bullcock

Cheers

Delboy on a serious note could it be "squirrels",a few days ago my young birds just went up as if a hawk went into them and I went around the back of the loft and a squirrel was running across the fence, they were a bit edgy after that but settled the next day, only a suggestion, you will know if there are squirrels around your place. Hope you solve the problem.

Our Racing lofts.

I'm all up 63 (I think it was we sent), hope everybody gets them working back.

44 MPH pretty quick, I think we will be slower though around 35 - 40 MPH at best.

never mind what there are doo-ing keep your eyes on the skys and have the kettle on for 19:30, Thats not when your getting a doo but thats when I'll be around.

How can we be marking birds in the morning while waiting on birds from the National? This will put a lot of members out of averages,trophies and also missing the 1st young bird race.(unless they have ETS) If they mark tonight we will have the whole day to liberate the birds instead of a few hours in the afternoon.JMO

I there and back again

What Dundee are you from 3 hrs ( 1 1/2 at best)

some of the solway boys keep going on about flying down the west rather than the east but there has been more day birds this year than in any year I can remember from the east route.

The question is why do they prefer Ypres ? is it because they want to fly alone or is it they don't like the distance,which judging by the birdage people are prefering the shorter races.

Yep the losses have been very high and costly to members and the sport in general, and yes we need to review the program at fed and national levels. but on a plus note Ive never seen so many day birds from the gold cup race and ypres was in general a good race also. The Inlands are too short, Bourges is too long we have too many races all these issues have been discussed over the last few weeks on PB but we need to make some sense of it all and come up with solutions to all the issues. Has anybody got the solution to these issues? Fire away....

Back to the original question, and Yes I think more birds are lost in the Inland National races,If individuale Feds were at Bovingdon the returns would be far higher but altoghether in the National has always produced higher losses. The theory should be that the more birds heading north from the furthest distances the better, but from different areas this has been proved every year to produce very poor returns. Feds are relying on the Nationals due to Finanial issues, but it's a false ecomomy due to the loss of birds for the future, this doesnt help the Feds or the Nationals ( or the Fanciers) Take our Fed as an example, if I don't send my birds to the Inland Nationals then my last Fed race would be 260 miles on the last week in May, and my yearlings and 2 year olds would never see 300 miles until 3 years old. I would have been racing old birds form mid March in winter conditions and be finished by the end of May and have no racing for the whole of June into july waiting on the young bird program to start. In short the Fed us and our birds are racing in the winter and doing nothing all summer in the warmer weather! This is crazy I want to be waiting on birds homing in a hot sunny morning with the birds singing and the flowers blossoming, not looking out the window with a rain coat and a wooly hat on waiting on birds in the pi@@ing rain freezing. SUMMARY We start racing far too early. We go out too far too fast, leaving no accomidation for birds missing a race having to jump into the following race. Feds need to go to the 250 - 350 mile races together (such as west region feds all going together) We need to coordinate liberations better to avoid clashing, if all the East Feds Married up and Followed the same Program they could Liberate together and the same for the west, this would mean fewer liberations making it very easy to comunicate and coordinate avoiding clashing.

I think the 1st race comes too quick and should be put back 1 week to the second week in june allowing an extra Fed race, so heres my tuppins worth. Sat 11th June 1st Inland Nat(Bovingdon,This is a good race for setting up birds for the gold cup) 2 weeks later Fri 24th June Gold cup race. 1 week later Sat 2nd July 2nd Inland national (Eastbourne,This sets the birds up for the next races) 2 weeks later Sat 16th july Ypres (or similar Distance) 1 week later Fri 22nd July Longest Race This program will keep the distance and Inland fans happy and would see a larger entry into the gold cup Race. Whatever the program next year we will all be there thats for sure.

This seems to be a very regular pattern this year, almost everyone in our area has experienced major losses from tosses when some arrive at the right time! I think Percy has a lot to do with it, but it's happening far more than Ive ever heard of? I don't know the answer but I hope you and everyone else in your shoes gets some working back.

06:00 to avoid the band of rain (if they go at all)

The race was cancelled due to high winds over the weekend.

check this pedigree out SIRE.doc

have a look at this pedigree SIRE SIRE NO1 STOCK COCK 1051 FED TOPPER DAM NO1 STOCK HEN SIRE FULL BOR / SIST SON OF FAITH SIRE DAM NO1 STOCK COCK 3132 HALF BOR /SIST 11TH OPEN NAT NEWBURY DAM NO1 STOCK HEN 1049 SIRE 3 X 1STS SIRE SIRE NO1 STOCK COCK 1050 FED TOPPER DAM NO1 STOCK HEN DAM FULL BOR / SIST DTR OF FAITH SIRE NOTE :- DAM NO1 STOCK COCK 1050 & 1051 ARE NEST MATES 3132 11TH OPEN NAT NEWBURY DAM NO1 STOCK HEN SU08R1049 IS VERY INBRED AND BRED A COCK TO WIN 3 X 1STS WITH AN UNRELATED BIRD.

Pigeons secreet corp mlk for the first 4 or 5 days which is vital for the chick to survive, feeding it chick crumb I don't think it will live sorry, but give it a go and good luck.

Fair point Delboy but we can't do anything about that, the Secretary is employed fulltime. If we want to spent the money in the bank we need to break even every year or go into debt. P.S. do you know how much it would cost for a new 7.5 ton Geraldy ?

We have Thousands in the bank we could purchase one and see how it pans out and then another if all goes well, I think we would need 3 x 7.5ton Transporters rather than one large one. But remember we are running at a loss every year and at the rate we are running we will have no money left to survive never mind buy ant Transporters. If we really want to do this we need to stop the loss and create more profit, there are a few ways of doing this, 1 Raise funds with Sales (this reaps a good return but not the kind of cash we need.) 2 We spend the cash in the bank. 3 We up the subscriptions substantially ( which we would need to do anyway if we go with option 2) 4 we reduce our running costs Prize money,Trophies,Marking Stations & Transport hire. 5 All of the above toghether. If we really want to have the best Transporters available we must change something.

Where

I got 7 out of 20, 1 reported in newcastle, my friend got one reported in Armagh Ireland the guy got it in in sat evening . Just shows you we dodn't know were they get to,the returns from this race every year are poor and I have a few point about why that is. I race with the Glasgow Fed. The race comes too soon in the season if it was two weeks later and we had a couple more club races around 150 - 250 miles the birds would be better prepared for it and the weather would probably be more favourable over the two week period bringing the birds into better condition. If we don't sent our 2 year olds to this race they must jump into Eastbourne or they are finished for the season at the end of May! this is due to feds doubling into the national and this leaves members with two choices Their old bird season is over by the end of May or they go to the Nationals? we race our birds in winter weather at the start of the year then have none left or have to stop just as the weather is hotting up and the season should just be starting. If we don't go to Nationals we don't have any racing in the whole of June except 1 comeback race, then its "bring on the young birds" Back to the losses, I think the number of returns is decided at the race point if 5000 birds headed north after liberation then even if some are not up for the job most of the experienced birds would turn up over the next couple of days, but there gone. I think a large part of the convoy have went either south or west and for some reason not corrected themselves,where they end up I don't know but there are too many experienced birds lost But as I have already said a lot of birds are being sent because if they don't there season is finished,and this happens every year at the 1st Inland National. These are only my opinions and My hat comes off to fanciers who go a good return well done.