jimmy white

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thats because they new we were skint ;D ;D ;D

there was a time when preparing birds for the xmas race, i used 2 second hand very slightly heated towel rails for humidity,,, 50p each,, only in a small section i was sending 4 birds,, that and a red light bulb ;D ;D ;D,, i won [i think 3d or 4th and £750] some queer looks from the neighbours at the red light district,, though, ;D ;D, the scrap merchant i got the towel rails from from, wouldnt give me my money back, after the race ;D ;D ;D,

i put it in the drinker almost every day,maybe missing the odd day [really because ive forgot or run out lol] seems to do the birds no harm, even the old birds have that silky plyable [if thats the word] feathering ,rather than that dry sort of feathering

just ordinary buttermilk from sainsburies ,, about double the size of a tub of yogurt,, i put about two tablespoons in their water,, it does seem to accelerate the moult,, i broke some darkness ones, , their now almost throwing two flights at once , this along with plenty baths seems to work well

have tried this,,,, excellent

keeping ok my friend ,, no, i think your post is excellent , i was just trying to show the difference in the meaning of loft hygeine,[i cant even spell it ;D], i agree entirely with you on loft cleaning etc,, but as you say loft hygeine is keeping the mice and rats at bay, as well,,

i understand what your saying, but in my post ,, loft hygene meant free as poss from mice and rats, these are the worst enemy for paratyphoid/salmonella

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snap,, i thought they were all wearing wellies ;D ;D ;D easibed under the perches, scrape the perches, and floor, and take the coating of muck from the easybed each day, but would surmize ok if under grills

too many to mention ;D ;D ;D ;D but one race sticks in my mind ,, long time ago,, 2 clocks set,, timed in" 5185" my full pooler to win his 8th race,, along with an other 3 ,, one clock jammed , put rings in other clock,, clock stopped ;D ;D ;D ;D,, lost out on everything that year ;D ;D ;D

again for the younger members, in world war 2, only about 1 in 8 pigeons survived its assigned mission, after all, they were un-protected birds flying through extremely difficult war zones . enemy troops were shooting at these birds, and they had to avoid the hawks, that the enemy had trained to kill them, plus they had to travel , long distances, often under fire and in shocking bad weather. a pigeon [mentioned before in these posts ] was " WINKIE" a scottish pigeon was the first bird to receive the "DICKEN MEDAL",,,,In 19 43 , a british bomber made a crash landing over open waters , into the north sea, in february 1942. during the crash, WINKIE,S crate was damaged, and she escaped; the men on board assumed she was gone for good. but WINKIE flew the 129 miles , over rough seas, back to her home on the east coast of scotland,, the weather was so bad and the sea so rough, she took 16 hours to struggle home, and when she arrived ,,,,,,,,she didnt have a message to deliver,,,,,,,,,but,,, her handler, could tell how far and fast she had probably flown, and after a few estimations, and calculations, a rescue team set out over the rough north sea, to find the missing men,, thanks to WINKIE , the mens lives were saved , although WINKIE was the first pigeon to win this medal, there was a further 31 pigeons to win this medal , each and every one has a story to tell,,altogether, saving thousands of lives ,,,,,,,,, maybe just ONE of these lives was a relation to you, therefore if WINKIE and his fellow messenger war pigeons, hadnt saved these lives,,,,,,,, YOU, might not have been here to-day,, ,, god bless these gallant birds and the soldiers who fought for us

for the younger generation , of to-day disneys" valient" which was released on dvd, tells the story of pigeons, who helped the brittish war effort, in world war 2 . "pigeons" you say, for all its flightiness, is a story thats based on FACT. hundreds of thousands of pigeons have been used to carry messages back and forth during wartime,, called homing pigeons. these pigeons have the uncanny ability to fly home,no matter where they are. the birds would be taken along into battle; if the troops needed help or wanted to relay information, they would put a note into a tiny canister attached to the birds leg, the birds would then fly home and , if all went well,, they would make it back to their homes, with the message. who knew pigeons were so useful? the truth is , animals of all kinds have been given assignments and responsibilities in war . dogs, horses and other animals have, and often still are,used to carry supplies, find weapons and detect danger. in 1943, a british woman named maria dicken decided these animals and especially pigeons, should be rewarded for their acts of bravery and valor during wartime. a true animal lover, maria dicken, had started the p.d.s.a. ,, "the peoples dispensary for sick animals" giving medical care to animals free of charge, and since the 1940,s 28 animals[24 dogs, 3 horses and one cat] and 32 pigeons [the highest of all] have been given the DICKEN MEDAL, this is a bronze medal for valor [equal to the victoria cross in humans] it reads " FOR GALLANTRY , WE ALSO SERVE" in the past posts are the pigeons that won this medal, and who saved many lives and helped their fellow fighters during wartime , it could be said if it were not for these gallant pigeons, you or i , might not even be here to-day. this must never be forgotten.

having read read these most interesting posts on vaccination for prataphoid/salmonela, and to a certain extent agree with most of them,, ,i,e the survival of the fittest, , but loft hygiene must, in my opinion come into this, i,e a loft contaminated with mice or rats, can and will, engourage this dreaded disease, of course its very easy for us to say" the survival of the fittest " but through mice and rats , the fittest can contract this disease very easily, [having seen this with the late bobby caruthers loosing half his pigeons to this dreaded disease, and off course, many more],, there was no vaccine then. in my opinion, any birds showing clinical signs [proven by a vet] of paratyphoid/salmonella, can be eliminated,,,, but will this cure the problem, in short it wont, salmonella/paratyphoid, in some cases is the most hidden of diseases, i,e the carriers which show no signs of this disease are the main problem, these "carriers" can be in anyones loft, unknown to the fancier, in recent years i have seen an increase in this disease , and now believe that by vaccinating birds against this, with parastop or "columbovac paratyphus " would , along with loft hygeine , at least help in protecting the main flock of the birds, against these hidden carriers . i am now of the believe that by doing this, in time to come, these hidden carriers would become less and less, and in fact lower this disease level,,,, i am of the belief of survival of the fittest,,,, but in the case of paratyphoid/salmonella, this is not neccessary so, as the fittest can contract this very easy from any carrier, , this is certainly a very interesting topic , with many interesting veiws, there is a thread on paratyphoid on "sticky" well worth a read, but one thing for sure is , its the most dreaded disease in pigeons.

this is what happened to" sir colin" someone broke his wing, in his prime, at distance racing, after winning £5000, and being second national [first bird into scotland flying over 600 miles] many other positions but , as luck would have it, went to stud and bred many winners at the distance , three cocks for me scoring in three different nationals, many for others including g/children

a doo is the scottish word for a dove,, i,e a doocote is a dovecote,, this has now derived in different meanings i,e a doo,, a pigeon ,, a dovecote = a doocote

i remember the great mr and mrs white [no relation] same club though, :)had many top national races positions ,racing the" spratt" "the trellis" etc [sold to newcombe] jock used to weigh his pigeons b4 and after a race , for many reasons!!,,, one was for sending a bird that had scored out of a 500+ miles race, the same weight as when it scored b4 ,, it worked for him lol

well done wings,, really annoying when this always seem to the best birds,

great flying frank, really saddened by that dammed paratyphoid,, im quite sure this is getting more common than folks think,,

if your handy at all [which i am not ;D] there are often wooden garages for sale pretty cheap in our local yellow paper, most of these are pretty large , some often free for the dis-mantling and shifting,[often by people moving away] ive seen many a good loft built from these just need a little luck in snapping them up quickly

tried these birds many years ago,, at that time they were mostly blacks,, these birds flew well for me up to 365 miles, but failed at the distance

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just plain" the old meally" ;D when he was younger he was called "the young meally ;D ;D ;D ;D" but a very true and unforgetable story,,

got fifer, old yellow, and jam ;D ;D ;D [my computer skills ;D ;D ;D ;D NOT ;D ;D