Rooster J. Cogburn

Billy is fantastic. It's a shame his things don't appear on a more regular basis,but on the other hand it's a rare treat when they do

I don't usually get it either Bam Bam,but saw it in the shop in California today and had a punt on it No link to it that I know of,maybe someone else could help with this.

Great article in this week's Racing Pigeon

Fairness I won't

Its interesting seeing how much feeding has changed over the years. Ma old pal told me of when he'd watch channel races at Jocky Harrison's of Lesmahagow.The birds would come home after a 12-14 + hour fly and have nothing but horsebeans on offer.They'd have to batter them off the ground just to swallow them Don't know about recovery rate etc but these guys could get a doo out of 2 x 500 mile races and a 600 mile race over a 5 or 6 week period

Email those photos please if its not a hassle Colin

Drove by it on the way to visit some UNC cracks Will go one of two ways with a bit of luck it will kill the YB national

Alex Mitchell was the main Busschaert man in our area.Could listen to him talk a bot doos aw day,a good fried of Jake Burrells Jimmy Johnston was the first to introduce the Billy Parkes that I'm a ware of-they were some tools

A cracker Heres a nest uncle 'Toddler' would be proud of.Still miss that old fella,learnt a lot from him

Gerry Rafferty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rZznbo5Jlc Good wee song this by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

Aim last year was to to end the season with more pigeons that had flown the channel than the previous season,its much the same this time round. Hope to send a strong team to Alencon.Picked out the best dozen or so birds in the loft,will see what hand we've been dealt nearer the time. Need to box a bit more clever this season.Had to do A LOT of improvising last year and sent many of the birds to races I wouldn't have wanted as my first choice.Some measures in place this season to avoid these mishaps

It would be much the same as the current latebred sale John. If fanciers performances merit an invite for donation to the SNFC latebred sale and they accept,the club and buyers at the latebred sale are relying on honesty.

Aye me and yer dad have been through that a hundred times. He told me about how the likes of yer auld pal Jocky said he would never see the money used for anything in his lifetime.This turned out to be the case. You know I'm friendly wi some of the Irish fanciers,they have around £30,000 in the bank and are absolutely cock a hoop.The INFC has even been donating prizemoney to some of the competitions etc. The difference is they seem to be in a positon where this £30000 will stay the same over the next few years.Where as our £103,000 goin on recent patterns will draw closer to £30,000 in the not so distant future Agree with what was said at the meeting as well.There is no need to go upping all costs for the members at this exact moment in time when there is £103,000 sitting there.

Same as all the money the SNFC will raise in the coming years will be used for.Survival It was rightfully said at the SNFC AGM that the club isn't at crisis point yet as there is still £103000 approx left in the bank,but that won't last very long if they continue to lose money at the same rate as the 2012 campaign £5 on subcriptions and £1 on all race birdages was the management reccomendation,but this was not carried. There will be ways to raise funds without asking the members to shell out more money,it's just finding the right ones

Aye its no something I can see gettin off the ground. Still I'll be interested to see how the BBC run their one

Aye I thnink the main trouble lies in the length of time it would take to get it off the ground and working well.. Probably end up wasting four or five years and who knows where Scottish pigeon racing will be in 2020

I've sent an email to the BBC secretaries,just asking for a bit of background information on how their breeding stud was founded and how it operates.

http://www.britishbarcelonaclub.org.uk/Stud.html

Yep think it was Jim Hooper that got it going.Worth looking into how their one operates I reckon I have a couple of pedigrees here from the stud.It looks as though they actually bought/acquired some of the actual winners not childen of them,so they could probably justify charging a bit more. Like I said earlier theres probably not a fortune to be made,but if a decent enough profit was made to help with the running of the club it could be a good idea. On top of this there would be affordable pigeons on offer that could potentially improve any loft.Coming full circle it may actually encourage people to start sending more with the SNFC and be something for the Scottish pigeon fancy to be proud of.

The late bred sale can attract 50 youngbirds so I don't think donors would be a problem,with the exception of maybe yerself Andy I may be out of line saying this but in today's pigeon marketplace I don't think £50 for a youngster with SNFC prizewinning grandparents is too unreasonable.£300 for 6 If it worked well and the fanciers who bought the pigeons raced them in the SNFC,who knows? over time the loft could have youngsters from it's exports coming back to into it It would take time to get going though and the profit margin may be so narrow that the current latebred sale format would be the favourable option. Would be nice to have a collection of pigeons throwing out good pigeons en mass from actual Scottish National prizewinners

Yer right there John Talk is cheap,but this looks like one fer the NO pile I never thought for a second there was a fortune to be made from it,but that there was a possibility something of this nature could help balance the SNFC books without having to take more money from the members.

Think a lot of its club fundraising potential would boil down to who was looking after the birds/what they would want in return.You wouldn't expect anybody to want to do it for nothing . Once the loft was built the outgoings would be obviously feed,supplements for the birds,carriage etc. If ran as a business taxing based on the income would come into play as well. Would rely heavily on fanciers donating pigeons,but within 4 years they could have 14 pairs direct from national winners and potentially 6 or 7 times that from section winners and Award winners For easiness we'll say they could have 100 pairs of pigeons prices ranging between say £50-£100 a youngster from 100 pairs rearing 3 rounds that could be 300 YBs a year at £50 = £15000 revenue at £75 each = £22500 revenue at £100 each = £30000 revenue The question is-could it be profitable?A lot could go wrong,would it be a risk worth taking?

Had a wee think about how the SNFC could raise some funds. How does a Scottish National Flying Club stud sound?? Perhaps as an alternative to the latebred sale if each season's succesful fanciers-Open/Section winners, merit award winners etc were to donate a latebred to the stud. Of course accomodation would have to be built and a supervised loft manager put in place. I think if the stud was ran as a mini business within the SNFC it could far surpass the money made under the current latebred sale format,as the club would be selling 3 or 4 rounds a year from the children of champions.That could potentially be £300-£400 per pair of breeders/per year Not only would it raise funds but it would offer the fancy an oppurtunity to purchase pigeons from proven SNFC performance bloodlines at reasonable prices.