Diamond dave

Carol, Do your 7 new kids keep you up at night? - How do you find time for pigeon racing - dont the cats bother the pigeons!! and SNAKES....... are you mad??Lol. How bad is your weather Carol, are you in the area with all the snow at the moment?

Hi Celtic, Why dont you try putting a strange cock in there with him - He'll spend more time worrying about him and hopefully he might leave the other birds alone - I'm sure hell take to a box, if not both of the spare boxes!!

Southbanks I have 10 widowhood cocks -5 old uns and 5 yearlings. The 5 old uns have hatched and are 7-10 days. 2 yearling cocks are up to 10 days behind the old uns, 2 have just laid and the last one doesnt even look like laying - though he was no trouble when pairing. What would you think If I let them go down and rear the babies and let the older ones go down again but take their eggs away - but leave them paired until the yearlings younguns are away? -Grateful for all your advice - thanks to all !!!

Hi Speckled You are extremely clever! That is exactly my situation - However, Last year I turned the birds round from North to South. The older birds are northroad pigeons that are now flying on the South and I consider the current yearlings to be the future of the loft - now, having said that, would you still not let them rear a nest? Thanks also Jimmy and Southbanks

Hi Peter, I was rather hoping to have a deal with this hen - i dont want to sell her but I was hoping to catch the eye of someone who keeps Ko-nipius birds and perhaps do a swap with a couple of youngsters or something. Where are you mate?

I'd love to know your thoughts on whether it is important for a yearling widowhood cock to rear a round of youngsters in it's box prior to racing? I've got three that didnt go down with all the older racers.

Mark, Have you tried racing your greyhound on the widowhood!!!!! - Could win you a fortune!!!!. I appreciate the costs mate - I dont know how old your daughter is but I only got into this great sport because of my son. He was going down the wrong route - drugs etc. when he was at school and we tried our damdest to steer him away from it - Long story Mark - but we eventually did it with the pigeons. Then he found women!!!! and that left me to take over the birds. I hope your'e never in the same situation mate but having a good hobby turned out to be an investment in our lads future!! Whats the name of your greyhound Mark - is he worth a flutter?(pardon the pun)

Hi Jimmy Whilst I dont disagree with what you're saying about overcrowding I think the main cause is our babies getting "pulled away" by passing batches and I think most of that is caused by the position of the loft. We suffered for four years on the trot. -Lovely batch of youngsters (usually breed about 20) -going to win everything- then suddenly.... there gone!!!!! We are smack in the middle of racing lines North and South (Milton Keynes). We have London birds training on the North and Leicester birds training on the South. I've spoke to loads of fanciers when they liberate their birds, sometimes batches of 100 or more- not more than a 1/4 mile from my loft. I'll bet most of them are darkness ybs and that little bit older than mine. What's also interesting is how many ybs from these batches get pulled down by my old birds. If a batch of young birds get liberated close by and I have let my old uns out. They pull the trainers all over the place and hold them up for sometimes 1/2 an hour. They split them up and i'LL get 3-4 youngsters come down with mine. T-T - I am convinced this is the MAIN cause of losing birds off the top but there are no doubt other reasons. I think ALL the advice you have been given in this thread is 100% worthwhile and you should heed all of it. It probably seems that you cant even let your pigeons out but you must take all of it into account and work around it the best you can. One other thing - dont let the babies out when the sun and moon are in the sky together - I believe that the air is much thinner in this scenario and the birds go too far before they even think about looking up to see where they are. -Just my own views T-T. I wish you all the very best.

Hi Mark Do you still race natural with the hens or do you race roundabout?

Hi Pouw22 The sire is from the original kippax lines of Phil and Carol Cooke and contains the lines of White Gold - Consolidated Gold - Amethyst. The dam is one from Bob McDonald, which I purchased from his sale at the old Comrades last year. Any one who knows of Bob knows that he doesnt do pedigrees with his sales - his reputation is enough! However, after purchasing this hen, I had great difficulty in settling her and she didn't lay until later in the year. During that time I wrote to Bob find out more about the line and he sent me a hand written pedigree showing that this hen has all the original birds from 1966 in it "Goldeye" etc. Are you a Ko Nipius enthusiast Pouw?

hi Carol Racing April - Training March. How bout you? I'm interested to know what the other "critters" are that you keep - arent they like the "gremlins" that found film fame!!!!!???????

Hi, any Ko Nipius enthusiasts out there? I have a super 05 hen with all the best Ko nipius breeding. She is surplus to my requirements at the moment but far too well bred to cull. (Couldn't get her to pair up for early breeding). Contact me for a good deal on this hen.

T-T I think you should heed the advice that your friend has given until your babies have got a bit more experience Best of luck.

Depends on the feeding - when my lad first started he was advised (by an ace fancier) to feed the ybs on beans and peas - all protien - when ever he let the ybs out they was full of "fly" -Had flyaways for the first four years. They took off with any passing batches. Most people train in the mornings and if you are in an area which sees a lot of birds passing over like we are, you must expect to lose some off the loft. We discovered that the ace was doing the same but he was retired and that his birds were let out after mid day and left out until about 4pm before the "working men" started to train again.

Jimmy Tell your man "welcome back" He will have to admit its in his blood!!!! You have to agree with Sbelbin - despite all the argue bargue and two nationals etc etc. You cant beat it when you see those birds coming home to your loft (Win or Lose) Tell him - good luck from me.

Hi Snowy Dont be too hasty with the breeding mate. Theres hundreds of reasons why they may not go together. Sometimes you have to accept that its not going to happen as easy as that. If I am truthful, my breeding this year has only been about 70% successful and the 30% failure is mostly caused by young birds let alone latebreds!! Be patient, if its a stock bird you may still get a couple of rounds from them if you split them now. Look to the future mate - Dont be so anxious - it makes you do irrational things. Good luck with them!!!

Are you talking distance or diiiiiiiiistance. Surely the pigeons for the diiiiiiiiistance are built differently. Why would you want to cross?

Lol back at ya SpecKled I dont use as much petrol with them flapping around in the back

Jimmy I dont train any birds in an East wind - it always seems to take too much out of them - Young birds seem to struggle in an East wind and Ive noticed that when anyone says they have had a bad chuck with them it is always on an East wind. Old birds too, dont seem to want to fly in an East wind - I think it is a very dry wind. Does anyone else car train there babies - I like to give them half a dozen runs in the car prior to liberating them - I think this is the most stressful part of training ybs especially if you shut them away in a boot!

Ms. Pigeon Ive used an earth-worm up to now but I am interested to hear whether you've managed to hatch out any of these jumpin beans!!!!!?????

Sbelbin I dont have a lot of experience but I had a 4yr widowhood cock win for me from Thurso - only day bird club and fed. He was part of my widowhood team but he only had that one race and one at the start of the season. He only saw his hen once that season and that was prior to basketing bfore Thurso. I thought I'd "flogged" him in the three years previous due to my own inexperience but I soon realised the benefit of setting a bird up for one particular race even on widowhood. Every friday I put him in a seperate compartment and only put him back when all the hens are away.

THE SOLUTION I 'd concentrate on targeting the older generation and coax them into the sport. The youngsters have got too much in front of them to be commited to a sport such as ours. I think theres more chance of someone who is retiring or perhaps someone who is already an animal/bird lover taking up the birds. BRIGHTLY COLOURED BIRDS I would suggest that the appropriate bodies have a NATIONAL PIGEON DAY - lets take over all the pet shops in the country - put a few show pens in them and put a brightly coloured cock in between a couple of widowhood hens - They'd be showing all day!. Have someone there, preferably one of the younger member of the club, (no offence to all the "grumpys" out there but it's a fact that if we are to attract more people into the sport, the current image needs to be changed) with a clock/thimbles/race rubbers etc to present our great sport. - Joe public couldn't fail to be impressed. I think the pet shop owners would be only to willing to give us the space for three show pens especially the big corperates like Pet city, Pet smart etc. etc. GOOD EXPERIENCE Incidently it was a couple of the so called "old grumpys" that started me in the sport and the help and knowledge that these fantastic people have given freely, I reckon is worth about 8 years in experience if you tried to do it on your own. SO MADAS26 I think you must have all the oldest and grumpiest old gits in your area!!

Theman Have to agree with Snowy - it could be that you are handling them and basketing them when they do come in - They may actually be scared of you! Latebreds are fickle things at the best of times. I'd prefer to give them a treat - try sbelbins peanut or some trapping mix until they know the ropes - dont starve them -theyre only babies afterall

Thanks Mike - heres an interesting Poll - Do you think if they used the eye glasses ON the pigeons they'd get more young birds back.!!!

Hi Sbelbin I prefer the distance and prefer the widowhood - I was experimenting from Bergerac (MNFC) last year and I paired my widowhood cocks just seven days before the race and they flew worse than ever. In the week that they were paired, they lost all intrest in anything other than the hen. Do you think it has any bearing on the type of birds that you fly?