Mike Lycett

The Belgians are going into Germany because the French have stopped them. UK organisations had better plan contingency prograames right NOW if they hadn't done before Mike

95% sold out for 2006 Regards Mike

Agree with Jimmy. The poll says 65% says it doesn't affect them at any stage of their life. I wonder how many people who knock the Dark are speaking from their own direct experience? If they have tried & comparatively switched then that'd be interesting because the health, vigour & performance simply MUST improve with the Darkness. Regards Mike

Bruno If they are bred at that time he effectively IS on the darkness though. There's precious few hours of sunlight. Also, granted the more work you give a baby the more you'll delay his moult. Maybe the other dakness fliers haven't got the system spot on? Maybe he's the best operator with YBs anyway? I know we'll give anybody a race with YBs on the dark. William - We've raced natural pigeons v darkness pigeons in the same year - same way bred, same management, training, feed, supplements etc. Get to beginning of August and the dark just take over compltely - absolutely GUARANTEE it at our lofts Mike

Basically speaking I'd be inclined to say "pigeon". Although when two pigeons are separated by next to nothing then "theoretically" the one with the wind advantage should hold all the aces. Classic example. 2005 racing out of Newton Abbot - approx 170 miles. We're the furthest Northerly fliers in our Fed - we've guys flying 40 miles short of us. Racing on "the dog leg" we lose 2-3 miles on guys way short of us and any chance we have on the Fed are generally on SW winds. On Easterly winds we always have our backs against the wall. This race was a genuine SE wind. No good for us - in theory. In practice we were 1st & 2nd Fed with 2 cocks coming together & they were almost 1 min 30 secs in front of 3rd fed. On that basis, I'd say "pigeon" not "position". Leaders don't get pulled. Mike

Prince Farm Feeds, but I dunno the phone number Try Gem Supplements too, they sell it cheaper than you're quoted www.gemsupplements.co.uk

Pigeon_Man I agree with you when you say that many people are trying to get pedigrees to fly. Pedigrees don't. The more you can breed off genuine performance pigeons then the stronger your chances are of hitting the bullseye. As for eyesign, we've paired our No.1 Stock Hen with cocks that in total have 8 different eyes between them. Sh'es not bothered, she breeds the goods with 'em all. We've paired 2 x pearls together and got belters. Eyesign is NEVER a consideration when pairing at our lofts. We stick to pairing best to best & take physical charachteristics & personalities into account too. Adopting this system has won us 4 WEst Midlands Awards in 3 seasons against 5,200 members, so I guess something can't be too far adrift? Regards Mike

Speight There's plenty of guys down here start 'em at 20 miles & get 'em ok. We just like to build their confidence a bit. When the youngsters are exercising/roaming for 2-3 hrs a day they're covering this ground anyway. Mike

Speight Hormoform is £25 a 20kg bag down in the Midlands.........

Feed in the pots in their boxes. Used to measure it out by spoon, but never bother now. They eat as much as they can eat, & then I take it off 'em.

Bruno Most interesting how different people have different opinions on same system. I'd say our youngsters encounter hardly any stress at all in the year of their birth. This would manifest itself in some sort of illness or being "under the weather". We never have the slightest of health issues, so thatv tells me something fundamental must be reasonably right Regards Mike

Plenty of our best pigeons have very ordinary eyes. Two things determine a good pigeon and two things only What's in the HEART and what's between the EARS. You can tell neither with an eye-glass Mike

Here's a few of our best birds

We have a strictly limited number of summer bred youngsters available from our race/Stock team. 90% of bloodlines originate from M & D Evans and are recognised as being a thoroughly excellent family. We have won 4 Region Awards in the last 3 seasons – against 5,200 members. 1st 5129 birds, 1st 5663 birds, 1st 3285 birds, 1st 1969 birds etc. an example of our performances Youngsters available from £75 each - depending upon requirements Email or Private Msg for more details if necessary Mike Lycett – Mrs C.Lycett & Son

T_T Looking forward to hearing your findings........

Slugmonkey Can't disagree with you because that's your experience. Racing this system for 15 years now & we've found it to be by far the most consistent way of racing youngsters - again that's our experience. As Bruno highlighted, of course it has a physical bearing on young pigeons. But, in our experience, we lose practically no pigeons & perform perfectly well. Therefore, the system is fine. My response was because Bruno raised the questions about darkness in relation to losses & form which, from our own experience we can't empathise with Boing Boing Mike

Rugeley, Staffs

Bruno I haven't been sniping.... Far from it actually

Yes, we basket train ours every weekend of their lives April - July inclusive

Yes, I think it important to train them early in life. 12 weeks is ample & I know they're right when they just see the door down on the basket and go "ping"......... Don't want no circling around - straight line for home. Once they've had a race or two we find they clear the liberation site ever so quickly.

Ours start at about 5 miles or so, have a few there & then move on to 10, have a few there & move on to 20 where we like them to have about a dozen before going to 30. They don't go any further than that - normally. I think it important to start them at about 12 weeks of age though if possible

Agree with SBelbin - 100%

No worries Gez - I'll help anybody if I can.... Well..... nearly anybody !!!

My mate Clive Yates in Tamworth is a fabulous flier- a great pigeon man. Locally his critics call him "lucky". I was in his conservatory one day watching his cocks exercising. The'yd been off for 55 minutes - out of sight completely & then came back hammering it like there was no tomorrow. Clive said to me "Funny Mike, you know... The harder I work the luckier I get". Food for thought perhaps?????? Gez - agree entirely Mike

Our loft will give a pair of youngsters to the youngster under 18 judged by whoever decides on this site to have put up the best performances. We just need to ensure all juniors who enter are genuine juniors. Mike