jimmy white

rushed forward to loft to time bird in , in my panic, forgot about washing line dangling ,,,,,, catapulted me back where i started ;D ;D

well done to all who raced today , congrats to the winners, and to all who took part

ah well done mate , you deserve this after what youve been going through, great news ;D ;D , over the moon for you ;D ;D ;D

good luck to you all, weather in the lothians, high cloud , breazy s,w wind visability good hope you all have a decent race

;D ;D a freind of mine , couldnt get his bird in [ again would have topped the fed ;D ;D ;D ill get killed for this ;D ;D ;D] ,,,, a cow,, from the feild behind his back garden ,poked its head through the wire fence to eat the fresher grass?in his garden ;D , and kept lifting its head , making the wire go squeak, squeak, squeak, thus , frightening the bird ;D ;D ;D

only this morning ,, had the birds iut , bath out ,, getting birds in , there was a bird on the roof ,, stepped back to see what it was ,,,,,,,,right in to the bath ;D ;D soaked ;D ;D

def, the best one yet ;D ;D ;D original ;D ;D ;D ill offer £25 to best excuse and £25 to pb ,,[for allowing it ;D ;D ;D] within the next month ;D ;D ;D

in the lothians, broken cloud ,but dry ,,wind shifted to s w overnight, milder of late [for this time] visability quite good ,

think thats the same thing as ivermectin davey i think we have to have it prescribed here by a vet , but works great , you can get the stuff to put on the back of their neck. or the tube stuff , i find that , the tube stuff is difficult to mix with the water , i mixed it b4 in a lemonade bottle and warm water , just kept shaking it , even then it was hard to dissolve ,, but the main thing is ,,,,it works p,s its poison to hawks though?

whilst cleaning the loft b4 birds were due from race , i lifted a nest pan and got the biggest fright in my life, ;D ;D ;D a SNAKE uncoiled itself and reared its head ;D ;D ;D well i ran out the loft , tripping over the lip at the door for keeping the deep litter in, old george 84 years old, asked me what was wrong ,2 i said go in and look" well ive never seen an 84 year old man move so quick as this ;D ;D ;D he also tripped , but kept on his feet running , nearly through the green house ;D ;D ;D a fancier there at the time took all boxes and perches out to find this snake, but i had to ask him to putall back ,as birds were due, he then asked me for ladders to look in the guttering ;D ;D ;D i told him we never had time to play SNAKES AND LADDERS ;D ;D ;D [he had birds away too] the snake was found later by builders demolishing the house next door but one, this snake was about 3 ft but by the end of the next week it had become a 14 ft cobra and the neighbours were keeping their kids inside , not even letting out their cats or dogs, ,,,, and no thre were no pink elephants about either ;D ;D ;D this is all very true as it was in the local paper , picture and all ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D,, ill try and get someone upload article and picture of snake ;D ;D ;D ;D,,,p.s its a good job i was wearing brown trousers ;D ;D ;D

i wouldnt hesitate in sending yearlings to their first race being 200 miles,,,,providing it was in the month of may and the forecast was good, and the air being warm, but wouldnt even think about it at this time of year ,, a lot of yearlings are lost in early april in just training flights

i use ivermectin , this clears any outside or iside parasites :)i,e worms etc in the inside and beasties on the outside ;D but the feather lice you mention youll find ,at some time , on most birds ,,by far the worst is mite,,, they actualy feed on the birds blood , and when infected can kill ybs in the nest in no time , render them anaemic [cant spell it ;D ;D ;D bloodless],, but the old garlic is wonderfull stuff, for many uses [but not scent ;D ;D ;D]

;D ;D ;D that 5 mins on a race day ,,,is about 30 secs ;D

two races on the same day, come back race and national ,, about 12 of us in the yard ,,,i said ," i bet some idiot puts wrong rubber in wrong clock"[birds due back about same time] well some idiot did,, me ;D ;D ;D but luckily for me, i got the last laugh,, got 3 grand out of national with2 birds out of 3 sent ;D £100 pool as well ,, last in come back race ;D ;D ;D

remember one of my dad ;D ;D ;D we didnt have a clock so where timing in , to a chap up the rd, father had his bike all balanced on bricks, ready to jump on like a horse, when the bird came , it came in ok , but dad, off the rubber between his gums [never wore teeth ;D] tearing out like a madman, fell off the bike , taking the bend , rubber dropped down the drain,[me and all my wee pals looking at my dad, bike in the middle of the rd, sleeves up , penknife clearing the lid of the drain , hand in drain, found rubber ,,,back in his gums [yuk] cycled round to freinds [would have broken world record ;D ;D] ran in with rubber and frightened freinds first bird off the loft ;D ;D ;D,,,freind wasnt pleased ;D ;D ;D

twice a day,,

depends how their stored , but i have had them hatch no prob after lying on the bunker for a week,[as long as their turned , regular]

now that the racing is upon us , no doubt well get some excuses for birds not comming in,,some serious , some funny, ;D some downright rediculous :-/ it would be great to hear of some of the more lighthearted" excuses",,,a competition for the best original excuse ;D ;D ;D [maybe not so funny at the time , but when you think of it later,,you have to smile ;D] 1, a helicopter flew 2 inches above the loft and frightened the bird ;D 2 bird was frightened by a hawk ,,,the size of an albatross ;D im sure there are many more that can be quite amusing ,, wonder if we can hear of a few ;D ;D ;D

eggsactly vic,,,,spot on ;D ;D ;D but would may remind the poster that its 18 days ...from incubation , you can keep the eggs fresh for a time , as long as theve not started incubating them , but once theve started incubatig ,,18 days

i would say a hen

ivermectin,, on prescription [from a good avian vet],, a dab on the back of the neck will do the trick ,,, ive found the best ,,,,,,for many reasons?

incredable ,,, shows you, its not what you know its who you know,, bernie will be feeling bootifull ok ,, money talks

chilly , cloudy but fair in the lothians,,,,n.w. wind at the mo,,, to change to south on sat though

i would recommend crosses , , sometimes trial and error , sometimes hit it off , but feel the hybrid vigour is a must,,

that was good of you tammy ,,fairdoos ;D [im an expert on badgers now too ;D]