kev01293

a friend of mine was walking his dog ( a jack russel) in the woods when a small bird flew straight past him being chased by a sparrowhawk,the small bird dissapeared into some bushes but was chased out and pinned to the ground by the hawk my friends dog then run over to the hawk and small bird and they both flew off but he couldnt say wether the hawk did eventually get the bird :-/ ive definately noticed an increase in sparrowhak numbers in crawley where i live and if it continues at this rate i dread to think what it will be like in 5 years time 5 years ago i rarely saw them but now they seem to turn up whenever my birds are out im well prepared for my next attack but when they do strike they are so fast that you dont get a decent chance but his/her luck will run out and when it does i will know what 2.2 do ;D im all for live and let live but enough is enough and i know there are plenty of you in the the same boat as me

hopefully its now made its way back home after feeding and resting at your place thanks for taking the time to care for it but keep your eyes open as it may return?

some pigeon men/woman are only novices young zimmy so what seems obvious to us isnt to them

bob can u use that method to sex yb,s or is it only ob,s ? kev :-/

i have heard of birds escaping from sputnicks so ive never used them i use the old style flap board hinged at the top what i had as a kid and never have any trouble with it kev

congratulations vallance to u and your wife on the new cock bird addition to your family kev

as already said the cocks are usually bigger and have a rounder bolder head and cock birds usually have bigger wattles as well but then saying that i have a 4 year old gay pied hen with really big eye ceres and wattles and looks every bit a cock bird :-/ has anyone seen this in a hen bird b4? kev

my birds sometimes try to have a bath in the plastic drinkers which leaves wet patches around it so i brush in some harkers loft treatment to dry it up kev

looks a blinding loft to me and all for £250 notes i would be well pleased with myself if id done that

very nice

a brilliant story but if that hawk is anything like the hawk that preyed on my birds last year then it will be back for sure > kev

yet another loft targeted by lowlife cowards who havent got the backbone to have a face to face so they resort to torching jimmys loft and ruining his lifes work > i cant begin to imagine what he must be feeling at the moment after having this happen even if these spineless wxnkxrs do get caught they will only get a slap on the wrist cos they had a tough childhood >: as others have said they need to be put into a flame/smoke filled room just as jimmys birds were and see how they cope with it > at the end of the day they know that they have all the do gooders defending them so they will just carry on regardless i know what justice i would deal out to them and it wouldnt be a day out an adventure park?? kev

i had some birds go down chico with the same symptons as yours but i was lucky enough to get some amoxillin from somewhere that sorted them out but otherwise i would go with what the experienced fanciers on here reccomend ps u would be suprised what family/friends have sitting in their medicine cabinets

frank, did coopers give any explaination as to how they managed to lose your birds?? its not the first time ive heard bad things said about them so they wont be getting my buisness thats for sure kev

hi stokey i would have thought that ets is perfect for you especially with you being in a wheelchair as you say you,ve lost time in the past but now the boot is on the other foot club members are complaing, some people will whinge and moan regardless of what happens so i would just leave them to get on with it and enjoy your birds good luck for next year all the best kev

well i cleared the loft floor yesterday of all the sand and replaced it with easibed when i went into the loft early this morning it felt warmer than it did when i used the kiln dried sand and the easibed it bone dry when i cleared the sand out i checked the floor right over but didnt find any damp spots anywhere so when the sand was getting damp before it was either from my boots or from the damp/rainy weather outside my loft i will be keeping a watch on the easibed but so far im well pleased with it and looking at some of my birds laying in it they obviously seem to like it as well when i think back i cant ever remember seeing my birds looking that comfortable in the sand kev :)

thanks for that oldyellow jonjon and IB

thanks for the info and advice everybody ive ended up clearing all the sand off of the loft floor as it just seemed damp all the time when i cleared it out i noticed that the damp was only in the sand in areas that i walked on but in an area behind a door and also under some nestboxes the sand was bone dry? i can only think that the damp was being transferred from my boots onto the sand as i walked through the loft as we,ve had loads of rain here i think i will give easibed a try and also check out the ventilation at floor level when i get a chance at the weekend kev ps does hempcore come in chunks or is it small like granules?

after giving the loft a good clean out i covered the floor with a layer of kiln dried sand from b&q but after a couple of days the sand on the loft floor has become damp? has anyone else had damp problems using sand? i used kiln dried sand cos i was told that normal sand carries worms/bugs but the kiln dried sand doesnt as it is heat treated :-/ im thinking that as it is kiln dried that its very absorbant and maybe its attracting moisture from the damp/rainy weather outside the loft? any ideas anyone kev :-/

left winged or right winged? its not something that ive thought about b4 (until now) but its a good question if at the end of the day we learn more about our birds then that has to be a good thing as they say observation is the key to success kev

thanx just ask (or jam) i will give the anti freeze a try kev

the mouse got caught in the rat trap by its leg and was still alive when i found it,i was hoping that mice were the problem but after finding bits of gnawed wood i spose its time to set more rat traps along the back of the loft my loft is only slightly off the ground and i cant see right under it so am worried that rats are under the loft floor? kev

ive just been down to check the traps and found a mouse in one of them so hopefully its only the mice that i have to worry about -is it true that mice and rats wont live together? kev :-/

sorry to hear of your friends departure pete and well done done for trying to find new homes for his pigeons which he obviously cared for going by the postings on here you shouldnt have any problems finding good homes for them kev

thanks everyone for the advice, i will set a trap (both kinds) and see what happens? kev