pj1001

The Jacobs pigeons are sprint-midle distance pigeons Franks. If you can get your hands on Squills 2008 (pages 367-371 you will get more details of the pigeons) Gerard Delaney has a 5 page advertisements in it 2 pages of which are solely on his Willy Jacobs. These birds are winning for a lot of people throughout the UK and Ireland with many 1st Opens results listed in the advertisement. I am not sure what the exact arrangements is but as far as I am aware any youngsters that Willy doesn't want for himself Gerard gets every year. He has over 200 direct Jacobs at stock. Ypu can see a picture of Willy Jacobs latest visit to Gerard's in mid September at http://www.pigeonportal.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=470 Hope this is some help to you Franks. PJ

Have used NORTHERN HYGIENE LABORATORIES LTD for 6 years now (like OldFellow) and have always found them first class. PJ

Hello Vics Dac-Pharma do Doxocycline at a reasonable cost if you are looking for some. http://www.duivenweb.nl/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage/product_id,63/category_id,51/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,1/ Hope this is of help PJ

2 of our silver hens

Received a stock hen from Jimmy today, she is the dam of numerous prizewinners for Jimmy and others. Before sending me this hen Jimmy told me that she was class and he wasn't wrong. I am very happy with this hen. Anyone who purchases these birds won't be disappointed. PJ

The old Irish Walkinshaw strain also contains a lot of silvers and ashes also. I am not sure if this is via the Kirkpatrick influence in the breed or not. PJ

I think L Tuplin & Son of Galabank Lofts still has the old Barker pigeons. I know a fancier in our area bought some off him a couple of years back. PJ

I think L Tuplin & Son of Galabank Lofts still has the old Barker pigeons. I know a fancier in our area bought some off him a couple of years back. PJ

Gerard Delaney (Oroory Hill Stud) in Northern Ireland has all the best of the Willy Jacobs lines. Last time I was speaking to him he had in the region of 100 direct pairs from Willy Jacob's main pigeons. If you have last years Squills year book you can find details on the Jacobs pigeons on page 367. Hope this is of help. PJ

I am sure everyone here know's that it was madness to liberate these young birds in the conditions that they were liberated into on Sunday. Ok, the weather at the liberation site looked ok, even thought it was dull and overcast with no sun. 20 miles down the road the conditions where a lot different and on the televison and in Monday's newspapers all you heard or read about was flooding in areas of England. For a race of 300 miles even in a good day with a tail wind the lead birds would still in most cases need at least 5 hours of decent weather to home in good time, and even then there will always be late birds, which may take anything up to 8 hours or even more to make their way home. So on average these young birds last Sunday would have at least required reasonable weather for 5-8 hours for the majority of the convoy to make it back to Cardiff. No one can guarantee that our weather will be perfect for that period of time, especially as how our summers have been this year, but to give the birds at least a fighting chance they would have needed a spell of 4 hours + of decent weather and it doesn't really take rocket scienist to know this. This didn't happen as we all know now, but what really annoys me about the whole mess is that there has been on formal apology and feedback from the race from the organisers of the event. I haven't seen any race report on the Europa website about the race, when this was their 'main event ' of the whole one loft campaign. If the organisers made a mistake then admit it, if not provide an explanation on why they felt conditions where suitable for a liberation and what information this decision was based on. If they feel they did all they could for the birds to give them the best chance of homing on the day and they have sound evidence to back this up, then they probabally did what the majority of us would do in the same situation. If however the liberation was made to accomodate the audience in Cardiff with the hope of a few birds battling through the conditions and making it back to the lofts on the day then the organisers didn't make the decision to liberate in the best interest of the pigeons or their owners but for their own agenda and this to me isn't acceptable. The people in charge of the race should come out and at least explain themselves and their decisions and not paper over their own mistakes, almost 50 youngsters made their way back to Cardiff in 2 days, what about the 1,200 who never. Did these birds get a fighting chance to make it home or were the sacrificed in the name of sports for a media circus? No one can turn the clock back and what has happened has happened, but at least if nothing else now the people in charge of these races will have to take notice of fanciers feelings and think of the welfare of the birds first and not their bank balances. If Derek Nichols and his team did everything that they could to get the birds home on the day then I feel sorry for them because they did the best they could for the pigeons, if however they have no evidence to back this up then I have zero sympathy for them, and if by any chance the RPRA look into this fiasco and revoke their license they have no one to blame but themselves. It is easy to stay silent or get a scribe or PR manager to put a spin on the race and hope that fanciers forget with time and everything settles in a few weeks, but the least fanciers who paid good money to enter birds into this race deserve is answers to those difficult questions that need to be asked and answered. If this is a business then us fanciers are it's customers and we at least deserve a detailed explanation of what happend last Sunday and why. PJ

Congratulations on all those whose birds were timed in today from the Europa fiasco, no one can blame or fault any of these brave and gallant birds for what has taken place. Personally I would love to see the weather forecasts that the so-called experts that run this race examined and made their decison to liberate based on yesterday, becasue any weather forecasts that I seen all indicated the weather that the birds encountered yesterday. With the years of experience that some of the people managing this race have in pigeons, they should have known better, these were young pigeons being jumped approx 150 from their last race, in one of the so-called show case races of the year in Europe and more attention should have been taken to ensure that; these birds all had a reasonable chance of getting home on the day of liberation. Forget about the hospitality tents, the media and the big payout, the pigeons should have come first, not the other way around. It's easy to say what could or should have been done in hindsight I know, but the organisers of this race made one hell of a cock-up and they should at least stand up and admit it and take it on the chin and say they made a mistake, and for once put the welfare of the pigeons first and not their egos. Most of the youngsters in this race I'm sure flew themselves to a standstill yesterday flying around and around looking for a break in the weather to try and head off in the direction off Cardiff. Know doubt some more birds will find their way back either on their own steam or via help from fanciers, if 10% of the birds make it back in a 2 week period though I'd be surprised, and that should never be acceptable, especially when you are talking about top young birds from many top lofts in Europe and further afield. In all of this though it's the pigeons and the fanciers that bred them that suffer, all because the business plan for the day suggested that the birds must go up, to satisfy the audience, to me thats not what I got into pigeon racing for and is not sport. PJ

IHU 99 S 049619 Carrick-On-Suir Sec. Alan Daniels 086-3421139 You may have to add 00353 in front of this number. Hope this is of help. PJ

IHU 2001 N 30726 Portavogie HPS Sec B Young Tel. No. 028 42772251 Hope this is of help. PJ

There are a lot of fanciers in Ireland, north and south winning with birds from Frank Sheader both direct and children and grand-children of direct stock. PJ

Yes the bird is in Northern Ireland. Have contacted the owners and will try and get the bird liberated at the most northerly point of Northern Ireland next week. PJ

Many thanks for your help clockman. will give the secretary a call today. Regards PJ

Entered lofts tonight Black Pied Cock SU 07 L 383 with ETS ring. Can anyone give me any details? Many thanks PJ

Well done Ken PJ

Very well done Red and congratulations. PJ

IHU 04 N 18872 Glen Invitational Sec. C Rea 23 Riverdale Gardens Belfast BT11 9DG Tel 02890-620985 Hope this is of help. PJ

ihu 04 s 114948 Enniscorthy HPS Sec Brendan Murphy Ballinahallin, Enniscorty, County Wexford. Eire. Ph 054-39615 Not sure what he code fron UK is for Wexford thunderboult. Hope this is of help PJ

Congratulations Tony and very well done. Excellent result. All the best for this coming weekend. PJ

I received 6 beautiful Braakhuis youngsters from Jimmy on Tuesday morning. From the pictures posted by Jimmy on the previous pages you can see how well reared these youngsters are and the quality of feather they possess. I am very hopeful with a bit of good luck these youngster will fly the channel successfully for us with a little patience and time, and I would recommend them to anyone considering getting a few. Thanks for your help again Jimmy and all the best for the 2008 season. Regards PJ

Many thanks Jack for all your articles to date and the Question and Answers sessions you have put forward for all interested parties on pigeonbasics. Regards PJ

Many thanks for clarification Jack Regards PJ