jimmy white

good idea with the pine needles, never tried that, plenty up our way i would foster the next eggs , if they were short of calcium you would notice the shell being abnormal, could be the parents fault

carol,i was looking at the d.e with pyrethrins in it, and thought that was the reasons for not breathing it in. but after looking at all i could find on it,[ the food grade type] i see that it has been given to many differant animals, including chickens and pigeons, but i would have to say i still would be apprehensive about it.on all the websites ive looked at, it says its perfectly safe,and natural , but, do not breath it in, i find that a bit of a contradiction.the only thing i cant find out is" why" does anyone know? i would preffer to keep an open mind on the subject, till i found out more.

just noticed your post snowy, i never kept birmingham rollers, but have seen them in flight, quite a sight. some fabulous fancy birds on these posts

speight i think you can get latebreds bred from brilliant pigeons, for very little or nothing, im at present getting one free ,a daughter of a national winner, i dont think i would have got this bird if it had been born jan, feb, or march. but with a little patience il try and blend it in., with the family i have, and even then, they can only be tried, but the breeding is there.

agree with shadow ,you can grow garlic ,no bother dry them and store them , but at the price they are ,their very cheap, and last a while, but whatever way you decide, garlic is the best thing since sliced bread, it just has so many qualities, and at that price you cant go wrong

same as me rose, the longer the wait the more peanuts you eat, no wonder they say peanuts are good for the distance ;D ;D ;D for the owners ;D ;D ;D me and my old parrot" max " [about 50 years old] used to have them all eaten before the birds come back, good for the nerves and saves the fags ;D ;D ;D

y,b training should start about 10 weeks old, under normal circumstances, but with late breds , they would be better left at this time of the year, you could allways basket train them and let them of a couple of miles away, on good days, speedbird got his going quite early and got the best of the weather,as far as im aware hes trained them and now has them flying over an hour,so hes certainly worked hard with them

peanuts should be for human consumtion, and bought in small ammounts, i used to give them peanuts whole whilst preparing for longer races.. in the shorter races, i would use them broken up and very sparingly ,more or less for a tit bit, p.s they are very fattening, and off course only pure clean peanuts, not salted.

i do notice that perma-gaurd d-20 diatomaceous earth contains 2 p.c. pyrethrins. our ordinary household flyspray contains 0;28 p.c. pyrethrins [tetramethrin] it maybe a good thing, but, i really dont know, has anyone tried this?

i dont race now but in the past ive broken bits off a lump of cheese rolled it in to a ball and fed them this as a tit bit, took a bit of getting used to at first ,but once they got the taste they ate it no bother, im still laughing at speckleds post, trust her, [cant find smillies], even done the same with burnt toast,,true, the charcoal is good for them as well,, daft as it all may sound. no speckled im not going to try fish and chips next, mind you the vineger might help, [ smillies] there cumin to take me away ha ha

a wee story that youll find hard to beleiveBill pentland [sadly passed away]says to me Ive a chalenge for you..,transfer, and break this jet black cock, and be able to send it to sartilly 505 miles in21 DAYS, this bird raced for him on widowhood, that particular year, had 5 races,last one being dorchestor 350 miles, bill stayed about 6 miles from me,he sent it this race paired and on eggs,nesting in bottom right hand box, I took the pair the nest pan and the nesting materials, to the same box in my loft, i.e bottom left.i put the pair, eggs nestpan etc in with a board in front of the box, the pair took to the eggs, i moved this board further away , making sure they were still sitting, allthough a bit dubious, i managed to take the board away alltogether, they were still sitting. i then had the cock locked in the sputnick when he should have been sitting, then let him in, i then let him out , and he went back to Bills,to an emty section with the boxes boarded up, i brought him back and repeated this a few times , next day let him out, bill locked him out and chased him , and to my surprise he returned to me, all this in about 5 days after flying freely for about a week ,i gave him a toss from freuchie [north] and again to my surprise he dropped to me, bill was amazed [so was i]i then sent him to sartilly, being less than 21 days in my loft and to our utter amazement ,this bird was 101st national, would have actualy been 89th as they had my old distances. this is hard to beleive but i can assure you it is perfectly true.. this true story struck a cord with roses post above about birds being called after their owners surname, this was a jet black cock ,and would have been called a van white .p.s. in remembrance to bill pentland ,bill held the record from barcelona, 1000 miles for some time, up here.

p.m me spelbin, cheers

tried cheese before speight , pigeons love it when they get the taste of it, cant say it ever done mine any harm,especially whilst feeding young, im glad you posted that as i was frightened to ;D ;D ;D well probably get some KRAFTy remarks on this one ;D ;D ;D

some great photos, no matter who wins ,theve all made an exellant effort

i just wish i could remember the time when there was a photo in the"edinburgh evening news" of a sparrow hawk on top of its prey, a pigeon, right in the middle of the city centre, in front of all the shoppers and their families, if any one remembers when this was, or has any info, please post

remember bbc i tonight 10 15 [sunday] panorama,,,,,,bird flu

whilst i agree with showman ,as overcrowding is one of the worst things, but in my opinion you could stretch that to 12 birds no bother, maybe even more depending on the size of the aviary, the bhw vet david palmer [sadly no longer with us]recommended ,that birds should have, between half, and one cubic metre of air space per bird, this will "qoute"obviously depend on outside climatic factors as much as the no. of open windows and size of roof holes "unqoute", so, go on, live dangerously ,get your dozen birds , and build a reasonably sized aviary,and good luck to you too. your other question is not so daft either, i think nowadays most lofts are for differant racing systems i,e, so that they cant see out etc etc.. they have to pay more attention to ventilation,i would see no problem . racing natural, to a big aviary with deep nest boxes at the back, providing they were bone dry.to put it in a nut shell, stale air and dampness is the worst thing for pigeons :)

hi pecked hen , i think its more the pigeon grains that attract mice ,so if you keep the aviary free of grain it should help, my 8 by 6 loft is about a foot off the ground ,which i have it fenced round, so that no birds can get under it, i keep a dish of mice poison under this, and i cant say ive had a problem with mice. hope this helps.

hi ghost ,just looked at redrose website and seen your loft , absolutely brilliant, im sure we can get a lot of ideas from that,,, good luck to you

i understand your anger about the hawk,, the rspb [ protection of birds] dont ,no wont, protect YOUR birds i think they should be called the rsDb. the D for destruction, but i feel for you snowy , youll just have to try all the methods as posted, i wish you luck, jimmy

poor pecked hen your not getting a lot of answers, ;) i think your aviary is a great idea, i have a 8 by 6 loft with an 8 by 6 aviary, with about 20 birds in it, i concreted the floor of the aviary sloping towards the outside drain, where i can hose it, on good days, i also have a sputnick on the loft, its allways another bit of room, where i stay im not really allowed to keep pigeons , but manage to get away with this. i have perches at the back of the aviary , with a wooden back , perspex roof on it , the wind blows through it , but their bone dry on the back perches, and none the worse for it. its just made with chicken wire.. on the loft itself i have a chicken wire inside door where i can leave the outside door open on dry days, so theres plenty of air circulating i dont race now and am not allowed to let these birds out, [but as i said b4 sometimes they get out" by mistake :) good luck with your aviary

read ivomectin sheep drench for flock treatment in pigeons, america off course, must be differant pigeons there??, but your spot on doostalker about wim peters, and off course ivomectin and invermectin are the same. i dont think you would risk your pigeons,and your own health,or even prosecution if you got it on vets prescription and used it accordingly, the same as tylan , tiamutin etc etc these also have withdrawal periods [as with most antibiotics] before it is safe to eat meat or drink milk or eat eggs, but the vet should advise you on that,,if , its not on the label. im surprised to read that harkers are the only ivomectin licence holders in the uk, im not sure this is true .mind you they make enough money from pigeon fanciers selling wormers, insecticides etc,, off course buying any prescription drug is illegal,and you would definately risk prosecution

silverwings, ive never tried the gripe water, but did try a little whiskey in their water, didnt make them the BEST in the race , but it certainly made them the HAPPIEST :) any new commers im only joking, dont try it, otherwise theyll all be doing the highland fling ;D ;D ;D cheers

THE BABY POWDER RE HYDRATES THEM NOT DEHYDRATES THEM, PUTS A SPRING IN THERE STEP :)

im sorry tam, but i think your post is in bad taste,