FOXY

A very valid point .

A bit more about these birds, RECOGNIZED COLORS GRIZZLE – Red, Yellow, Blue, Silver. SELF – White, Black. A.O.C. – (Any Other Color) Includes any birds splashed, mottled or any color not recognized. ORIGIN Home Unknown. In the first half of the 18th Century there was isolated breeding in England and Germany. The breed was widespread in Belgium and Holland when it was introduced into Germany. The red and blue grizzle showed up first in Hungary. From there they found their way through all of Austria, then Germany. Today the breeding is widespread. The white crested has been present in the United States since 1920. The colored varieties were imported from Europe in 1951. SIZE Body carried slightly horizontal and low in stance. Slightly larger than most Germany Toy breeds, having larger wings and longer tail. The length of wing and tail feathers to be in proportion to the rest of the body size. HEAD Shell crested and plainheaded are present in all colors. The following is the point breakdown of 15 points for head areas: CRESTED: Beak and wattle, 2; Eye, 3; Head (shape), 2; Shell Crest, 8 = 15 points. PLAINHEAD: Beak and wattle, 2; Eye, 3; Head (shape), 10 = 15 points. PLAINHEAD The head should be large, but in proportion to the size of the body. The shape should be slightly oval with a well rounded forehead. There should be a definite stop of the forehead at the wattle. SHELL CRESTED Shell shaped, positioned up on the back of the head, high and erect, full with feathers, thick, and have small rosettes on each side of the head. The crest feathers should stand straight up, not hugging the head, and be even across at its base. EYES Not large, located in a direct line with the beak. Red or orange colored iris is desired in all color varieties. Pearl, bull, cracked, gravel eyes are major faults and will be disqualified. BEAK The beak is long and slender, held straight out, curved on the tip, frequently the upper beak is slightly longer than the lower beak. Beak color is dark on red and blue, black on blacks, horn or light on yellow and silver, and flesh colored on whites. Wattle is thin, small and covered with white powder on all colors. BODY Generally boaty in appearance. NECK Seemingly short, protrudes entirely from the shoulder. Has very little throat, but well cut away. BREAST Broad, nicely plump, somewhat set forward (protruding). BACK Broad shoulders, slightly arched, sloping off gently. LEGS Short, with a muscular squat appearance, powerful. TAIL Wide feathers, rather long and borne relatively loose. The tail should not exceed over the width of two feathers. Almost but not dragging the ground. Each feather must have a definite wave or wrinkle. WING Wide and strong. The body is well covered. Wide primaries, the extreme end rest on the tail. The wing tips should not cross but form a "V" at the tail. Each primary and flight feather must have a definite wave or wrinkle. Wing and tail feathers should not be excessively long in length. MUFF Muff or foot feathering is preferred, two to three inches in length, full and forming an arc shape. Feathers of the hock and foot feathering must have a definite wave or wrinkle, the feather ending with a curl or frill. FRILL (Curls) – Most important factor in judging. The feathers should not be so fluffy or straight that a well defined curl can’t be formed. The frill should cover the entire wing shield, dense on the shoulders, so that no open areas stand out. The last row of frill, toward the tail, should run the entire length of the wing, and be long in length. Also, of great importance is the size of curl, the form, and the curl ending. The feather should be long in length, thick and the feather ending should form a closed curl ending with a round ringlet at the end. Feather curl should also be present at the ends of the foot feathers or muff and at the ends of the hock feathers. The primary flight feathers of the wing and tail feathers should have a definite wave or wrinkle. ATTENTION: The amount, size, closed curl, curl ringlet, total wing and curl coverage cannot be stressed enough. Remember the breed’s name, FRILLBACK. VARIOUS COLORS WHITE Pure white, without yellow tinge. Color faults: Black or bull eyes, not a clear beak color, colored feathers. BLACK Jet black color with as much beetle green luster as possible over the entire plumage. The major goal is to obtain an even shade over all the body, flights and tail. Color faults: Grayish brown or dull compared to other black areas, visible bars, wrong eye color, white or light colored beak. RED GRIZZLE Lacquer bright fiery brick red and strong wherever on the body, a little lighter on the belly, rump and back. The head, neck and wing shield feathers should be red with part of the feather being white, which forms the sprinkling of white or grizzle pattern. Wing bar entirely dark strong red, clearly marked. Primaries and flights, upper and under surface lightly sprinkled with white. Color faults: Overall light red color without luster, blue feathers or shade in the white feathered areas, dark keel, light beak, too much white on the head, neck or wing shield. YELLOW GRIZZLE The yellow is exactly the same as the red grizzle. Lacquer bright golden yellow, and strong wherever on the body, a little lighter on the belly, rump and back. The head, neck, and wing shield feathers should be yellow with part of the feather being white, which forms the sprinkling of white or grizzle pattern. Wing bar entirely dark strong yellow, clearly marked. Primaries and flights, upper and under surface lightly sprinkled with white. Color faults: Overall light yellow color without luster, blue feathers or shade in the white feathered areas, dark keel, light beak, too much white on the head, neck or wing shield. BLUE GRIZZLE Blue grizzle appears in both light and dark blue. The neck is darker metallic green than the breast and shield. The wing bar is dark gray black to entirely black. The tail and wings are blue, with a darker bar. The tail guard feathers are sprinkled with medium bright blue feathers. The head, neck and wing shield feathers should be blue with part of the feather being white, which forms the sprinkling of white or grizzle pattern. Basic blue shade should be the same wherever on the bird. Flight feathers should not have any white parts. Any red feathers or rust at all on the wing shield or bar should not be present. Color faults: Too much white on the head, neck or flight feathers, weak shade of blue, and rust or red on the wing shield or bar. SILVER GRIZZLE Silver (Brown) grizzle appears in both light and dark silver. The neck is darker metallic green than the breast and shield. The wing bar is dark brown or dun color. The tail and wings are silver, with a darker bar. The tail guard feathers are sprinkled with medium bright silver feathers. The head, neck and wing shield feathers should be silver with part of the feather being white or fawn color, which forms the sprinkling of white or grizzle pattern. Basic silver shade should be the same wherever on the bird. Flight feathers should not have any white parts. Any red, rust or blue feathers at all on the wing shield or bar should not be present. Color faults: Too much white on the head, neck or flight feathers, weak shade of silver, rust, red or blue feathers on the wing shield or bar.

Think a race like this would justify a big response

Here is a pasage quoted from the internet : PARATYPHOID A great many articles have been dedicated to this disease and right so because this disease has caused enormous damage to our pigeon population over the years. Based on lots of contacts and different literature we can say that even the greatest champions have experienced this disease. Especially in the earlier years there must have been huge losses ; think of for example the fifties and sixties when quality medicines and the vaccine in particular weren’t available yet. But even today treatment remains difficult ; in the course of this article we’ll explain why. From this viewpoint you can put that paratyphoid is one of the most dangerous diseases among the pigeon fanciers ; paramyxo for example is also a very bad disease, but in this case you can secure your dovecote by using a very simple injection. Paratyphoid is an infectious disease caused by a kind of Salmonella that only causes problems with pigeons and not with other animals, even not with other poultry. The exact name of the pigeon strain is Salmonella typhimurium variety Copenhague and it is remarkable but very important to know that it only causes illness among pigeons. Over the last decades the disease has been found with an almost constant frequency although I’m convinced it has increased during the last few years. Even with this well-known pigeon disease there are still some points to declare such as for example the beginning of the disease ; the same so for more recently found diseases such as streptococcus gallolyticus ( known as streptococcus bovis), adenoviroses, …. It is presumed that the bacterium is picked up and hence enters the intestines ; from there it can come in the blood and spread all over the body to all kinds of organs such as the longs, the liver, the testicle, the central nervous system, the articulations … It can also be found in the muscles, the skin and the eye-lids. Only a few of those bacteria are not sufficient to cause the disease. You need millions of them. It takes about two weeks for the symptoms, i.e. very often a wetty defecation, to become clear. I think the entrance in a colony is not caused by the travel baskets but especially by obtaining an infected pigeon which is perfectly capable of spreading the millions of bacteria necessary for infection in the dovecote ; and then by contaminated fodder, drinking water ….. especially with hot weather ! The symptoms are, to put it with an understatement, very diverse and sometimes even misleading, except of course for the very typical signs, which are well-known, such as wing paralisation or limping by inflamation of the articulations. A fast slimming pigeon is also very suspicious if there isn’t any other reason to be found, especially when it occurs more than once. Sometimes diagnosis can be made easily with such pigeons through a simple bloodtest. This is a very important step in the treatment. Nevertheless, you mustn’t decide too easily with a negative blood test that it isn’t paratyphoid because the agglutine antibodies disappear very quickly after the infection. As such there are a lot of recently infected pigeons that had a negative blood result. In some cases you can see twisted necks with growing young in the nest. One should also think of paratyphoid whenever there are complaints of diminishing condition, worse results, wetty defecation, slowly growing young or complaints of any kind. The problem is that in that case it is far more difficult to make a certain diagnosis. Blood tests will generally be negative ; the other possibility to come to a diagnosis is trying to breed the Salmonella germ either from a mixed manure sample or through autopsy of the injuries that can be found in for example the long, the liver, … In the beginning of this article we stated that treatment is a difficult issue. It is based on 3 principles : 1) improvement of the dovecote + hygiene 2) administering medicine 3) vaccination. First of all the general hygienic conditions must be optimised, i.e. overpopulation must be avoided, a slatted base is recommendable, cleaning and desinfectating regularly is indispensable, clinically infected and less valuable animals must be disposed of …. It must be said that the high resistance of the Salmonella bacterium creates an extra special reason why control is such a difficult issue ; it can survive weeks, even months in manure, roof gutters, earth … From this viewpoint it is logical that smaller colonies are less threatened. You can also see that when breeding, the bacterium gets constantly the chance to rife and hence to infect ; thus a more sufficient approach is necesarry when breeding stops. As put earlier, vaccination is an important means for exterminating the disease ; important is the quality of the vaccine, taking into account the aim of building immunity and also the side effects. Therefore applying the vaccination yearly on young doves in big cotes with a high risk of infection is recommendable. Of course administering efficient medicines will also contribute to the elimination of the bacterium.

Just some photos I had.Yes very nice birds though.

Just type in Elimar Pigeon Site to Google and you will get it from there.

A white frillback

How very true that would be

Here are a couple of photos of them

Hope everybody keeps us informed how the swap birds are doing next year when they are being raced .

Very good article you have copied here, it just proves the old saying "If you can't beat them, throw them out " a slight change to the saying , but it makes the point.

Lovely looking loft

You must obviously know her, because I was just going by what was in her post and it never said she started out with strays.

Think if you look back you will see that she stated that she had more than her fair share of strays in this year, but was talking about treating her own birds.

Looks as if it will be worth a visit

I was under the impression it was common knowledge, but it is a fact, just ask anybody who flies in Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire federation tried this at a young bird race from Otterburn this year ad the birds would not come out the transporter, they had to go round and chase them out the baskets.

Well if it is a problem all year then all you or anybody else has to do is contact the police, because it is now definately against the law , this was changed because of just what you are complaining about, people setting off fireworks indiscriminately any night of the year, only allowed now at bonfire night in november and even then you are only allowed a day or so before the 5th and a day or so after it.

Me , because I worked in the police force .

Probably one of the best products that can be given to the birds and it does so much good and costs a fraction of many other so called remedies that claim to do the same but cost a fortune .

It is illegal to fire rockets (the fire work type ) all year round but you are legally entitled to do so if it is the rockets that you can purchase for scaring birds purchased from the proper place, ie: agriculture suppliers.

yes I use this type , but have found no problem with birds perching on them, the rough tops on them prevent the birds slipping when landing on them.

So as that was nearly three weeks ago does that mean the price we are now paying will be the price we pay all winter now ?

Thats sounds a good idea

And what sort of region would your price be in ? would help if there was an area to work from .