bullcock

Crocodile shoes revenge.

When we line breed or inbreed our birds we are breeding off the best blood in our lofts, so in effect we are trying to increase our odds of breeding more good ones and by homing in on our best blood we are increasing our odds of producing another good one. If your blessed with a loft of good ones then you should keep breeding and RACING there blood lines, but if you only have one or two good ones then to improve your odds I would STOCK sons and daughters off them and breed from them for racing, again trying to capture the winning blood and improving your odds of breeding more winners, they all won't breed winners but if you find one pair that does then you have cracked it and you can continue the life long cycle of improving your odds. Being a Master Breeder is key to being a Master Racer.

Over the last 10 years we have tried the Darkness and Early bred systems and although they do well in the early, we have found that when you take stock at the end of the season most of the birds remaining are the later bred birds, the ones that just made the team, this year we are pairing up in mid February rather than during the Xmas holidays.

I am sure the birds come up the east coast and the north birds cross at the fourth and the west birds come in along the fourth before dog legging back into the west that is why the west can be so far behind the east birds, and when the Stirling area birds get to the fourth they carry on straight home from their. If the Stirling birds where homing from further inland then the west birds would be in before or at the same time as them, not miles later. (my exact birdage and dates might be a bit out but the point is still a valid one) The young bird National is a good example of the line of flight and about two years ago Karen Newcome time about 50 birds in Jig time the birds were tumbling in up the east coast, but still the west was late Tam Richardson times about 15 out of 16 in half an hour which was fantastic, but he was about 1 1/2 hours behind Karen? these birds where homing and should have been home approx. 45min after Karen and the rest of the east coast convoy, so why did these birds and everyone else in the west coast birds take so long to home? Where do they go to for about an hour before arriving in the west, this happens at every young bird national there are birds in Aberdeen before not even one bird is in the west, why ?

Hi lads, this issue about East vs West will run forever, but looking at it from a different angle, I think everyone can agree that the birds if you pin point the line of flight for 99% of the races the birds are coming up the east coast, this is a Fact I'm sure we can all agree on. Now the way I see it using the advantage / disadvantage Stirling vs Larkhall for arguments sake, as the birds home via the East coast, then Stirling is approx. 10 miles from Kincardine. Stirling is approx. 25 miles from Inverkiething. Stirling is approx. 35 miles from Kircaldy, which is due East. Larkhall is Approx. 100miles from Berwick upon Tweed which is due East. Larkhall is approx. 40 miles from Edinburgh. Larkhall is approx. 35 miles from Bo ness. I think the advantage that Stirling and surrounding areas get over Larkhall and surrounding areas is due to the fact that they are much closer to the East coast where the birds are homing from and the longitude has nothing to do with it. I hope this gives food for thought and keeps a healthy debate going in good spirit.

Hi there if your birds are doing 40mins twice a day theres not much wrong with them. how often are you training them and what is the weather and tempreture while training as too much training can do more harm than good on this system? also is your feeding system right too much or too little can throw them out. I do agree with most comments on here that the weather is just too cold and erratic to get top form this early on, although my birds have hit the ground running so far,stick with the system and dont change about they will come good, just make sure the feeding system is ok.

hi john I use a book similar to yours but once my rings are full i add them to a spreadsheet data base on the computer, it works similar to these pigeon record keeping programs that are going about but I prefer working with a spreadsheet as Im used to using them. I can look up any bird and its pedigree at the touch of a button.

The benifit of facing the house is that you can see your trap from the window to watch for late commers and national birds late at night. the ideal position is different for everyone as the positions are all different, avoid facing your loft into the east or north winds, have the landing board facing the direction the birds home from if possible, hope this is of some help.

yes as you said I hope that section f keeps getting stronger, it has built up over the last few years and there is no reason why the ayrshire boys cant fly in the nationals in fact flying down the west could be an advantage only participation and time will tell. IT STILL HAS TO BE CONFIRMED BUT IT LOOKS LIKE WE SHOULD BE OPERATING THE KILBARCHAN MARKING STATION AGAIN THIS YEAR, THIS SHOULD HELP KEEP THE NUMBERS UP.

Didnt Forsyth of Paisley hold the record for flying Barcelona 1000 miles ?

no 22 for me.

sorry to here this,we all talk about the best in the west and george was cetainly one of them, and a nicer gentleman you couldn't meet. our thought are with Gareth and his family.

Cheers for that john, that means a lot to both of us.

Then you can confirm that neither me or my brother shouted or swore at him, the meeting you are refering to if I remember right was abandoned because the majority of members felt he shouldnt have been there as he wasnt a Fed member at that time.

I think the key to higher birdage in the gold cup is having a good 1st race, if as has happened in the last few years we get poor returns from the 1st race this has an effect on the rest of the program. I think the further west the 1st race is the worst the returns, I would like us to stay on the east side, as we have been getting good returns from Eastbourne & Ypres. raising the prize money wont increase the birdage as every national flyer wants to go to the gold cup regaurdless of the prize money it's the lack of birds that is stopping them, usually due to a poor 1st race.JMO

We will never forget it,the clock was still in the house and we were waiting on the fed birds when she came, we thought she was a fed bird until david saw the best sight in the world the double rubbers and shouted to me, I was running down the garden trying to take the key out the side of the clock heart beating in my ears. happy days. Was yours was a red cock if i remember?

Hi Gareth he was flown widowhood for the club races and paired up for the Nationals. His sire was unforntunately lost at marlbourgh and was bred from a d.blackwood cock paired to a hen bred from a our own janssen birds crossed with a hen from M.Menzies of Johnstone His dam was from a very inbred cock from our janssen birds paired to a hen from I Cameron who flys in brodholme in the midlands. Crosses on both sides of the pedigree but our janssen birds who have produced several section F winners are on both sides of the pedigree. The inbred cock is proving a useful stock bird having produces a few winners at club level, his double grand mother was Faith 11th open 2nd west region newbury 2002 (beaten by your good selves I may add).

He was 54th section Marlbourgh 1st section Eastbourne (only bird on day into section F) 1st section,3rd west region, 20th open Ypres Also 1st club 2nd fed 2nd club (beaten by loft mate) 4th fed and he is only a yearling.

Everyone is talking about the best places but hotrod touched on the worse locations, I think Renfrewshire & Ayrshire must be the hardest places to fly into JMO

keep us posted Kenny looks like a good night

Hi Del The idea of yearling nationals sounds good but the last 2 seasons 1st inland nationals we have struggled to get 2 or 3 year olds home as well as the yearlings, I think the further west these races are the poorer the returns, most feds race down the east why not stay over in the east I know the SNPRC didnt have a great race either this year from Wansted Flats but I think a race point around here would mean more returns. The feds now have the inland nationals in there program and you need your gold cup birds to have the time on the wing around this week and if there is no fed race available members have little choice but risk there gold cup birds at the 1st national. If we had a yearling national why not just go to huntingdon around 290 miles. Also we had a good gold cup last year, then we go and change it for no reason, change for changes sake? although I dont think the race point was to blame for the poor returns this year. I would like to see us continue holding the east line.Ypres has been a good race point so far.

I think the idea of inland nationals is good but the way the last 2 1st inland races have went has done more harm than good, the further west we go the worse the returns, wither some like it or not that seems to be the case. most feds fly the east route,the next national race is eastbourne so why do we jump across the country for the 1st inland race? If we stayed on the east coast somewhere around norwich or whatever I think the returns would be better, I no some will go on about overfly advantages and other pros and cons but the return of the birds must be the main priority when deciding a race point.

Hi this was bred by morris bros Johnstone 01505341269 but was donated to the SNFC L/B sale and was bought by G Hutchison & Son & J Tudhope 32 Mcgregor Avenue Stevenston Ayrshire KA20 4BW I don't have his phone number hope this helps, cheers

Why's that mystery sh@t stirrer