peter pandy

A song by Frank Sinatra :emoticon-0136-giggle:

You guys in the Danderhall area are lucky Freddy has laid out the cash to give you feeding locally. When I go for feed its the price of 2 Gallon's of petrol for starters. I never look at the price of what I want as long as its quality not rubbish and Matador is one of the top brands in Europe. Best of luck with your endeavour Freddy..

Last night when Jack and Jill [Dogs] went out for their last business for the day they accidentally knocked over my smoker resulting in an almighty crash with metal hitting concrete. Never gave it much of a thought as I re-erected it before retiring for the night.. The consequences were high lighted to-day as on letting the Hens out this morning they were out and gone in a flash returning on the hour then disapearing again for another hour before hitting the house roof. Whistling them down they were as jittery as I have never seen them before and whenever any hit the Petron board they were off again. This continued all afternoon with just the odd one entering every hour or so with the last one in at 19.15. They are not happy campers and standing on the blocks ready for causing mayhem so I have closed up without entering the loft and hope they will have calmed down by to-morrow.

Dinah Washington sang "What A Diff'rence A Day Makes" and I was singing it this morning after letting the Hens out and them off their mark for 45 minutes ranging 1/2-3/4 mile out in a large circle with the odd crossing over the loft. What differed from previous days was that I returned to one feed per day after calling them in and alternating the feed to AM feed one day then PM feed the next which is what I was doing from the start of this trial feed mixture. Cocks were a little bit shy in taking off for the outer reaches but still put in 30 minutes then 30 in short flights. One thing I can guarantee with time exercising, is the state of fitness they are in, as without it, you wont be at the races where I am with 8 lofts within a 150 yard radius all trying to outdo each other. One can only hope it lasts as they will never be in a training basket this year. Us pensioners cannae afford the price of petrol training them. :emoticon-0136-giggle: :emoticon-0136-giggle:

Colombovac since vaccination started and never had Y/B sickness. But I do mine every year.

I do believe you are on the right lines Lewis as normally I would have them rearing 12 days then separate with both parents feeding when they came back into the N/B section. The differance this year was to only have them sitting about 8 days before shifting the Hens letting them back into th N/B section to sit again. With the Cocks doing the overnight shift with eggs. They have now to-day abandoned them so it was a total clear out in the Section and N/B fronts back on leaving the bird to sit on the wood block at the front. The Hens when let out this morning took off like rockets and I had a glimpse of them half a mile out, I was congratulating myself with a cuppa when they returned after 15 minutes onto the loft roof,, Beggars,,Still they are on the right lines with 16 days to go till the off.

In the loft last night for the last feed of the day and noticed a 3 year old stranger just returned from Riems last year, checked out O/K so will be returned this year to ascertain if he can perhaps do it a wee bit quicker. 10 minutes for both sexes had me complaining about the lack of effort in the exercise period to "Him doon the street" and he retorted that he was having the same problem as well as "Him roond the bend", Baffling is not what it should be and we cannot come up with an answer. Three differing lofts in management etc, etc, Bizarre..

They are as rare as Hens teeth, and, on the few occasions I have been blessed with a youngster returning after Wintering out it has paid handsome dividends when raced as a Yearling, regardles of the state of the flights.

What a beautiful day to start Roundabout which was just a pity nobody told the birds, Cocks out and put in 7 minutes before hitting the loft and demanding to be let back in so they were not happy campers at having to stay out till the 60 minutes were up while I had to jack the Hens off their nests and put through the perch section. Cocks back in and fed then Hens given their freedom when along came a Buzzard high up on the thermals and had the Hens joining it so at least they had their wings stretched up there. My twa neighbour's had their's out as well so three sets were circling the Buzzard separately, poor beggar did not know where to look for a meal..looking in on the Cocks they had all resumed sitting their eggs so wont remove them till they decide enough is enough whereupon I will close off the rear portion of their nest box and they will then be back onto the wood block at the front. More trainers going through to-day heading West so wish them well.. Regarding changing route's Steve, We reckoned every couple of years not yearly, to bring the numbers down naturally because reading between the lines very few are helping the cause !!.

Just after my last post the box packed in at its usual unexpected time and declared it was not going to work for me again so with it declaring self redundancy I dumped it in the bucket and my Laddie treated me to a new one curtesy of a golden wedding present and a black Opal pendant for his mum Wee Mary. Aye 50 years in already which have been filled with up's and downs with laughter and tears but most of all memories. In the loft the Cocks will be shifted into the perch section and I will move onto Roundabout for a couple of races to give the Late Breds and Yearlings a bit of Racing experience before puting them bye for next season. Watched a batch of trainers heading West about 12.30 to-day and they were obviously unfit with the wing beats more of a slap to keep airborne, so hope they had not much further to go or somebody was going to be missing a few to-night. At our Saturday session it made sense to the table the change of race routes every couple of years as written in the BHW to help eradicate the Bassas through starvation ! Well it made sense to us, Will it happen ? NAW..

Nice bit of advertisement " Reduces the Potential " So it guarantees nothing.

Belated Birthday Greetings Andy :emoticon-0123-party:

What a sad and uneventful life you must have John,, Perhaps you require to get out more often.

I should have concluded that Apple Cider Vinegar only has a Ph of 4.25 - 5.0..

The Lad was not at Scrabster but Kirkwall and could not make it back till Monday and the threesome had become a twosome unfortunately. Sorry Andy. With all the Hens laying I have removed and replaced with china eggs so definitely no youngsters for racing this year. Exercising round the loft has dramatically reduced to about 15 minutes with neither sex wishing to put a bit of effort in. Hopefully this will be corrected once they are split again on 2nd April giving them 18 days to regain the fitness required for early races weather permitting although the Fed programme is as usual not catering for the birds welfare with distance increasing rapidly over the first three races of 85,116 then 159 miles, My own belief is that losses will occur with unfit birds jumped into the second or third race. An article appeared lately regarding acidifying the drinking water with Apple Cider Vinegar which I found a lot of tosh as you only require 15ml per litre of water.. It only has to be Acidic not pure acid as recommended..

Wid it make a guid aviary Billy ??.

My laddie is in Scrabster this week Andy working but should be finished and flying home on Friday as I am sure he is down in Devon next week so will ask him if he can fit up one of my spare security cameras into the loft then download onto Basics. Not knowing the technical side of it will leave it up to him.

At the evening feed 17.00hrs the three bird scenario was a treat to watch as the Hen had a pick and drink with both Cocks refusing to budge and with a bit of jiggling she managed to get between them and snuggle down on her egg. Both Cocks then left the nest with one at the back of the box and the other standing on the wooden block ""which I have in every nest box"" and when I closed up for the night they were still in the staring at each other position so no feed for them to-day although I thought Jack my Border Terrier would have moved them as he could see I was interested in them and gave the closest Cock a good sniff and had his nose whacked by a wing for his troubles,, Laugh, you could not make it up.

After breaking ice in the drinkers this morning and Temps -2 all was well in the loft. The two Cocks paired to the One Hen scenario resulted in her laying last night and a comical situation has now developed with both Cocks sitting the egg at the same time staring at each other no doubt to see which one is going to move first, On giving their mid-day feed neither would move from the bowl.. I just wish there had been a race to go to this week-end as it would be money in the bank.

Another little snippet from the past was suddenly brought to mind and that was Haiths Red Band which helped immensely in bringing condition into the birds but remember it is strong so do not give more than 5% in your total daily feed. I will start it as soon as all the birds are sitting in preparation for splitting at 10 day eggs and moving onto Roundabout before going Natural for Distance racing.

Oh Dear that was 87 years ago and to think I swore on oath to protect "Queen and Country".

Naw John I bought and sold 2 Council Houses, And gave my kids most of the proceeds. I worked and paid my Taxes and National Insurance for 50 years apart from the Shilling when employed in Saudi Arabia but all my money was sent home which Wee Mary endeavoured to try her best spending making sure their was nothing left for me to spend on Doos. I, in all honesty am a Tory and of the belief that if more were honest about themselves they might find they are at heart too. I was of the opinion many years ago that Scotland was a fabulous Country until I ventured further South than Gretna and let me tell you the grass is definitely greener the further South you go and I mean that literally. P.S. Its past your bath and bed time.

John, John, John, You know fine well that I offered to do the SNFC job on a Part Time basis as it is not a full time occupation. A couple of races, A Presentation Dinner, A Balance Sheet and a couple of Committee Meetings does not add up to 40 hours per week. Oh aye and I only asked for half the wages they were offering. I do not know the parentage of Maggie so wont comment, Coal I know a little about and its destruction of the environment watching Sulphur Dioxide spewing out the chimneys of Longannet Power Station and regards Council House Sales !, well I do know you will get a house immediately if you are an Immigrant, on Invalidity, Single Parent, Junkie or Released Prisoner from Jail, but not, if you are not in the categories I have mentioned. Please remember Wee Mary and I lived in a garage for a number of months because we did not, or know how, to screw the system, Nor did we want to know.. For a wee bit more information. I am very friendly with a past leader of the SNP who gave me the following information "If you tell lies often enough then the populace will eventually believe them" Which is why he no longer supports them.

Maggie Thatcher !, Absolutely brilliant,, She gave everybody in the United Kingdom the opportunity to BUY your Council House removing the yoke round our necks and it was always my first question when people were denigrating her. Coal mines,, Yes I remember when you could hardly get a breath for the smog it produced, Fishing John, We had to give it to the E.U. as it had to be shared and trawled clean by the fine nets used by the French and Spaniards and as for the Car Industry, They hardly worked a week without going on strike for the tiniest little excuse and as for me, The wife and I retired back to Scotland to be near our family and the wonderful weather..NOT.