Bad Trapper

Sorry, I was trying to be tactful ;D

Hi All, just thought I would put this poll on to see what people think (or hope) what Young Birds they will have left at the end of the season. I know a few in my club have started losing some after the birds have gone off roaming.

Lot of fanciers I know have nearly 60 to 70% of their teams missing from the MNFC Falaise seems to be a bit of a disaster. Birds which had been before and had experience have failed to arrive and birds first time over have turned up.

Marky mate don't think you have missed much as the leaderboard has been static for the best part of 2 hours, few of my mates have clocked in and verified some time ago but the leaderboard never seems to get refreshed

Be careful if you cancel,I ordered a loft fom a well known loft builder some 3 years ago, they even gave me a delivery date in writing. Had all my youngsters ready to wean off and firm confirmed I would be having loft on agreed date. Two days later loft delivery date changed by 4 weeks because the loft builder was taking a holiday!!! After many phone calls and the offer of meeting the loftbuilder up a dark alley(kindly refused) I promptly cancelled and asked for my deposit back which they refused. Anyway, took them to court and won with costs awarded in the meantime ordered another loft from another loft company,told them of my situation, result had the loft up within a week. ;D

Cycling, Road Racing and Time Trials, started with the pigeons after 15 years bike riding(my Dad kept them for 20+years)must have rubbed off.

Joe Dornings sale I think he is very under-estimated.

Just like to follow up a similar point made by Swilcox, we have 2 Feds covering the same area and some members send in both Fed's and there race programmes are very similar and a lot of the time you end up at the same racepoint each week with half filled transporters. In the past Fed 1 broke away from Fed 2 because some fanciers were not getting a bite of the cake, so Fed 2 was formed. If you fly in one club in the are it cost you £120 a season plus birdage etc so double this if you a.re in both.Both Fed have dwindling birdages but they carry on regardless. The main reason they will not almalgamate is because of the split what happened in the 1980's and it is a matter of pride of both commitees they will not see sence and go back as one Fed. Lunacy at its best!

I was interesed what invinsible spirit said re.like battery chickens. I have been driving past Louella on the M1 every week night at about 11.15p.m. at night and you can see all the flights with the lights on, and back past at 6.00 a.m. in the morning the lights are on again this has been happening for a few weeks now, they must be breeding virtually non stop to get all those Y.B. out so early, and with all of kits of Y.B. on offer all season.

Had some Dickie Meerman Jan Loots off them in 2005. I have 2 yearling cocks which were my first pigeons back on 6 occasions this past season also both card winners and have bred some decent YBs this season.

Have a mate of mine who drives artics for Royal Mail, he said there is a driver(pigeon flyer) who is based at Parcel Force's National sort centre in Coventry has approached some high up bod to ask if they are keen to take up this business, apparently the Post Office are all out for extra business, I think he is waiting for a reply at the moment.

I think we will be lucky to get a race goin by the forecast at the weekend

They are always on e-bay if you want some inexpensive

I have found the plastic rings a bonus this year as like Mick said the public can spot your phone number on the ring, but it seems the same as ever some want their birds back and come and collect them a.s.a.p. and you get the idle one's who expect YOU to get them back to them or get someone to toss the bird where they live.

I have a pair of Jos Thone squeakers for sale which I was swapping with another fancier but has now decided not to proceed. The dam is a Grizzle, a daughter of Geronimo when paired to Pandora a daughter of Poco Valencia. The Sire is son of Arnie (g.son. of Arnoldus) One youngster is a grizzle the other is a blue pied. Both of the parents are via Ian Stafford. Will try to get a photo on the site soon. Any offers?

I have been flying for 20 years,and I was trying to make a paradox with other sports/hobbies I think some of you have missed the point, while some of you might race in the perfect club some novices etc need that little help, (see Alan Wilkins website) In the real world there are pros,unhelpful fanciers and some down right miserble characters in the game, there also are some good ones but they seem in the minority sadly. Carl is right by saying the not so helpful ones are in your own club. I think the mistake I made was feeling sorry for the novices!!!

Tammy_1, I think you know where I'm coming from, the message I was trying to get accross is that there are people who are willing to pay to get tuition in pigeon racing. Nearly every sport/hobby has some sort of coaching scheme on the go, most of us come into pigeons via the family and knowledge is passed down etc. For example there is a flyer in my area who retired early and started racing pigeons, he has a good loft and has paid a lot of money and bought birds from some well known names, but he is down the sheet every week. Do you think anybody in his club goes out of the way to help him? As stated in my previous post ther is only so much video's and books can teach you, nothing like practical advice is there.

I was talking to one of my work mates the other day who happens to be into fishing in a big way. He was saying that he was off on a weekend away to be taught the pro's and con's of match fishing by one of the countrys top anglers, as he said there is only so much the videos can teach you. This had me thinking, why don't some of the pigeon boys have ago at this. There are always some who mid to bottom of the sheet every week who would love to be put right by the pro's, as help on their back doorstep is not easy to come by. I know of some fanciers who have spent thousands on birds, and to quote one of the older flyer in my club ' could not fly a kite in a high wind ' Worth thinking about?

Thanks very much, mystery solved.

Browsing through E bay last night on the pigeon pages I was staggered to find a video by the above fancier entitled Billy Holland Young Bird Master going for £27. I have never heard of the fancier in question. Does anyone else know of him or could enlighten me of who he is, just curious.

The sun only came out for a while in the afternoon but still very hazy. Spoke to a friend of mine who lives in the town and he said there were birds flying around the town most of the day.

Pompey Mick, I was at Stratford on Avon today and the visibility was only about a mile with full cloud cover for most of the day

Just bought in 20 Cooremans for Young Bird racing this season, my partner purchased some stock birds at Cooremans sale at the end of last year. Hope we can do them justice.

Club member had the stargazing last year, turned out to be paratyphoid

I think these members exist in a few clubs, we have a couple mainly because they are double or trebled clubbed. They only drop the birds off then staight onto the next one, leaving the rest of us to do the crates and clocks and load the transporter when it arrives