Rooster J. Cogburn

Well done Davie,Geordie and Tam

If you only train and lightly race your youngsters you will be left with the ones that are the best,trouble is you won't have lost any/many of the ones that are worthless. This is ok if you don't breed from yearlings and go on to test them.If you do take youngsters from them though whilst breeding off the good ones that are left you are also breeding off the bad ones which far outnumber the good ones.Before you know where you are you have a loft full of mediocre birds and heavy losses or illness will catch up with you at somepoint. I have found this out the hard way

Spoke to someone recently who experimented with two teams made up of around 20 birds Team 1 were raced weekly out to 300 miles as youngsters and 500 miles as yearlings Team 2 were only lightly trained as youngsters and raced to around 200 miles as yearlings Team 1 on the whole were by far more reliable and consistent through all stages of adulthood and a good number of them scored multiple times from long distance events. Team 2 were very unreliable and all were lost with the exception of one when the big questions were asked of them as two year olds.The one survivor though went on to outshine every bird in team 1 Would the top bird in team 2 have still been as good if it had of been in team 1?would the numerous birds in team 1 who worked reliably have done so if they had have been in team 2?We'll never know

Will keep you posted. first thing she needs is a good feed Plenty of baths and will see how she moults

Didn't really feel there was an excuse for her from the race last year as she was 1 of 3 yeaarlings sent,the other two homed on the shift. Where as I'm certainly not expecting her to win the Kings Cup next season I've never had anything like this before so will let it develop and see what happens

Was down the club tonight helping with the baskets.Headed back up the loft afterwards and saw what I thought was a feral pigeon messing around with the pigeons that were out. Looked closer and I was sure I recognised her.She came into the loft no problem when called,it was then I realised it was a pigeon I'd sent to Clermont last year Homing after over a year away from the loft.Her rubbers were still on and just disintegrated when touched. Surprised to say the least

think you are perhaps right fastblack.Have seen a lot of upset from some of the Lanarkshire members on here about the racing they've been having down the West.Our federation have raced down the East all year and many members aren't left with even a quarter of the old birds they had at the start of the season.Times are hard it would seem

Well done to you and your dad Alan

Well done Martin

Think part of the problem is highlighted in this thread.Two able scribes have posted but are now in a position where they can't contribute to the magazine's content Suppose the editors can only work with the material they are given??

Perhaps hes after a hand written pedigree?

From a Scottish perspective the days when national racing comprised of one club open to all members who wished to compete From a personal persepective,looking at taking a couple of steps backwards to take a step forwards

I'm just clutching at straws Only you'll know if they are right or not.Was just listing a few reasons why you can be behind from short races without your birds being sick.Where you train your birds can be one Best of luck with the rest of your racing and hope ye get a run of form like last year

Aye had a few trainers like that before Best of luck at the weekend,I'm sure your youngsters will pick up where the old birds left off

do you toss your birds from the same places as the people who have won your club the last two weeks?how does your loft location compare with theirs?

well if your confident your not doing anything wrong as far as feeding,training,moult and motivation is concerned and your birds are visibly healthy you could heed some of the above advice-get a test kit for throat swabs and droppings samples or keep doing what your doing,once its further out if all is well you should get your turn

Aye I knew you would be Its just the daylight hours that got the better of them and they've tied in wi a fife mob by the looks of it. If they'd had tied in wi the mob from a morning toss they'd have worked in through the day and you wouldnae have had to worry aboot them through the night Glad your back in the game any way Lewis

Have your club winners birds been on the darkness system?Have your birds been on the darkness system? The first season we tried darkness the darkness YBs beat the natural youngsters,both of which had equal training,by around 5-10 minutes weekly.The further out they got the further behind the natural youngsters fell behind with the exception of one which was around 12 weeks old when it went into the 3rd young bird race of the year. Are your club winners birds on any type of celibate or widowhood system?are yours on any form of celibate or widowhood system? How many training tosses before the first race have your club winners birds had?how many training tosses have your birds had? Theres a few questions you could ask yourself if your birds are visibly healthy before assuming there is something wrong with them

I used to look forward to getting the Homing World through the door each week,but after the subscription ran out the last time I never bothered renewing it. Most of the things in it I'd read find their way on to the internet and I was fed up with some of adverts. Agree with Ryan on Berty .His column was one of the first I'd read after the initial flick though

Thats a bit better. Let us know how it pans oot the morra.

Sorry to hear this Scotty Was it the Oakbank industrial estate bit??They've maybe mixed in with something,was up there last week and in the space of 15 minutes must of seen five or six hundred doos heading in all directions. If it was tonight they were let go and mixed in wi something they've maybe been dragged a bit then ran out of light to get home.Had one similar fi Elsrickle last week where they mixed in with a few hundred heading West.Had only 7 home and the time was ticking on,they worked home in drips and drabs all day though.Makes me think you'll have plenty more home before lunchtime the morra.Hope that turns out to be the case Lewis

You'll get more back the morra Scotty I'm sure.Fingers croosed for ye Just got to hope they return in decent enough order.If they don't make this Saturday,its Coldstream again the following weekend Where was it ye took them tonight?

Well done andy and babybird

Well done Stevie Yous are on a roll

01772 337846 Thats the phone number in case you don't have a Squills book to hand