Pompey Mick

I had an Onduline roof on the shed I purchased last year, It tends to sag so needs plenty of support, mine are 18" centres. I've noticed it gets very hot in the Summer and I'm considering insulating it this year. It takes a nailed fixing, with the plastic weather protection fixings.The Onduline I used (black) was not brittle, it was quite flexible and easily nailed. http://www.poultrychat.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14208

Secret Racers

Pigeon Racing is a competitive sport, not a Womans Institute knitting circle. ETS is a legal form of clocking. It is way the Sport is going eventually whether we like it or not. Lack of demand for 'conventional clocks' will kill off the clockmakers, likewise the production of rubbers will either stop or be dramactically reduced. I'm afraid its something that a lot of pigeon fanciers find very hard to accept, and that is progress. I haven't read in any papers the 'unfairness' of the millions of pounds that were spent perfecting the state-of-the-art racing cycles that enabled our cycling team to cover themselves in glory, far from it. They way they applied progressive methods to their sport to help legally improve their competitiveness was applauded and celebrated throughout the land. I dont think they would have received the same accolades had they said, that in order to be on the same level as the competitor from Tristan Da Cunha, they will be using a Raleigh with Sturmey Archer gears. Thats what competive sport is all about, legal competition with modern technology attached

My Club has the Unikon ETS system and I use the East Coast Software for ring assignment and race times input for the result. I have the program on the Club Laptop and I run it also on my home laptop. I use a memory stick to save all the members and Club race data on the Club laptop which I then use to update my home laptop when necessary.

The Columbarian

Just received the RPRA 2009 Club Rings , a shade of pink very similar to 2005. I thought it was a 5year Colour Cycle.

The Fancy The Pigeoneers Pigeon Folk

I ordered two books from the RP yesterday and they were delivered by the Royal Mail postie lunchtime today. Top Class service from both Firms. So if you're looking for a late Xmas present there's still time.

There has been a lot of discussion lately whether Peregrines prefer to attack certain colours, perhaps we could have some feedback on the list of rings found beneth peregrine nests to see if the Peregrine has any preferences in the colour of his meal.

I received a pigeon from the Durham area yesterday, here in Portsmouth, courtesy of Flyin Couriers. It was picked up Monday and I received it late on Tuesday night due to traffic problems. I was kept fully updated with the progress of the delivery and the pigeon was in excellent condition. It must have been watered as it had no interest when I gave it the chance to have a drink. It's good to have a Courier service that is so involved with the Client. I wish them every success in their venture.

I wouldn't hesitate in buying an old stock bird as long as it's a Cock. My opinion is that it must have been a decent bird to be kept for that long. I purchased a 10yr Cock Bird many years ago and he filled his eggs till he was 17, breeding decent birds until I lost him off the roof when I moved. (He was reported 6mths later 60mls away)

I owned an Abell though it was never used, (now in the Clock museum). My first competitive clock was a Rotherham with the machined thimbles and 48hr dial. When it was set at the Club they always read it quick because it only had a small window, the punctures went out of sight after 8mins. You could only strike it with a thimble in place. After that I had a Skymaster ,then I later progressed to a Junior printer(had arguments with that on which minute to read) and a Toulet Super (very fiddly to set but one of the clearest printouts), then a T3, and now a Unikon.

My Club was fortunate to obtain a Grant to equip all our members with ETS (if they so wished) and as a Secretary I was keen to get Unikon mainly because it worked with the ECS results program which gives the facility to electronically download all the times into the race program. We have had one failure out of 25 Clocks the whole season, and one instance of a race being wrongly struck-off. Apart from that, as a Secretary I find the Unikon system easy to manage, now that all the updates seem to have been sorted.

I'd be in favour with an increase in price if they printed a lot more colour photos in the reports, they can do it for the adverts.

Try this website, I got it from James Dolier's book, ' Horseman the Thief Pouter' http://www.horsemanpouters.co.uk

To the vast majority of pigeon fanciers the RPRA is an organisation that keeps the ring register and calculates distances and loft locations, tasks which are done very effectively. The Councillors come from the Regions, and how many of us are involved in the Regions. I have been a fancier for 45 yrs, held Secretary, Treasurer and Clock Setter positions for most of my years (Assistant Secretary at 16), yet I have only ever attended a Region meeting once. All these changes that are being asked for could be achieved if more fanciers attended and took an active part in the actual running of our association, but we don't. It's very easy to sit at a computer but it takes a different kind of person to give up their Sunday afternoon and travel 50mls to sort out someone else's problem. To be honest we just want to race our pigeons, and the RPRA supplies the infrastructure to achieve this expertly. The only way I can forsee any dramatic change in RPRA policy is to get a forward thinking Pigeon Fancier in the post of General Manager which will require fundamental changes in the way the post is filled, and as this most recent 'Yes Man' is not a long term appointment (due to his age) perhaps the time has come to reconsider the recruitment policy.

Van Hee won the 1982 St Vincent National with a grandson of Champion Workman 'Workman-Libourne'

The Blackpool Show wasn't stopped when the swans in Dorset had Avian Flu at the same time. Movement restrictions were in place only around the affected area.

I wouldn't have thought he would have reported via the RPRA if he was being that underhand, saying it was skinny as a rake, how would it have looked if you had arranged to have it collected the next day. I have had several cases of misread ring nos over the years, the latest being this year when the finder was adamant he had given the correct No, luckily for me the pigeon was still in my loft. So don't be too hasty in jumping to conclusions before you have had a chance to talk to him.

Sunny start here in Pompey, Lt NW wind, quite chilly, reminds me of hop-picking weather.

Portsmouth 07.30, Cold & overcast, fresh westerly wind, Glad we didn't move our race back 24hrs, which I thought was the better option, winners doing over a mile a minute and near 100% returns yesterday.

I certainly hope that it's true, though the existing Licence is still in force. http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/keptbirds/genlicence.htm

Portsmouth 08.00 Much brighter, broken cloud, clear with showers, (raining now) Winds breezy westerly. Any weather reports from the Yelverton area.

Hi Carlsberg, If you watch the lib, have a chat with my brother Tony, he's the driver for the Southampton Fed. I don't race with them but my Uncle George does so any weather reports would be helpful.

At the moment the RPRA have a 14day clearance rule on transfers, this is understandable in the case of show birds but could be looked at in respect of racing pigeons. When an unstamped pigeon enters my loft I usually liberate it away from the loft after giving it a suitable amount of rest and recuperation. If it returns then it is taken a greater distance and liberated. After a couple of these tosses it becomes obvious you are training the bird and it has no intention of returning home under its own power. In these cases it would help if the bird can be quickly transferred and legitimately raced. Perhaps this could be done via the RPRA Strays Email section, if they added a tick box. I.E. 'will keep if transferred'. Then the owner on receipt of the Email could then sanction the transfer of the bird to the finder by reply to the RPRA who would sanction the transfer of this pigeon back to the finder. Obviously this system would only work well if both parties have Email facilities, but it would speed up the process. If a bird is wingstamped then the owner would have to be contacted personally, and if required the above process could be utilised. I'm pretty sure with the computerisation at the RPRA this whole process could be performed electronically and if the bird is transferred then I'm sure any fancier would only send it if he was confident of getting it home.