BIGPETE

2-1 City

Come on Sunderland, stick it up em!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome aboard!

Morning lads. I have filled out my RPRA membership form and will be sendin it off next week. Once I have been approved/accepted does that mean birds can be transferred to my name no drama? Also does transfering bird ownership have a fee? If yea how much per bird? Also will they give me a Loft number? Cheers - Pete

Wakey wakey hands off snakey! Haha. Morning all! Hope everybody has a good Sunday. Myself will be doing some painting at home (gotta get in the other halves good books so she wont't be too upset when she see's the loft being built and the new residents turning up haha.

Cheers lads, some useful stuff there and I will certanily be looking into buying some of those items mentioned.

Desktop PC at home mainly but when I'm out and about or at work I logon with my I-Phone. Andy Burgess, sorry to hear about hospital stays in the future. Worth having a look at i-pad alternatives (other tablets) as you can get an equivalent a lot cheaper.

I'm guessing everyone has an area where they keep all the vitamins and medications/potions and similar. What sort of things have you guys always got on hand that are being used regularly? What would you class as essential items that you always have on hand.

Thanks for the detailed answer Walter. I am a new starter so not got the budget to go out and buy birds that have been proven to breed winners (I would imagine such birds would command a big fee). So to start with was looking for stock to breed strong, healthy, hardworking pigeons. I have sorted out 4 pairs now and hopefully will recieve them in the next few weeks. I plan to just use these stock/prisoner birds to breed a small team of YB's maybe 16 or so to start with and cut my teeth so to speak. Your method sounds very good and when I'm a bit more experienced I will certainly be looking to use that sort of strategy to get the winning lines but still ultimately let the basket decide what birds are the real deal.

Sorry Showman, lost me a little bit. Can you explain what sort of stuff you would use? Do you mean like Live yogurt?

Hi Showman, That makes a lot of sense. I gues similarly to older humans. Transition and change can be more traumatic then when they are in their youth.

Walter, thanks for the wise words. I am amazed brds can still be breeding at those sort of ages and also follow your logic regarding switching the eggs to younger birds so they will be better parents. Chad agree a lot seems to be made of some birds being put to stock purely because of what there relatives have done rather then the bird itself.

Hi Guys, Am in the process of sorting out a few stock birds and wanted some advice on what age birds would be considered too old. I have seen a nice group but the oldest bird is bred in 2005 so neigh on 9 years old. They are beautiful birds though, but at what age would you expect birds to become infertile? Thanks, Pete

Has anyone seen the "Taking on Tyson" TV series about Mike Tyson and his love of pigeons (fancy pigeons) and then he enters the world of racing homers? An old series I know but just started watching it last night and gotta say it's an amazing show. Focus is obviously a lot on the man himself but the quality of some of the birds features are fantastic. Blew my mind to see so many lofts actually on roof tops and little ghetto looking lofts but nearly all had ETS systems in place! The sport seems to be pretty strong in the US and I only watched 2 episodes so far but can say I'm hooked already. Mike Tysons first punch thrown was at a bully who killed one of his pigeons! Amazing stuff.

Morning all, weekend nearly here!

Ladbrokes did have something along these lines back in 2004 whereby some Albatross were electronically tagged during migration across the Southern Ocean. Bets were taken I believe on which bird would arrive first and the media loved it. Bookies will bet on anything and this sort of market would offer something completley different, could totally happen someday.

Many thanks for the info Paddy. I have now signed up and waiting for account to be agreed by Admin.

Interesting topic... I think once people keep pigeons or spend time around them (be it with a father/grandfather) or similar it often is in their blood and never leaves. For example I raced with my late Father for a few years back in the early 90's when I was a young lad. I have only recently started building my first loft and had the resources (settled home etc) which meant I could even consider getting involved again. But make no mistake, even without physical contact with any pigeons or pigeon fanciers the passion never left. From that perspective, I would say the problem these days is not enough young people are exposed to pigeon racing or even keeping pigeons as pets. Without getting exposed to the wonderful hobby/sport there is sadly no chance of them ever coming into contact with a pigeon except from what they see lurking about in the High Street eating scraps which of course isn't so appealing. I would say another big problem is the growing number of people living in flats or houses with tiny (or no garden). Especially in the built up areas this is a massive barrier to entry which makes setting up a loft impossible. The average age for 1st time home buyers in the UK is like 30-35 now (from memory) where once upon a time people could easily get a home as young men in their early 20’s. People renting from Landlords aren’t usually allowed to build even a storage shed without permission let alone a pigeon loft. Also council tenants’ often get a bum deal too with planning permission and silly rules and regulations being enforced. Another thing that will of course make a difference is the multiculturalism/change in ethnic makeup of the UK. Interestingly a lot of the people I see keeping pigeons in London are Indian & Pakistani or Turkish guy's who love their fancy pigeons and many have little lofts in their gardens usually with Tippler or Fantails or similar. Pigeon keeping seems to be doing much better in Asian countries and in India (not sure about the racing element but certainly keeping as a hobby aspect) so the change of the makeup of the population in the UK will probably have an impact (I could actually see them boosting the sport massively).

Jesus wept!

Is anybody on the forum keeping either of these breeds? (German show homers or Scandaroons). If not, does anybody know of anybody (outside of the forum who is)? Cheers, Pete

Fantastic setup and some stunning birds too Lovely R8 too if I'm not mistaken!

Guys, I am in the process of converting a shed to a little loft and building nest boxes and perches etc etc (you will see my other Q's lurking around in this area of the forum). Being a new starter, I will be sourcing some breeders to start with so I can breed some offspring myself and then get them flying out etc. The shed (loft to be) isn't huge, maybe 10ft x 6ft but I don't plan to keep many birds (probably 6 pairs). Keeping them prisoners and not flying out obviously means an aviary is necessary. I have seen a lot of builds so I have the construction all planned out but the one issue that I'm not sure on is the base/floor. Does it need to be raised off the ground? (The base area is currently grass). I realise it needs to be predator proof so I would make sure it's solid construction, thick wire and could panel the bottom (outside edges) areas with sheets of metal or something I'm thinking. I see a lot of them are raised off the ground, but wondering if this is important? The thing that I'm curious about with it being raised off the ground, is say for example the base (wire mesh) is 1ft off the ground, when the birds droppings go through it and onto the floor below.. How the hell do you get under it to clean that area when the gap is only 1ft? I can't see how you could get access to the surface underneath to keep all the droppings from building up.

All points of view respected and welcomed. Nothing wrong with different opinions on stuff nice to have different angles. Let's keep it friendly lads. Ps. What's the difference between WBP & Marine ply?

Hi Guys, I've got to grips with the dimensions and build spec for DIY nest boxes but I have one question I need some guidance with. The base (bottom panel) of the nest box, what's the best wood to use in terms of being long lasting. Obviously this part of the nest box will get the most abuse with droppings and similar so I know it needs to be pretty durable and what not. Any suggestions on a post card to Pigeon Basics Forum please!

Hi Guys, Thanks for all the replies. Really good to have so many people chime in and offer their thoughts and experience. The idea of natural wood does sound good and I think if it were new timber that looked fresh I would go down this route. But being an old shed which has been used for other things previously I like the idea of painting the interior. Going to go for masonry white, purely because I have a big old tub sitting doing nothing and being on a shoe string budget I would like to use what I have available without spending more then required. Will post a pic up once the shed has been painted. Cheers Lads, Pete