BIGPETE

This guy needs a job at the RPRA, better then the current offerings we have who offer nothing back to the sport and just collect a pay cheque and seem to have no real interest in protecting the sport. How they give to other charities when we are in such a dangerous position is a joke.

Good results mate. Share some more info about their strains and breeding ðŸ™ðŸ» What system are you racing them on?

So the RPRA have their annual auction on just now and there are some 400+ lots up for grabs. A lot of people are buying birds based on the premise that even if a bird didn't position well (on average) or in the final race. It's still going to be bred off someones best pigeons as you wouldn't pay £150 odd quid to enter a duffer. Two schools of thought, 1) Some pigeons mature later then others so a bad YB can be a great OB. 2) Some peoples best pigeons are still sh** (no offence to anybody). Would you buy from such an auctions? Yay or Nay, share your thoughts people.

Bang a pic up. Is it an olden or a youngen? Seem to be getting a lot of late bred strays in just now myself. There needs to be some sort of permanent ring introduced that can be attached to the pigeon even if its past the ringing age. Ok it wouldn't/shouldn't be allowed to race on that ring. But there should be a ring database for pigeon rings for those who have missed ringing and are breeders or "pets" surely. Something less then a birth/racing ring, but something that wont fall off or break etc and is traceable. If the racing unions weren't so backwards this would have happened 10+ years ago :emoticon-0179-headbang: Like all our "charity" raised money not being spent on reducing the bop and preserving our sport.

The salt mines deffo worth a visit. Amazing how differently you can breath down there. At one part there is a whole church /cathedral carved all from salt - out of this world.

Apparently Bale, Ramsey & Ampadu all out for the Welsh - think they are gonna be bang in trouble.

I get Spain were rightly favourites to win but England were nearly 6/1 to win, massively over priced. Had England to win in an accumulator, need the Welsh to nick a Win and Uruguay too. Beer money for Epsom i'm hoping

Looks great mate! Did you build it yourself or had it built by a company? Is that metal covering on it?

Maybe he's seen the ethnic change in the high street and wants to follow the trend

Hope it goes well for all concerned. Good on you for helping out Delboy

Handsome setup mate.

I only started up a few years ago myself. The things I found offputting myself were 1) Difficulty finding a club - the nearest club to me wouldn’t let me in. The club that did let me in was a 40 min drive from my house - this is a long trip for someone who is potentially juggling family, work, kids etc already. 2) The amount of flyers who tell you it’s not worth joining as your in a terrible position (I had over 5 people tell me this before I even had a race). I am in a terrible position personally but to be a new start and to be written off before you’ve even raced does take the wind out of your sails. 3) and for me this is the most important and the biggest reason we won’t attract younger people. The attitudes of most pigeon men stink. They all want to slag each other off, there is a lot of infighting at club level and upwards. They all moan about bop, mob flyers, disease, costs (now I’m not saying these aren’t all very real problems) but for a new start to hear all the negativity and bad mouthing and bad sportsmanship from the start isn’t good - especially if we’re talking about attracting kids. Would you want you kid hanging about with a load of miserable old whinging *expletive removed* 😂 I reckon for the sport to survive we have to first work on keeping hold of the members we do have - only way to do that is make some positive change. I’d like to see all the homing unions come together and dedicate fund raising and prize money to the BOP issue. Be it in terms of researching ways to minimise, making dipping/spraying of birds mandatory at basketing. Or even arranging Friday libs (when the skies are usually empty) to feed those hungry *expletive removed* with “select†pigeons. 9/10 fanciers moan about bops (myself included). If we can’t fix this issue then recruiting new members will be secondary.

Heard people say it makes the birds more “streetwise†as they learn to be more crafty and avoid bops etc. But I can’t see how that would be possible as can only see the bop having a field day. Anyone on here with an open loft? Please share your experiences ðŸ™ðŸ½

Darken is a cracker. I’ll start the bidding €50

Very interesting, perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel! Bit more info just found online for anyone interested: http://articles.latimes.com/1994-05-18/local/me-59137_1_birth-control

Surely a gap big enough for a cat to get into - Your pigeons could equally get out of. Why don’t you leave some food outside the loft and feed it so it has a nice full tummy of something off your own menu

Hahahahaha this is a great! Thank you for sharing 😂

http://forum.pigeonbasics.com/topic/100023-help-with-stray-back-up-to-lanarkshire/ Any chance you boys can chat to Wullie and help him out maybe.

http://forum.pigeonbasics.com/topic/100013-yb/page__view__getnewpost Another lad local to you got a stray there too. Worth messaging him mate

If that made you pack up completely and not inspire you to catch the cat and fix the hole and redouble your efforts. Then your gonna be suicidal when you start having bad trainers or not timing in. This sport isn’t for the faint hearted, there is a lot of heartbreak and disappointment to be had.

Do you mean old birds or young birds? Plenty of fellas only race 12 old birds and can dominate their club/ win the averages etc. With YB 12 would be a small team. But if you had 12 of the right breeding they could be worth more then 24 of unproven/untested lines. I come from the opposite school of thought of Doost. If your birds are unproven/untested I would breed as few as possible. Breed off good proven pigeons. If you don’t have good/proven pigeons, find someone local who does. Try and buy a round of young birds off his race team (a lot of established men only breed off their stock birds and certain racers) but you can be sure his race team are well bred and decent pigeons (or they wouldn’t be in his race team)! If you can only accommodate or only want a small race team, it’s crucial the birds are proven/tested and hard working honest pigeons. Avoid pedigrees and trendy names, just get a batch off someone who’s not advertising and is a decent bloke (not a salesman).

You need to work out how It’s getting in. Block any potential entry points especially those on low level and the Sputnik too. As long as they can get in you’ll get more - especially now they will have your loft down as an easy place to dine. Go on google and buy some ruby paste - it’s amazing stuff and cheap (make sure ya get paste not pellets though). Place the paste under the shed or around the loft but be sure any dogs or cats or the birds can’t get to it. That gear will kill any rats or mice. But be assured if you don’t block the entry points in time you’ll get more.

I might be a sceptic and miserable old git but do we really believe even half of the birds sold are from what they say they are from anyway.

You better save me a seat if this is the case.

Apparently he grabbed the officer at some point. Keep in mind he had 3 bodies wrestling him and trying to overpower him at the time. Not defending him, I can't stand the guy - but if three people come at you and you are wriggling to get away or in pain then a hand/arm/head can easily end up in the wrong place or person. He should be punished for being a drunken idiot for sure. But I really think the nightclub should be too, given they have said he was clearly already in a state when he arrived and had been drinking all day. If somebody turns up pissed at the entrance they shouldn't be let in, famous or not. Surely the nightclub have a duty of care to their staff and other customers. These drinking establishments need to be fined for this sort of thing. There will always be drunken idiots (especially when its a group of 10+ men all built like brick shithouses), letting them in when already tanked up in just a disaster waiting to happen.