Novice

This can be caused by a Herpes Virus

See Tony C's post

You should have been a politician you told the man everything but what he asked you!

Yes Peter a very poorly thought out race programme in my opinion. It's about 200 miles to me.

Ayrshire federation are going to Wakefield and just about every federation in the country is in this area going North and South. I'm not sure how many I will send till I have handled them.

Agreed Andy!

Racing on Friday from Wakefield rather than Saturday looks like a sound decision to me!

In my opinion your suggestion is good but we would only be treating the symptom. We need to get to the root cause by improving returns and this can only be done by having a major rethink on how we do things.

Grey and overcast in Ayrshire with visibility about 1 mile. The easterly wind is fresh but not cold.

It looks a wee bit breezy according to 1 forecast but others suggest less so!

RIP Jim.

Hi the Ayrshire pigeon is mine. How do I get it home? I hope to be in Livingston on Wednesday.

Very well said Jake.

As I said that is my understanding I could be mistaken but I doubt it.

I'll expand if no one else will. You need to be aware that this is based on second hand information. I believe Eben brought 70 strays into Ayrshire last week. I believe these were liberated and at least one never made it home. I assume the fanciers concerned had been told in advance that their pigeons were being returned and the owner of the absentee bird complained to a federation official that his bird had gone AWOL. I believe that a federation official then had the audacity to suggest that Eben drop the pigeons off at everyone's door. To put this into perspective 70 pigeons is almost 10% of the convoy. As I stated this post is based on second hand information and also on the reaction of one individual it should not be considered as being typical of Ayrshire fanciers. I would welcome a post from anyone who feels that my understanding is incorrect.

No we really want to avoid the area as it is very obvious that a high percentage of the youngsters refuse to go any further. We need a programme designed to educate the youngsters . There is plenty of time to test them the following year.

Ok Harry

Without doubt there is some great work being done by fanciers returning these strays. The fact that there are so many of them has to be taken into consideration when proposing young bird race programmes for 2016.

An additional factor and I am just as guilty as anyone else is that we try to jump second rounders in at the 3rd or 4th race. Before the BOP explosion we could get away with that no problem. They followed the batch home. Unfortunately now, if they are separated from the main body by BOP their mind is too immmature to navigate home.

did I hear right on Friday that some fanciers were not happy with your giving their birds a helping hand up the road and liberating them. Ingratitude of the highest order springs to mind.

The word I used was bemoaning which has a slightly different meaning from moaning. Well at least it did at the school I attended. Every problem has a solution. Some solutions we can discuss openly others we can't. However to point you in the right direction some areas we need to address would be coordination at National level before the season starts. Better vetting of race points. Now we simply draw a name from a hat and send the transporter there. Previously each site was inspected by federation officials before it was approved for use. Having a race programme which is straight would be a big bonus. Not forcing birds to fly into the prevailing westerly wind every week would avoid sickening them. Avoiding convoys racing in opposite directions in the same corridor on the same day at the same time would be a bonus. A brain scan for all members before they are allowed to vote would be a big bonus. Each and every youngster handled by a competent basketing conveyer to check for food retention I could go on but I am sure you have updates to read but bear in mind that pigeon fanciers and fisherman occasionally suffer from a common malady.

We have all these comments on forums bemoaning young bird returns.mwill we learn anything from this to do it better in the future. You can bet that come the next round of AGMs we will have the same outdated race programs we had this year.

It would be unlikely that any antibiotic would kill all bacteria. For example if you treat a bacterial infection with an inappropriate antibiotic then you still have a bacterial infection. That is why sensitivity tests are done before treatment. However what you appear to say is that probiotics don't help restore good bacteria if it has been wiped out. Therefore are probiotics a big con ( not related to pigeons but life itself) or do they work when the good bacteria has only been reduced. It's really too big a subject for myself. Been there done the fish pond thing without problem till the fish grew to such an extent that the waste produced was out with the capacity of the filter to convert it from ammonia to nitrate.

It's difficult to understand why Lanarkshire who were at the same race point on approximately the same line of flight as Ayrshire and Glasgow had a very good race while the others didn't. I feel some of the Ayrshire pigeons may have turned and met the Glasgow birds and from then on they became confused. Obviously the above is speculation. No one's fault these things happen we just need to concentrate on the ones left in the loft.

I am a huge believer in racing on a straight line. Pigeons are not programmed to navigate round corners. I am also a great believer that, if you have a problem which stops you achieving your objectives then identify that problem and remove it from the equation.