vanlink

They should be ranging by now then. There are so many reasons as i and others have said. Really you could do with some one with experience who does well close by to have a look at them cause they may spot what u can't describe.

I would say no you can't, its up to you of course but in my experience ybs need to be ranging before training starts. If they are not then there are many reason's but the first is: are they ready to range? how old are they? have you got yb's of all different ages together cause that will slow them down. Try to watch to see if there are certain yb's that are pulling them down. Put coloured clip rings (not coiled) on to their legs so that you can easily identify them from a distance on the loft or inside. Try letting them out in smaller batches. Put them into baskets to let them go on the lawn and let so many go at a time to see if they fly longer. Also the time of day can affect how long they fly including are they hungry? I feed mine as much as they want in the morning and then let them out after 4pm cause they are not hungry they fly longer. Their is a risk that they can get lost when they range too much but i personally am not bothered cause if they get lost ranging then they could get lost racing. Finally do not worry about being ready for the first race as sometimes it can be better to miss the first one. When you do finally decide to train DO NOT train them all at once. It may be time consuming but let a small group go first and wait until they get home before you let the next lot go. Have some one at home to tell you via mobile when/if they get home. If you put all your eggs in one basket it may be easier to carry but you might trip.

here is an oline petition and face book page, soory if this is a repeat. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ipetitions.com%2Fpetition%2Fsaveoursongbirds&h=fd4d6cc23a4b69a49c5ac5d4aff6f687 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=388779877472&ref=nf&v=info

I seem to remember this study being endorsed by the rpra and correct me if i am wrong but i think it was the x general manager saying it. We all know its wrong. You are wasting your time trying to talk to rspb you will not get through to them. We all also know that they are a sham and do not really care about birds. I would say that alot of pigeon fanciers have pigeons because they care about birds which is why we see nature in a different way. What has happen to the RPRA hawk data collection thing, i thought they were going to take this to someone?

Linda you are truly amazing! you have no pigeons, you are not a member of the club and you do not want to do any bickering due to your recent near death experience but you have managed to make the above comment about me. i am confused.com

hey at no time did i refer to you (thunderbird) as being thick, i would not disrespect anyone by making such a claim. I would suggest quite the opposite. You are an intelligent person which is why it is not unreasonable for me to suspect that your information would come via Mark. If it is not Mark but some one else then so be it. It really makes do difference. I saw the words you and mark exchanged about me on facebook myself before his account became private so there is no point in trying to deny that. That's history now and by the by, what i can't understand is why it is such a crime to ask if it is ok to deny a member due to ets and i can not understand why linda would feel the need to personally attack me for asking such a thing. The person who is trying to get into the club is a friend and so i am asking the question on his behalf. My personal association with the club is irrelevant to me but perhaps some have unfinished business and do not want to let it go. I have not even given the club a thought since leaving. I said my bit at the time and moved on. It was not until my friend told me that i decided to ask the question but deliberately withheld the name so as not to have it seen as some personal vendetta by me. I have my answer now by some who found it easy to give a simple answer. I think that it is perhaps wrong within the rules and also spirit of a club to deny a member for any reason really but hard to enforce. A club can pretty much do what they like. Its up to you to decide where you want to play.

sorry again, are you telling me that linda who has no pigeons and is not a member of the club and last made a comment on here on January 8, 2008 and before that June 14, 2007 would go to all the trouble to come on here just to have a go at me. AND NOT the boy who butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and has been supplying you with the info needed to attack me. How else would you have got hold of this information. OR are you suggesting you and mark running me down on face book is just pure coincidence.

I am sorry but i have no idea who you are other than perhaps Mark Jones Pretending to be a girl to have a go at me. I am trying to keep this an anonymous discussion about a club in order to help a friend. Mark jones (superstar) feeding information to chris maidment (thunderbird) to try and show me up or belittle me is a waste of time. It is a simple subject asking two simple questions. Is it right for a club to refuse membership because you do not have ETS or vice versa if you like? Should clubs be named and shamed for turning members away for such reasons? I can see why you would need to hide behind a false account after all you are one of those who would deny your next door neighbour entry to a club if they had overfly. Infact i can remember when you were shouting that loudly about some one getting into the club due to the over fly that he would have, i thought you said you were going to leave if he got in? Never heard a peep out of you about that member who wanted to join who lived way out in the west and a short flyer, very sporting of you. I have never ever voted against any member joining any club even you despite your pervious form which, was common knowledge before you came and some said he will be trouble he has already ruined one club but i said you have to let everyone join give him a chance. Well hasn't that come back to haunt me because it seems you have ruined an other club. Do you want to know the real reason i left, it was not the trailer, it was you, i did not want to fly in a club with some one like you. You do not need to hide or worry though Mark cause every one loves you and your birds.

i know, but thats the really sad thing. It should be 100% yes all the time. I never had any issues joining my tri club as i said already or my running club or any other sports club that i have been invovled in so why does pigeon racing bring out the worst in people?

I am not against the club which is why i did not use their name and why i said that there are some genuine members in it. I wanted to discuss the merrits of whether it was right to refuse someone because they did not have ets. How can he have over fly on a club that does not exsist? The club no longer exsists because after 28 years of being sec he wanted to just fly his birds and there was no one else to run it. (7 for and 6 against) if this is right then he has read his letter wrong which i will check tomorrow and if i am wrong i will admit it. It is a shame that it was not 13 for but no doubt you will have some more information to justify this vote. This does not happen in the other sports as far as i know. so why is it ok in this one.

I am not sure why you need to use names as if you are some clever journalist exposing some scandal in the sunday papers. I did not see any reason why the club or individual needed to be mentioned in order to discuss the topic. He was sent a letter saying he was refused due to not having ETS despite the fact that he was assumed not to have it. He does not live in ross and there is no overfly, he would have been the shortest flyer in the club. Yes he has been sec of a club for 28yrs until recently he decided to have a break from running a club to enjoy his birds. As for my comments on the club and the fed being corrupt, completly untrue and i am sure that my letter of resignation to the club stayed with the club and did not find its way to the fed because this would be against the rules and this club does not break the rules.

I joined the local tri club. There was no private vote. I just downloaded an application form from the internet, filled it in and took it with my money to the secretaries house. He then informed other members that there was a new member. I received some emails welcoming me and inviting me to training times and venues. He or anybody else did not ask where I lived, if I had won any races in the past, if I was a trouble maker or in default at an other club. They did not ask how much my bike cost either. The pigeon sport has real issues which do not seem to be coming to an end. Will advice to check with rpra.

No lottery, all bought them selves. I resigned from the club at the agm. I just want to fly national/internationals and i do not have time to race club as well or else i would have done my best to influence. Yes this is kind of true even if i personally think it is wrong BUT they stated in the letter that it was because of ETS so if this is against the rules then it is difficult to deny that they have not brocken them. they can set clocks (FACT) or at least they could last year unless they have forgotten over the winter time. As far as i know the last member to switch from maual to ets happend this winter. I suspect that the real reason might be because the member trying to join has won two nationals. It is stated in a letter so we will find out from the region on monday.

I understand that people may have been unable to use ETS within a club due to the lack of capable officials to operate such systems. Without mentioning the individual or the club involved what are your views on someone being refused membership of a club due to them not having ETS? The potential member was turned down for membership because it was stated that this was an ETS only club. The potential member was not asked if he had ETS but it was assumed that he did not and he was not even informed that he could join but he would need ETS. He was merely told that this was an ETS only club and there was no one to set his manual clock and so he had been refused. Is this allowed under RPRA rules? On a slightly side issue, I have read it myself many times on here people being refused membership of a club for no reason other than the person might be in a position to win some races either due to previous form or assumed favourable graphical location. It appears that our RPRA council either lacks the (group of male cows) or ability to deal with this one sad aspect of our sport so should we just name and shame these clubs and ask them to defend their unsportsmanlike attitude? I have attended the Club above and narrowly seen some one get in due to their assumed favourable graphical location and in the same meeting seen some one else get in easily due to their assumed no chance unfavourable graphical location. Luckily there are some very good sports people in the said club who managed to convince others on that occasion that it would be wrong to deny some one because they may win. Unfortunately it does not seem as though they were successful on this recent occasion but perhaps like me they were not in attendance. It is a dilemma on whether clubs should be named and shamed because I know there are some real genuine fanciers within that club and should they be penalised because of a few selfish ones who would like to have the egg glued to the spoon for the race and convince you and the world that they are awesome.

a short Christmas Story and some more detailed Christmas reading on http://www.racing-pigeon-post.org

The point i am trying to show is that if its blue its a flying rat, if its white its a dove.

Preview: Yet an other example of the public ignorance towards pigeons. Just because the pigeon is white don't make it something else. Sheep can be black what does he call them? http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2009/11/19/provincetown-in-the-off-season?blog=205

Perhaps in the 60s, although I was not there so missed out on free love and drugs, the RPRA was a strong force. It is becoming weaker. There will come a time when it cannot sustain its self just as many clubs and feds are now finding it difficult financially. The RPRA does rely very much on the whole club, fed, region concept. National and classic clubs are different and have a larger spread and there are many compared with the 60s. I think it is inevitable unless one day you are prepared to pay a large membership fee to support the archaic system of a club, fed, region and council.

Hear hear, well put. I am with you Stan the man. Your right. It will get to a stage when the RPRA will be so dear and ineffective that one of the big clubs will go it alone. I would like to add that I am now going in to cancel my bhw and racing pigeon pictorial international. This will save me £33.80 bhw £30 pictorial £16 saved from losing two names on partnership. Total saving. £79.80 The Bhw is mostly drivel and lets face it, it’s an advertising rag with no real substance any more. The results that really matter i.e. nationals/classics are all on line anyway. The Pictorial has nothing exclusive because the articles are online where I usually read them first then I pay £2.50 to read them again. Also they are usually blatant advertising for fanciers to sell birds and again contain very little if any tips or advice. I get far more advice on the pigeon forums. Post a question as I did recently on a forum and you will get lots of multiple answers from your national winners to your clubs flyers that may have come up with something no one else has thought about. The forums are to a large effect unregulated too which for me is far more liberating than the heavily edited BHW.

Sorry if I am repeating anything. This is disgusting in my view, Are they goanna move the RPRA headquarters to Somalia? Eight pound may seem cheap but its not when it’s added to region fees, club fees, national club fees etc. A near 100% increase in fees is a scandal. How has this been allowed to get into a state where by you get a sudden price hike like that? And at a time when we have a recession and there is o inflation at the moment. I will be joining some of you with getting the names off my partnership. You can also forget my kids being members too. So there are two young future members gone. So here we have it the RPRA have declared how they will deal with the decline in the sport they will just keep putting up fees until they price them selves out of existence. Mean while we will all go to Blackpool, have a jolly time and raise loads of money for someone else.

Villain: Dick Dastardly Pilot of the Mean Machine, Dick Dastardly was famous for always getting into the lead during the Wacky Races, then instead of asserting his clearly substantial lead, he'd stop and spend an improbable amount of time setting some sort of ridiculous trap that, if he ever gave it a moments rational thought, would clearly never work. Then, after the conclusion of his racing career,Dick Dastardly continued his villainous career in the Wacky Races spin-off Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. he lead a team of pilots whose sole job was to catch, one solitary carrier pigeon. A task they couldn't complete in 34 encounters. The series was inspired by the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and Dastardly's appearance this time was based on the film's villain, Sir Percival Ware-Armitage, played by Terry-Thomas. Dastardly and Muttley, as flying aces, with two other pilots, Zilly a coward who used to hide in his clothes when he was asked to go in his plane, and Klunk, the plane builder, who was speaking a language composed of strange sounds {only Zilly could understand him!}, composed the "Vulture Squadron", which tried constantly to stop a messenger pigeon "Yankee Doodle pigeon" from delivering messages to an opposing army, often with the song "Stop the Pigeon" playing; one typical scene shows the "Vulture Squadron" planes all convenging from different directions on "Yankee Doodle Pigeon" but end up crashing into one another-while the bird is unharmed! As in Wacky Races, Dastardly continued to fail miserably at his mission, only coming near to success on a single occasion. The shows are commonly known as 'Catch the Pigeon' or 'Stop the Pigeon', based on the original working title and the shows theme song.

A friend of mine has a loft in Hereford 16X8 pitched tiled roof corridor 4 sections two with widow boxes and two with swivel box perches. good condition, offers around £500 buyer dismantle. Send pm. I am tempted my self and keep looking in garden to see where it would go, but its a bit too close to Christmas and I have just had to fork out for my car to be repaired and I have enough birds already. 16 ft would mean an extra 30 birds and all that extra work.

I have that dvd off Keith, will pm you kieths email address. The whole world should have heard of Keith Arnold probably the best results in Europe. When you read about some of the Belgian greats and think about how much you pay for their birds with the results that do not even come close to Keith Arnold. His results make M&D Evans look like club flyers.

You can't just take out a few words from my post because that then changes the way it was meant to read. In other words you have taken it out of context. When you race your pigeons then you enter into competition and they become a means for that purpose just as racehorses and grey hounds. When they leave your possession then they then have risks and dangers which you except or else you would not send them at all. If they are not then keep them at home as pets. As for the birds being some ones life I would perhaps not argue with that point but perhaps suggest that ‘birds’ are peoples life and not the ‘individual birds’. I would wonder how many only like a bird once it performs well and select out birds that are not right for purpose. I love some of my birds don’t get me wrong but they are there to work. My last post is with reference to some thinking it unacceptable to release birds at night. Some would suggest that racing pigeon’s full stop is unacceptable. Peta (animal rights) want pigeon racing stopped and when they get racing pigeons in they cut their rings off so don’t always think it is jealous fanciers cause its not.

I have done a lot of liberations just before dark knowing they will not get home. They have then come early next morning. It encourages them to roost and then come home early. A lot of the greats have done similar things. What do you think happens when your birds do not come home in a day? They have to roost. In terms of the birds welfare well lets face it they are racing pigeons; they are a means to an end. Yes we look after them as best we can and we do not want to see any harm come to them but they are still there to race and that’s what they are breed for and have evolved to do. If we wanted to protect them then we would not let them out of the loft. Birds of prey do not fly at night so perhaps we should all race at night. To quote a respected friend and a very good local fancier ‘In this sport if you want to win then you have to get an edge’ an edge comes from going against the grain and pushing the boundaries.