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« on: October 03, 2014, 07:10:26 AM »
There are so many different approaches to providing conditioning pens and I always am interested in pictures of folks facilities. The main goal is to get the birds separated into areas where they can't pick or soil each other. I've heard some folks will keep 2-3 females together. But they don't provide roosts unless they have dropping boards. Obviously they need to be dry so a raised pen is easy to rake droppings and replace dry shavings. Wire is a problem if they can back into or rub feathers. So most folks will make the wall surfaces of plywood except for the front. Just make sure you have enough ventilation in the heat. Pen size is determined by the breed. I might suggest min 2' dimensions for LF and 16" for bantam AMs. Bigger birds such as Rocks will probably require more. Make sure they can move and exercise for bone/muscle growth. You might be able to build some pens along the inside of your breeding pens.
As far as time, I've always heard that it takes about six weeks for the primary wing and tail feathers to grow. The trick is to time the molt to coincide with the shows. Natural molts are hard to predict especially with our current strange weather. I think the shows in the south are typically later in the year because our birds naturally molt later. The fairs in the north are finished much earlier than ours start because of the seasonal differences. I've never done Forced molts but lots of folks might chime in to give you their advice here.
I expect you can get many different ideas for feed during conditioning. Make sure it's a good ration you trust. Variety is my preference to make sure the birds have a variety of minerals/proteins. I only feed corn when it's really cold and they need the calories. But wheat and oats are good in small amounts. Grains are good and easy to sprout or mix with oils or vitamin mixes. Some will use cod liver oil, garlic and brewers yeast, red cell, clovite, etc.
Spend time with them, feed them treats, meat scraps, dog burger treats. Handle them, stretch the wings as the judge will in the show hall. Use a judging stick, to try to calm and pose them. Anything to get them comfortable will help them in the show hall. There are lots of tricks to get them to "show" better than the competition. Patty suggested to use a treat with a specific noisy wrapper, condition the bird to approach the front of the pen. Unwrap and crinkle one of these as the judge approaches your birds cage. ..... I've even seen showmen flick corn into a competitor bird's pen to have the competition break stance just as the judge as making those last placements. Not that I would suggest this! But some folks really want to win.