peter pandy

25 minutes after the first Alf !! But she is still sitting to-day and I hope to get one more race from her then she will be set up for the 600 miler.

Friday saw me sending 18 Cocks and last weeks winner the Blue Hen, I was sitting in the Loft when she came off her eggs and the Cock went and sat on them. Now last week she would not come off and was still sitting at 17.00 so I said to myself your past you best but sent her in case I was wrong to the 190 miler, Saturday came and they were away in a sky I term as dead with no Columbus clouds present and as I said to Wee Mary it could be a sore one to-day and put an ETA at 13.45.. At 13.49 I timed a 3 Year old L/B Cock feeding two large youngsters and chasing his Hen to nest to win 1st Club 3rd Federation then waited 20mts before another arrival, Jings I would have been lifting the wooden spoon if he had not been sent. One hour after timing I had 17 from 19 home and I am still waiting for the missing two.

That idea has been going through my mind Andy but I don't have any young enough and another reason being their is nothing at stake so when she does decide to lift she will be going into the spare loft and brought back for a National race with her first youngster this year, It's all down to a bit of forward planning with extra encouragement..

Not for me Alf. and no really good reason why !!.

I do believe I should be thanking you guys who have kicked my *expletive removed* into making me get the finger out !, It was perhaps what was required as I have tried differing ideas which have not brought the results I would have wished for, So its back to my tried and tested regime of the past for the Colony and they do seem to be happy. A 20 mile trainer to-day saw the Blue Hen back on her nest 20 Seconds before the gang put an appearance in so she looks like a definite entry along with 19 Cocks for the 190 miler on Saturday as long as she is still sitting tight on 36 day eggs. Fingers Crossed..

Did the daily workout work ??? Well it must have as a 3 year old Late Breed Blue Hen came like a rocket in her first race of the season to win 1st Club 1st Federation from the 160 miler with 40ypm to spare. The odd thing about her condition was she was still sitting her first eggs of the season at 30 days and to-day 34 days she is still sitting tight and licking the backside of the colony at Daily training.. So that was the Silver Lining, unfortunately the Cloud which accompanied it was the loss of 2 Three year olds which I had high hopes for at the Distance !! You just know you are never going to see them again and I feel that is depressing hence the postponement of this post. For this week's race at 190 miles it will only be my 19 Cocks with the exception of last weeks winner as all the Hens are being chased to nest feeding big youngsters and it should be exciting which is something those not on Natural are missing out on.

For every silver lining their is a cloud !!!.

WHY would you want to disinfect your loft ??.

The only problem with flying the Natural System is the lack of exercise round the loft, So to counteract the problem the training baskets have been brought back into play and daily training resumed, 20 miles along the Motorway daily is far enough and where they initially took about 35 minutes, this has been reduced to 25 minutes. I should be able to send 30 this week to the 160 mile stage which should be a nice starter for the older race team..

150 miles Steve and they have put in 100 miles this week alone.

What is "to far" Steve ?.

About 14 eggs hatched out in the colony and were shifted about to accommodate those whose didn't so decided to ring them and will treat them as candidates for the Y/B Nat, With quite a few Hens looking to go down on their second round it will upset the apple cart somewhat especially the 2/3 Year Olds which I had intended sending this week for their first race however that's life where I am concerned and it will only mean going further than intended to start them off. All is well and the Midland Fed will be treated with the inclusion of the Merry Mack team for a couple of weeks..

Two Hens missing from yesterday saw them return late this afternoon so ended up all home, Where they get to is anybody's idea but they were well down in body so from to-day I have the colony on 60% Beans'Peas'Tares mix and 40% Sunflower with a handful of Red Band at Lunch Time. With Cocks starting to look at their Hens this week the need for more Protein is essential and will be increased as time on the wing goes up so will the muscle needs upping to increase Blood flow.. With some serious training the heavy muscle will convert to swollen light muscle hopefully bringing on form..

With a look at my daily diary to-day I could only count 16 hours of sunshine for the entire past week and temps you would expect in January, I decided to send 5 young Hens which were covering 4-6 day babies to the 140 miler and was surprised to find they were liberated at o7.45 this morning as it was Black solid cloud here in the metropolis and the Fintry Hills not to be seen 6 miles away, However I have every confidence in the Convoyer and assumed this was only local and reckoned 3 hours would be good enough which came and went as usual with my confidence, 3Hrs 25Mts saw an arrival with my second 7Hrs behind that and still not rewarded with the wooden spoon as others were in the same boat. My local neighbours flying with a different Fed were experiencing the same fate from a differing race point so all in all the Metropolis has taken a bit off a hammering to-day but their is always next week to right the wrongs.. P.S finished the day with 3 from 5..

1456 for me.

Best laid plans and aw that !!!!, Well, up this morning and an overcast drizzly sky had me deciding the trainer with the transporter was going to be a no no, so opened the loft with the temperature 8c and went to the Newsagent for the morning papers, 12.00hrs and the sun put in an appearance and a lovely afternoon peed me off with wishing I had sent the older birds for a 30 miler. It rather looks like it will be L/B Hens this week which will probably be their last race this year with them all down on a single 6 day baby come the week-end. I have already posted somewhere that I had many a conversation with Emiel DeWeerd from Koremarkt the Barcelona champs and all his Yearlings and older birds were Latebreeds with his entire Young bird race team sold off after the young bird races was completed. It has to do with the family being late developers !!.. One mans meat is another's poison..

This morning saw me basketing all my 2/3/4/5 year olds for a trainer in the transporter at 30 miles and the weather turned rather unpleasant when waiting their return with the wind gusting and rain falling but it did not stop them and were all ensconced within the loft in an hour, rather pleased as it was their first time in a basket since June 2017 and just for the record all are Late Breeds in actual fact every bird in my loft is a L/B. In an earlier post I wrote of the best birds I have ever handled as they were of a special type !! Well last week I put through at the Armadale club house another special and remarked to the owner David McBeath "Daviedoo on here" that it was the best pigeon I had handled that night and to watch for it.. This week-end saw it topping the Almond Valley Federation.. Aye I can still pick them out.

Sorry to read of your loss, My condolences to you and your family.

The past week has been a wee bit difficult health wise so have taken a bit of a back seat.. The 6 I dropped at the 58 miler saw another 2 return through the week so 4 missing from 16 was not earth shattering.. This past Saturday saw me sending 14 untrained Hens to 85 miles and dropped 2 so at the moment I am quite happy although not setting the heather on fire that is not what I am about. This week at 135 miles will see all the colony basketed and with quite a few Hens covering a 6 day youngster one can only hope it will encourage a bit of incentive.

940 to-morrow

Well here we go with 2018 Racing and for the 58 miler I decided to send 16 Late Breeds Cocks from the 17 that returned from being hit with the Bassa 6 weeks ago, They appeared to have recovered from that experience but fortune has never looked kindly on this poor soul and only 8 returned on the day with a further 2 this morning, Did that have any consequence on dropping 6 I don't know but no doubt my retractors will have plenty to stick the knife into LOL. By the way for those who never dropped any I also had 3 strays to-day AB,NEHU and AV. Cannae be from Armadale as everybody had 100% returns !!. Hens next week from 85 miles might just even up the Colony. Talking to our Convoyer last night and he was telling me the convoy were out of sight in seconds so my untrained Birds did not hold them back before any one wishes to go down that line.. aye 600 mile blood and the cannae dae that wee distance..

Blaw Hame 1650

18 Late Breed Cocks for me. 65 Miles

Steve, I am still trying to work out your philosophy,, That they are a waste of all the above including Racing BUT great for Breeding from,, MMMMM Time will tell. ^_^

We are a bit more civilised over this side of the country Andy, LOL, On the subject of Late Breeds which I favour more than normal bred youngsters for racing is due to the fact my best performers were bred late after racing, Perhaps it is the fact they have went through a complete moult and have all Winter to develop muscle and brains by touring the countryside learning without the problem of having competition or regime forced on them. Nest flesh is useless for racing and burns off quickly and can only be replaced with racing muscle by self flying which mine do at every opportunity over the Winter months 1-2 Hrs daily, Basket training stops that phenomenon.