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Unfortunately not, but many thanks for the post. Cheers

Cheers Chris. I'll post the ring number on the lost thread, but I check the found one daily. She has a IHU ring, so hopefully should be easy to spot.

She was from Ireland, but I contacted Merlin as soon as she got out. No she didn't return, but hadn't been trained very far. She was a lovely hen too. She and Bluey made a lovely pair. She got out a week today :-(

Thanks for that advice, Phil. This is where it gets complicated :-/

:-( I wish she could hear him :-(

After his hen escaped a week ago, Blue Boy has now started behaving rather broody. He make a noise a lot of time, and does a mating type walk around and is now sitting on the nest bowl. I think his hen would have been laying about now, as they were mating again a couple of weeks ago. I'd thought about putting some dummy eggs in there, but as he's not paired up, I doubt if that's going to do any good, but it's as if his body clock knows that now would be the time he and his hen would be on the eggs. Other than getting another hen (this will be a bit longer yet), is there any advice out there folks? Thanks :-)

I've been promising to write an article for months, but just haven't had the time to devote to it. I will make the effort to do it. I don't think so! I had you down as little red riding hood - all innocent like ;-) ;-) ;D ;D LOL

You may not be too off the mark, Phil. Time will tell ;D

;D ;D ;D ;D

Chris, I really appreciate that. Bluey (going into the Sputnik on the pics) is the pigeon (that was) in my kitchen, and is 4 yr old, but his baby is about 4-5 weeks. I hope I can keep them both (at least) until they're very old birds :-)

haha! It all came together, and I'm used to trying to look calm on the outside but I have to say when I stood in that shed with the door closed and it was on a knife edge whether they'd fly off again or actually come in through the sputnik, it was heart in the mouth stuff! Once dad came in, I felt it was a matter of time, but at one point, I thought I'd be in that shed all night ;D ;D ;D

It's also surely important to give any antibiotic for the correct length of time. Otherwise it'll lead to poor response or the bird slipping back after dosing. If this happens, or actually any blanket use, results in the production of resistant strains of organisms. As pjc says, it's essential to properly diagnose before treating as scatter gun treatment often produces poor results. More and more bacteria become resistant every day so you need a proper diagnosis first. This is only my opinion based on human medicine, but it can't be that different!

Perhaps a bit rude? It was a perfectly reasonable statement and question. If you don't have any problems, there's nothing to treat, and if you do, the question could have answered whether this treatment would be any good for it?

Well, as it's an antibiotic, whatever it does help, it won't have any use against a virus. Sorry, probably not that helpful :-)

Thanks Phil. You can't quite see Blue Boy's moult from these pics. I've got a few more where from a distance, it's very hard to tell them apart. Thanks again for your help and that offer which I'm really excited about. Cheers

Thanks, Sue. It was the sputnik door I let them out of, not the shed door. I realise that would totally confuse them and be a red flag for them to go out that way. I'm really pleased they went out of the larger sputnik doors and back through the bit by the landing board, particularly the little one. But I guess he saw dad do it :-) Here are the pics I promised. Bluey and his baby are really starting to look alike :-) Dad and baby on the lawn: Baby on the Pyrocantha: Then onto the Bay tree ;D Bluey first to go back in:

Thanks Rab :-). Sorry for rambling post.

Just a quick update for anyone following the story. Unfortunately, Colleen hasn't come home, and that's a real sadness to me, but I mustn't dwell on that too much, as I've lost enough sleep there already :-( Actually, it's not really a quick update as I've just read through it ;-) Blue Boy (the bird who started this whole thing off) 'escaped' through the door early on Thursday. Good news was that he came back that evening, and whilst I had to catch him, and pop him through the sputnik opening, at least he came back - I don't think it was really a matter of if, more like, when. I've really concentrated on taking advice from people here, and in this instance, pjc's I followed very closely. Having only given a very light feed yesterday morning (Friday), I opened the main sput doors, and did what Phil told me. Blue Boy came out fairly quickly and after some strutting around the garden, I managed to entice him back near the shed. He flew onto the landing board, saw the food strategically placed inside, and hopped through the right entrance, and he was safely in. Junior (Blue Boy's baby) had a good look around on the edge of the sput opening, but didn't actually fly down, despite me trying to coax him with a few morsels. It wasn't his day to explore. A light feed this morning, and we went out for the day. Came back about an hour and a half ago and repeated yesterday's routine. Blue Boy was quickly out and exploring the garden. A few minutes later, Junior jumped down onto the lawn. I now have two pigeons walking around. A very few morsels to keep them interested, and then I put the feed bowl into the sput for later. Junior started flying first - wing flapping and sort of hovering like they do in the shed, then he landed on a bush (pyrocantha, which I thought was going to stab him). Then it was onto the Bay tree, then some flowers in a pot! Then Blue Boy took off, circled around a few times and then landed on the house roof. Junior then took off and flew onto a neighbour's roof opposite. Bluey then had another large circle, landed near to Junior, stayed there for a few minutes, then he took off into the distance. The next half an hour I sat in the garden looking over and shaking the food. About 15 minutes later, Bluey lands back on the roof, and Junior flies back. They then go onto the shed roof. I went into the shed, and called them and rattled the food. Bluey was quite fast at coming back in. Big sigh of relief. Now I can hear Junior on the roof, I think trying to work out how to get from the apex roof onto the landing board without sliding off. But he flew down, and hovered and tried to get into the door he exited from. However, I've now shut that to prevent Bluey getting back out (now filling his face with food). I was just about to come out and open the doors, and he flew straight onto the landing board, cocked his head to one side, and jumped straight back through. So, now they've both flown out on their own terms and returned and used the sputnik themselves too. As you can probably tell by my boring amount of detail (but it's a sort of diary for me), I'm thrilled. I've wanted them to be able to have freedom right from the beginning, and knowing nothing about how to achieve this, I doubted it'd happen. I now want to do this every day, and see if I can refine their sputnik entrances ;D I'd just like to say THANK YOU to pjc for talking me through the whole thing through PMs, and to Sue and Susan for keeping in touch and supporting. Sorry to have rambled, but this was a big thing for me (and I think, the birds). I have few pics that I'll post later. But Photobucket's a bit slow for me. :-)

Reports are coming in that two little old women were accosted by a flasher yesterday and one of them had a stroke :-( .. the other couldn't reach.

That's naughty, you made me spit my tea out ;D ;D ;D ;D Well done on the sale, nice looking birds and a nice cause.

LOL. I was on a roll, but it won't last long ;D ;D

A bald man with a wooden leg got invited to a fancy dress party. He went to hire a costume and they sent him a pirate's outfit with an eye patch and a bandana. He complained as he felt they were taking the p*ss out of his wooden leg. So, they sent him a monk's outfit. He was really cross now, as he felt they were taking the p*ss out of his bald head. He complained again, so they sent him a tin of syrup, told him to shove his wooden leg up his ar$e, put the syrup on his head and go as a ..*expletive removed* toffee apple !! Hope this one doesn't get me banned!!!!! Good night :-) ;D ;D ;D ;D really should go on sticky ;D ;D ;D ;D mod ;D

A man was admitted to A&E with a dysfunctional erection. His wife said it was touch and go!

A man goes into a post office wearing a balaclava and wielding a gun. He shouts 'this is a raid - get down on the floor!' As he gets to the door with the loot, a brave customer rips off his balaclava. He immediately shoots him. He asks if anyone else saw his face. A man says, 'yes, I saw you'. The raider shoots him dead. He then asks if anyone else saw him. A very quiet voice from the corner says 'I think the wife caught a glimpse'! Good night :-) :-)

Apple computers announced today the development of a chip that can be implanted into a woman's breast and play music!! The iTit will cost £399 and is regarded as a major breakthrough, as women are often complaining that men just stare at their t*ts and never listen to them :-)