bullcock

come on jonesy whats the problem ?

why what has happened ?

all predators eyes are to the front they are binocular and work together to focus on a target,(that includes humans) but animals such as rabbits and pigeons have there eyes on the side of there head this is known as monocular and they have the ability to use each eye independantly and proccess the information. this helps when you are the prey, a bird can be looking ahead to the sides up & down all at the same time giving them an early warning of trouble. pigeons have fantastic sight and can far into the distance in one hand and a small seed on the loft floor in another. also pigeons are one of the few birds that can identify colours. add a compass and you have an amazing little bird.

I empty them at night and fill them when feeding, beleive it or not but in some cases hot water freezes faster then cold water ?? :-/

my birds have been in all winter but we started letting them out just before the snow came, they were sitting about the roofs so we havent put them out in the snow incase they spend the night out. other doo men around me who have let there birds out all winter are still letting them out ok.

my cocks always seem to be more hungry than the hens maybe i'm too generous to the hens or too tough on the cocks,I know a good doo man who is feeding his birds on 100% depurative one feed a day.

In this weather the birds will need more Carbohydrates than Protein so I give them 50% barley and 50% mixture (widowhood) but most mixtures will do, the barley lightens up the mix so they don't get too heavy during the winter. P.S. I feed one feed a day, if your worried about not giving them enough then handle them and see if they are overweight or under weight.

so if the bird is good and healthy you are happy well every one has them, but it doesn't mean it will be good for racing or breeding.

1st the breeder, as he/she should be a top fancier who can be trusted. 2nd the pedigree, as the performance of the bird and/or its parents and g/prarents is vital. 3rd the breed, it s only important as to what you are wanting ie sprint / distance and you decide this long before looking for a bird. 4th the pigeon, even the most visually appealing birds can be from rubbish so handling and looks are secondary to the blood line. 5th the transfer, if you plan to race the bird then it is required but for breeding its not that essential.

what brand of feeding do you use???

I have used swainstons mix for the last 8 years and had great success with it,BUT last year due to the rising costs of feeding I ordered a ton of mix and was disapointed to find that it was packed out with white and blue peas which the birds didn't like and their trapping mix was like a "souped-up" depuritive it was mostly wheat,barley and dari. last year I started racing well but around the 5th and 6th race I lost 20 odd birds I put it down to the poor feeding.

Maybe I got the convoyer wrong but what I meant was that gordon only takes our birds so far down the road before using some other transporter( I thought it was the lanarkshire motor but clearly not),my point is that this free's up our own motor after that and we could have extra races starting back at otterburn and going back out to wetherby or wakefield, this would give birds that had made a mistake or got injured a better chance to get educated for the following year. also this same idea could be used when we have 4 weeks in the summer between our last inland and our channel race.

Going back to the fed program, after the wetherby race I think we go on the lanarkshire motor, could we not organise our own transporter to continue racing so we would have 2 races at this point restarting at say ottersburn and going through to wetherby again this would benifit bird which had made a mistake or go jnjured early on and also give extra education for latebreds and yearlings you don't want to push too far.all this while the main birds are at the further races. there maybe technical or financial reasons why this couldn't happen but its food for thought.

Going back to the fed program, after the wetherby race I think we go on the lanarkshire motor, could we not organise our own transporter to continue racing so we would have 2 races at this point restarting at say ottersburn and going through to wetherby again this would benifit bird which had made a mistake or go jnjured early on and also give extra education for latebreds and yearlings you don't want to push too far.all this while the main birds are at the further races. there maybe technical or financial reasons why this couldn't happen but its food for thought.

I used to use the bull system, there are several ways to breed one cock with more than one hen, I had a video about it but don't now it is called THE BULL SYSTEM by rick mardis, it goes into detail about all the different ways and all the pros and cons of the system. The key points of the bull system is, No1 The cock must be something special a proven breeder. No2 The hens have to be well bred and again preferably proven. No3 All depending on the system you may need feeders for the eggs and they must lay at roughly the same time. No4 This can be a time consuming process.

The last I saw him (in the club at 16.00) he was well oiled.

2 is the best breeding eye as most seem to agree but 14 is also a good breeding eye I would pair them with good racing eyes such as 5,6,9. so my pick would be 2 with 5 and 14 with 9. ps they are all nice and more importantly healthy.

i'll be around shortly have them in the fridge.

what you haven't timed in yet ;D ;D ;D

sent 12 got 1 on monday well flown down gutted. all birds raced ripon 160mile the previous week we had 12 home before most had a timer,all birds looked great like i said gutted we have been racing well most of the season but have been losing birds for no aparant reason??? :o :-/

just paid £40 to get a bird from manchester! :'( :'( :'(

on our 1st race one unikon users 1st bird didn't register and anothers printed the arivals but no times. on the 2nd race the same fanciers system wouldn't work at all during marking and had to use an stb. upgrades or downgrades you decide. people are using the ETS system as a forward step in pigeon racing but in our club only 2 people use it and both have missed out in time-ins in the 1st race and one wouldn't work at all in the 2nd race!

body & ridewood or murry mills and any other supplier of pigeon equpiment, try ebay? check out the adverts in the homing world.

aye ready has given a good explanation of the system, if your 1st race is on the 18th then you have split them three weeks before the 1st race carry out the system as per aye ready's instruction and your birds should be on fire for the 1st few races,I will spilt this weekend giving my birds two weeks to perpare"dry out" as I call it and they will be well ready to compete on the 18th. the problem with widowhood or roundabout systems is it has a life span and after 5 or 6 races I find that they stale on the system and it's better to repair them back up at this point. some people manage to race the whole season on the system but ive found that as the summer comes in the hens start to pair up with each other more and they can give you problems especially as the distance goes out the stronger the feeding gets, the stronger the feeding the more they will pair up.(its a vicious circle),hope you have a good season. p.s. a golden rule about birds on this system, on basket night you can NEVER over excite a HEN but you can over excite a cock, when showing the birds on race night, show racing cocks a short period of time, racing hens longer.

Id try slipping her an egg and then a second two days later her cock should take them as he has been waiting patiently, let them sit them until they jump them and she might just go into the cycle and lay out the second time round. ive done this this year already but my hen is only 10 years old, just a chick compared to your old campainer. good luck.