pj1001

Tallaght RFC, Dublin. Secretary Jimmy Dunne 00353-14620604 Hope this is of help. Regards PJ

The bird belongs to a member of Castlebellingham HPS Secretary Joe Sharkey Tel. no 00353 419852276 Hope this is of help. PJ

The telephone number for the bird IHU 08 N 15440 (0284275......) doesn't match the code for the secretary of the club that the bird is registered too, nor anything like it, so I would assume the bird has either been given to someone or was bought in from someone. The bird is registerd to the Ballywalter HPS, Secretary Mr G Baile, 240 Ballywalter Road, Millisle, BT22 2DN. Tel no. 028 91861177. He might be able to shed a bit more light on the owner of the bird. Hope this is of some help. PJ

County Down just outside Newcastle.

Seems to be a lot of IHU S birds in the north over the weekend. I had 7 in on Monday ranging from 5 year old down to number of yearlings. A friend had 4 year ol and 2 yearlings. We sent the 10 of them to a fancier friend in Dublin today so hopefully they will get back to their owners soon. PJ

Just rung a round of youngsters of the 5 we have left from the 6 we purchased off you last year Jimmy. 2 youngster of the 00 black hen and 2 each of her daughter and the 05 cheq cock. Will keep you posted. PJ

Has anyone used Chevita 'chevivac-P200' PMV vaccine before and if so how did you find it? Is it water or oil based does anyone know? I looked at the Chevita site but it doesn't seem to indicate what the vaccine base is. I have emailed Chevita and if they get back to me I will post their reply. PJ

Re: Colombovac PMV pigeon vaccine†From: Tracey Rose (RoseT@fdah.com) Sent: 19 January 2009 11:20:21 Unfortunately, the earliest Colombovac will be back on the market is June or July 2009. Sorry for the bad news! Regards Tracey Tracey Rose Customer Services Manager Fort Dodge Animal Health Ltd - UK Tel: 0044 (0) 1489 774241 Fax: 0044 (0) 1489 774277 E-mail:roset@fdah.com

I was in contact yesterday with Fort Dodge concerning Colombovac PMV and was told that it won't be available again until June - July 2009. PJ

HI Rachid and welcome to the pigeonbasics website. I hope you enjoy your time online. PJ

This is what we do but like Rose says what works for one fancier and their birds may not for another. Normally no birds are sent to distance races until they are at least 2 year old, raced to 300miles as yearlings. Birds only expected to fly one distance race from France in any one year. 1. When do you pair these birds? Normally mid Feb to early March but in some case early April depending on pigeon and its age and experience ( in these case pigeon raced celebrate early season). 2. Do you allow them to rear youngsters, if so how many rounds? Generally each pair will rear one of two youngsters and be allowed to sit eggs for 10 days, then separated and flown celibate until re-mated for race in question. But in come cases birds have been sent and timed sitting their first eggs youngsters of the year. 3. How many races prior to the big race, and what sort of distances are these races? Normally a minimum of 3-4 inland club races and possibly 2 Channel races to 300miles, normally 2-3 week rest with 2 training tosses to 50miles a week. Last week birds rested and let fly around home. Have also jumped birds from 170 miles into 500miles and clocked them, so again depends a lot on type of pigeon and how easy they are to prepare and get race fit. 4. What do you feed, and do you alter it, as the big race gets nearer? Light mix building up quantities of carbo, oils and protein gradually last 10-14 days prior to race marking with added safflower, sunflower and peanuts A little lemon juice put on feed then yeast added 2-3 days of last week (but not day of basketing) Honey or Fructose added to water last week for 2 days usually 5 days from race marking, 1 day cider vinegar and 1 day electrolyte, clean water day of basketing 5. What, nest condition for (a) hens, ( cocks? Hens Sitting eggs 14 days – chipping or small youngster (adding a few extra eggs so hen is sitting up to 4 eggs) Also sitting first chipping eggs of year for 2-3 days without letting eggs come out Haven’t really had much success with roundabout hens at distance (but that could just be due to type of pigeons we have) Cocks Sitting 6-10 days on eggs Sitting 8-10 days on eggs then slipping 8-10 day youngster under cock morning of race marking for a few hours. Night before if race marking early next morning (make sure youngster has been fed in advance) Have had some success with a few cocks given hen day and a half before being basketed, left in section on their own with tobacco stalks on floor. These cocks have been separated for a few weeks prior to race 6. What is your routine on the day of basketing? Clean water as much food as birds want, as birds normally race marked early in morning before work. Bath given day prior to race marking.

Best wishes DOVEScot to you and all your family for a happy and peaceful Christmas and a successful 2009 season. PJ

Many thanks Ace. I will pass this on to my friend. PJ

Hi everyone, Has anyone heard how Gerard & Piet Lindelauf sale went at the weekend? A friend of mine who bought a few birds form them a couple of years ago asked me tonight if I'd heard how the sale went, but I told him I didn't know. Has anyone heard how it went? PJ

Some of Ireland's best long distance birds. http://www.pigeonnetwork.com/articles/Irish_Pigeon_Gold.html

In relation to feather quality what I have noticed with some of our silvers is that in the summer their feathers seem to get bleached by the sun and change into a lighter shade of silver. During the winter months when the birds are moulting and there is very little sun the new primary and secondary flights that they grow are a darked shade of silver, almost a dull silver. However in the summer when these birds are out in the sun their dark silver feathers become lighter as if the sun is bleaching them. It is very noticable in birds taht ahve moulted a couple of primary feathers during the summer and most of their other primary feathers in autumn and winter, the flights moulted in the summer months are much lighter in colour. Just my observation in relation to our silvers. PJ

A1 2004 A2 2005 A3 2001 A4 2008 A5 2002

Another member from Ireland here Jack.

Breeding silver cocks I feel is really dependant on whether the sire and dam both contain the correct gene combinations. We would have at least 10 silver hens and 3 silver cocks, all bred down from an old line of Irish pigeons called Walkinshaws. You could pair a blue and a blue chequer together that are 3 or more generations down from the original pigeons and still reproduce silvers or ash chequers. Over the past few years we have been trying to reduce the number we are breeding, due to percy having a liking to that particular colour as the majoriy of our pigeons would be blues and blue chequers. For some reason anytime he makes a kill it is the silvers that you expect to be the missing pigeons. In our experience we find them to be better breeders for us than racers but we have had a few in the past that have raced well also up to 420 miles. PJ

Hello Just, Boddy & Ridewood has copies of the new updated version of Fit to Win by Dr Wim Peters. I have placed the website link below if this is ant help. The New Fit to Win (Book) By Dr Wim Peters http://www.everythingforpets.com/the_new_fit_to_win_book_.pet/use.id.5.item_id.3823.dept.74/ You might be able to pick up a copy a bit cheaper on Ebay though or Amazon if you take a look there also. If you take a look at the other books for sale on the Boddy & Ridewood website you might be able to find the 2nd book you are looking for. Hope this is of help. Good luck. PJ

No disrespect johno, but their is no theory being pushed as far as I am aware here. I have just put this thread up, to see what fanciers views are on using medication in chlorinated tap water. I am keeping an open mind on the topic and am not suggesting that anyone who has used normal tap water for years is right or wrong, I put the thread up to basically seek others opinions on the subject and open up some form of discussion on the topic, which in turn could help all of us. If someone can come in with scientific proof to indicate that chlorinated tap water does or doesn't affect the performance of medication we spend good hard earned money to purchase, then I feel that this new knowledge would be useful information for us all. PJ

One of the fanciers who I talked to is one of the top racers in his area over the past 3-4 years and he said that his results have improved since he started using well water. He said that is is very important that the well water that is used must be water that is used for human consumption and not just water from any old well. In the area where he lives he tests water daily and pinpointed the particular well that he uses as being the one which has the best range of reading in the area. After speaking to the farmer who owned this well; he was given permission to use this water for his pigeons. I think alot of this perhaps depends on the area each of us live in and also the particular state of the reservoir or water catchment area at any given time. He told me that at certain time of the year they would find dead animals that have fallen into reservoirs and if in these cases staff are instructed to administer higher levels of chlorine into the water to neutralise any additional bacteria etc created by the presence of the dead animal. Also at times of heavy rainfall they use greater amounts of cholrine, due to greater amounts than normal of soil and other debris being washed into the reservoirs from the surrounding area. He told me that he has left water out for 24 hours and also boiling it, and then retested it and still found fairly high levels of chlorine present at times. Personally I use normal tap water left for 24 hours before administering it in the drinkers, but I would be curious to find out if the chlorine in the water would neutralise or weaken the strength of any medication that we are occassionally using. If it does then is medicating the pigeons actually helping them or just introducing them to weaker levels of the medication and thus increasing the immunity of bacteria etc inside our birds thus making the medications of little or no value to the birds. I can understand some of the comments on us drinking tap water and our families driinking it also, but at the same time we aren't really administrating medication in the drinking water, so the situation is slightly different. As far as I am concerned the jury is still out on this, but I might try and medicate the birds using filtered tap water just to see if there is any noticeable difference. PJ

Had an interesting conversation at the Dublin show last weekend witha couple of friends and some of the judges at the show from the Up North Combine concerning chlorine in the tap water. One of my friends works for the Water Board and his job is testing drinking water and he told us that any medication that we put in the drinkers for the birds is being killed by the levels of chlorine in the water. A couple of the judges agreed with this and said they have filtering systems in place to remove the chlorine from the water before giving it to thei birds. I am still open minded on this, although I know of a few fanciers who are good fliers who use well water, rather than tap water. Has anyone any views on this? PJ

As far as I am aware Malachy Maguire's "Home Alone" was a Louella Jan Arden. Portavogie Lass was a Millar Gold Cup winner herself and a daughter of her won the NIPA Old Bird National this year from St Malo<France for Malachy's son Mark, as well as being the Grand Dam of Davy Browne, Dublin's Millar Gold Cup winner 2008. http://www.pigeonnetwork.com/articles/millarcup08.html PJ

Mr & Mrs Andy Gregson advertise the Deweerdt family from all the top lines in the "Squills 2008" pages 259-261. Telephone No. 01772 337846