I've been in contact with a fancier for a few years now who I could only describe as the hardest task master I've met.Because he has been doing this type of flying for so long his losses are minimal.He lost two YBs last season all of them flew the programme out to 300miles. The bird of prey problem is taking its toll,but like you say if we were to take a leaf out of these fanciers books we'd probably do ourselves a favour. I think a big reason for losses nowadays is YBS.Not just at the young bird stage but at the yearling stage as well,these pigeons have missed some or all of their education in the year of their birth which can only be detremental to them in my opinion. Have spoken with fanciers who predicted 20-30 years ago that pigeons would become faster,losses would become greater and pigeons would be far more difficult to keep healthy.As a result more disillusioned fanciers/folk packing in.One of them told me he believes this is due the countries increased interest in sprint racing and a lack of testing pigeons over 300miles onwards-eliminating those with any flaws in their make up. Another thing that came up in the conversation was how fanciers keep more "stock pigeons" now than ever before ie.birds that have never been in a race basket. Supplementation and medication were other things discussed.He said you can give your birds all these products we see advertised and they come out the nest looking like champions,but is this really perfect health or a way of masking weaknesses within the birds?There are only a very small percentage of pigeons nowadays that show complete natural health and vitality,is that not what we should aim for? When the s*it hits the fan these propped up molly coddled pigeon will go a miss. Basically the only way to achieve perfect health in a loft is to remove anything that isn't perfectly healthy? The same fancier said to me he loses very few pigeons racing,but he culls a lot of birds.If we were to look closely in our loft and see what we see,not what we want to see would we perhaps help ourselves when it comes to losses?