mealybar

Through conversations with certain people I've come to aggree that the Concorde theory isnt the whole picture ( - however it made good news in the papers!). More so the reason for the losses that day was poor weather. I believe Bilco is onto something with his X flare/K factor information. Had some awful races/tosses 2 years ago, only thing I could put it down to was the K factor, think I posted about this somewhere else on the board too - anyway => http://www.pigeonbasics.com/articles/article2.html

http://www.pigeonbasics.com/articles/article47.html This might shed some light The quills like that are normal, and yep they open up when they get a bit longer.

The grain photo / labelled is in the back cover of the Verse-Laga booklet that they give out at blackpool. If I had mine with me, I'd scan it in for you Someone must have a copy lying about

Thanks Bruno, knew I'd read it somewhere.

I live and race on the Eastern side of the country, and never had any trouble with my birds until this year, broken legs, injured wings, many many missing birds. Its definately a 'no brainer' to use the east route - but for how much longer? I dont think it'll be too long until the hawks get as bad here too. Just think of the many allotment sites around the north east - thats not a snack, its a supermarket for the hawk! A big part of the RSPB armoury is a piece of research conducted (by the RPRA I think) on the reasons for losses was only put down to 7% the fault of raptors (off the top of my head) out of a total loss of about half of all birds; it fundementally put down that something like 43% of losses are not to do with hawks. ---- This as any fancier knows is, hm... complete tosh; for the very reasons that everyone has already posted. My shot at it is: The reason that many birds stray is that they have outrun a hawk - I mean we put bad results and some losses down to stress, imagine the stress of being chased for your life, or diving for cover and trying to do anything, not to get home, but just to stay alive! What can we do?? well the RSBP have a reputation with joe public (good), and a big bank balance/cash flow --- money = power --- we'll be lucky whatever we do! :-/ > :(

With the tablet; pop it in the back of the birds mouth, and then close and hold the beak closed until the bird swallows the tablet. No chance of him spitting it out then. Does the trick for me

Great photo of pigeon putting the handbreak on

6 months is the rule of thumb, but you get hens that dont lay as ybs (in the year of their birth) although when moulting I usually split the sexes anyway. Once you pair them together again in the spring, they seem to take to it like a duck to water :) Absence makes the heart grow fonder so they say,, anyway they dont waste any time ;D

UNC @ North Weald

Welcome to the forum Chris; hows the birds? I heard on the grape vine that you've had a kanny season , and your birds certainly doing he business in my club.

caption - Cheq to Griz: does this grit taste funny to you?? :)

I hope to be there (missed the Saturday last time due to exams ), and hope to meet up

lol,,, dont get me wrong they didnt set the sky alight, but they beat the cocks nigh on every week. My system must have just suited the hens better - obviously I didnt have the system right :-/

You could try racing widowhood hens instead of the cocks, if you have more of them. I found my hens always come better anyway!

I used to get the monthly one too; thought it was great, much better than the weeklies, as it 'was' wall to wall reports and good articles. Its a shame it was stopped, it had been going a long time, and I feel it should have been considered as an asset of the association and offered for sale before they decided to write it off (surely the branding, or circulation list is worth something to someone and would have brought some income which they have now lost). I get the BHW, RP and Pictorial

The K Factor was high early this morning but dieing down as the day progressed. From about 5 down to 2 by this evening (problems if its over 3). It may have caused disturbances to any early liberations/races.

I use http://www.xcweather.co.uk its not just the wind map, check some of the options in the top left corner Its actual weather reported by the airports + some forecasts.

Petron lofts are pricey, but probably the best you could buy (the queens got one!) if money were no object! Your shed will do fine, dont tell the birds about the petron lofts though

When I've used the Roundabout system, I've always raced both the hens and cocks usually the same week. Once the cocks come home they (longer races) want a few mins rest before you put a hen in, and I found that they dont mind what the hen is. I sent one lot the one week and the other lot (hens and cocks) the next, this way they get a weeks rest between races, and there is always something for the birds to come home to. I couldnt afford to keep pigeons a year just to be there for their mates to come home to.

I've got the 2005 ring list and can get onto to RPRA with the ring number for you (if needs be), if you post it up

There is a link off the main menu (not displayed on the forum) or just under where it says 'Good Morning, mealybar' (for me) at the top of this page.

UNC at Melton Mowbray

Have you the full ring number?

The British Show Racer Society has a list of major shows and some society shows, http://www.pigeonbasics.com/brsf/

I found the East Coast one a bit hard to use, well compared to some others I tried before I bought them; I now use the PLO program at http://www.plosoft.com/ it does everything I wanted, and was £17 when I bought it, if I remember right.