Jack Barkel

Hello Ted, It is my brother Sid who has lost all his stock birds, many thousands of pounds in value. 140 all told, of which I had 36 earmarked for me in South Africa, some of which I selected personally at Loella World. My loss is nothing as great as that of my brother Sid and his sons, they are devastated at the moment, and I only hope they can be persuaded to stay in the sport. Regards To All Jack

Hello Chip, I thank you for your interesting reply, it is very encouraging to realise that there are fanciers out there who are interested in the creation of a family or strain. You are right in your understanding to keep his direct daughters in the family. The reason being that they inherit 100% sex genes from their father. Daughters do not inherit any sex genes from their mother and yet the hen as it possesses the XY chromosome denotes the sex of the children from any coupling. Because of these facts the daughters can be from multiple hens, although once you start your perfect line of decent the hens should be daughters of daughters. This can be continued up to seven generations without deterioration, although I have found that between three and four generations with close line breeding I produce the clone type specimens I am really looking for. If we take the grandsons as well as the granddaughters produced by this method, we are starting a new related family line originating with that particular grandson we have decided to introduce as a stock cock. I prefer the foundation cock to be a yellow eye, for the pearl was introduced from the Smerle, Owl, Cumulet and other fancy pigeons that were introduced to the racing pigeon to make it more buoyant and not so heavy boned. By using a pearl eye as a foundation we can regress to these type of pigeons, although with strict control of physical characteristics and the pearl eye, success can be achieved by using a pearl eyed cock. I always recommend pairing yellow to pearl, sometimes yellow to yellow , but never pearl to pearl for this latter pairing will increase speed and vitality but not at the same rate as it reduces stamina and homing ability. Now for your final question. After line breeding to perfect line of descent for three to four generations, one will start to produce sons and daughters perfect and identical in every way to the original foundation cock. This is when you take this type of brother and sister and cross the line, that is to say inbreed by pairing them together. All cocks from this type of pairing will be exact replicas to the original sire. This is when you introduce outside blood to the family, pairing these none related hens to cocks of this brother and sister pairings. This will create hybrid vigour by introducing good none related hens to these line bred then inbred stock cocks. This is the method I use to reproduce my top stock cocks, and also control the family vigour by these hybrid pairings to start a new line of the same family. I thank you for such an intelligent line of questioning and I hope my reply sheds light on much that has puzzled many fanciers for generations. Regards To All, Jack Barkel

Hello Roland & All. This is a very touchy subject to answer, as I would rather leave people alone with their own ideas. Having said this to give you my views, a cock not worthy of the stock loft should never be paired to a good hen with stock potential. It is an utter waste of time for any hens from such a pairing will prove useless, and any cock from this pairing can inherit from either parent. Therefore some cocks as I have stated with all hens will also be useless if they inherit the vital genes from the father of such a pairing. All hens will inherit the sex genes from the father and not from the mother. There is much more than this to pairing to tip the balance of inheritance, and without inviting an argument on the subject, this in my opinion and many top breeders throughout the world will agree that if the cock has not the breeding eye one can't found a loft on such a pigeon. You cannot found a loft on a hen, but you can found a loft on a son of a hen that bears his characteristics. One must adhere to perfect line of descent if one wishes to be a successful breeder. That is to say line breed to a sire through his daughters, grand daughters, great granddaughters and so on down the line. Any cock paired to it's mother produces outcrosses, once one understands this, we are half way there to breeding controlled racer breeders of merit. Of course selection is the final criteria. I hope this helps and if one does not agree, I will not be drawn into any arguments on the subject. It is only my steadfast opinion and I will not change it after breeding for 50 years plus to this method. Kind Regards Jack

Hello Jimmy, In my first book I mention about the earthing of the pigeon loft and the car or pick up one trains their birds in. Pigeons build up static and need to de gauss to run this static to earth. It can effect the homing magnetism and the natural health of the bird. The Germans have produced a nest pan that can degauss a bird while sitting on the nest. Lofts and transporters can build up static to the detriment of our birds. Regards Jack

Hello Fifer, We can have odd eyed pigeons, especially where the pied factor comes into play in the genes. However if you have one eye much more pale than the other in the same base colour, then it is sure that this bird at some time had a debilitating illness and although it may now be cured it has been left with liver or kidney damage. In such cases these birds do not perform well in a hard race and never produce young to high standards anymore. It is usually permanent and although the body has been known to repair this organ damage, it is on very rare occasions. Just make sure the difference in eye colour is from the dark pigment usually seen in a partially bull eye, and not a fading of one eye. To Schouwman, your bird may look pure white but with that description of the eye, its background can only be Grizzle. All pure whites have bull eyes. Regards Jack

Hello Tony, You will always get a straight answer from me, that is why I am not well received in some circles, at least I live with the courage of my convictions. In answer to your question, let me give you only one example. A pair of pigeons that were both national winners were paired together without my knowledge, each owner had shared 6 youngsters each off them. On looking at the eyes and being asked how they would pair together successfully, I stated that they were incompatible and would breed less than average birds when paired together, or certainly nothing of worth at the accepted rate of more than 7%. This proved to be the case with all 12 offspring, nothing of value was produced in this experiment. So my answer is I would rather go with the two birds where I could look at the eyes and decide they were good for breeding and a perfect match. There is no guarantee that two national winners will breed top pigeons when paired together because of their own performances. However I give a guarantee that birds from my selection on handling and viewing will produce a minimum of 50% quality offspring. The world average rating for this is 7% taking into account all breeders of racing pigeons. So there you have my answer, two pair of unseen eyes have only a paper pedigree, eyes that have been viewed correctly have their genetic pedigree printed on their eyes, we still have to examine their physical characteristics to coincide with the eyes although if the eye is tops, usually so are the other characteristics. Regards Jack

Hello Ron, I have to agree with you, I have tried many programms but have found the Hawkeye Loft Management to be the best and most reliable. So much so, I decided to represent them in South Africa. I have never had one dissapointed customer in this regard. I have over 500 pedigreed photographs of my stock pigeons in this program, plus I am able to post JPEG pedigrees by e-mail to anywhere in the world, plus many other features not available to other programms. I certainly can recomend it to anyone. Regards Jack Barkel.

Hello Carol, I had the book published in Saudi Arabia, and by the time we got the books into South Africa we found a paragraph had been missed out.Sorry about that. The product is Virkon S and the dosage is in the paragraph on treatment page 41. I nearly missed this one, sorry for the delay in replying. Best Regards Jack

Hello All, Many thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday, what a lovely family day it turned out to be, continuing until late in the evening. However I showed some unwillingness to becoming part of the compulsory 70's club. Kindest Regards Jack

Hello Ted, Most shades of eye ceres are family traits, however if they have a yellow cheezy look about them, it is a sign of poor health in that particular bird. Regards Jack

Many more of them Carl, I am a little late, but I hope you had a great day. Best Wishes Jack

Hello Ted, Nothing to worry about at all, you will find it is a dilute, most common ones are Silver Dunn's, from Blues and Blue Cheques or Browns from Ash Reds. Old hand used to refer to them as PINK UNS. Dr Rigg of Parbold, bred some dilute Silver Cocks from his Barker family that were deadly in the races, hold thumbs you could have something special. Regards Jack

Hello All, Sorry for the repetition, it keeps telling me there is somthing wrong with the server and to contact the administrator. I do not know if the fault lies at my end or at Pigeon Basics. My apologies, Jack

Hello Carol, Yes, that is correct a pigeon will not come into form until it has started its moulting process. In answer to question 2, if a pigeon is missing a primary flight on each side, of either one two three or number four, it is natural and compensated for in the wing. Therefore it will not impede or reduce the birds performance. No 3, If one has been trying to get increased water into a pigeon, because this is what wins races, dehydration loses races, and some pot bellied fancier handles your bird pushing it into his stomach because he knows no better. You will observe the white powder or pollen from your birds crop imprinted on his stomach, and also damp patches where it has forced the water out of the pigeons crop. Such a bird subjected to this treatment will never beat mine even if it is twice as good. You will see many a tell tale white mark on the front of pigeon fanciers who were never taught how to handle a bird, such fanciers often can't be advised but someone should be brave enough to bring it to their attention that it is the mark of a bad pigeon handler. Pigeons need to be handled with more care before they are put into the basket, no fancier handles my pigeons that I have found to be lacking in that department. Look at his front posterior on basket nights and you will see whether he meets these requirements. For they do not only do it to your pigeons, they do it to their own. I never got to Brooklyn on my two trips to the USA, where I evaluated pigeons and gave seminars in many parts of your country. Regards, Jack jackbarkel@mweb.co.za http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/jackbarkel

Hello Ted, Two pearl eyes being recessive can only breed pearl eyed pigeons, whereas two yellow eyes can carry the recessive pearl and may on occasions breed a pearl eyed bird. Regards Jack

Hello Saffer, I have clocked 17 out of twenty from 850 kilometres 512 miles all on the race sheet and winning the race. I have clocked 19 out of 20 at 1000 kilometres 600 miles, all on the race sheet and winning the race. I aso have a widow hood cock with 3x1st 2x2nds and 1x 3rd all over 400 to 600 miles.He could have won those six races if I had not clocked a loft mate to win as he already had wins from those liberation points. I have taken the four positions in the first five in our shortest race winning the race. I can quote many more exiting performances although I was never overall club champion, but was long distance champion. Unil recently there were not many in South Africa, flew widowhood successfully but now since I revealed my method for the southern hemisphere they are increasing each year as more and more realise it is possible There are many South Africans that can vouch for these statements I make here and I do have records of these wins. Most will confirm I never flew a race other than widowhood and round about, in this country. There are fanciers winning with my methods on widowhood in Australia also. The widowhood flyers are in a very small minority here because the average South African fancier thinks condition and form are the same thing. Once they realise they a not the same thing, more will turn to widowhood. I do not know however of any SA fancier flying widowhood that is Fed champion although I hope to see them in the not to distant future. Regards Jack

Hey Folks, its freezing cold here this Sunday morning, yes its sunny South Africa but I have just come back from the pigeon lofts and the garden is covered in white frost. I am wearing a vest, long sleeved shirt and long sleeved polo neck and a fur lined jacket. No sun bathing here, we are in mid winter. So much for warmer climates. T-T I haven't had a Spotted Dick for years, I am lucky to still get my Yorkshire pudding. Hyacinth oh for a good American Apple Pie. Jack

Hello Hyacinth, Expecting my two sons and two daughters for lunch, the traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday. I hope I get some chocolates although I am diabetic!!! Jack

Hello Schouwman, I am busy with a production on widowhood at the moment, I do not know whether it will be a DVD or a book, all I can show at the moment although I have started writing is the front cover. I paste it here just as a matter of interest to you. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, If the strain was pure white they could not breed with a black feather or black smudges because it is not in the gene of a pure white pigeon. If the birds has colour in the eye any markings are definitely from the Grizzle, if it is bull it is from a concentration of Gay Pied bred down until they become predominantly white. I am not a colour geneticist, but I know from practical experience over a period of 50 plus years that what I say is correct. I find this more understandable to the average fancier than the algebraic equations sometimes used in genetics, which often only muddies the waters even more than when the question was first asked. Hope this helps. Regards Jack

Hello TT, I was under the impression that all fanciers know you cannot feed measured ounces of food to youngsters, therefore I did not need to ask the stupid question do you mean old birds or young birds. Obviously an informed fancier asking such a question would automatically know such a question could not apply to young birds. I do believe I was answering a sensible question with a sensible answer, and not a stupid question with a stupid answer. It is imperative that fanciers understand the excess build up of fats and protein before the weaning stage of a youngster, and what has to be done to rectify this excess intake which are its building blocks to maturity. Young bird flying to the informed fancier is obviously as different to old bird flying as night and day, hence Iwas attempting to answer the question of the person who started this thread. Giving him the consideration that he and others on this forum are well informed fanciers, I never thought that youngsters who's preparation are entirely different to old birds, would ever be mistaken in that this is what the question was eluding to. If I am wrong and you and the person asking the question are referring to young birds, then I rephrase the answer and say no person in their right mind would feed measured ounces to young pigeons when racing. The secret here would be what kind of food and at what time of the week and not the measure. The intelligent feeding system is entirely the opposite to when flying old birds, for old birds do need to have measured food intake. I hope this clarifies that I am well aware you can't feed a lot of youngsters individually. Kind Regards To All, Jack

Hello All, I still say if any of you are feeding all together in a food trough, some are eating twice as much as the others. That means the greedy are getting double the measure you think they are getting and the slower eaters are getting maybe half the measure. First to the drinker is another fallacy, for many of the slower eaters than these gluttons that are drinking have hardly had anything to eat. Unfortunately we are judging our birds on the contention they all eat at the same speed. This has been my observation in many lofts where I see fanciers watching but not realy observing. I think this is worth mentioning if we wish all our birds to be competative. Regards Jack

Hello Westy, For the sprints, I would feed one dessert spoon twice per day per pigeon separately. For the long races as much as they can eat. Do not feed on weight, feed on bulk measure. As pigeons pick up food at different speeds and different choices of grains, competitors should never be fed together, otherwise they are not subject to contolled feeding. Feeding for a race we must think like a racing car driver, only give them enough petrol to get them to the finishing line. Feeding is an art in itself I hope this info is of use to you. Regards Jack

Hello Snowy, Birds bred off older birds are usually late developers, because of this fact I do not trust any pigeon to be fully developed until eighteen months after its birth, this can also be seen in the eye by the way. On this consideration all birds although many are capable of winning a classic as a yearling, if I wish to preserve a bird to do it again and again up to five years of age and more, I will race it gently as a youngster and a yearling. I believe if we have the time and patience and can afford to treat them wisely we should be well rewarded. However if we take the attitude that it must fly and perform well while still under developed we can never expect to breed a champion. Just my opinion, Regards Jack

Congratulations Hyacinth, We can now call you Ganny Linda, instead of the wicked witch. I think the Kirkpatricks probably led the field in this department, because they were predominantly bred for flying into the top of Scotland, where they are accustomed to biting cold winds. The Leo Bekaerts I have no experience with them at all, it is a strain unknown to me. Regards Jack