jimbo54

John I know its to late but the first thing I do when a hen gets badly scalped is to pull the skin back into place and put a couple of stitches in it to hold it in place, when the scabs fall off you would never know it had been damaged. As for the eyes keep bathing with luke warm water with a little salt added, this might take time but the will eventually open ( remember it has taken a hammering and isn't just scabs that's keeping them shut they will be badly swollen just like a boxer whose went 12 rounds. Lastly I would try something like Complan with some honey added or some of the powdered milk for babies fed through a syringe. Hope this helps, good luck.

Go onto to internet and check out " Easybulb " can be switched on and off and set to dim over a specified time manually or remotely using mobile phone app. it is also costs a fraction of the dimmers sold on Birdroom

Staying at the Cliffs, stayed there for years great hotel, swimming pool, gym, sauna not to mention singer followed by comedienne both nights, foods also second to none.

inch of snow in Salsburgh this morning

Water purifier. Add two or three crystals per litre of water and stir until the colour is light pink. Allow the mixture to stand for at least thirty minutes and you have drinking water in an emergency. If possible, filter the water and also boil it. • Antiseptic: Add crystals in water and stir until it is purple. This mixture can be used to disinfect wounds as well as for fungus problems i.e. Athletic foot and other external infections.

A pinch just enough to turn the water light pink

I inherited a loft of pigeon 30 years ago from my father the late Jim Kilgour from Salsburgh this is a Old family of distance pigeons which he started in 1935, for some reason I get the occasional blue cheq reported but never seem to get any Reds reported.

On my first training toss with young birds ( from 5 miles ) I had a disaster losing 18 from the 22 liberated never had any reported or returned in stray basket but low and behold after all these months I have had 2 returned in the last 2 days, both birds are in perfect condition so haven't been living rough, if the so called fanciers who had these birds in wanted to keep them why didn't they report them and I would have gladly transferred them. The are both Reds so shouldn't have been overlooked in the majority of lofts.

Well done everybody, keep it going Ian 3 firsts and a 3rd from 4 races good going in the strong Airdrie Dist Club

Congratulation to Club Secretary Ian Rankin on winning his 3rd Young Bird race in a row flying in the strong Airdrie District club. Well done Ian well deserved keep it up.

Correct Del if all these magic potions on the market worked we would all be winners and there would be a lot of very rich people, credit goes to fancier and pigeon well done.

Imo results don't always mean your a good fancier,for example ive seen winners who don't lift a finger on basketing night and cant get their birds through fast enough to get away to the pub leaving all the work to lesser mortals, so Imo they can be good flyers but bad fanciers.

See in the news Amazon uk are doing trials to deliver parcels direct to your door by using drones which will fly at approx. 300 to 400 feet, wonder how our birds will cope if they meet up with one on the way home from a toss, as if percy wasn't bad enough.

my 1st training toss 2 weeks ago from 5 miles liberated 22 before I went to work in perfect conditions at end of day 3 home plus 1 next day, 18 missing none have been reported or returned in stray basket, where do they go ?

keeping my fingers crossed but fear the worst

Looks like hawk attack, opened loft this morning the 3 birds wouldn't leave the loft

3 home, 2 after 9pm

just before Climpy, has been my 1st toss for years, never had any problems before, it sits high up and you actually look down into shotts which is only about two miles from my loft

1st training toss with y/birds today, total disaster, liberated 22 bird at 6.30am 5 miles from loft, just got in from work to find 1 bird in loft

Don't think taste aversion would work, every pigeon in the country would need to be treated by whatever method, and Percy would still have to kill the pigeon before it realised it didnt like the taste not to mention the rest of the batch being scattered to the four winds. I personally don't see any way to stop this apart from the birds of prey having their protected status lifted by the government then we can take action to protect our birds.

As long as long as they r well trained as y/birds and raced as yearlings they turn out alright

Never raced y/birds for years, never enjoyed it, I found if you raced them it was just a matter of time before you got gutted, I just make sure they get plenty training with our club van

just arrived my 2nd bird from Ypres 2/2 100% returns, happy 2 for next year

Just checked 3 or 4 different weather sites Sunday looks best bet

Had rats and mice in my garage, tried ultrasonic deterrents they never worked still had rats and mice.