bullcock

Well done Gareth

I have seen this first hand, mate bred a two young birds mixed together.

Toughest Class yet, 2 then 5 for me.

These could make good stock birds when crossed with distantly related or full cross birds, but as for racing if they are first generation inbred (both parents aren't closely related) they should be fine for racing. I would breed off them and maybe train and lightly race them this year to see how the young birds do, if the young birds look promising you may have found a good pair of breeders.

No 2 for me.

No 7 for me.

Not sitting on the fence here, as I picked my choice before scrolling down and 7 and 17 are tops, (7 1st), great class.

Great show of birds, but for me 1 and 9 are my choice.

N0 18

No 12 for me.

We have covered our lofts with white upvc, wood effect and so far we are happy, we would like to have used brown but it was too expensive.

Who's that baldy guy at the bottom of the picture, Jim Cullen is trying to sell us a pup, I would have, but the wife would have through me oot. Great Day

Hey guys, I'm just back also and had a good catchup with fanciers I wouldn't otherwise see all winter, Yes it's not Blackpool, but the organizers clearly put a lot of time into this show and can't make people go but the more that go the better it will become. It's perfect for a one day show,maybe a few more stalls, But everyone I spoke to had a good time. Well done to all the staff and the show winners.

Come the summer it will be all worth while, birds trapping in the back door, all the best.

I never said not to use it up, you have removed all doubt by using it, all I am saying is that the suppliers store an annual harvest of grains (yes some can be brought in from abroad, but the cost would limit this to a minimum) Yes some will have grain silo's but keeping it dry and away from vermin is the key aims of storage.

When it comes to use by dates etc, When you get a bag from your supplier do you think this is freshly harvested? they have to store it through out the season the same as we do.(their is only one harvest each year) So grains bought this summer from a supplier will be from the same crop that you will get supplied until the next harvest, It's not like tomatoes that came be grown throughout the year to satisfy demand.

Your clearly new to the whole pigeon thing, so for me flying natural is a simple system, that will allow you to observe and understand the behavior of pigeons and understand them and what makes them tick, then roundabout or a similar system could be tried. P.S. Yes most people race young birds then whats left of them get raced as yearling and so on. As far a s a breed loft you can breed from your yearlings and old birds to start with and a stock loft can be a future venture, you need to find your best birds to put in the stock loft. All the best for 2015.

The sad fact is the more you race them the more you will lose and this will naturally keep you loft at a workable number, if you don't lose many, then your better than most. So at the start of the season have a number in your mind that you want to winter and during the racing season if you lose few then you can keep sending, but if you lose losts then you can reduce the number you send so you can winter near your ideal number, hope this helps.

This boundary doesn't include Glasgow and Renfrewshire, as some have stated earlier.

Sorry to hear that Stuart.

Your right Harry, the best eyes in the loft are your own.

The main points of ventilation is having a continuous air exchange while avoiding a draft, the acid test is on a day with little wind, if you can smell the pigeons on entering the loft then the ventilation isn't perfect, so if your loft has no odour's from the birds or their droppings and the birds aren't sitting in a draft then you will be fine. Remember even the best vented loft will fail if it's over crowded so their are other factors to good health. And yes heat helps but you have plenty of sun light getting in so this shouldn't be an issue, nice loft good luck.

Cheers Del, Their was a few good birds Davy Donaldson's was a cracker also.

The top two pictures are the same eye.(nice one)

Great sale today at Newmains, delighted with the pair I got.