sorry to hear you have lost some birds Blaz , cant put into words what your going through think most of us have had similar things happen , all the best mate
completely the right attitude , win or loose fair or not its the birds welfare and the pleasure these birds bring there owner thats at the heart of it all , and a joy when they return from a race to be back at home with you
its all about control , control there feed and get the birds to associate you with food then feed the ybs a measured amount of food , they will soon become under control
i think as the flyer selects his pigeons he buys and trys to breed same type hence a favourate / favoured race point emerges , but i believe its down to the type of pigeons the flyer selects
i would think from the current financial climate and the weak pound that prices will have increased and they'll be haggling on prices for most things and wont want to be loosing money as they will have to sell at the prices they published in there catologue , so better to have no stock till pound recovers but they'll be ok as are selling other pet products