing a training toss. Some of the fellows say “My birds fly
& train around the loft for an hour each morning & each evening.” Guess what dear
novice? They have their birds in super shape or form but have probably already flown
their race on a given weekday and not on Saturday or Sunday race day. At any rate,
KISS trains on the road through the week through the 200 mile young bird races. If you
decide to fly your team on out to 300 miles be sure to add more carbohydrates to your
feed mix. Remember, if you feed a pellet diet, feed grain the day prior to shipping &
your birds won’t have any greater thirst than the competition eating a daily grain
ration…..they will have more built up nutritional & vitamin reserves to rely on while
racing home to your loft. If you race on Saturday, move the routine ahead on day. We
fly our races on Sunday and thus the aforementioned program.

YOUNG BIRD FLYING FOR NOVICES

By now you are probably itching to go…you can’t wait to get started, but STOP!
PATIENCE. If your club offers a 40 or 60 mile training flight prior to the first scheduled
race, & if the weather is nice, ship it. Keep records on the sequence of your birds as they
arrive home. The next week is the 1st race, check to verify that the weather will be good
and ship 15 of your 40 birds. Try to avoid shipping brother & sister to the same race, so
you do not put all of your eggs in one basket. When they arrive home the drinking water
should contain an electrolyte mix or a tablespoon of honey per gallon. Fresh water
should be given the following morning. The following week ship back your first 4 birds
plus 11 fresh ones, weather permitting of course, as outlined above. When each of your
birds has been to three races you should stop it for the season. PATIENCE is important.
Skip sending birds any week that the weather appears questionable and never regret
doing so. Keep accurate records on race arrivals & don’t allow the youngsters to go to
nest. This is prevented by cleaning out the loft twice a day. This keeps straw, & other
litter out of temptations way for your birds. Give bath water in the aviary on Monday
mornings. Add a half handful of Epsom salt to this water to promote soft feathers &
discourage parasitic livestock. Keep a small bowl of salt in the loft for your birds at all
times. Mondays they can (optional if you already feed some alfalfa pellets on a routine
basis) have lettuce sprinkled with salt….two leaves per each 24 pigeons.

Remember….don’t worry about the race results, be concerned with your team’s
results……look at the area flyers & observe how the winds are on a given day, these are
the flyers that you are concerned with……you are not using tricks or heavy
carbohydrates, you will prevail in the future…..on shipping day, feed your grain mix until
3 birds go to water & then stop feeding (which bird went to drink first? That bird is the
one to ship to the race). No food before you ship the race birds…..pull all grit out of the
loft Saturday morning before feeding your team…..no medicine, no tricks, you are trying
to build a solid old bird team, medication does not help at 500 or 600 mile distances on
race day. Only stamina, disire, ability & health prevail.

Separation Of Sexes… in KISS’s opinion, is important because it gives the birds a

well deserved rest and allows them less stress during the molting process which produces
completely new feathers for the following year. He usually separates them around the
first of the July and permits them full rest until it is time to pair up the following year.
Here is where the 3 loft sections are invaluable. Now if only two sections are available
you will want to close the nests & your flock will stop mating naturally. You will now
have to add temporary perches for each hen in the loft, because the cocks will take over
the nest & may or may not allow the hen to sit with them. Don’t take a chance. Provide
simple perches that can be removed. Fresh air, proper diet, & two baths per week are
welcome during this period. Take the chill off of the bath water but DO NOT give warm
or lukewarm bath water. Why??? Because this will open the skim pores and your birds
will catch a cold. Try to offer baths on sunny days. Temperature is not too important as
long as it is above 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Close windows at night. A good pellet diet,
including our old reliable alfalfa pellets to provide Riboflavin since any greens will
freeze in winter if left in the loft, is important. Plenty of protein is needed for feather
growth and maintenance. A draft free loft & a good nourishing diet will see the flock
through the cold of winter.

Pros & Cons----LATE HATCHES….. are born under optimum conditions, warm
weather both day & night, & longer daylight hours. In a strictly competition loft DON’T
DO IT (for a number of reasons). Two rounds (4 youngsters) produced by 1 pair is
deemed enough work for them for the year. Third & fourth rounds tend to be weaker due
to the wear upon the parents, boredom, and less overall care of these youngsters.
Infidelity happen during this period & you know who the hen is but are you sure about
the cock? Third rounds hold back your mature first & second rounds from flying & they
require more of your time. Many of the third & fourth round youngsters will not finish a
molt in time to fly the young bird race series for you. Unless you separate the old birds
they will keep on mating. Do this around the first week of July…to let them regain
strength, go through a good molt, and get time to relax.
REMEMBER….. Quality not quantity pays dividends.

STARTING YOUR FAMILY OF PIGEONS…

When you look back to the late hatch information you should note point three…time
produces infidelity…who is the father???? When you have the opportunity to visit
conventions and to visit other lofts you will notice that most of your competitors have
any number of nice cocks. Most, you will note, DO NOT have an abundance of nice
hens!!! Show KISS a loft with an above average of quality hens & I will show you, dear
novice, a successful loft and an ACE flyer & fancier. Why is this??? Think about it…the
nens are the mothers of our future hopefuls…..a strong cock & a weak hen usually raise
weak young, and we usually have plenty of strong cocks….. our hens, as young birds, are
worked harder than the cocks in most instances because, for some reason, we seem to
favor the cocks. Believe KISS when I say strong, sturdy, well balanced, and well
feathered hems, with good performance based backgrounds behind them will be the
goldmines & very foundation of your breeding program…remember, you always know
who the mother is. Your ACE has above average hens. Remember you chose him as
your ACE because he was successful…therefore it is reasonable to expect that eggs off of
ACE’s yearlings & champions to hatch into an even number of cocks & hens plus or
minus ten percent. That means that out of 40 youngsters, a least 18 would be hens. Let’s
assume there are 18 hens & 22 cocks and at the end of young bird season you must make
the decision….only 16 cocks & 16 hens make your cut…..2 hens & 6 cocks do not. You
must decide which 16 hens & which 16 cocks you feel have the confirmation, brains,
vitality, & stamina to fly 500 miles on a given day, in reasonable race time. You must
suppress those remaining for the good of your team and for the good of the breed & sport.
Let KISS share a true story with you. As a young man flying birds 400 miles in one day
was a rarity. To fly 500 miles in one day was a phenomenon. For a race bird to fly 600
miles in one day was deemed impossible!!!!!!

THE FAMILY….is a little misleading. Instead of building one family of pigeons, you
must develop two families…..HOW, when you only have one ACE??? NOW COMES
THE TIME TO LEAVE YOUR ACE! You are developing your own ideas, methods,
etc. and it is now time to strive to be better than your ACE……because you are younger
and have your own ideas…..you learn from your ACE’s mistakes…..you are developing,
through patience, a very competitive family of your own. Look at the successful flyers in
the club & combine (several different clubs flying the same race) and realize that these
are the people you must beat on race day to attain success. Please realized that 90% of
them have a family of birds if they have enjoyed success over the last five years. We are
looking for specimens that can compete from 100 to 600 miles, but particularly from 300
to 600 miles in good race time & under less than ideal conditions if needed. You must
realize that the races under 300 miles are mostly trapping contests and the person that has
the best system of coaxing his charges into the loft on race day wins. By feeding yoiur
youngsters a heavy protein diet, using little if any medication, no starvation tactics, but
through solid breeding, you will stay close to the competition on the short races &
smother them on the longer races. Also, your birds know how to break from the flock
(drag). By breaking I mean they will find their own way home an not follow others to
their home loft & have to back track. In old bird season, the family will take over at 300
miles and on out because you rely on healthy specimens, not medicines, performance
enhancers, or tricks. They will fly for the joy of competing.

After you have raised & flown & culled down to the best 16 cocks & hens from the
original eggs from your ACE the decision of how to pair them up arises. HERE IS T HE
START OF YOUR TWO FAMILIES…take your time and select a brother and a sister
from one pair. They should be representative specimens of the best you have in the loft,
as far as feather quality, background, & eye are concerned. Let me digress a bit on eye at
this point and mention that the internet offers Peter Pobor’s theory on eye quality which
is the ONLY theory backed up by performance records that exists. KISS suggests you
review it at www.poborpigeon.com and evaluate it for yourself. These two birds will be your
nucleus of your two families. KISS will call these two the F COCK and the F HEN (F
standing for foundation) AND YOU SHOULD NOW MATE EACH TO THE BEST
OPPOSITE SEX individual of the remaining birds. You now have two key pair which
will start your own two families of racing pigeons! Your remaining 14 cocks & 14 hens
should now be paired. NEVER mate brothers to full sisters. Cousins to cousins,
nephews to nieces, uncles to nieces, etc. are okay. Look at the eye color of this group of
birds and try not to mate similar eye colors together. Good combinations are: brown with
gray, red with brown, pale with bright. Your ACE will have a family of birds and so
most will be similar body type. Some will be larger than others. Mate the largest cock
with the smallest hen and continue this down the line with the remaining birds. Any
extremely large or sparrow types of either sex should have been eliminated earlier but if
some still remain call your ACE and ask him to help you in this matter.

PEDIGREES DO NOT WIN RACES…

Pedigrees do not win races, super deserving birds win races. But records & facts must be
kept because it is the fact and not the fiction that puts you on the race sheet each week &
helps you develop a solid family of birds. There are several computer programs on the
market that allow you to compile very nice pedigrees. To be of value they should offer
information on racing & breeding results of the different individuals represented. On the
pedigrees developed by KISS there is not mention of fancy strain names because this
tends to make a person keep birds one shouldn’t at years end.
Remember, long pedigrees, strain names, & past glories do not win races. Super pigeons
win races. This is why KISS has no belief in the value of 4 & 5 generation pedigrees.
The immediate three generations back are what counts. KISS is also strongly in favor of
naming his birds. His thinking is that names are more personal than ring numbers & with
a name the birds are treated more as individuals, which they are, rather than as a group.
We also remember which bird excelled or disappointed us on race day.

YEARLINGS…a special challenge

They are so much like a young person that has reached puberty and discovered the
opposite sex…..yearlings tend to do all of the foolish things that the old birds never do.
You MUST fly your yearling cocks on the natural system because they have not had time
to act out natures plan…KISS knows any number of veterans that fly yearling on the
widowhood system and they sometimes score but seldom score again and never on the
500 & 600 mile old bird races thereafter. Why is that?
WIDOWHOOD IS UNNATURAL. Life is not that way in nature. Our widow cocks
have not had a chance to act out natures plan which is built into them. They need at least
a year to do this. If we defy mother nature at this stage, we ruin our yearlings nervous
systems for the future. Also KISS novices have a family of birds that share a number of
common ancestors in their pedigree. It takes a linebred or inbred bird longer to develop
& mature than the average hybrid pigeon. This is Mendel’s law. On the good side, our
family of birds will not die out as quickly as those hybrids. You never want to shop a
yearling cock that is driving his hen to the race because he is never thinking clearly at this
time. Wait until his hen lays the second egg before you ship him to the race. As
youngsters, the youngsters went to at least one 300 mile race and only one. As yearlings
we let them raise the first set of youngsters & then fly them up to 300 miles on eggs. DO
NOT SHIP YOUR YEARLINGS to 400, 500, & 600 mile races. Leave this task to the
older birds. NEVER ship a yearling to the race unless it has dropped the first flight
feather. If need be you can jump them from training to the 200 mile station if they have
been allowed to bring up their first round of youngsters. KISS has found that yearling
hens do well on race day sitting on 10 to 12 day old eggs, & also on pipping (starting to
peck through the shell) eggs up to and including the 300 mile races. Yearling cocks fly
well right after the second egg is laid (up to 7 day old eggs). This works out well because
you can ship your cocks 1 or 2 weeks in a row providing the races are easy ones & ship
the hens the next week or two. DO NOT ship both the cock & the hen to the same race
because the mate should be waiting for them on return from the race to instill a greater
love of home & mate.

Now is the time to talk about a three year plan of action….

NOVICE GOALS & OBJECTIVES
*Develop a 3 year plan to enable us to be competitive for the rest of our lives in the sport
of pigeon racing.

*Further the breed, always working toward quality, not quantity, and to develop better &
better specimens.
*Congratulate everyone and don’t be a poor loser. Never badmouth a fellow flyer.

*Make old bird flying a top & ongoing priority for yourself in the sport.

Remember that a pigeon is a youngster only once, but remains an old bird for the rest of
its racing and breeding career in your flock.

YEAR ONE…saw us place the eggs from our ACE’s yearling & champion under our
duds, settle & lightly race them on nice days. We were patient. On the days we were not
racing we went over to our ACE’s house & talked pigeons (learned more) and separated
our birds by sex in October.

YEAR TWO…was when we mated our yearlings birds & allowed them to raise two
youngsters & flew them up to & including 300 miles before we stopped them. We
watched the 4, 5, & 600 mile races from our ACE’s home and also visited him through
the week to learn his feeding & training routine with the long distance candidates. We
also used 10 pair of duds & place our ACE’s eggs under them as in year one, raised &
raced sparingly on nice days, and culled these youngsters at years end as we did in year
one. We kept only those which we felt could do 500 miles on the day. We again
separated the cocks & hens in July, & young birds in October.

YEAR THREE—PLAN ONE…finds us ready to make our move. After 2 years of

flying & culling we now have (on an average) 8 to 10 two year old cocks, and also 8 to
10 hens. The same in young cocks & hens (8-10 each). We used one section of the loft
for flying, one section for breeding our racers, & the third section was used to allow the
10 pair of duds to foster & raise the eggs form our ACE. In July we separated cocks &
hens and young birds in October once again.

YEAR THREE—PLAN TWO…is when all cocks, old & young, are put into the
section of our loft with nest. This coop offers only the nest fronts for perch area so
wherever each cock roosts becomes his nest site the following year. We should have 10
nest in two sections and young bird perches in the third section of the loft. KISS keeps
16 pair in one section & 10 pair in another. Now for the master plan.
*On February 14th mate the 2 year old cocks with the 1 year old hens. On March 1st
mate the yearling cocks to the 2 year old hens. NOTE that they are paired 2 weeks apart.
WHY?? The 2 year old cocks are going to be flown on a widowhood system and the
yearling hens won’t be going to many races. Your 2 year old hens will be flown on a
system called natural. Your yearling cocks will see only two or three races.

From this day forward, you are on the way to the top. Every year you will have 10 nice
hens to add to or replace on your natural team & 10 nice cocks to add or replace on your
widowhood team. Bad races, heavy losses, or smashes will not affect you ever again!
HERE IS WHERE THE PATIENCE BEGINS TO PAY OFF, we get stronger & stronger
& the competition gets weaker. Now we can afford to fly the whole schedule and never
miss a race.
Now we must explain the two systems we plan to fly…..

WIDOWHOOD (Based on 16 Pairs)…Mate up 2, 3, & 4 year old cocks that haave

good body conformation to yearling hens or hens you wish to stock around February 14th.
Hens that are in good condition will lay in 10 to 12 days. All hens should be on eggs by
February 26th and the eggs should be hatched on March 16th. By April 12th all young
birds should be old enough to separate from their parents & your hens should be sitting
on 8-12 day old eggs for the second round. On April 1st (weather permitting) start
training around the loft with cocks out in the morning & hens our in late afternoon before
dark. The hens will be sitting in the morning so cocks will readily go out to exercise. In
the afternoon the hens should go outside while cocks sit on the eggs. Birds can be
allowed to enjoy free loft before April if conditions permit & they will come & go as they
wish. By training I mean mornings & afternoons when at all possible. On April 12th take
hens & youngsters away & put them in a different section of the loft. Let the cocks sit on
the eggs for a day or two before throwing the eggs away because the flyers will use too
much energy raising the next round or two and will not have the reserves needed to fly
competitively for you. On the other hand the stock birds may keep all three rounds of
eggs since they won’t be flying a race schedule. Basket your widowhood cocks & take
them on an 18 mile toss on April 16th. Before you start down the road with the cocks,
gather up the hens & place each in her proper nest and shut the door on the nest front so
that your cocks will find their hens waiting for them when they return from the 18 mile
toss. Allow them together for about 60 minutes and then return the hens to their section
while the cocks remain with the nest box-perch in the widowhood section. When the
birds are together, leave the hen locked in her box. Do this twice a week until your first
race. The other mornings give the cocks an hour of free loft each morning & evening.
Then call them in & hand feed until 2 or 3 go to drink at the waterer. We then close up
the loft so the boys don’t see or get distracted by the other birds. This allows them to rest
and relax. As I stated earlier, KISS keeps 16 widowhood cocks to fly an old bird
schedule of 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 300, 400, 500, & 600 miles. On the first 100, 150,
& 200 he ships all 16 cocks. From the 300 through the 600 he splits the team in two,
shipping 8 birds each week. Since each cock goes every other week they are NEVER
road worked again. They get the road work in the races. The only exception is that the 8
cocks that stayed home are taken out 10 miles on Sunday AFTER the race birds arrive
home, and flown. This gives all of the cocks time with their hens for an hour or two after
the race. Then hens are returned to their compartments and nest fronts are closed up
again.

On shipping afternoon we open up the nest & turn the nest bowl over, at which time the
cocks will run to the nest and begin calling for their hens…now place one hen at a time in
with her cock. When he is in the nest box & she swoops into him, remove him and place
him into the shipping basket for the race. They must not have any treading or mating
prior to basketing! We also basket the 8 cocks that are not going to the race & take them
10 miles ourselves the next morning (race day). MAKE Monday bath day & give the
cocks open loft for an hour or so. They really look forward to this.
Watch your cocks when you let them out. They fly up into the sky & disappear only to
return a few minutes later & swoop into the open window, check on their nest box and
out they go again. You can tell that they enjoy these antics…they fly together for a
bit…then they explode in different directions, only to regroup & repeat the routine. KISS
will now tell you to watch for those cocks that like to fly alone, slapping & clapping their
wings…these are your pool birds for next week. They are edging into top form &
showing you this by their actions. WHEN A WIDOWHOOD COCK IS IN TOP SHAPE
YOU THINK YOU ARE HOLDING A CORK. Their bodies are sleek & firm but they
feel weightless in your hand.
After they come into the loft mornings & evenings, had feed until 2 or 3 go to water, then
draw a burlap shade over the window to allow light into the loft but so that these cocks
cannot see the other birds. At night the window is closed (even in summer) to keep the
temperature as constant as possible. They still get plenty of air because the loft is well
ventilated.
These widowhood cocks MUST NEVER FIND WHERE THEIR HENS ARE HOUSED,
because if they do you are through for the season!!!!! Keep hens inside & windows
covered when the cocks are about. This is important. KISS’s cocks raise 2 youngsters
but they are weaned at 23 days of age. Being 2,3 & 4 year olds, they are mature enough
to handle this task. Once the 300 mile races arrive, KISS no longer shows the hens prior
to basketing for the race. KISS just turns the nest bowls up and the cocks know the hens
will be waiting for them after the race when they return home. Every time a cock is
basketed, he knows his hen will be waiting for his return home. I think I mentioned
earlier that this loft has a large window with no aviary attached. The cocks fly through
the window on race day and are clocked in their nests.
Remember that under the KISS system, all cocks are brothers, half brothers, cousins,
uncles or nephews to one another…so when you split your team into 8 and 8 you must
not put 2 brothers on the same team, but put 1 on each team. Also when the 300 mile
station arrives on the schedule consider adding more carbohydrate to your feed formula
for energy.

Let’s summarize the main points to flying WIDOWHOOD…

*16 cocks—2,3 & 4 year olds (never yearlings).
*Cocks must find their hens upon return from race or training toss every time.
*Cocks are hand fed, never hopper fed.
*When hens are shown before basketing the cocks they must not mate!
*Increase carbohydrates as races get longer.
*No roadwork after the races have started.

NATURAL (Based on 10 Pairs)…As you’ll recall, we put widowhood cocks on

yearling hen on February 14th. The 10 2,3 &4 year old hens are paired up with yearling
cocks around March 1st. These cocks are the replacements for next years widowhood
team. This serves a twofold purpose in that it allows you to have time to get the 16 pair
of widowhood birds mated and settled before fooling around with 10 more pairs of birds.
It’s hard to train 2 teams at once so we are always 2 weeks behind on our naturals. Since
they are our long distance birds, we want their wings to be in good condition for the 400-
600 mile races. We let the naturals bring up their first round of youngsters (2),
remembering that the hens will feed for only the first 15 days before going to nest with
the next set of eggs. This places the burden of feeding on the yearling cock she is paired
to. To fly the KISS method you will need 4 partitions in your South facing loft. On the
East end, there are 16 nest. Eight are on the back wall & eight are on the interior wall so
that the cocks are not facing each other. This eventually becomes the widowhood loft.
The middle loft, which is shallow by comparison, houses 10 pair of naturals. The West
loft houses young birds. We use only two thirds of this side for the youngsters since the
other third is later used to house the widowhood hens.

FLYING THE NATURAL SYSTEM…allows 10 pairs of birds to call the shallow

center section of the loft home. Around March 1st the ten 2, 3 & 4 year old hens are
mated to the yearling cocks. NOTE that the naturals are always 2 weeks behind the
widowhood cocks….because you can take the time to pair them correctly due to
widowers already being on eggs. Your natural hens will also have a better wing for the
long races. These naturals are started on the road the week that you stop roading the
widowers which means you are not juggling two schedules at once. We mate the same
way as with the widowers. Yearling cocks are place in the loft section prior to mating
and allowed to claim a nest. A WORD OF CAUTION IS ADVISED AT THIS POINT!!!
Yearling cocks often get excited and mean when first introduced to a hen. We do not
want our long distance hens chopped up so mate the birds through the nest fronts (hens
inside & cocks outside) for a few days & leave the nest bowl upside down their first day
they are together. This usually solves the problem but keep an eye on the proceedings
until the pairings are complete if you possibly can. We allow the naturals to raise 2
young, a first round, and if all goes well we wean them at 23 days of age. At this time we
pull the second round of eggs since it will take the hens 9-10 days to lay the next round.
This brings us to May 4th. Once the hens have laid both eggs we can start them down the
road since we have already given the naturals free loft for a month as weather permitted
on a daily basis. Remember that the widowhood cocks are out morning & evening for an
hour before we lock them up to rest. Start the naturals at 10 miles & work them up to 25
miles in 3 or 4 jumps. KISS’s race schedule starts around May first; on May 15th is his
first 200 mile race….On May 14th take the naturals 50 miles and double toss….waiting
15 minutes before releasing the next two birds. That evening KISS ships them to the 200
mile race along with the yearling cocks. These are the only two races for them this year
but they continue to be road worked all year. NOTE: when double tossing we toss the
cocks first so that they are waiting when the hens arrive home…a minor, but very
important, sequence to follow to assure success.

Now you are on your own… keep detailed records of when the hens lay & NEVER
let the eggs get over 13 days old or hatch. ALWAYS pull the eggs 20 to 23 days before
the first race that we want the hens to go to. This sets them up on 10 to 12 day old eggs
for the race. At 14 days the hen develops milk & we do not want this because pigeon
milk is protein and we are pushing carbohydrates at this point in time. After the first 200
mile race, KISS gives the naturals open loft all week long and lets the widowhood cocks
out for about an hour before calling them in & feeding them. He then covers the window
so that they rest. The naturals have open loft until about 4 o’clock when they are called
in for the day. The widow cocks go back out for an hour and then they too are shut away
for the night. REMEMBER to close the windows of both coops at night to keep the
temperature as constant as possible.

Now for the key to natural loft racing…hopper feed a good pellet mix that is full
of vitamins & minerals with some small puppy or dog food pellets high in protein &
animal fiber until Tuesday evening when we switch back to basic pellets. Food is before
the birds all day and pulled out at night. It is replace in the mornings. This makes for
contented hens…they have their eggs, their cocks carrying sticks & stems to them all day
for the nest, a weekly bath & a good fly when they wish. Hopper fed birds are never
overweight. KISS does road the naturals on Tuesdays & Thursdays to about 35 miles.
His hens see a 200, 400 and a 500 or 600 mile race. Two weeks before the 500 mile race
he changes the feed mix to 80% carbohydrate balance. Corn is the best carbohydrate
food in the world.

OTHER SYSTEMS:

Double Widowhood…is a system where your hens are treated just like your
widowhood cocks (see section on widowhood) but at this point let me share with you that
KISS was one of the earlier fanciers to try this system and it is definitely not a system for
the novice. After 5 of 6 weeks of separation from their cocks, the hens start to pair up &
produce eggs. You must be an expert to feel the egg inside the hen before you ship her to
a race…. Unless you want to ship a bird that is going to lay. Nine times out of ten you’ll
lose her or she will be out overnight because of the laying process. KISS discovered a
hen’s love of eggs & nest far surpasses the love of her mate. She will kill for eggs, young
& nest, but not for her mate. This is motherly instinct. Flying this system over a few
years will likely take you nice family of birds down the drain because you will lose you
nene good hens. There are special wire & single perch designs for the widowhood hens
lofts in use here & in Europe to avoid some pairing & egg laying but management of the
birds is always critical to success.

Celibacy…can be flown with either cocks or hens with the key to success being that
your subjects never see the opposite sex. This is often difficult for the average fancier to
do. The AUSTRALIANS enjoy some success flying hens under this system but even as
youngsters these birds never see a cock. The disadvantage is that you never get
youngsters off of your flyers & the flying career is short because their nervous systems
are shot quickly. This is a system normally used with yearling cocks when you can put
them in either the natural or widowhood loft. KISS has tried this and found it to be a
workable system. The cocks aren’t mated, but are place in the respective lofts after the
present pairs have raised the young & you have weaned the youngsters to another loft. In
the widowhood loft or natural loft sections these 4 or 5 (at the most) cocks do not own a
nest but rather fly to a perch installed for them. This works far better in the natural
section than with the widowhood cocks because the widowers are always busy defending
their nest and do not rest enough to race well as a result. KISS found that these bachelors
were amorous with the old hens who ignored them when in the natural loft section
whereas the bachelors in the widowhood section seemed a lot less happy. Kiss would
recommend that you use hybrid birds if you wish to pursue this method as they mature
faster than birds genetically related, they will also burn out a lot more quickly. About the
12th of April we removed the 16 hens from the widowhood loft & went on widowhood.
What do we do with these hens???? KISS has 16 hens, 8 yearlings that have done well at
300 miles as youngsters & 8 older, ardent hens that have bred winners over the years for
him. He puts them into a small section of the loft with a large aviary. After the
widowhood cocks are locked up for the morning & the burlap shade pulled, KISS chases
these hens out into the aviary & locks them outside for the day. This stops the hens form
mating to one another. They must not pair with each other because they must reserve all
of the affection for the widowhood cocks upon their return from the races. If one hen
persists in trying to pair with other hens we must separate her & at the end of the year we
must note this & either use her as a natural hen the following year or eliminate her from
this program. As far as feeding is concerned, Monday through Friday, feed 100% barley.
On Saturday, before you show the hens to the race cocks, feed them the basic formula.
Sunday evening until the following Saturday, keep them on 100% barley. Be sure to
offer (on nice days) a bath to the widowhood cocks & their hens together on Sundays.
Make certain there is no chill on the water. It seems to revive the couples also.

HEART ACHES…may occur even with the formula & plan that KISS has given you
thus far…things do go wrong. Sometimes we must alter the best of plans. We started out
on the premise that you have 10 pair of duds to raise your ACE’s youngsters so that you
end up with 40 specimens (2 hatches) and cull at the end of the year…..often an
impossible dream. For whatever reasons, some eggs won’t hatch, some youngsters will
fail to develop properly in the nest & need to be culled, some will be lost off the loft
while settling, some will hit trees & wires, some will be lost in training down the road &
still other will be lost during races. Everything has been based on 40 young birds & 16
pair of old birds, but if you have less, just do things on a small scale. QUALITY, NOT
QUANTITY PAYS DIVIDENDS!!!! If you have 8 to 12 pairs at the end of the
year you are lucky. Better to have 8 pair of specimens than 16 pair of duds!!!
KNOW YOUR LOCATION. KNOW YOUR TROUBLESPOTS. Are you in
an area with a lot of wires? KISS knows a flyer that lives in such an area & must train
his birds 100% on the road after they are settled. He loses more birds through injury than
he ever does on the races & is never able to train around his loft because of the dangerous
conditions, and yet he is very successful in both old & young bird races in his club and
combine. Never road the birds on a foggy day. Watch the winds & weather condition.
Your birds are better off in the loft on very windy days. Don’t train in the rain. When
road working, stay away from traffic areas. Some have ignored this precaution & saw
their birds killed by passing vehicles. Release birds in areas clear of a lot of overhead
wires for the same reasons. When you take the baskets out of your car, be sure you allow
the baskets of birds to sit on the ground for 15 to 30 minutes so the birds can adjust to the
light & surroundings prior to their release….and on the earlier training releases, try
opening only the top door on your training baskets and allowing each individual to hop
up through this opening to head for home. Each one must thing at the start & not just
exit in a mob from the large side door. This also avoids the panic factor and lessens
bruised wing butts. Just a tip that works.
Watch all weekend weather reports & if the conditions are questionable, leave
them home!!! No flyer can overcome foolish losses and be competitive in the long term.
Always remember to avoid foolish risk if you are to succeed.
As the coach of your team of birds, you want to be the person who decides which birds
make the winter cut in your loft…. You do not want the decision left in the hands of some
liberator or to mother nature’s whims or fancies!!!!!

We always find lofts dropping off when we reach the 400 & 500 mile race stations
because a lot of flyers feel they lose too many short distance pigeons on these events.
This is true…they will lose a lot of good short distance birds that simply do not have the
inherent brains or stamina to get to the home loft on race day. Many of the illustrious
import families of birds fail here because they fly fast & stupid and aren’t bred to fly
alone & use their orientation abilities if they even still retain them. Flying the distance
races requires quality & most fanciers have not taken the time & patience to build a
family of birds that can make 500 to 600 miles on the day in good race time. This is our
duty as keepers of these thoroughbreds of the sky. This is the way it was meant to be in
nature. Overcrowding & poor health are also cause for losses but more good pigeons are
lost by poor risk liberations or bad race stations (regularly poor weather conditions) than
are lost to the fancy on the longer race stations. NOTE: A suggestion for liberators…
every year the A.U. & I.F. hold conventions and in the convention books there appears a
list of who’s who by state & city. This winter promise yourself that you will contact
people between your longest station and your home. Ask permission to contact them at
6:00AM and find out how the weather conditions are between their home and yours. For
a little effort a lot of anxiety & grief could be avoided. A good contract liberator should
even adhere to this practice but some who are contracted are not even interested in birds
and those fellows, as often as not, could care less about conditions. They have only the
goal of getting them off the truck & getting home to the TV and a beer. KISS will
guarantee that 90% of the smash races could be avoided for the small price of two or
three long distance calls and a strong dose of common sense. This is why it is important
that you decide the fly or not for yourself!!!

THE LONG DISTANCE RACES…require you to recognize that long distance

racers (short distance sprinters) are born, not made. Athletes that vie in track events are
built differently and so it is with our birds. Not too many years ago it was considered
great to get a 400 mile day bird, and super to get a 500 mile day bird. Selection around
the dedicated lofts worldwide has made 500 & 600 mile birds a normal reality on race
day in our time. KISS firmly feels that the pedigree must carry long distance
performance on both sides. A different training program is also necessary to attain
success at the distance races. Let me try to explain the thinking…we all love to handle
those corky, apple bodied, egg shaped specimens & dream of having a team of racers that
win both short and long for us, and in the winter months compete successfully in the
shows. THIS IS TEN THOUSAND TIMES HARDER TO ATTAIN THAN
BREEDING FOR ONE OF THE ABOVE THREE! A long distance pigeon
must have a hint of deepness. I’m not saying it must be keely, but it can’t be round and
apple feeling. Ask your ACE to show you what I mean. The wing is also different than a
sprinter in that the tips are more pointed (versus rounded) and the ninth flight is longer or
as long as the tenth flight. In fact, at a glance, the 8th, 9th & 10th flights look as if they are
the same length. The long distance bird does not overindulge on food, even with a full
hopper in the loft all day. Most are calm & alert around your loft. They love to fly & are
usually last to land when training. Parenting instincts & vitality are the rule. As
mentioned earlier, pedigree is important, since these individuals are born & not
made…one generation generally produces another fit for the distance.

PRISONERS & THE STOCK LOFT…KISS has outstanding cocks & hens. He
is the competition in the club and combine & his long distance records are envied by all.
As he has stated before, long distance flyers are born, not made. What does KISS do???
Every year KISS takes 5 of his outstanding hens and loans them to other outstanding long
distance flyers to have them mated to their best long distance cocks. He makes the
agreement with each to take his choice of the second round of youngsters. The other
fancier is happy to do this since he gets 3 of the 4 youngsters. Ask yourself why KISS
takes a second round youngster?????? He wants to compare the first & second round to
see if they are alike. He knows what type of youngster his hen will produce & if she
throws better cocks or hens & accordingly chooses the sex that is to his advantage. This
also helps assure him that he is dealing with an honest man. In reality he brings home a
bird that is already half of his bloodlines but he also adds hybrid vigor into his family.
These youngsters are tested against his own & must perform better to make the cut at the
end of the year. What does KISS do with his older cocks??? He usually sells them out of
the area, to supplement the feed bill. He’s not afraid that their young will beat him later
because that flyer usually does not have outstanding hens to compliment the cock. As for
the man that uses the hen for 2 rounds, he usually burns the youngsters out or loses them
carelessly flying and even if he does not, he does not have the tight genetic family that
KISS has so his success is limited. KISS does not keep prisoners because birds locked up
miss something that their settled comrades get from flying…..so if you feel you need
stock birds, retire some of your proven breeders to a loft & let them fly once a week.
Your young will be more robust than your competitors…if someone has a hot pair you
are tempted to buy, ask to purchase a pair of youngsters from this pair & fly them against
your own. This makes good sense and is a whole lot better on your pocketbook.

PRECAUTIONS…KISS novices do not believe in medicines. They keep a clean

environment for their birds & themselves. Pigeons have a natural powder on their bodies
called bloom & it helps to protect them from the elements. After a few months of
occupancy by the birds, you’ll notice this whiter powder (bloom) sticking to walls &
ceilings of the loft. Use a shop vac to clean away all bloom. This dust is not good for
birds or our respiratory systems so keep it cleaned up at every opportunity to assure good
health. As any youngsters are raised, KISS cleans out nest bowls & boxes & puts fresh
pine needles into the boxes to discourage vermin. He also hangs vapona strips
throughout the loft to eliminate mosquitoes & lice & adds sodium fluoride to the birds
bath water every other week. For internal parasites (worms) a product called
TRAMISOL gets all types of these pests. Give for 3 days…skip 9 days, give 3 more
days…& then give about 6 weeks before breeding. Young birds are wormed 8 weeks
before the races & afterward VITAPOL is given in drinking water for two days to restore
vitamins & minerals lost through the previous treatment. VITAPOL is also put into
water after a hard race or rainy day race.

SECRETS (Common Sense)….Include remembering that the most important thing

in your loft is proper ventilation—no drafts and dry.
*Light is 2nd in importance & should include large windows & skylights if possible in the
loft design and construction.
*Clean water twice a day is a must. Let it sit for 45 minutes or so until the chill is gone.
don’t give chilled water to birds that are overheated.
*Clean food, grit & salt is important. Add oyster shell and charcoal to the grit in laying
season. Give greens at the first of each week or alfalfa pellets in a separate bowl
anytime.
*Arriving race birds get luke warm honey water (glucose) before them to help them
recover faster. Hoppers are full of ¾ pellets, barley & canadian peas for easy digestion.
*Nothing stops birds from coming into form faster than temperature changes.
*Close all windows at night, even during the summer months.
*Feed one once of food per bird per day…2/5 in AM and 3/5 in the PM.
*Always try to had feed young birds to assure that they eat a balanced diet, unless pellets
are the main diet. When 5 or 6 go to water they have eaten enough. Make sure they
know where the water is located in the loft.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT OLD BIRDS KNOW WHAT’S GOOD

FOR THEM BUT YOUNG BIRDS DO NOT. FEED ACCORDINGLY
DAILY!!

YOUNG BIRD FUTURITIES…are where most of the prize money is in America.

Since that’s the name of the game we will need a plan of action to compete in this area if
we so desire. Here’s how it works….Raise 50—60 healthy youngsters off of the
widowers & naturals every year, first hatch. KISS’s plan calls for 28 pair of birds (18
widowhood & 10 natural). Every year keep 6—10 yearling cocks (you may have 2—4
retired cocks that are good breeders with your natural hens), and keep 8—10 yearling
hens (you mate some good older breeder hens) to mate to your widowhood cocks. Your
yearlings the following year go on either your widowhood cocks or your natural team
hens. Now let’s go back to the original futurity plan… separate our youngsters from both
lofts by April 23rd. We are working pretty hard right now to road the widowhood cocks
& start the naturals. At any rate, let the young birds out on the board in the early evening
after training the naturals. When the youngsters have dropped the first primary flight,
KISS selects 10 young cocks and 10 young hens and cuts both the eighth & ninth flight
halfway down with scissors. He waits until they drop the second flight in about one and a
half weeks and then CAREFULLY pulls the previously cut 8 & 9 flights. They have
dried up by this time. If you pull the flights without taking time to cut and let the quill
dry you risk permanent injury to the feather follicle & the feather may grow in forever
disfigured or not at all. PATIENCE. The reason for doing this is twofold:
*When the young bird races arrive, these 20 birds will have full wings because once they
regrow these 2 flights they will not regrow them again until the following year. They
also will not drop the tenth flight.
*When the young birds start flying, these 20 will be weaker on the wing than their loft
mates because they have to work harder to stay in the air. This serves to keep the group
from roaming too far and in the general loft area, lessening the chances of a flyaway.
TWO WORDS OF CAUTION AT THIS POINT!
DO NOT do this until year 3 of your program. Your first goal is to develop a family of
birds & your old bird team so be patient. DO NOT fly 300 mile young bird races the first
two years, tempting as they might be. More good youngsters are lost at the 300 mile race
than any other.

DO NOT pull these two flights until the birds have the first flight at least ¾ grown or
have dropped their second flight. This guarantees that their baby quills have dried up. If
there is still blood in these quills and pull these flights, the bird will not regrow them for
two years!! A pigeon with 8 flights will be of little use in your future plans. Here’s how
KISS selects the prime 20 birds for futurities…he takes 10 baby cocks off of the
widowhood parents. These are usually unproven breeders that he has confidence in, plus
in show widow hens have future breeding potential. This is how to find those gold mine
hens. KISS takes 5 baby hens off of the widowhood team for the very same reason. The
remaining 5 youngster hens come off of the natural pairs. Their dams have flown 500—
600 miles on the day & the offspring are potential candidates for widow the following
year. Why does KISS pick these? Because his widows do not see any more races as
yearlings & as 2 year olds they go into the natural loft with 300 miles of racing under
their belts. KISS’s birds are always in shape because they are all settled and all are let
outside when the weather permits. Does this work for KISS’s competition if they do the
same thing? Yes & no. The competitors are generally putting most of their efforts into
young birds because of the terrible old bird season they had (no family of birds). The
futurity races are their salvation. But the 20 youngsters KISS selected will better the
competition because tey carry a full set of flights and the other flyer’s birds have dropped
the ninth or tenth fling and have a hole in the wing. Why won’t they do as well as KISS?
KISS knows that a young bird is a young bird one time in it’s life, but an old bird is an
old bird for the rest of tit’s life. He does not shoot for the young bird races, shipping
every week, over medicating, starving them, or mating them. He feeds protein (growth—
recovery) rather than the competitors diet of carbohydrates (energy). When the KISS
youngsters are growing feathers they are still eating a high protein diet because feathers
are made of 100% protein. KISS even adds extra safflower and/or sunflower seed at this
time. I mentioned a bit earlier that when these youngsters start to fly, they work harder
than the loft mates because of less wing & it tires them out more quickly, however, the
high protein (recovery) diet snaps them back & does them no harm. After a few days
they even keep up with the flock & as these 2 flights get longer these 20 begin staying in
the air longer than their loft mates. By having to work harder they have increased lung
capacity, and slowed the heartbeat. In 6 weeks you will note that they are firmer,
stronger, healthier than the other birds. What about the competitions birds, even those
who benefited from wing clipping as per the KISS program? Many have fallen by the
wayside because an energy diet does not give them recovery & they proceed to get more
& more tired and run down. Yes, they do have full wings for the futurities, but no strong
flights like the KISS birds. Remember, FEATHERS ARE 100% PROTEIN. Which
would you rather fly? When the 200 mile races begin, KISS feeds ¾ young bird basic
formula and ¼ corn. Because now is the time for energy he continues this feeding on to
the 300 mile young bird events……..let’s summarize this section:
*KISS novices won’t try this until the third year.
*Feed young bird basic formula, not old bird basic formula.
*Cut #8 & 9 flights halfway down after first flight is dropped.
*When second flight drops, pull dried #8 & 9 flights for regrowth.
*Now add 10% safflower—sunflower to your feed formula or pellets.
*Add 25% corn to feed to fly 200 & 300 mile young bird races.

SUMMATION OF THE PLAN…There you have it, a three year plan to give you a
hobby that will last a lifetime and one in which you will meet a number of long—term
friends. A hobby in which you can reach the top with patience & an intelligent course of
action. No prisoners…who needs them. More work. No medicines…too expensive,
how much do you give? Less time…your old birds basically train themselves. More
time…for young birds, because of your old bird methods… you get a jump on
competitors. Your 50—56 young are all first hatches, 2 weeks apart, no settling
problems. A family of birds that are your own to be proud of…and salvation of the gold
mine breeding hens that will always keep you on top in the sport.

THEORIES, Eye Sign, Feathering, Etc….The biggest controversy in the sport is

the subject of eye sign. “Experts” expound on good & bad from one end of the scale to
the other….if the experts have had the answers over the years, where can we find their
racing records or breeding records of the great families these far flung theories have
produced?? We have seen wing theories, feather theories, etc. and again you must ask for
the records attained by application of the theories…find the records if you can. NOT
ONE THEORY HAS EVER RESULTED IN A PERFORMANCE RECORD IN THE
HISTORY OF THE SPORT!!!!!!!!!! Please don’t get into these lame brained theories
that thrive on novices and losers. The answer lies in the KISS chapter on family. Refer
back to it and good things will start. After 3 or 4 years of mating your yearlings to 2, 3,
& 4 year olds, (widowhood & natural systems), you will see wonderful things happen in
your flock. You may have been depressed when you were forced to break up successful
matings from the year before (after year two), only to discover that the next year the cock
still bred good or better young and his former mate bred duds or vice versa. You retired
those gold mine birds into your garden loft (they flew & bred well) and have youngsters
on your race team to replace them. By selective in breeding & line breeding you, KISS
novice, have homogeneously bred your own family of birds…they are no longer your
ACE’s…..they are yours to be proud of. As the years pass, you will know, by coloring &
feathering, which birds are your racers & breeders; which are both, and which are duds.
You will be able to tell by eye, body, etc. what they are before you ever fly them. You’ll
know their parents, grand parents & great grandparents since you have raised, raced,
nurtured, cared for, culled & kept the cream of the crop. You have let the basket be your
judge. I know that every Tom, Dick & Harry will bring up exceptions to the rule. We
have all had them, but let me tell you, and mark it in stone, I’d rather have an Ace’s last
cull than a fly by night’s best bird and I’ll tell you exactly why…..Ace knows what he is
doing, Ace has developed a family, Ace’s worst is better than a fly by night’s very best.
You can tell breeders, racers, both, or culls in an established family that has benefited
from sound breeding, no tricks, no secrets & no dumb theories. Without Mendol’s Law
there is nothing. There is no way anyone can judge unrelated birds on eye, feather,
confirmation, and so forth and come out on top in this sport.

ALWAYS BE A BREEDER FIRST…THEN A FLYER. YOU WILL

OVERCOME!

NOVICE to ACE to MASTER BREEDER….

As the years pass & you have followed KISS’s words of wisdom to the letter, you will
see a strange but wonderful thing happening…your birds are becoming more alike. They
all take on those cherished characteristics of your winning birds because, at seasons end,
you have disposed of every specimen that failed to pull its weight in the program. Also
gone are those individuals that lack the physical characteristics to make 500—600 miles
on the day in race time. Mating2, 3 & 4 year old cocks with the yearling hens and vice
versa you have been forced to change matings every year and by doing this you have
been practicing selective inbreeding. Now there is a loft of half—brothers & half—
sisters, double cousins, aunts, uncles, father—daughter & mother—son progeny. You
have created your own strain that are likely the purest in the combine. Competitors are
breeding off of their best 2 or 3 pair (those that breed winners each year so don’t break
them up). When these pairs age & get too old to breed, these fellows have a loft of full
brother & sisters and a bunch of unrelated birds…there goes success. The same fellows
bring in a group of high dollar imports with wonderful pedigrees and the promise of
quick results, but you decide, who has the best? The Van Loons, Imbrects, and other
highly advertised strains come to America at high prices and, be assured, these breeders
do not send their best or they would not stay on top too long. These birds also fly under
different conditions & climate & over different terrain & generally fly in flocks of
several thousand before they drop off and trap. Your bird must find home without
following a group….he must use his instincts to the fullest. KISS novices own a flock of
related birds, tested & proven on he course and KISS novices know which birds that
retire from the race team to make room for yearlings, to keep for breeding because you
have records of past performance to rely on. These birds that flew & bred well are your
strain makers and can retire to your garden loft to breed winners and enjoy a weekly fly
at their leisure for the rest of their days. Now aren’t you glad you listened to KISS?
Never forget what it is to be a novice and never turn a deaf ear to a beginner. Maybe
someday your novice will make it to an ACE FLYER of MASTER BREEDER like you.