Novice

When flying over open sea there is absolutely no cover from whatever wind prevails at the time. Following long spells in the transporter some birds may be dehydrated when released. There is absolutely no opportunity for them to have a drink flying over open sea for long distances. Many of the islands around our coasts are populated by BOP.Ailsa Craig for example has a thriving peregrine population.

Some good advice here which I agree with. The people who import pigeons from abroad do so mainly to sell the offspring on the strength of the vendor's reputation. There are exceptions but I have found this to be what happens in most instances.

He was a comedian last time he was here to.

Just look how they try to blow it out of proportion with a hit man conspiracy. How very sad is that.

There are many ways of adding Calcium to the diet but one very simple one is by feeding Old Hand's Golden Boost which contains Tri Calcium Phosphate and provided these essential elements in the correct proportions.

Yes this was the dark Cock called Janefield Andy and was bred by your ex race controller Andy Durning

I feel the problem lies with the distributor as the guys who have theirs by post had it on Thursday as scheduled. Having said that mine has been late 3 weeks from 4 and to quote from an old fancier "you wouldn't sell me Tuesday's Daily Record on a Wednesday" I cancelled mine yesterday.

Not only your side of the water but Ailsa Craig is polluted with them as is the entire south ayrshire coast.

It depends on what kind of fish you intend to keep. A good idea is to have a bottom drain feeding the filter and not a pumped feed. You get better filtration that way. The return from the filter normally flows back to the pond via a waterfall. This helps to oxygenate the returning water. Scottish winters can be really cold (even in Newmains)and the fish like a really deep section they can lie in during winter. If you don't do this some kind of cover to keep the frost off would be good. I would visit Bradshaws as there is likely to be good advice there. You may also wish to join the BKKS there is loads of advice there. Fishponds are great but I filled mine in when grandchildren appeared on the scene.

A very strange thing is that some Scottish feds had decent racing yesterday liberating late. The feds racing into West Scotland ie Ayrshire Ballochmyle and West Strathclyde from a similar late liberation from Ripon at 12:15 had a horrendous race. Ayrshire North road liberated at 11:00 and had a terrible race. Is there a logical explanation?

You are doing a great job. Thanks

You are doing ok for returns. PM me your post code and I will try to get over to see that auld yin Tuesday or Wednesday.

I think the nor wester was a contributor no doubt about that. Why we are so inflexible that we cannot wait till Monday I will never know. So few fanciers work now and most have ETS so why are we so weekend oriented?

14 now Robert and one from last week. I tossed at the showcase cinema today (the birds for next week) and they made a pig of it to. 1 missing but she injured her wing about a month ago.

So did I but unfortunately I never believe it will till it's too late. We had exactly the same yesterday morning. At clocks tonight returns were poor. I have 13 from 42 sent and that is better than average.

Not great. Only 10 home from 42 sent. Slower than I thought but still coming and most of the birds are scared shitless. I even lost 3 tossing at Coatbridge today.

Ayrshire are at Consett same as Lanarkshire. Maybe not a bad thing to let the biz clear on Saturday. I thought the forecast was ok other than the head wind.

sheds which are mounted on non conductive foundations are not earthed. I think I read an article at one point which recommended earthing to eliminate static electricity in a loft.This was reported to have benefits for the pigeons.

I think you will find the SNRPC are not going there.

That could be a possible cause but till you have it properly diagnosed I would try to ensure they at least have some water into their crops to stop them dehydrating.

Are they vaccinated against PMV?

I certainly have never heard this rumour but would have felt that fanciers should have been informed in advance to allow them to choose a team to suit the circumstances. I shall certainly enquire tomorrow.

I think you should climb down from your space craft and enter the real world. Abandonment a few miles from the loft-get real. Cruelty is what happens every time we train our birds through no fault of our own. Indeed when I look at returns reported on here every Saturday I start to appreciate gross cruelty and breach of "duty of care". Once again you have abused your position as a moderator. It's a pity that mods are not selected on performance which would illustrate an understanding of the subjects on which they comment.

Many years ago a prominent scribe proposed that birds which were ill due to canker should not be culled. They should have their rings removed and be released into the wild. Nothing illegal in that is there? Needless to say the fancy ignored the suggestion.

I an not interested next year but I might rearrange mating times or have darkness youngsters next year to have a go. There are those who specialize in this event so why not continue provided the support is there.