Novice

Ian Gibb in Ireland has the JS lofts birds

Hi Harry good to see that. The hawk had it's father---that's the only explanation for a stock cock missing in August. Ayrshire not basketing Friday will update tomorrow.

I think I read that Liverpool did that last week. I hope you have a good race with 100% returns. Forward thinking

When ETS was introduced I think the unions were so eager to slip it in the back door that they failed to recognise an opportunity to take some of the revenue away from the businessmen who are ruining pigeon racing. The Unions should have insisted that all ETS rings were sold through them. A combined ring would help address this issue but surely we would not be asking a non ETS fancier to pay for a chip he would not use.

When the transporter is full I think there is an advantage for birds located in the extremities of the transporter. They are able to avoid injury at liberation but having said that birds on the top row are jostled more than those further down during transport. At Open races we have a better mix of birds meaning that one fancier is unlikely to have most of his birds crated together.

I think there is a great deal of substance in this theory. Some birds will always go with the wind (for whatever reason). Particularly with youngsters we should be able to vary the race point dependant on the weather forecast. For example Alnwick may be perfectly acceptable if an easterly or southerly wind is forecast. As we all know the purpose of young bird racing is education and a mild weeding out.

The UV filter would be in line between the pump and the filter. It works by coagulating the fine algae particles into larger ones which can be removed by filtration. The other method is to place barley straw in the pond at the start of the year. The straw starts to becompose and releases an enzyme which stops the algae forming. It takes a while to work but it is effective. Some day you will thank me for that rubbish.

Ayrshire federation have not released at Otterburn and are bringing the birds back to Carnwath. I hope Ballochmyle returns are good. Obviously the decision to release or otherwise must have meen very borderline.

It looks as though the controller has made a decision. I made a decision to leave mine in the house tonight even though my federation are basketing as I don't like the possible wind speed and direction for birds flying from east to west. The quality of the decision should only be judged tomorrow night when we can see the returns of other west coast federations. Perhaps when we see Lanarkshire returns today we should condemn the decision to not have a Saturday race.

There are a number of excellent points raised here. Yes it would be good to have a united club concentrating on distance races. But---the initial split was about basic human values such as respect, and dignity. While these issues remain outstanding then there will never be agreement.

Started dry in Ayrshire but now overcast and raining.

Ayrshire will not basket tonight but have not decided whether to basket on Saturday for a Sunday race yet. My gut feeling says we are heading for a cancellation.

Sunday looks like being difficult for westerly feds with a very strong west wind forecast. I hope this changes as it can quite easily.

I wonder how much input the outgoing GM had in the process and whether or not he should have had a say. He would tend to choose someone who would be unlikely to outshine himself.

I know of one fancier who applied. He had a background of Supervisory Management and was a meaningful candidate. He never recieved the courtesy of an interview.

It's best to make sure that any birds introduced to the loft have been vaccinated at least 14 days before they are put in the loft.

Sorry to hear of your accident which is much more important than either cats or pigeons. Hope you are much improved now. Clear stuff on feed when changed is a strange one to me but Wayne could be right.

It looks to me as though he is doing a great job. Long may it continue.

Ayrshire liberated at 13:00 Berwick.

In my opinion this was a good decision.

Hi and welcome to the site. I know you will find everyone very helpful.

This makes my dozen bantams seem like chicken feed. E-bay sells hatching eggs and accessories. Some of the sellers have sites which are interesting.

I think this is a very valid point. I now compete with the Caledonian Combine for this reason even though it means travelling to send my birds on a friday night. I wonder how many thousands of pounds of lottery grants have been squandered by clubs replacing clocks which worked perfectly well with T3s and ETS when the money should have been used by the federations to buy modern transport and put the welfare of the birds first. The birds have so much more to battle against now so let's try to have them in the best possible condition to do so.

Well done to the fanciers who timed in section M. It's a fitting reward for your efforts and the bird's efforts. I am sure those who worked hard to make this possible will also be over the moon.

I absolutely agree with this post. Why decry progress?