mushroom

I know all about peregrine falcons and sparrowhawks, I also know my own birds and the way they behave after a falcon/sparrowhawk attack, as I have had vast experience of it. After my birds returned they did not behave as they would after an attack. Therefore I am looking for REASONS not EXCUSES.

Have any of you lads with losses gone back to Columbovac pmv this season. I have and that is the only thing that has changed in my routine, my ybs (second toss) took 90 mins to do 10 miles with two or three turning up after 3 days.

I had the same problem a few years ago, the inside edge of my new plastic drinkers were very rough and the birds were dragging their crop feathers back through it after drinking and damaging the feathers. I sanded them off and the problem was solved.

It cant be true about the depth of your pockets then Mick.

Stick it in your trouser pocket for 10 mins before you jag Mick

For anyone interested Columbovac PMV is back on sale I have just ordered some myself from Hyperdrug.

You never said why you tested your birds ? What symptoms were they showing that you felt they had salmonella infection? Or did you just have them tested to see if they were carrying any infection and the result came back positive for salmonella.

Read my post again I said I have not seen a peregrine I never said there are none in Cumbria. I, like everyone else in the area, am usually plagued with them. Why is it that when someone tries to be upbeat about the pigeon game there is always some doom and gloom merchant ready to try and depress everyone.

There is no bird flu in Cumbria or Dumfriesshire, I have not seen a peregrine for a couple of months, only 1 sparrowhawk in 4 months, no foxes or stoats have been in my lofts and the price of corn is down as is diesel. The birds have had a great moult and are 100% healthy. Things really are looking up and the future for pigeon racing is looking brighter than ever.

Excellent performance. Well done!!

I applied to a club to fly ybs last year my application was not put before the members and I was sent a reply within 48 hours telling me that the secretary had been advised not to read my letter of application until the AGM in December, I then withdrew my application as I do not wish to fly in the same club as these persons. A federation local to me has introduced a levy of £1000 to any club that wishes to join them. The sport is in my opinion being destroyed from within so no amount of programme alterations will change that!

I don't think the loft temperature and the transporter temperature can be compared, in a 16x8 loft you may have 30 pigeons, the same space on the transporter could have upwards of 1000 birds, possibly 1500, so the oxygen intake for both would be very different.

Yes Rab they can but they would not get much further than their own programme as they only get to approx. 200 miles and that would be around the same time as the YB National so no real advantage there. However racing with UNC the birds would have the advantage of 3 to 4 races of 200 miles and over before the YB Nat and would be well muscled up for the Nat. The advantage with the OBs with Cumbria is that you can get the birds down to the south coast and over to Carentan before the SNFC Channel races, you can also get to Messac, Falaise, and Fougeres if you want to.

If any ETS clocking system allows the multiple registration of the same ring number then it is not fit for purpose and should be re-called by the manufacturer and updated.

Is it possible to register the same bird twice, as an example GB14Z00001 and GB14 Z0 0001. The reason I ask is I queried a print out where the spacing of the numbers and letters differed. The answer was" that's the way it sometimes prints" I find it strange that the printer has a mind of its own allowing it to do this, perhaps some of you have experienced this yourselves it would be interesting to find out. I know that when I am adding birds to my pedigree system it allows me to register the same birds several times with various spacing differences.