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Where are the birds housed for the sale on Premier, can anyone tell me. Thanks Cem

Nora Major of Putney. I first met the late Nora Major in the mid-1970’s and being one of the best lady fanciers I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I first visited her Putney loft in 1977 for an article. Nora was a great worker for the sport, always willing to help anyone and was famed for her blunt manner. A spade was a spade with Nora, but she got the job done! In 1968 Nora built a loft for her 11 year old son, Francis, who wanted to race a few pigeons which were scrounged from here, there and everywhere. The 40 strong young bird team collected that year were raced through the card and only one 6th position was won. Francis had lost interest in the sport by 1969, but Nora had caught the bug and was intent to improve her stock and win races. In 1969 the turning point in Nora’s pigeon career came when she met Alex Fleming of Esher and obtained six eggs from him and by 1970 she had a loft full of Fleming pigeons and never looked back. Nora said at the time all her best pigeons were Fleming and she owed all her success to Alex. Most of her team in 1970 was bred down from the original six birds and she won her first race from Bournemouth that year and celebrated that same night with other club members by throwing a big party at her house. She had previously met Bill Bonamy of Ealing, who had many impressive trophies around his house, which included an uninscribed replica with a pigeon on top. Nora took a fancy to the replica and Bill promised he would present it to her when she won her first race. The night of the party, Bill turned up at midnight and presented her with her first trophy. From that day the trophies poured in with the Alex Fleming pigeons winning out of turn, but after all her great success she said the big thrill of winning had gone. She said that she was quite unmoved in 1976 when she recorded 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th club Dax (537 miles), having the only pigeon on the day of liberation in the Richmond club. She said the sense of achievement had gone and she felt ashamed when she took all the trophies in the club that season, leaving three trophies for 40 other members to share. Nora told me, she was a hopelessly addicted pigeon person and thought she should have been a man. She considered one of the nicest compliments she had received was in 1973 when she had won the much coveted ‘Brooker Gold Cup’, in the London Coly for the second time. A veteran of the sport came and shook her hand and with his congratulations he said, ‘Nora, you are a jolly good pigeon man’, to win the ‘Brooker Gold Cup’. You had to nominate no more than six birds at the beginning of old bird racing, then on the night of marking for Niort, only one bird of the six may be nominated for the race. Nora won the Niort race with her one nominated bird two years on the trot. I made my trek to Nora’s Putney home in the heart of the London Federation just before Christmas in 1976 and the first stop was her living room to look at her fantastic array of trophies. She had won many outright and said when she took one off the club, she always bought one to replace it. She had won 20 trophies in 1976 in the very strong Richmond & Dist. H.S. and London Coly, which also included Old Bird Average and Continental Average in the mighty London Federation. Nora’s loft was 24f x 8ft, four compartments and the birds were trapped through drop holes. They were cleaned out every day and all the old birds were raced on the natural system with very little training, as they were raced on Wednesday and Saturday. The feed was a good mixture, but was not given on a regular basis as Nora liked to give them a change. The three pairs of stock birds and 25 pairs of racers were paired up in late January and about 60 young birds were bred each year. All pairings were made by eyesign which she said she had learnt by reading S.W.E. Bishop’s book, ‘The Secret of Eyesign’. The first pigeon we looked at was the 1976 ace bird, a pure Fleming dark chequer pied hen, ‘72437’, and she recorded 1st club, 7th Federation Dax (536 miles) in 1976. She was the only bird on the day in the Richmond club and there was only seven on the day in the London Federation. She was a nice apple-bodied hen with a nice eye and strong back. A great pigeon! Nora’s family of club and Federation winners goes on and on, but her favourite pigeon was her blue chequer hen, ‘Blue Lady’, and she was Nora’s number one stock hen, breeding winners every year, and she was bred by Alex Fleming. Her best pigeon was her champion blue pied hen, ‘Nora’s Hen’, and this brilliant bird was a champion in the truest sense, winning, 1975: 3rd club, 1977: 1st club, 1st Federation, 1st open L&SC Combine (2,868 birds) Bergerac, 1st club, 5th Federation, 13th open Combine Nantes, 1978: 1st section E, 4th open NFC Pau Grand National (£1,052), 1st club, 5th Federation, 18th open Combine Nantes, 1790: 26th section E. NFC Pau. What a pigeon! She was bred from the Alex Fleming lines when crossed with a pigeon from Mick Graham of then Richmond and when Nora retired from the sport in the early 1980’s this champion hen was sold to C.H. Besant of New Malden for £1,000. Nora’s loft housed many Federation winners and found it hard to tell of her best achievement but in 1974 she was highest prize winner in the West Middlesex Federation, winning Young Bird Average Cup, Federation Points Shield, 1st, 2nd Federation in June, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Federation in August. She was 1st, 2nd, 3rd club Bergerac (450 miles) in the Putney club in 1973 and Nora’s loft was premier prize winner in the Richmond club six seasons out of seven in the 1970’s. A wonderful record! As well as being the secretary of the Richmond club and the London Coly for many years, she was also a vice president of the RPRA London Region and president of the London Federation. She was very hot on bookwork, recording everything on paper. She didn’t like showing her birds and said she only put her pigeons into pens to support the club. Nora always told novices to get a family of birds from a premier flyer, like the late great Alex Fleming. Nora always maintained that there was no other pigeon fancier to match Alex! She was a very keen gardener and if my memory serves me right, I think she won the best loft and garden competition in the 1970’s. A great lady! Text & Photos by Keith Mott (December 2025)

Congratulations

Copied from Facebook 11th Dec 2025 Billy has penned a wee note about Solway Federation West Section Fancier of the year Jim Russell. Winner of the West Section Fancier of the Year Trophy in 2025 was Jim Russell from the Nith Valley Club, Dumfries. The Federation trophies were presented several weeks ago at the Fed. AGM, but Jim was unfortunately unable to attend. Michael Currie the Federation President informed the members that he would deliver the trophy to Jim’s home address by hand and would get a photo, which would be posted on the Federation Facebook page. In recent days Michael visited Jim’s home; having been told that he had not been in best of health but pleasingly on arrival was a bit better and in grand fettle for the visit and together they had a great chat reminiscing on by-gone years. Michael was much impressed also when he learned that Jim had won the trophy racing ten pigeons only. In recent years he worked with examples of the Van den Bulck family, which he obtained from friend and fellow Club member Mervyn Halliday who in turn purchased his stock from P and D Racing Stud and Ludo Claessens, which he obtained from Louella. As the 2025 season drew to a conclusion it was generally known that due to advancing years and indifferent health the final race in the 2025 Federation race programme was to be Jim’s last ever race as he had decided to retire from the Fancy. For him, however, to conclude the season, being named West Section Fancier of the Year Federation was extra, extra special.

VID-20251211-WA0006.mp4

Well done greatwork

Thanks Buster! That's all I'm hoping for, that people find it as useful as I do myself!

Well done a great tool, hope folks make use of it

Copied from Facebook 10th December 2025 What follows is a copy of my notes taken at the AGM it is not an official version, if you notice any mistakes please message me and I will change. The North of Scotland Racing Pigeon Federation notes taken at AGM What follows is a copy of my notes taken at the AGM NOT THE OFFICIAL MINUTES AGENDA 1. Adoption of the minute for the 56th Annual General Meeting held on the 8th December 2024 2. Matters arising. 3. Balance sheet for the year up to November 2025. Excepted 4. Presidents address 5. These are the office bearers for 2025/2026 President :- Paul Thomson Senior Vice President :- Stuart Maskame Junior Vice President :- Alex Fulton Secretary/Treasurer :- Ruth Cordiner Race Controller :- Vacant (officials dealing) Transport Manager :- Abby Milne Driver :- John Harvey Results Co-Ordinator :- George Duthie SHU Delegate :- Sandy Milne PRO :- Sandy Milne Fed Show Convenor :- Sandy Milne 6. PROPOSALS 1. The Federation reduces the annual federation fee to £50 - Defeated 2. Federation should have a savings account. Balance sheet to show where funds are housed and the savings interest rate. - Defeated 3. Federation to have a draft 2/3 year plan. Where we are aiming to be. - Defeated 4. One member from each club to have admin access to existing Fed Facebook page. - Defeated 5. Inverness club to have their birds picked up in Inverness from their club. – Defeated 6. If the above proposal is rejected the Inverness club members be given a membership fee concession (discount) to cover the cost of the additional expenses their club incurs having to cover a 3 hour trip which includes fuel costs every time we take part in a race. - Defeated 7. The Federation find an alternative for the Brechin lib site due to the over presence of B.O.P. Not excepted as should be part of a race programme 8. 2 weeks break between the last old bird race and first young bird race. Excepted 9. 3 week break between end of old bird racing and start of young bird racing, reason being incase Old birds increase by a week due to adverse weather - Defeated 10. 2026 race season to commence the second week in May (9/5/26) (INV) Rejected 11. Old bird racing to start 2nd May - Rejected 12. Old bird racing to start 18th April - Rejected 13. Old bird racing to start 25th April - Excepted 14. Young bird racing to start 18th July – Dependant on race programme 15. Successful Old bird programme was the one submitted by Deveron Valley 1) Brechin 2) Perth 3) Perth 4) Lanark 5) Langholm 6) Tebay 7) Garstang 😎 Newark 9) Crieff 10) Frome 16 . Successful young Bird programmes was the one submitted by Deveron Valley 1) Brechin 2) Brechin 3) Forfar 4) Perth 5) Lanark 6) Langholm 7) Tebay 😎 Garstang AOB No items raised meeting closed

Hi I was wondering if you still have the boxes and how much your selling the sets of 4 i was hoping to buy three of them Many thanks Billy McEwan

Congrats drian great flying

Sorry to hear this George, can you provide more details and photos if possible? Good luck for the future

I have to give birds up so if anyone looking for some birds pm me as they all have to go

Hi everyone, For those of you who’ve been following my updates or chatting with me about the struggle of paper loft records, I’m thrilled to announce that LoftBuddy is officially finished and available! It’s been a massive effort, but I’ve built the digital loft management system I always wanted—one that’s fast, reliable, and keeps pace with the demands of the breeding and racing seasons. 💰 Free to Use, Built for Fanciers Yes, that’s right: LoftBuddy is completely free to use. My goal was to make professional-grade record keeping accessible to every fancier. The app is supported by minimal, non-intrusive advertisements. For anyone who prefers a completely clean interface, there will be an optional, low-cost subscription to remove all ads. ✅ What's New & What It Does LoftBuddy is now fully featured for the upcoming season, handling everything from first egg to final race result. 1. Painless Breeding Round Management The biggest feature I focused on was making breeding records instant and clean: Quick Logging: Log Egg 1/Egg 2 dates for all your pairs. The app automatically calculates the estimated hatch date—no more counting days! Automatic Pedigree Builder: When the chicks hatch, you simply input their ring numbers, and LoftBuddy immediately creates a new bird profile for each one, pre-linking them to the correct Sire and Dam to build their digital pedigree instantly. Complete Control: I’ve just finished adding the ability to easily edit or delete entire breeding rounds if something goes wrong, keeping your records clean and accurate. 2. Digital Bird Profiles & Lineage Every bird has its own profile with photos, colour, strain, and race data. Get instant access to the full family tree (pedigree) of any bird, anytime, anywhere—no need to dig through folders. 3. Data-Driven Decisions You can record your birds’ LPI/scoring, and LoftBuddy gives you an estimated LPI for the offspring of a pairing, helping you make smarter pairing choices. 💻 How to Get Started Since this is a web application, there’s nothing to download! You can access it on any device—phone, tablet, or desktop. Simply visit the link below to sign up and start migrating your pairs immediately: LoftBuddy App Link: https://loftbuddy.winfort-lofts.co.uk/ I appreciate everyone's encouragement while I was building this. I am now fully focused on user feedback and future improvements. Please sign up, try a few pairs, and let me know your first impressions, feature requests, and any bugs you find! Happy flying and good luck for the new season! Cheers,

Here is another Loft Management App that I have been working on recently, free to use, and filled with fantastic features! https://loftbuddy.winfort-lofts.co.uk/

Copied from Facebook 8th December 2025 Dundee show 7/12/2025 Results OCTW - W Nicol OHTW - B Massey OCH - B Massey OHH - J Mackie (BIS) YCTW - B Massey YHTW - G Campbell YCH - J Mackie YHH - M Young (BOS BYB) Well done 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Dundee & Logie show today 7/12/2025 penning 10am judging starts 11am thanks

Working man prices prices

Thanks for your visit today and hope your happy with the ones you got ...best of luck with them cheers Dale

René Van Roose best known for his champion bird “The Rare,” which has won multiple national and international awards in middle- and long-distance racing. “The Rare” (2018 season): Won 4 Ace National Great Medium Distance (500–750 km) in Belgium. Awarded 1st Ace Great Distance Francolomb Awards 2018. René thus has a solid base with these Scheele breeders allowing him year after year to produce Ace pigeons for racess from 450 to 700kms.

Congratulations

Congratulations all

Copied from Facebook 6th December 2025

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