Castleview

8.00pm I think

Get a little yorkie and teach him to chase cats. The only cats we get in the garden are our own and the occasional one on the budgie avairy, but the dog scares them away.

I think everyone gets the stuff ripped out of them as soon as they make a mistake down the club. I did when I started out, but I opened my mouth and upset the fanciers that were ripping into me. They never spoke to me again, so I was happy and I enjoyed my racing. Some clubs are good communities, others a full of people that rip you and they don't make you feel welcome because your the 'new guy' especially if you begin winning every week.

If you can't fit a big loft in your garden you can always selective breed. Work with a small team of youngsters and keep the ones that always come 1st in your loft. Then at the end of the YB Season, sell the ones that are no use to you e.g those that never came first. Be strict in you loft. Let the YB's make one mistake only i.e return in a box, stay out for a night. Next mistake get rid of them. This should by you time until you can buy a new YB loft or a bigger loft. I know some people cannot afford these nice big lofts, I have to do with an 8 x 5 garden shed that's converted. Next year I'm going to buy a 7 x 5 for my youngsters. If everything works out I might even get a 6 x4 Stock loft, but that one is not until 5 or 10 years down the line. The birds need to prove their retirement, and to do this I'll be selective breeding with one male line only.

15th March (next Saturday) at 9.00am

I've added some colours for you just to give you an idea, which you probably already know. But below is a Red Cheq, Grizzle, Gay Pied or as I like to term Cheq Gay Pied, Slate W/F (not really a blue nor a chequer) and a Mealy

Thanks Sue. I've gave that link to my fiance.

I dunno shadow. That cross of mine trained very well with the racers, infact he was treated like a racer. He always came back with them, so he was doing their 30-40mph easily. His father was a strong bird though so there was probably more homer in him than tippler. Don't forget, a tippler might fly around the garden but some can do 20 hours in the sky. Is that not the equivalent of a distance pigeon coming from France? Tipplers are known for their endurance and stamina. Ace fliers, like racers.

In my opinion, and no offence chrisss, but I think that's rubbish. I used to here people like that at my club back in 1996, and they were the mob fliers who bred quantity and not quality. 'I'm gonna breed 60 Youngsters this year and let the basket sort them out. Then I have the best of them all' What about the hen that doesn't do well at racing, perhaps always coming last in the loft? Would it occur to you that she could be a superb breeder? She may always come last, but are you going to risk sending her across the channel to race before you've tested her youngsters? She might be that 'goldmine hen' for the dream pair who always breeds winners. If the youngsters fail the tests then by all means put her in the basket and see if she does well at racing. I think pedigree's are only of use to you if you buy a champion bird who you are going to breed from. If it's just for a kit of youngsters then don't worry. If one of them prove to be good his pedigree will be of no use on his G.G.G.G child. Most peds only do 3 generations, some do four. You may as well pay the £120 and by 12 pigeons.

Hi All, I've been thinking about the design of my new pigeon loft over the last few days. At the moment I have an 8 x 5 Long Apex Shed. Now the thing that I have been thinking about is when I get some 'stock' pigeons to begin breeding with I will have to keep going in and personally putting them in the aviary that I am building every time I want to loose the young birds out and after a while that will be a pain in the bum. I was thinking of buying a set of four widowhood nest boxes and placing them at the far end of the shed (where the aviary will be) and putting a partition in so that I can loose any birds that are broke out of the door and the stock are locked up nicely and safe from escape. The sizes I was thinking of splitting the shed were 2.5ft (this is a width of a window that is installed in the shed) which is equal to the size of a 30" Widowhood Box, and the rest of it for perches. Take into account that 8 Birds would occupy the 2.5ft x 5ft area. I'd like to take it further but it would put any partition across the second window, as you can see from the photo. Would those dimensions be too small for 8 Pigeons (4 Pairs). I could reduce them to 3 pairs and block of a box. These 8 Pigeons would have a 4ft aviary to 'play' in so theoretically the shed would be 10ft. The shed has yet to be worked on. Concentrating on the fiance's budgies at the minute. Originally I was going to have just 8 Boxes with a partition in between the door and first window, for safety, but what about the YB's? I gotta keep getting the birds locked up while I loose the YB's out. Next year I'm getting a shed for the YB's, but for now I'm not planning on breeding 50 YBS, only about 8 YBS. I suppose I could split the shed into 4ft either side and make the first window into two seperate trapping windows with a landing platform and bobwires. Mmmm...

Spot on Jimmy.

I'd say one of the most important things in a pigeon loft is ventilation. If their is air flowing through the loft you're less likely to develop respiratory problems. My loft is facing South-East exactly and being on a hill in Dudley the air flow will be beautiful through the back of the loft. (When I got my louvers in)

BHW

Hehe

Doesn't necessarily mean that anyone has caught them or they've dropped on someones loft. For all Karl knows they could be in Bilston or Wolverhampton town centre. Karl, you should invest in some name and address rings. I know they can be removed by any so and so, but not all people know to check the wing. My fiance didn't until I told her.

Tracer sounds better than a rippler

He's dead unfortunatly. But i may do it again one day

Guess that makes a tippler x racer a rippler hehe

Perhaps it took him a week to get back because of the roller in him. Everytime he got some altitude the roller genes flipped him over. Probably giddy when he got back hehehe ;D

Shepard's of Leicester had some on there web site

Anyone ever done this? I did back in 96. I bred a Light Chequer Cock with a Black Tippler Hen and got a Dark Chequer Cross (or mickey) as my uncle called it. It homed well from 40 Miles. I was going to race him but I my pigeons got the pox and had to give them up due to inexperience.

They've probably hit the town centre by now. They would have come back for food and water. Probably dropped down and found some easy pickings. Good Luck with round two.

I only raced the channel in one year back in 96, but what's wrong with turning North? Lerwick is only about 550miles from where I live. My grandad raced both North and South at one point, using the same pigeons sometimes. Okay the weather can be bad in the North, so that's why you breed a set of youngsters who race North. That way if the channel racing continues safely you can continue and possibly breed a North and South pigeon together to get an all purpose pigeon. Either that or by a pair of sprinters.

I raced with my grandfather in 1990 (I was 9), but he died in 1994. I took on some of his racers and many more from my uncle. I had some non-racers in 1995 and raced in 1996 YB, 1997OB 1997YB and then they picked up the pox. Inexperienced I gave them to my uncle and what he did with them I do not know. He might have saved some or culled them. I quickly pulled the shed down as they were causing to much arguing between me an my mother (at 16 I had no money so she was always paying for the races Plus daddy dear wasn't much help in training them, he trained them when he felt like it, ***hole) I reverted back to my tipplers but they got stolen. So hopefully this year I'm going to get some and start breeding for next years YB Races. Because I had some before I know what mistakes not to make again. ;D

South East as Tony said. It catches the sun, but also you have an advantage if the birds are pushed east by a west wind. At least South East they can see the front of the loft both South and East (if you use open door trapping)