Jack Barkel

Hello Snowy, In my opinion the birds that fitted most of these characteristics over the years are:- The Kirkpatrick's first and foremost, The Andre van Bruaenes coming a close second, and third the Barkers. Cattryse were somewhere in the running, but did not compete as well as these other strains in South Africa. I was at the sale of "The Tip", and "The son of The Tip" I made the long car journey to London from Sunderland in dense fog, all that way to find my wallet was not as loaded as the London boys. In later years I tried these Blue White Flight Cattryse in SA, and although they displayed excellent characteristics they did not shape up to other strains that we kept. In later years I found that some of the Busschaerts displayed these characteristics, but there again England made some great improvements to this strain, but as there seem to be three different generations or lines of this strain, some of them did not carry these favourable characteristics. I do not wish to mention the fanciers that I believe were responsible for the good lines or the bad lines of the Busschaert, but can say that my own selections of this strain compare with the Kirkpatrick's. I am sure there will be others I have not mentioned, but that is because I have not had enough experience with some of the other strains to pass comments. Many of these characteristics are becoming lost forever through fanciers throwing anything together without any sense of direction other than it was a winner or one of its parent was a winner. This is just my perceptions as I handle about 1000 birds per month, as an evaluator. It is an interesting but controversial subject, and what I say has not been proven in anyway as fact, it is only my own personal perceptions. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, You may have an extra special bird there, but I think it may rectify the balance after completion of its first moult. This is what I believe it to be all about, OBSERVANCE. However not a bad sign at all. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, I have never seen them 4mm longer, but I would rather them longer than shorter as this is easily rectified by trimming. If any thing I would presume it to be no hindrance at all. Regards Jack

Hello Hyacinth, I am so sad to hear it has got as bad as that in the USA, I thought with its advanced thinking in the AU, that America would be one of the future leading nations in the world, on the racing pigeon scene. What a great pity, its either pigeon politics or government red tape killing our sport. My Comiserations, Jack

Hello Hyacinth, Yes I rember the Barker Cock, and many other birds that impressed me in your loft. Close thick feathering was another characteristic of the Barker strain. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, I have no special anecdotes for thick feathering , but for to say it is quite a regular feature in long distance pigeons of quality. The best example I ever saw of this in a strain of pigeons was the Scottish Kirkpatricks, that had to fly into ever increasing cold temperature the further north they had to fly. For those who like to part the breast feathers to look at the skin, one could not do this on a genuine Kirkpatrick. The more one breeds to particular features such as thick feathering, the more regular and predominant they become. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, I am sure that you will come across many fanciers that handle a bird, give it a little juggle in their hands and make the statement that this bird is well balanced. This is ridiculous for you can not gauge the balance of a pigeon like you can a hunting knife. When viewing a pigeon from a side view, it must look as high from head to foot, as it does from front to tip of the tail. When facing front on it must appear long and narrow not broad and stunted in height e.g. it must stand tall and narrow. This is balance and can not be perceived in any other way. I do believe that a Show Judge when judging racing pigeons should take these features into consideration. I once put a broad chest short legged Mealy Cock in a show racer class, "the most likely racer on show", my wife and I called him "Glamour Boy" and sure enough he won his class outright. This pigeon was so out of balance, that this was the only prize he ever won, a show prize. Too many judge a racer on good looks not on athleticism. They would give the racing prize to an Arnold Swartzeniger type rather than the spindly Roger Bannister or Chris Chattaway type???? There are lots of fallacies in the pigeon game and this is just another one of them. Hope this helps. Jack

Hello Richard, If there is a step in the wing between the secondary flights and the first primary flight, consider them short, no matter how slight the step may be. Long secondary flights leave no step in the wing, they are level with the No 1 primary flight. As the purists do not harbour pigeons in their team with short secondary flights, such a family will have a slower but more easy wing beat than sprint pigeons. We also are aware that long distance pigeons can win a short fast race, but sprinters cannot win a hard long race. Again this is partly because all sprinters have these short secondary flights. Now to viably only keep a racing team of classic pigeons, and still compete in the short fast races we need to select a small portion of our team just for these events. By trimming about one quarter inch or 6 millimetres off the secondary flights of these few selections for the shorter races, we create a faster wing beat and a faster speed. However those birds that have had this alteration must not be entered in the longer races, unless the weather forecasters predict a tail wind on some long event. If one is not bothered about the speed merchants gaining a lot of points early in the season, making it difficult to catch up on the longer races, then sit back and wait for the classic events, where one will make their name. If on the other hand one wishes to keep abreast of the points so that these speed specialists do not run away with a large accumulation of points, this is the way to make them think again about breeding short distance blow home pigeons. This is how the clever professionals select and alter some of their race team, to keep them competitive at all distances. In days to come these short distance racing fanciers and their performances will be forgotten forever, whereas people like Cattryse and van Bruaene, Dr Jeff Horn of Up North Combine fame, and many others will go down in history for time immemorial. I am not against sprint races, I am against pigeons bred for speed, and I know that they and their breeders, will never be recorded in the pigeon hall of fame. My belief is, breed for distance and design for speed, I think this will be a first for many fanciers reading my articles for the first time. I do not see anyone else opening their hearts to the new starters and old hands alike as I am doing, most will take their knowledge to the grave with them, rather than make their competitors more competitive. Regards Jack

Hello Ted and All If I can add my findings to help answer the above question, it is my contention that the racing pigeon inherits its main attributes, from the species with long distance capabilities and the attributes of the Navigator. However to give the pigeon more buoyancy, fancy pigeons were added that had smaller bones and were very light in body weight. These birds could fly very high up into the clouds and had eyes running below the beak line as they needed this facility to scan the earth and all things below the heights at which it was designed to fly. The navigator however needed the eye to be above the beak line to be the fixed hub of its circle of vision. There are many variables to that, which I have explained, in other articles, but the good breeder is always aware and on the lookout for these physical differences that separate the normal homer from the athletic types we look for. The racing pigeon was always at risk of being struck down by birds of prey that flew above him, and which have eyes in the front of the head by the way. That is why nature placed the eyes of the long distance pigeon in this advantageous position so it could see the enemy before it struck. Most good birds have a swivel reaction in the eye, I believe it is there for the bird to be able to swivel its eyes in any direction. Not only in the forward motion to see where it is going and to prevent flying into electric cables and other aerial objects that they can come onto very quickly when flying at speed, but also to swing their eyes upwards and backwards to observe birds of prey that may be contemplating catching an easy meal. Not all birds have this startling ability, but I can assure you that the exceptional birds all have it. Not only does it seem to increase the birds orientation in flight, but also the balance which works with the liquid in the balance bone of the inner ear. One can grade the good racers on this particular point but not necessarily in the stock pigeons, although I prefer it to be a feature in all my own birds. In short, everything must be well balanced, Bone structure, Body Muscle, Wings, Tail, Height from head to toe, and length from beak to tail. The eye therefore must be central to give all round visibility, one certainly does not want the eye to be near the front or back or above or below the beak line.Such theories are based on rumour of one supposedly good pigeon that inherited this bad characteristic. If we look for common sense reasons why eyes and other characteristics should not vary, we will see the reason why good evaluators are not so easily knocked off their perch, with old wives tales. This is only one small portion of what I look for in these athletes of the sky, I hope this will encourage fanciers to take a closer look at their pigeons, before deciding it is perfect in every way, just because it happened to win at some time or other. I think I have gone on again too long, well this is me, how I think and how I ramble on when in good pigeon company. Sorry for the long replies. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, I do not think I would be considered to have small or large fingers and hands, but rather the average. I enclose a photo taken this morning, the cock is an Andre van Bruaene and a grandson of The Marathon, which was a full brother to Barcelona ll. I have won from 100 miles and 600 miles in the same year with this pigeon, I have no doubt in my mind that this is one of the characteristics needed for good all distance pigeons. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, Yes Ted just long, if you place your four fingers along the keel bone there should be about a quarter inch space between each finger. Any closer than this is a short keel bone, with a short rounded breast muscle. Apple bodied as they say. You will get the feel with practice. Jack

Hello Hyacinth, I could not agree with you more, the more one breeds to produce speed which is vigour and vitality, the more one will lose stamina and homing ability. Belgium was the first to go with all the money races being short distance, commercially they sounded the death knell for discerning fanciers continuing to go to Belgium to buy all round racers. For every good pigeon they breed today 99 others are pure sprinters, as much as the Belgium purists will argue this point, you can count the good breeders of Barcelona type birds on one hand today. Britain that held the title for me for many years, for breeding class, highly intelligent pigeons, with stamina, are slowly also falling into the trap of breeding speed pigeons that cannot fly out of sight on a dark night, unless they are in a pack. When these countries were at their best most were yellow eyed long deep keeled specimens, today they look for speed, short apple bodied pigeons that need a pack to help them find their way home. Most are pearl eyed, and the more one puts pearl eyes together the faster and more stupid they become. Pairing birds together with short keels, short secondary flights, and pearl eyes together, will give a false reputation to some as a master flyer, and may even give one recognition as a new strain maker. All this may be true but going quickly and forever are the pigeons that could win from 100 miles to 600 miles. One must breed what they prefer, but one must not cry when the losses are high and channel birds become a rarity. I think Holland may become the last bastion for the elite bloodlines as we used to know them, when I was a youngster we used to race milers in the field at the bottom of our garden, we raced to a stop watch. I remember them well and what they looked like, and they were not unlike the majority of the birds we are starting to produce today. Most of them were pearl eyed Scallies or Slaty's, HELLO! I would say to all, beware how and what you are producing, all bad returns can not be blamed on climate change, cell phones and radio towers, most is on the breeding out of the characteristics of the classic racing pigeon. It is no use anyone getting hot under the collar because of my frank comments, if that is what we want to see, that is what we will become. I reserve the right to my opinion on this topic and as I was asked for it I give it to you without any intention of insulting or hurting anyone with the facts as I have found them. May everyone accept my comment in the spirit I am giving it, for sometimes it is better to keep ones mouth shut and not warn anyone of the pitfalls looming ahead. I could sit with my head in the sand like an ostrich and not invite harsh criticism, but there again we are supposed to be on here to help one another. I believe that pockets of good breeders throughout the world, who understand what needs to be done to preserve the good homer / racer will survive. AT LEAST I HOPE SO. Best Regards, Jack

Hello Ted, This is a matter of preference, but the best overall pigeons I have handled, in the UK, America, and South Africa have had long tails with broad feathers. Most short wedge tails as advocated by the Continental flyers are sprint pigeons, and certainly not the Barcelona types. Most joked on basketing night that I was entering fantails, but the jokes were absent on clocking out night. I will say again it is a matter for conjecture, but I prefer an abundance of feather in all departments. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, Unfortunately through generations of injudicious pairings by fanciers not very well informed about the evolution of the racing pigeon, these mistakes such as short secondary flights are deeply seated in the gene pool of most families. You can, as I have done, through strict selection, never allowing this fault and many others to be part of your stock bird selection, slowly eliminate these characteristics. However from time to time one will pop up, and that is when you race this pigeon out, and never tolerate it among your stock birds. You can do this with all characteristics, and eventually these odd throw backs become a rarity, rather than a regularity. If you start now Ted, you will in a few generations be able to say that you are in control of the gene pool of your family of pigeons, with only a very small percentage that will disappoint. If you do not, your family will always be a mixture of liquorice allsorts, with the odd good one popping up out of the gene pool. Over the last 15 years it has been my most concerted effort to eliminate as much genetic drift as possible in the racing pigeon, and try to restore them back to the original characteristics of the great strains. Most fanciers are either not aware or do not appear to think it matters, the decision lies with the individual whether they are going to be good or only think they are good. Fanciers need to be their own biggest critic as to how they manage their production, and try to increase their productivity of only the best. You sound as if you really want to do it the right way, and that is why I feel my efforts to reply the way I do, will not be in vain. Regards Jack

Hello Dave, Although we commence flying the same time as the Northern Hemisphere it is the middle of winter here and the birds are flying often in winds below zero temperature. Maize or Indian corn as we called it in the early days in England is a food that creates heat. Without about 70% of the mixture being this ingredient, widowers or any other system birds can not face the cold. Most Southern hemisphere countries race old birds for about 21 weeks, and this means that over this five month period the weather has warmed up, even to the extreme, and we can have eight to more weeks of racing in extreme hot temperatures, at distance of anything from four to six hundred miles. Maize if fed at a constant 70% will cause the pigeon to overheat, so we have to feed Maize on a sliding scale as the weather gets warmer. Seeds can cause too much excitement and give them the runs. By the time the hot weather slides in I have dropped the maize by half and replaced it with peas. We cannot pair our widowers up 90 days before the first race as they are still in the previous years moult , so we have to devise a method of cheating nature. We also must divide our widowhood teams into three, one team for the first seven weeks( short distance ) one team for the second seven weeks ( middle distance ) and one team for the third seven weeks ( long distance ) It took me a long time to master the problems that caused everyone to say Widowhood will not work in the Southern Hemisphere. Since I made my publication known to the world on how to make widowhood work in our part of the world, many laid claim to have been doing it all along. However most of us know that if it was ever practiced by these claimants it was never published or even talked about. There is much more to it than this however, which I mentioned in articles that I believe will soon be put up on this forum by Carl of the Oddfellows Sunderland. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, Although there will be a shortening of the end flight with close breeding which I try to keep as long as the number nine primary, I am of the opinion that broad or narrow primaries can make little difference apart from when a bird is taking of from the ground. Having answered your question in one short sentence without giving any reason therefore, I will proceed with the following observations which are purely my own and not from anyone else's writings. The primaries make the turbulence which is gathered under the wing a pigeon rides this turbulence with its aerolons which are its secondary flights. That is why short secondary flights will give a greater speed but cause a faster wing beat as the short secondary needs more turbulence to ride on. That is why I advocate longer secondary flights, because it creates more buoyancy and less effort to stay in the air. If one looks at a flock of pigeons that has settled down to fly home, their wing beat is perceived as just a regulated twitch to maintain a regular speed. There is no exaggerated up and down movement in a pigeons flight, when it has a well developed wing. We are limited to the size engine we have in our pigeons, and we can through breeding to the conformation we are trying to create, improve the wing, body and muscle structure, to give us the best all round performance over a given distance. There are varying theories on the structure of the pigeon, that will give the best results. I am afraid it would be impossible for anyone to convince me otherwise to what I have stated, on a forum like this. It would take pages and pages of sketches and scientific data to make me detract from the type of pigeon I try to create. I try to mould all the attributes together that I wish to reproduce with regularity. I hope this helps you Ted, there is so much we can all still learn about our little feathered friends, if only one had the time to take our observations a step further. The eleven flighter is no better than the ten flighter in my opinion, it is a deformity that I breed out in my pigeons. Regards Jack

Hello Dave, Only in feeding, which is progressing all the time, not only in the concept of the widowhood method. The system of feeding is not a widowhood system although it may be used in conjunction with it. The chopping and changing of the widowhood system as we were taught it many years ago, has not improved the widowhood and which I doubt will ever improve it, is not advocated by me. The Belgiums had been perfecting this system 50 years before the British ever tried it, and I doubt if any wizard will come along and turn this system on it's head. May be someone will devise a better system of racing a pigeon, but widowhood as taught by the masters, tried all variations before I tried it in England in the 1950s that I am sure of. There will always be progress, this I agree, but some have been tried to their limit many generations ago. These are the things where I feel experiments will not improve the system as taught for many years by the experts. Feeding has improved all methods of sport, but the idea of depurative and purifying systems and not purging, still belong to the Belgiums, no matter how we try to improve on this, it was still the early skills of these few Belgiums that changed the art of racing pigeons. We in the Southern hemisphere have had to change the method of feeding to be able to fly widowhood, but we certainly have not changed the system. By the way the method of feeding to make the widowhood system work in the Southern hemisphere was devised by myself. No one else can lay claim to this feeding method that allows us to fly the widowhood system south of the equator, with the success of our northern counterparts. Best Regards Jack

hi jack,hope you had a good weekend? apart from the eye,what else do you look for in a pigeon of some quality? ted x Hello Ted and All, Before any more progress can be made on eye sign selection and rejection, I must state that various physical attributes must be met once the eye reveals it will produce or race. I prefer a medium sized pigeon, rather than the very small or very large. This allows me a slight variation towards one or the other and only eliminates those birds at the extreme opposite ends of the scale. I also prefer a long deep keeled pigeon rather than a short keeled apple bodied pigeon, and have found that the long deep keeled bird is easier to control, in eating, weight and exercise. It also tends to retain the long breast muscle in long extended flights home, without showing a great loss of body size and weight during the ordeal. I find this very important for quick recuperation after a hard race. Another point I look for is that when the wing is held open at 90 degrees to the body the secondary flights must cover well over the back of the pigeon, see Photograph attached. The secondary flights must also be long so as to merge with the No 1 primary flight, thus showing no step in the wing. See same Photograph Although short secondary flights can give the bird added speed, it puts extra effort on the wing beat, causing the bird to tire more quickly and reduces the distance at which it can race successfully. A combination of the bone structure that seems to work in harmony with this wing structure is the humerus bone. This bone situated close to where the wing joins the body, should be about one quarter inch or six millimetres from the body. The closer it is to the body the less physical effort is needed to fly long distances. Once again this helps to increase the stamina of the racing pigeon. A point I reject in a racing pigeon is the bird with the barrel chest, when looking at a bird from the front it must be long and narrow, rather than short and wide. The theory being, as in the water the Corvette type boat will always outpace the flat bottomed boat, so we expect the same results from the birds of the air. Regards Jack

Hello Sadler, I did not take offence, just thought I must state that in my opinion the comment I made was not negative. Any system that creates winners is a working system, and I do not think for one moment you changed an old system????? To Carl, You can certainly put some of my articles on the forum if you would like to. Regards Jack

Hello All, Let me state categorically that I do not think eye sign is the be all and end all of selection of a pigeon. I myself use every attribute available to me, and pride myself for not having closed vision. I am also aware that a very small minority can maintain a successful stock loft without a working knowledge of eye sign. In a top loft deterioration can creep in over many years, or if the breeder is not observant it can be a frighteningly rapid decline. I say a knowledge of the genetic drift which can be seen in the eye, can give one an early warning system, that something has crept in which may be disadvantages to what was a perfect stock loft. We need all the tools available to maintain and even improve our stock and I believe that the observation of the changes in the eye will assist in this matter. I feel I have done more research than most on this subject, and I believe my books are the most advanced on this particular line of selection and maintenance. I came on this site to help those who are interested to further their knowledge on the subject and I will try to answer any question on the subject that may be causing doubts. Please notice I primarily just reply to questions, and do not force my beliefs or methods on anyone. In fact if one has not purchased my books they will never find out off me the full extent of what is contained within those pages. I have not placed any articles on this site and have no intention of doing so. I realise that there are those who are not interested in my writings and accept this. My books are not usually available to United Kingdom fanciers because of the banks transfer fees of money. Their fees are treble that of any other country I have dealings with. The fanciers who have purchased have taken the risk and sent cash, rather than pay these exorbitant fees. I am not trying to sell books here, but I have had several enquiries from UK fanciers in my private mailbox at Pigeon Basics and wish to inform those people that UK bank charges are unrealistic. No more replies from me until Monday, enjoy your weekend. Sincerely-Jack Barkel

Hello Jimmy, I totaly agree with what you say, after flying widowhood teams successfully in the UNC, I thought I would fly the South Africans into the ground with my widowhood methods. What a pity I was stone last the first year and the improvement was not rapid from thereon. I came to realise the old adage, " Adapt Or Die", and I adapted. These discoveries and adaptations I have catalogued and hope to bring out as a CD or some other form, so people in both hemispheres can use my experiences to their advantage. I do believe however that we only need to change where circumstances differ from the normal as you staed in your last reply. Here is the latest e-mail from one of my students, I can fill a book with similar results of fanciers that have stuck to my experiences. They flow in every or most weekends. I hope she does not mind me re publishing it here, as I am going away for the weekend and do not have time to ask her permission. Regards Jack OTTAWA VALLEY COMBINE CHALK RIVER MAY 14/ 06 211.531 Km 05/14/2006 22 Lofts 616 Birds 1. C Steacy 05CU11342 1132.8663 2. C Steacy 05CU28370 1131.4529 3. C Steacy 05CU10099 1130.5461 4. C Steacy 05CU28354 1122.1526 5. C Steacy 05CU28374 1111.8343 6. R Hatch Jr 05CUGTR5541 1111.4581 7. C Steacy 05CU11352 1110.9587 8. C Steacy 05CU28379 1110.0845 9. C Steacy 04CU16678 1104.8679 10. F Steenwyk 05CUGTR5795 1104.1535 11. C Steacy 05CU11340 1103.7153 12. C Steacy 04CU16782 1101.6084 Your friend and student, Connie

Roger Bannister was a chemist, enough said about breaking records, and plenty were quick to break it after him. Widowhood is much like some people with a new car, they are always under the bonnet trying to improve it to higher standards than the originators. Very rarely successfully I am afraid, and very self opinionated. We will always have meddlers and the reason being, they make so many innovations they can not maintain consistency against the best. If they had got it right in the first place, they would not need to alter it, to stay at the top. If you ask those up there already I am sure they will confirm this. This is the only reason for meddling with a perfect system of any kind. No my dear friends, in my opinion, I would consider what you both think to be a positive attitude, points out to me as one filled with doubts shortcomings and frustrations, because one could not get it to their satisfaction in the first place. No matter, there is a reason for chopping and changing a system that has proved itself, and this is usually the inability of the fancier to manage the system at its proven best. My friends, I have travelled to many parts of the world and met many with thoughts of improving a perfected system, and we will praise them when they achieve these near impossible improvements. Up until now I can only say they dabbled at widowhood and achieved nothing to tell the world about. If we get it right we have no need to try and take it a step further than has already been proved. If we do, as I say, publish it so we can all learn from this masterpiece of innovation, methinks we will wait a long time. As Jimmy said, improvement is always possible but on this well tried and proven system, highly improbable. It is usually our own attitude and approach to the system that needs improving, and very self opinionated to think that it is the creators of the system that got it wrong and not some change or innovation of our own doing. We do not have to be a phsycologist to analyse pigeon fanciers. One does not stand still when operating a tried and proven system to the letter. If one fiddles when the system is right, one is making it easier for ones competitors. If it is not right I can assure you it is the management that is at question, not the system. I hope this will serve as a warning to all interested in Widowhood and use the old adage. IF IT ISN"T BROKEN, DON"T TRY AND FIX IT. When you get it right, leave it alone. Regards Jack P.S. I still respect you as friends in the sport, but certainly can never be in agreement with these last two posts.

Hello Craig, They are Grizzle lines, all pure whites have bull eyes, this is a fact. Regards Jack

Hello Ted, Many people read into the eye speed lines and distance lines, I have found that just as many have speed or distance that do not show these lines. Based on this fact I reject it in its entirety. If it can't be part of a spot on critique I do not accept these claims as bearing any validity. Playing with eye sign in this manner causes much doubt and only creates more sceptics. My advice is to leave it alone, although it has a place in iridology, it has no place in selecting speed, distance, or breeding qualities. Many variable signs in the eye are to do with the digestive systems or other health matters. Regards Jack

Hello Saddler, My comment was not negative, it was common sense, a person who is always altering or changing a well tried and improved system that was perfected probably before he was born, is in my opinion not being as clever as he may think he is. Change as much as you will, it does not matter as far as I am concerned, but I know that these changes are usually detrimental and usually distract from a successful widowhood team. I believe in change for advancement in evrything, but if we have not set the world on fire with some new inovation, rather keep quiet about it. This is my opinion and not a negative approach whatsoever. There has been no successful inovation in the last 50 years in widowhood that took the world by storm so I suggest and not negatively that we stop meddling and leave this well controlled system as it is. The clever pioneers in this field are all dead and gone, but their legacy lives on. I am positive about this and have no negative thoughts whatsoever Regards Jack,