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walterboswell59

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  2. Ok Got A Wee Bit Of Time This Morning

    in Notice Board

    Posted

    well as i said the cocks were driving the national hens again for there 4th set of eggs which i was a bit worried about as this pair were to early to set them down on and i could not stop them from laying as i had no room to split them i had stepped up the flagging to one hour morning and night and was waiting on the first good day to get them up the road the first race was apon us and i was delighted when one of my sprint latebreds i bought in from louella a poortviliet was 1st club 1st west section 4th open with 3600 birds and she took all pools in the club over 100 pounds so a good wee start the day after the race turned out to be a nice day but the wind had changed to a strong northwest so not ideal for a first toss as the race team had been at the race the day before i decided to take the 24 young sprinters as cover for the national birds my logic was the more targets in the sky the better james and i basketted the birds and it was a bit blowy at the home end but not to bad so off we went but when we got to crawford the wind was very strong i said to james i dont know if im doing the right thing here lm not worried about the old birds they have been hedge hopping before but this is a new experience for the youngbirds and a bit severe for there first head wind we stood for ten minutes and the wind seemed to die a little well they have to learn sometime i said and this is there 16 th toss from here and with that said we libbed the birds cleared quick heading for home skipping over the top of the hills and down the other side out of sight as we came off the slip road at abbington we saw them cross the motorway 6 inch off the ground oh s t i said to james just as i feared there could be birds missing today m8 should have stuck with my gut instinct but its done now up untill this toss the birds were doing it in 32 to 35 mins as every toss previous had been a southwind 48 mins and the first batch came over my eyes scanned for helen and mary but they were not there i had just over half the birds from 46 sent the next batch came about 5 mins later and the three good hens were there i breathed a sigh of relief the old birds were all home but i had a few youngbirds missing and they started to turn up injured at the end of the day i was 4 youngbirds down and three hurt but no excuses it was my fault a mistake on my part still making them after all these years but the national birds had there first toss and all home and another lesson learned about youngbird training for the next 5 days the national birds were trained and almost all home together so we had 21 tosses in total from crawford and great training no hits the national birds were getting faster and faster as there fitness inproved all that is apart from helen she was always 5 mins behind was she taking a different route or was laying 8 eggs taking its toll i did not know but something was not right mary was always there with the batch and she had also layed 8 eggs maybe she was still catching up on her fitness as the birds were now a constant 35 mins a toss maybe they need more as i was jumping them in to a 120 mile for there first race i had worked out i would have to lift there eggs again to get them on a 3 or 4 day old chick there first of the year but i would need to let them sit ten days or they would go back down to soon and be on a big youngster not good as it takes to much body off these small hens but also sitting ten days would kick start the moult i checked the hens everyday and sure enough eight days sitting they both dropped the first flight my fear was they would drop two and start bolting the wing to catch up some people say this is a sign of condition not me to me its just a pigeon that has been held back catching up leaving a big gap in the wing for air to pass through with every wing beat but this is just my opinion i want them with as full a wing as possible i had been in contact with my pal andy burgess who had moved house and i wanted to go visit his new place in lauder and it sounded a fantastic set up when it was complete so off i went as i drove along the m8 and around the Edinburgh by pass my eyes were opened to what our westsection birds have to come through in Britain with a prevaling west wind as i drove farther towards the signs for the boarders with the coast in view most of the time it became apparent we in the west have no chance of winning a national unless we get an east wind or the race is a disaster where the birds are not following the coast but in a true race we are litterly p g against the wind we are racing against birds that are flying a straight line straight up the coast i know this opinion will not go down well with some but its fact pure and simple and im not out to make friends i have plenty but if you want to win a national go to the easy east guys not saying the east birds or fanciers are not good but there is no comparrison to a pigeon flying into the west anyway rant over i arrive at andys house he is really out in the sticks every town or village on the way in had a national winner in it go figure eh i asked andy if he had any problems with falcons and he told me never even seen one i had drove allmost 70 miles and thought this might be where i could bring the national birds for time on the wing thinking i should get one and a half to two hours out them which would be perfect if safe and i cant get that distance down the west without getting slaughtered so a few days later james and i headed for lauder with all the birds except the youngsters we tossed the birds and headed home with fingers crossed that we would get a good toss and we did one hour 40 mins the first birds and within 15 mins all were home except helen she was over one hour behind them now i was getting worried she should be resonably fit by now something was deff wrong with her by this time she had layed her 5th pair of eggs was that the reason but the other hen mary had layed the same and was showing no ill efects was it last years injury i just did not have a clue the next day i went back to lauder and for the next four tosses she improved but was still behind the batch i checked her over again but could see nothing out of order other than she was handling a bit lean i had just changed the feed from a basic widowhood mix and was adding hemp seed conditioner and peanuts she should be bigger the other hens were but not helen i decided to give her a full flagyl tablet for canker incase there was some internal canker that i could not see and bang three days later she was a different pigeon and i sent her for her first race 120 miles she was about twenty mins behind my first bird back to lauder again midweek and she was with the batch sent her into the next race 160 miles and she and mary were my 3rd and 4th pigeons things were coming together fine i had lifted both hens 5th set of eggs and put dummies under them as they had layed 3 to 4 days to early i kept there eggs in the house and put them back under them 4 days later so both would be on there first chick of the year 3 to 4 days old so that was the incentive sorted now if i could just get a 8 or 9 hour race out them they would be perfect meanwhile i was flagging morning and late at night with them dropping on the loft at 10 oclock or later the next race was 210 miles and turned out a stinker with many birds missing i dropped 5 good birds that were going to the national and helen was almost 8 hours on the wing mary had only been just over 5 hours on the wing so helen was stopped and rested mary went to meldon mowbray which was a real bad one with half the birds in our club and fed missing including mary and another 5 national birds a few that had scored already it was a sickener for me mary had been 3rd section roye twice and 11th section ypres so real class hen gone but i consolled myself with the fact that helen and the young hen maid marrion were looking great and sitting perfect in part three only three days to basketting what could go wrong lol

  3. How Lady Helen Was Trained

    in Notice Board

    Posted

    at the end of 2019 i was a bit disappointed on my birds performance in Burdine even though i thought it was a bit short and turned out a fast blow home that does not suite my birds but i still timed a half sister to lady Helen to be 18 th west section Helen did not turn up till about 8 oclock that night to win the 20 pound pool and it was not untill about three days later when handling her i found a small piece of wood embedded in her chest it looked like part of a tree branch jesus i thought you have been very lucky lass must have been attacked and dived into a tree for cover then worked her way home after percy was gone i removed the wood and cleaned up the small wound and put on some antiseptic cream and left her to recover through the winter and thought of what could have been my other silver award hen mary turned up at 10 30 that night so my best birds were home late but home in january as i took stock i had 22 birds that were qualified to go across the water as most had already been across or had every race to the coast so a good strong experienced team and was really looking forward to the cross channel races and with two silver award winners a chance of a coveted gold award which apart from winning the section in the gold cup has always been my goal thereby emulating my old mentor John Feenie john had taken me as a young man to the SNFC presentation night when he won the section in the gold cup with strathclyde lass and i was in awe at the arb trophy he had won it was a huge silver bowl and i still remember the smile on Johns face as we went back to the Hamilton Railway club where we all drank and sat this beautiful trophy on the table in front of all the pigeon men where he got a round of applause from everyone and will remain in my memory for ever i had bought in some sprint youngbirds from my friend John Short as my loft was all Jan aardens distance birds and my club results were going backwards i like a gamble on my birds and our club has great pools over 100 pounds most weeks that and the fact that with the horrendous youngbird losses i had decided not to race my own youngbirds but just train them and i would use the 24 sprinters to play with in the club the reason i mention this will become apparent later the sprint birds were bred in january and i was delighted with them they were crackers then all my dreams were shattered when covid 19 arrived on our shores and training and racing was cancelled james mcguire and i had 3 tosses before the ban then it was all stop and in limbo i had paired the stock birds and wondered what to do about the race team and National birds if we did not get racing it was more the latebreds and yearlings i was worried about as no racing would put them back a year as my yearlings go to the coast in prep for the National the following year but if we did not get racing i had made up my mind i would train them all except the channel birds at least 250 miles to make sure they had the know how for the following year the channel birds would just be paired with the view of getting as many youngbirds as possible from my best birds thereby taking advantage of there year off Helen and Mary were not allowed to sit any longer than 3 days on eggs before switching them thus stopping them from casting there flights which they will do on the second pair if they sit longer than 8 days with the result i was getting a pair of eggs every 12 days or so and they were both paired to sons of each other so fantastic bloodines as the hens were paired to the no one and no two stock cocks when these sons were produced with the sire of Helen paired to Mary and the sire of Mary paired to Helen these youngbirds were to be the future for me and a great opertunety to futher build a team around my four silver award winners which has been an on going process for me always trying to think ahead i had by now got the 24 youngsprinters flying 4 hours per day and looking fantastic then the training suspention was lifted and i decided to take my young sprinters along with the latebreds and yearlings for a training toss i was going 30 miles with the old birds with the idea of dropping off the youngbirds at twenty miles on the way it was a great day southwest wind and so i just took them all 30 miles as the youngsters had been all over the country for months and besides they would just follow the old birds home james and i libbed the birds at crawford and headed home on arriving home i got the shock of my life to see all 24 youngbirds home and on the loft a few minutes later the old birds turned up yes i thought we have something here then we get word that we will get club racing maybe to the coast great i thought we were about three weeks before racing would start and james and i trained everyday 30 miles from the same place which is down the M74 i dont train east with youngbirds or yearlings as i want my birds to fight for a line on the westside as i have found if you train youngbirds and latebreds from the east they always come from the east for the rest of there life which is no good to me being in the westsection every toss was the same the youngbirds would be just infront of the old birds with the old birds fighting to keep up with them we had about 13 tosses before the weather turned bad and we could not train meanwhile i had been asking if there was any chance of us getting across the water and we were getting no information coming back then i had a glimer of hope when i saw the RPRA were going across the channel it was a while before our officials got the go head for cross channel races and there would only be one race the gold cup thus stopping me from achiving the chance to get a gold award with helen or mary and another silver with maid marrion which is what i named the half sister of helen that was 18 th section Burdine so again i was dissapointed but at least we would get the gold cup race which is my main goal i would need to start training the channel birds as i had been flagging them one hour a day for about three weeks and they had each layed 3 sets of eggs each and the cocks were starting to drive them again and thats all for part one lads hope you enjoy the read

    ps sorry about the spelling my spell checker is playing up a bit tells me its a mistake but not the correct spelling

  5. How Lady Helen Was Trained

    in Notice Board

    Posted

    at the end of 2019 i was a bit disappointed on my birds performance in Burdine even though i thought it was a bit short and turned out a fast blow home that does not suite my birds but i still timed a half sister to lady Helen to be 18 th west section Helen did not turn up till about 8 oclock that night to win the 20 pound pool and it was not untill about three days later when handling her i found a small piece of wood embedded in her chest it looked like part of a tree branch jesus i thought you have been very lucky lass must have been attacked and dived into a tree for cover then worked her way home after percy was gone i removed the wood and cleaned up the small wound and put on some antiseptic cream and left her to recover through the winter and thought of what could have been my other silver award hen mary turned up at 10 30 that night so my best birds were home late but home in january as i took stock i had 22 birds that were qualified to go across the water as most had already been across or had every race to the coast so a good strong experienced team and was really looking forward to the cross channel races and with two silver award winners a chance of a coveted gold award which apart from winning the section in the gold cup has always been my goal thereby emulating my old mentor John Feenie john had taken me as a young man to the SNFC presentation night when he won the section in the gold cup with strathclyde lass and i was in awe at the arb trophy he had won it was a huge silver bowl and i still remember the smile on Johns face as we went back to the Hamilton Railway club where we all drank and sat this beautiful trophy on the table in front of all the pigeon men where he got a round of applause from everyone and will remain in my memory for ever i had bought in some sprint youngbirds from my friend John Short as my loft was all Jan aardens distance birds and my club results were going backwards i like a gamble on my birds and our club has great pools over 100 pounds most weeks that and the fact that with the horrendous youngbird losses i had decided not to race my own youngbirds but just train them and i would use the 24 sprinters to play with in the club the reason i mention this will become apparent later the sprint birds were bred in january and i was delighted with them they were crackers then all my dreams were shattered when covid 19 arrived on our shores and training and racing was cancelled james mcguire and i had 3 tosses before the ban then it was all stop and in limbo i had paired the stock birds and wondered what to do about the race team and National birds if we did not get racing it was more the latebreds and yearlings i was worried about as no racing would put them back a year as my yearlings go to the coast in prep for the National the following year but if we did not get racing i had made up my mind i would train them all except the channel birds at least 250 miles to make sure they had the know how for the following year the channel birds would just be paired with the view of getting as many youngbirds as possible from my best birds thereby taking advantage of there year off Helen and Mary were not allowed to sit any longer than 3 days on eggs before switching them thus stopping them from casting there flights which they will do on the second pair if they sit longer than 8 days with the result i was getting a pair of eggs every 12 days or so and they were both paired to sons of each other so fantastic bloodines as the hens were paired to the no one and no two stock cocks when these sons were produced with the sire of Helen paired to Mary and the sire of Mary paired to Helen these youngbirds were to be the future for me and a great opertunety to futher build a team around my four silver award winners which has been an on going process for me always trying to think ahead i had by now got the 24 youngsprinters flying 4 hours per day and looking fantastic then the training suspention was lifted and i decided to take my young sprinters along with the latebreds and yearlings for a training toss i was going 30 miles with the old birds with the idea of dropping off the youngbirds at twenty miles on the way it was a great day southwest wind and so i just took them all 30 miles as the youngsters had been all over the country for months and besides they would just follow the old birds home james and i libbed the birds at crawford and headed home on arriving home i got the shock of my life to see all 24 youngbirds home and on the loft a few minutes later the old birds turned up yes i thought we have something here then we get word that we will get club racing maybe to the coast great i thought we were about three weeks before racing would start and james and i trained everyday 30 miles from the same place which is down the M74 i dont train east with youngbirds or yearlings as i want my birds to fight for a line on the westside as i have found if you train youngbirds and latebreds from the east they always come from the east for the rest of there life which is no good to me being in the westsection every toss was the same the youngbirds would be just infront of the old birds with the old birds fighting to keep up with them we had about 13 tosses before the weather turned bad and we could not train meanwhile i had been asking if there was any chance of us getting across the water and we were getting no information coming back then i had a glimer of hope when i saw the RPRA were going across the channel it was a while before our officials got the go head for cross channel races and there would only be one race the gold cup thus stopping me from achiving the chance to get a gold award with helen or mary and another silver with maid marrion which is what i named the half sister of helen that was 18 th section Burdine so again i was dissapointed but at least we would get the gold cup race which is my main goal i would need to start training the channel birds as i had been flagging them one hour a day for about three weeks and they had each layed 3 sets of eggs each and the cocks were starting to drive them again and thats all for part one lads hope you enjoy the read

    ps sorry about the spelling my spell checker is playing up a bit tells me its a mistake but not the correct spelling

  8. Uzbek Tumblers And Birmingham Rollers

    in Fancy & Show Pigeons

    Posted

    funny enough it was a carrier choice of mine when i left school at 16 i thought of starting my own muff trimming business i was

    very enthusiastic about it to and was willing to work from my room but my mother was not keen on me putting a sign in the garden W Boswell muff trimmer dont know why i dreamed of driving around in my wee muff trimmers van doing home visits and i would have been cheap to but alas there was not much call for a muff trimmer in 1969 look at it now everyone wants there muff trimmed i could have been a grand muffty by now or a multimufftinaire

  14. Sick As A

    in Notice Board

    Posted

    spent well over 2 hours typing out how i prepared lady Helen for the gold cup and was not even half way through when i lost power and could not retrieve the post after starting up again i could have cried ill give it a go in a day or two

  22. Has The Time Come To Stop

    in Found Birds

    Posted

    Nobody can breed 60 champs Wattie....good birds are born....60 trained latebreds will give you just as much heartache as 60 babies

    yer right steven but ill have much more left m8 after all racing them is just another five tosses because clashing down the eastside of the country and getting attacked every few miles learns them nothing but everyone to there own pal

  23. Has The Time Come To Stop

    in Found Birds

    Posted

    Your wee story about the Blue Pied hen clearly shows Young Bird Racing isn’t necessary for birds to go on and be successful old birds Watty. Are birds like her few and far between?? Maybe !!! but winners are also few and far between from young birds who have raced as ybs.

     

     

    i agree 100 percent john jamie boy 1st section 5th open clermont and SNFC silver award winner was also just trained as a youngbird he was also a latebred if there good there good m8

  24. Amid All The Doom And Gloom

    in Notice Board

    Posted

    about a goode yaarling as they say in Holland as my loft was 100 percent distance birds my results in my club were going backwards although channel racing is my first love i enjoy club and fed racing i also like a wee punt on my birds and there is great pools in Burnbank over 100 pounds a week most weeks so i decided to get some faster birds in to compete with or at least be in amongst the sprint boys of course my first stop was louella as ive always had a turn with every strain ive had from them including sprinters which was what i was looking for id tried some jacob poortvliets two years ago and although they were steady enough and won two seconds a third and forth they were just not setting the heather alight so to speak so i was looking for something different really but decided to leave it to them this was the backend of last year just before the last youngbird race sue from louella phoned me to tell me my ten youngbirds were on there way i was up at the crack of dawn dying to see what they had sent me the birds arrived and to my dismay they had sent me another ten poortvliets but i said nothing as they were cracking youngsters a wee blue hen with a pure white cap on her head took my eye in particular real nice in the hand i thought they had a dozen or more tosses with my own latebreds then i put them bye for the winter my pals over in clarkston club run a wee show in the winter months its a wee night out and the banter is always good the first show was a latebred and pied class and i went through the birds and picked out the wee blue pied hen which i thought was in good order for a latebred class to my surprize the judge liked her to and she won the class after the worst of the weather in late january is over i start training my latebreds again with a view of getting upto twenty or more tosses before the racing starts the wee hen was coming well but just with the batch nothing fancy the first race was apon us and i had picked four birds to pool acording to how they were coming in training and how they were sitting i was basketing the birds my pool sheet filled out when i picked up the wee pied hen s t i thought this bird is stottin as we say in scotland so i added her on to the bottom of the pool sheet making her all pools the birds were supposed to go to kelso but were diverted to Dunbar 64 miles which i hate as a race as its northeast of me and every time we go there the birds come out the northeast for weeks after so i was not a happy man but it was a strong east wind which should bring the birds straight across the country and away from the east the birds were up and told james mcguire my pal and neighbour to be out early as it would be fast as i looked towards hamilton county building 17 stories high and south of me i saw her unmistakeable with her wee pure white hat on wings shut dropping like a stone hits the board and in my wife Helen was watching out the window as she hit the board is that one from the race she said i and its the winner i said how do you know that just by the way she came i said hard and fast that wee bird wanted home her velocity was 2122 taking 1st club 1st westsection 4th open and over 100 pounds in pools of course i was delighted but not kidded ive won plenty blow homes and lost the bird the next week but a win is a win and a section win beating 3681 birds not bad for a wee latebred at her first race she reared a pair of youngbirds which i had rung for young Craig Glespie craig 18 on basics and one of my friends so she was off form for a few weeks feeding them and lost a lot of body she had taken up with a son of wee jenna a good cross i thought hope craig gets a turn with them a few weeks past and i decided this would be the last race for the latebreds but i had hardly lost a pigeon up to then and was thinking about nestbox space next year so my full team went it was a real stinker but guess who i timed yip the wee blue pied hen she was 3rd club 8th westsection 35th open melton mowbray 250 miles velocity 1022 with lots of good birds in the fed missing including my good hen mary two 3rd sections roye national and 11th section ypres national thank god i had stopped lady helen the week before as she had almost 8 hours on the wing but i was pleased with the wee hen that i now named wee ellie after my youngest grandaughter who is pure blond headed but i was angry with myself for not spotting the hen was in good nick the following week our fed had decided that Kettering 280 miles would be our last old bird race and therefore our open race i like to send my distance yearlings to our coast race to set them up in good stead for the gold cup the folowing year so i had a fair wee team for it the night before basketting i went through the birds handling each one and checking there nest condition looking for a pooler as there is good money in the fed open but you need to be right up there to get it as theres only one hit at the big money there was a few candidates that were handling well till i came to the wee blue pied hen im a hen man and this wee hen was telling me to pool her she handled fantastic just the way i like them she was sitting well over due on dummies 23 or 24 days but keen as mustard ill slip her a wee youngster in the morning and take the cock away so she sits till basketing next morning i got up and let the youngbirds out made my breakfast while watching the youngbirds flying after two hours i called them in and fed them by the time i had cleaned my baskets out sprayed them and put fresh easybed in them it was almost 12 oclock oh i thought better put a youngster under the wee hen as i looked around the boxes for a 3or4 day old youngster i saw the hen on the floor kissing with the cock aw s t i thought she has deserted the dummies what can i do to get her back on as the dummies were cold so she had been off them a while i found a 3 day old youngster and put it in her box she just stood and looked at it and when i moved her into the bowl she just got back off and flew out the box i picked her up and held her on top of the chick for what seemed like ages but was in fact only about two minutes i took my hands away and she sat right down tight and started to hit me with her wing that will do for me i thought i made her the hen nom in the club as we dont pool in the open race and she was my only entry in the fed open making her all pools and Bonanza in my section friday came and the birds were up as the forcast was bad for saturday we went a day early anyway my pal charlie muir phoned me from work are you in yet no i said im not expecting them for another hour give or take my brother is at the loft ill phone you if i hear anything ok i said about 35 mins later charlie phones again are you in yet no i said think we are in i was on the phone to my brother and he said heres a doo ill phone ye back when i get it in well done i said but thats faster than i thought it would be because there coming thru rain acording to the forcast are ye sure its not one from last week i said . dont know yet he will phone me back when he gets it in ten mins later he phones back again bassa it was one from last week so when do you think they will come i was standing in the back garden looking towards Hamilton race course when i spotted the wee white head coming over the top of the trees now i said here is my pooler in the fed coming yer joking said charlie no thats her in pal and i think shes a good one she was first club winning the nom 2nd westsection 8th open and won just over 300 pounds out the fed 273 miles velocity 1184 so a real good wee pigeon that gave me lots of enjoyment wonder if she will do anything next year and when i phoned louella to tell john about the wee hen he said poortvliets are not sprinters there middle distance birds i stuck one of the two year old poortvliets into reims and got it the 3rd day so ill have to have a think about were wee ellie goes next year hope ye enjoy the read guys i was borred so thought it would be of interest to some

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