peter pandy

Naw John but my 12 bore over and under is near to hand with No 5 shot.LOL

No you'r not . You are Novo whatever that is supposed to represent !! Cannae be dain wi folk that want tae hide behind anonymity..

Ask Derek the same question !!!.

Watched the same programne and some moors have had to cancel their shoot due to a lack of grouse, I am sure we could tell them where the problem lies and its not the weather. I had a great boss a couple of years back who had a 500 acre estate and put in 500-1000 English Patridge and never saw one to shoot..I told him where the problem lay with Raptors and Buzzards and his attitude was "It was his land and he would decide what lived on it".. 6 months later there was nothing but Song Birds. Marvellous days.. You just have not got a clue John.

Well wee brother was 2nd Fed with last week's 1st Fed topper and had another 4 on the result from Otterburn. Not a lot happening in the loft at the moment with youngsters leaving the nest and all is well, I thought I would have missed not racing Young Birds however with all the losses going about I am not feeding the Bassas. I am sure a couple of trainers around November time from 50 miles will suffice to give them a bit of confidence for next year. Took a trip round some farms looking for bales of Barley straw however they are all bailing with half ton rolls which wont fit into the car.. But there is one up at Coxidene who bales and will be harvesting in about a month so will be there again. Sent away to Mercasystems for my usual order and was delivered in its time promised delivery date as advertised, I have never had a problem with them over the years but I always pay with PayPal. Has anyone tried their ""Ambush"" Pigeon Dip ??.

If the SCC could be resurected and included Almond Valley going to all races being transported by ourselves away from the SNFC, The sleeping giant which I have highlighted before would be the competition that would sink the SNFC. Even organising a meeting of fanciers from the 5 Feds to discuss the start up of a new SCC which could be renamed would be a success with all the birds coming into the Central belt instead of being dragged all over Scotland. It would only have a 12-15 mile radius with roughly 500 fanciers to support it.

Who was on the SHU appeal court Derek ??.

Arrived a couple of weeks ago, stayed a couple of days then cleared but has returned.. Any takers.

Wee Brother sent 46 to Otterburn at the week-end and dropped 3, He timed in last week's Fed topper first to take 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12th in the club before removing the ETS. Starting to pee everybody off in the club and probable 1st Fed to boot but will confirm later. As stating earlier he has been away from the game for 20+ years and is not a reader off magazines nor weeklies so has not been brainwashed by so called new methods nor influenced by continental feeding and has stuck with time and tested methods giving his birds Beans,Peas,Tares,Wheat and a wee drop Maize with the only change being too breed a big team expecting the type of losses we have all become accustomed too at the club. I can honestly say that when he takes up a hobby he is totally focused at becoming number one to the stage off utter commitment and dedication. All is well in the loft and I am contemplating returning to deep litter with straw on the floor, the brain is willing but the body is starting to hurt when scraping out daily and wee Mary say's she aint dooin it..

Naw,, he has a long way to go before catching me up LOL..

Well the Midland Fed result showed that wee brother took the first SIX positions and to say he is over the moon would not be an exaggeration, Walking ten feet tall. I obviously cannot have this state of affairs continue so it will be head down and more effort applied next year. In the loft the rearing of Latebreds continues and am happy with the way they are turning out with some real smashers, I dont separate and leave them all to-gether leaving the nest when they want not me, this way their is no going backward with them as drinkers are kept up on the veranda so they have to exercise their wings to have a drink. Much has been written lately regarding the Future of the Sport and is it worth the effort to continue ??. Well if you have doubts about any aspect of this game then perhaps you would be doing yourself and the family a favour by retiring because if you are not 100% focused then results will be affected regarding your losses which will be atributed to lack of fitness and general attention by puting unfit / unwell birds into baskets which have little or no chance of making it home. I often wonder if many off the losses are down to the fancier by inferior breeding, Lack of proper care or is it something else that is missing from the loft. We can all have losses and scratch our heads for the reason and if we look in the mirror the answer is probably there..

Feed them well and train 25mls Wed & Thur.

All the youngsters were, and any older birds were broken and put on the road with the exception of 2 which had been injured. As regards the Ogilvie loft in Cambusbarron their were plenty stock birds with the amount he sold and we could still beat him with our back garden loft flying a fraction of the amount he sent but it was hard work. LOL.

Nobody had stock doos in the early 80's is your answer.

My younger brother "70 this year" packed the pigeons in about 20+ years ago and although he came round for a year or two he decided to go it alone and re-erected his old loft and added bits and bobs to enlarge it. With all the Stock birds plus others I had he started breeding a team of youngsters to race this year and joined our local club. With Darkness and Natural youngsters he started a training regime and they were extremely well schooled with them split into 4 units, Losses were accepted as the norm and he was never despondant saying they could not have been good enough if the rest could make it home and went to his first race with the Midland Fed from Stobs Camp with 35. He clocked in 13 birds and took his ETS out as he did not want to burden the club with a large print out and his 13 were all in the first 20 in the Club taking 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,13,etc..He also appears to have the first 7 in the Midland Fed yet to be confirmed. As I said to him " I trained you well "..Oh aye, and he only dropped 2 in the race..

Having had a sabattical for a couple of weeks as was intended, and sorry for all my friends who have had disastrous returns from the Nats, with hand on heart I honestly feel for you and am sure you will all bounce back next year. The Feed experiment is probably why I was having difficulty once the 200 mile was reached and I should have known better as it was designed for C.J. Williams who was basically a sprint - middle distance fancier and will not be divulged or repeated in the future. This past couple of weeks has seen me converting the stock loft into a Distance race loft of 6 pairs, which will only house those ear marked for 550-600 miles but so far finding 3 year old's and older are as scarce as hens teeth in the loft but 6 will be found and 6 with injuries will be paired to them, with the loft being open 24 hrs for them to come and go as they wish with extra security installed. Next year the main loft will house 2 year old's, Yearlings and any 2018 youngsters reared. Well thats the plan for next year and I will put this years losses down to not being fed for the job in hand as they were bred for it and fit for it..

1056 and best of luck Andy.

SORTED thank's David.

Been here a while and finally decided to enter the loft.

The article on G.M.Crops and the affect on bees is worth reading again, and I will be ensuring my feed is G.M. free..

No Archie I never had rain coming in through the wood or the knots as you are, "There does appear to be a considerable amount of knots so would assume its seconds weatherboarding". My weatherboarding would shrink but not enough to let water in nor does it have any knots in it.

My loft is weatherboarding 1" thick and the joints open up every year in the summer and their is nothing you can do about it which is why most new lofts are exterior ply. I gave mine 4 coats of oil based Cuprinol to start with after building and yearly has a covering of exterior varnish, makes no difference.

Not changed much,, Have a nice one and hope the lass's team won.

I have used Columbovac since Vaccination started and have already stated Never had YBS so look somewhere else because it aint the vaccination thats the problem.