mealybar

Happy Birthday

Having lived on a farm a wee bit of my time I can understand that farming practices could have contributed the decline of wildlife, but that must have been years ago, I've not noticed much of a difference to the way of farming in all my time. And that excuse by the RSPB doesnt hold when songbirds have declined so much in towns and cities, miles away from the nearest farm. Personally at home and with family I havent seen a Blackbird in maybe 2 years, starlings - only passing on the motorway now, sparrows are none existant at home on the farm now, and I noticed a sharp decline in the numbers of swallows that came last summer

I dont think you can compare pigeons distances to human altheletes. Lets say 700 miles race is the equivalent to the marathon (26miles for ease). Then if we compare 150 miles race (a sprint) the equvalent human race would be approx 5.6 miles, or 9km. The same human atheletes race the marathon, and the 10,000 metres (10km).

http://www.pigeonbasics.com/news/news256.html

Presenter argued that pigeons are flying rats and have no place on this earth, and proposed wiping them out altogether (probably to stir up a responce - heard this guy before). There was an interview with a fancier who had trouble with his neighbours; they'd called health and safety, social services (said his kids were in danger) etc to try and get them out, no luck he was soldiering on! Peter Bryant had a piece and placed the case about Dikin medal, and the difference between ferals and racers. There were a couple of calls from Joe Public saying agreeing with what the presenter said at the start. Think we came off alright...lol Our side was well put and possibly got across to some of the non-beleivers out there

I suppose you could put one of the normal ETS rings on if the chip failed. Not that I've heard of a ets ring failing (stand to be corrected..lol).

Happy Birthday Shadow

If your near a radio Talk Sport are just about to do a discussion on Pigeons. Its 1053/1089 MW or AM

If I remember correctly they were made to work with all electronic timing systems.

Happy Birthday Bill

Dont think I could be without them now, but for me racing them gives me a purpose, a goal to keeping them. I enjoy the breeding side just as much as the racing, but the racing is I suppose why I breed, without it I dont think I'd be so enthusiastic about keeping them, maybe just a couple of pets (then I'd have to find something else to occupy my time..lol )

The site looks good, nice work Ray: The first page is in flash (maybe there is a workaround for people without flash on their pc's I dont know), if you go to: http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash and download the program that enables flash on your pc it >may< work

Was listening to Farming Today (couldnt sleep the other night..lol), they were discussing new european rules to ban antibiotics in animal feed. I think its quite a new thing, they were also on about putting probiotics and other bits n bobs as replacement to speed up growth (which is more expensive).

Happy Birthday Gez, hope to catch up at the weekend

Happy Birthday Maddy

Saw the same on Channel 4, looked like tipplers or tumblers :-/

Happy New Year :) 6 hours

Happy Birthday

Went up to the Metro Centre today to check out the sales, in hindsight it might have been a wise idea to stick by the fire the 25min journey took well over an hour to get there (much snow!), and on the hour to get back (traffic drving at 3 miles an hour >). Had a doo to go out to tonight, and still the roads hadnt been touched by the gritters, thats 8 hours later (post snow ), bet they were on tea break :X Paired the yearlings last week, have taken this time to realise that their together again..lol not pigeon weather

Happy Christmas!

It looks like the server is down. I'll let Ross know when I see him.

I've often wanted to keep track of eggs like this, never actually done it though. I read in one of the vetenary books about the eggs, make sure they dont get very soiled, as the youngsters will suffer. The egg shell allows them to breathe anything on this will effect the yb inside. Bruno maybe you could shed some light on this for me :)

Great pictures Roamer, well done Happy Christmas

Some great photos posted. Here's our dogs, golden retriever - flossie, westie - gem (mum of pups in pic), and we've got a daughter of gem frin her last round - molly.

The Lone Ranger; had only one old bird racer flying to my loft in my first season racing. My clubmates nicknamed him, that year he went right down the road to the Maidstone National (245 miles), which is a combine race, 25,000 birds, so he had to come alone to do that He went out to Lillers the next year, and kept coming well (others accompnied him this time ); got him out as a 3yo and lost him training from 12 miles :'(