Back garden fancier

Just got some daylight energy saving bulbs off t'internet on at 1500 and 0ff at 1900 just to get ready for pairing in two weeks. Once they've laid I'll turn them off

Don't worry about seperating cocks and hens, or young birds. You have to adapt to what you have. All the birds stay together and you will be best flying natural. Don't worry about other systems, just enjoy your pigeons until you can expand. Dale Newcombe one of the best ever flyers in Scotland has all his birds together all year, totally natural.

Not paired up yet

I use the PLO system and it does as much or as little as you need. I like having a photo of each bird against it's record so you can see the bird.

Have a look through the lofts in the members photo's section. You'll get some ideas from there.

Looks like an owl, or a short faced tumbler?

Put TCP in the birds bath ( tablespoon ) that will knock 'em straight off the birds.

Nest felts are cheap, just bin them. Not worth building up disease for the sake of a few pence.

Leave it to hatch on it's own.

I would say go for Unikon in your case, if you get the pocket clock there's no wires to disconnect when you go to the club. With the other systems you have to unscrew a plug and some are faffy. You can put the Unikon in the loft in April and leave it running until September.

Keep the loft and let the wife go I say !!!

I use the PLO system, seems ok. I think it means more work, as you can take a picture of each bird and put it in it's file. Also you have a lot of race deatils to enter in order to build up "bird profiles" But if you like computers and pigeons then PLO is a good system.

Everyone goes on about ETS bringing the sport into the 21st century, so why not GPS. The RPRA is a members organisation, so presumably if GPS mapping was voted in then it would have to be used?

The fact is good birds and good fanciers win races, not clocks! The same people who always win will still always win. ETS will not turn losers into winners.

I've seen their birds at a couple of shows, and never seen anything I liked. There's loads of choice out there, so shop around.

Did anyone see this hidden away in the BBC Science pages? Edingburgh university has carried out research into 4000 winning race horses between since 1922. They compared stud fees and genes. The conclusion was that paying vast sums doe not guarantee success. Quote: " By far the biggest factor was the horses environment- the way they were trained and choice of races entered." They also found that only 10% of winning is down to genes, the rest is down to the trainer! Now I assume that this can be applied directly to pigeon racing? That means if you don't win, blame yourself. And don't fork out fortunes for pigeons!!

If pigeon racing becomes a sport won't we have to pay tax? I know that the local golf club always gives out golf stuff as prizes to avoid tax. Can you imagine if our winnings were taxed. The big one loft and gold ring races wouldn't be as attractive?

Weather has caused your problem, I'ts been freezing for ages then warmed up. My garage is dripping, and even the outside of the house walls are running with condensation.

Hi all, and merry Xmas. Is anyone having an Xmas Eve or Boxing day race? I know there are a few. If so, how far? And good luck.

Won't the car get messy?!!

What are poulets? Is that pellets or pullets?

The birds seem to eat more black minerals when feeding youngsters, but leave it alone and eat red at all other times. Thats why I don't mix it, they have a choice then.

The workers from the first farm also work at the farm where the new out break is ! Guess what happend there then!

Nice loft, how do you keep the hens?

I once gave 2 rings to an old fancier who said he would breed me a pair of squeakers. He rang a week later to say they were ready and when I got there they had my rings on and were about 25 days old and weaned! He would not say how he got the rings on, he just winked. The birds were fine by the way, no damage to their feet at all. To this day don't know how he did it?