bullcock

Great setup, good luck for 2014

Guaranteed, we all breed too many including me.

Nice one, Del, not many of these to the pound.

We have got some high performing birds in my loft and they have "good eyesign" but I also have birds that have not bred or won with "better eyesign" according to the theory. I like a good clear healthy eye it looks like their is a light inside it, I do look at the eyesign, but performance is the only real way to find them out.

Yes some get good returns, but the overall returns from these races were poor, and I am thinking of the whole convoy not my personal returns.

I do believe that with the prevailing West Wind the East is the easiest route up the country, put it this way flying from Eastbourne to Peterhead is easier than flying from Cornwall to Glasgow, IMO. Yes you are right, is the Status Quo still an option or as it's not on the letter does that mean its off the table?

Good post, but the fact for me is that my birds always home from East or North East no matter where we train or race from, no matter where we race from the birds seem to come up the East Coast, then dog leg into the West, so if we race from the Centre or West, they are still in Edinburgh long before the West and if we fly East they are still in Edinburgh long before the West, the difference being that from the West or Centre Edinburgh gives the West next to nothing and from the East they give the West some overfly even if it's still no where near a true measurement it helps make it a bit fairer, It's not anyones fault where they fly from, but we need to make it as fair as possible.

Your right their Del,

Newbury returns have been very poor for years that's why we moved and every option so far has also been very poor returns, Bovingdon, Marlborough, Cheltham, so to say their is nothing wrong with Newbury leaves me scratching my head, since it has been to blame for poor birdage at the Gold cup for the last 5 years at least, and on PB lots of fanciers would rather do away with it because of this. As Hotrod said Go East,it gives better returns, FACT and it's fairer to the whole of Scotland, even though they had a good race from the centre.

If poor quality diplomas is the major topic of discussion before the AGM, we have cracked it and have nothing else to worry about.

The Secretary's job going part time is only a proposal at this point. P.S. not happy with the proposal to put pool money up to 10%

History over the last 5 or 6 years has shown poor returns from the centre of the country in inlands, Newbury, Bovingdon, Cheltham, most races from Eastbourne and Maidstone have been good for returns, also Newbury is a setup race for the Gold Cup and Tours races, and Eastbourne or Maidstone are setup races for Ypres and in my opinion helps make for a successful Ypres, having the 2nd inland from the centre of the country is a setup for Clermont, and if history repeats itself will serve no other purpose but more poor returns, affecting the Clermont birdage, we have seen this for years, poor returns from the 1st inland killing the birdage for the Gold Cup, I think poor returns from Portsmouth would affect Clermont, but only time will tell. Buckingham for the 1st inland? it is a bit shorter than Newbury, but again time will tell if returns are good.

Good Job, where did you get the wood effect upvc, can you get iy in different colours and how much does it cost, thanks.

Absolute brilliance, she is defiantly a 500+ Gold Award Winner

Will see what we can do, we only have two late breds off her ours self, but as she is a sister to Faith 11th Open Newbury and another Brother was 1st Reg F 8th West Section Newbury and several other National positions not to mention Brothers and Sisters have won 13 x 1st clubs and 7 x 1st Feds before I stopped counting, she is also heavily related to Ladeside Archie 2 x 1st Sec F, 3rd West Region 19th Open Ypres my loft is full of this blood line and I'm sure we can breed you something nice.

Cheers

Sounds like a great day out, Wish I could have made it up, Steve can you display the results of the auction and who bought the birds if possible, thanks.

I use an Excel Spreadsheet which I set up in 2000 an has every bird I have bred or bred off, and much more.

Yes, we eventually did away with it, but the first time we tried the darkness system we were blocking everything off to get it as dark as possible, we all know now that the loft doesn't need to be that dark, but we have never been afraid to try new ideas to improve on what we have got, and will continue to change things if we think it could improve things.

Years ago when we did the darkness system due to blocking the section down for darkness we installed one and attached a tube about 4" diameter and about one meter long this had holes along it increasing in size the further from the fan it got to draw air from across the section rather than just drawing from the one spot. (it was installed in the highest point in the section away from the perches to draw the air away from the birds) We found it very effective at drawing out stale air forcing fresh air in from the vents maintaining a good exchange of air.

Yes, you can be an SHU member without being a member of a Club, the rings you will get won't have any Federation ID on them.

Hi, Your perches are ok but you could do with more of them, aim for more perches than birds, as for them not using them, give them time and they will eventually start using them. (these are fancy breed birds so I'm not sure if there mannerisms are the same as racing pigeons?) Good luck with them.

RIP Dennis, One of the greats of Pigeon Racing.

Who taught you this? and have you any theories on why?

Well done and good luck, hope they breed a 2nd west section