peter pandy

The only time I blind treat is round about this time of year when I dose them with "Levacide" 1ml = 1 ltr Water three days on two days off and three days on.. This will remove all Worms including Lung Worm and other internal Parasites. Birds flying the same as yesterday and have to admit its a treat to watch them burning up the sky leaving vapour trails in their wake. :rolleyes:

Aye Tommy, On this trial feed mixture they have 30% Barley all year..

Many many moons ago I bred one with red down to the pupil but it was not a fairy tale ending as it disappeared at the first toss, Sorry but I hope you have better luck with your one.

Put the Hens out first today as usual and after an hour had passed I had the whistle out every time they crossed over the loft and had to admit defeat when they kept going. Two hours flying before they dropped onto the loft and all in in ten seconds. Ideas on how to cut their exercise period to a reasonable time would be appreciated !!. By the way not paired up yet. Cocks out after all Hens were being fed and they turned in 80 minutes before dropping. Now they were not out yesterday with the inclement weather so perhaps they just wanted to put in a double shift to make up for lost flying time.. eat your heart out Stevie.

Baytril...The biggest killer of the immune system in my opinion, especially when over used..

I have had a really good look round the loft for a different type of insect, fly or mite that is unbeknown to me which has evolved those past couple of years which when bites "young birds only" will pass on YBS. Cannae find oany.. I noticed their are still no leaf on the surrounding trees nor are the wild birds nest building so I wish the Million or so young pigeons bred so far the very best of luck. Woke up this morning and pulled back the curtains to find visibility about 30 yards in thick fog. Naw the windaes had not steamed up so the loft remained closed till mid-day for it clearing before the Hens went out for their usual burst of energy lasting 45 minutes before landing and entering for the single feed of the day and Cocks out for another repeat performance lasting the same time before having their single feed of the day. They are still on 28 grams per bird with a small amount of Hormoform mixed in along with 1 teaspoon per 10 birds of Columbovine minerals and grit, No waste here, all are handling light, buoyant and alert so am very pleased at their development. This week the workers in the Club ( Eddie, Uncle Albert and Myself ), power washed all the baskets, repaired them, varnished them, removed the windows from the building and bricked them up which only leaves internal painting next week after scraping the peeling paint from the walls. Retired !! that's a joke word..

Broken hearted at this news as Mary and I hoped to see him at the end of this month. Rest in Peace old friend..

Ian, I checked it out on Wikipedia amongst it's other uses "for Fk sake".. Definitely not for Pigeon Loft use where the inmates can come into contact with it..

Permetherin is an insecticide used in agriculture on MAIZE and WHEAT. expletive remove..

To-day and the loft veranda and half the floor was given a good wash down through the night with the strong South Westerly and heavy rain blowing into the loft which had me scraping crap from the floor which I would have eaten my dinner off yesterday, so the first decent day the spray will be out and the floor will have a good soak with the ingrained crap scraped off, I would power wash it but there is nowhere for the water to go. At our Saturday coffee meeting size of bird compared to feed was given a good going over and three lofts which feed differently with inmates not all being of a standard size will compare notes at the end of the season. I will have to keep my personal view to myself at this time due to giving an old feeding plan a trial for a year which if it works I will detail it for the readers of the column. It may be 50 years old but the guy won Barcelona International on it and I believe it will suit the type of bird I now have left in the loft for racing. I am sure we all know feed plays a part with the emphasis being that without the quality of bird we will win nothing.

The weather the past couple of days has seen the Barometer fall below 1000 millibars so pointless putting the birds out. To-day, and the garden is under 2ins of water apart from my raised flower bed which has 5/600 Daffodils up through about 6ins and should be blooming next week some time !! Spring is just around the corner, All the local guys who paired early have nothing to show for their impatience, with a couple splitting again to repair next month.

The idea to have Inland Races was politically formed in early 2000 by respected fanciers throughout Scotland with the intended outcome being the disbandment of the SHU and all business taken over by the SNFC. This subject is a loaded gun and I aint pulling the trigger.. :emoticon-0127-lipssealed:

Midland had a tanking from Appleby last year.

Blue and White skies and temps between 8-10C this week had the birds coming into condition with masses of down feathers and appetites reduced so knocked back feed to 25 Grams per bird. Cocks and hens out on alternate days has seen them burning up the skies although I have them on a low Energy feed every alternate day too, Makes you wonder what they will be like later on in the year but only time will tell. I have at the moment pencilled in March 18th as a possible pairing date with the First race 4 weeks later !!. The reason being weather permitting they will have 12 Hours Sunshine daily and move onto a racing regime.

Lindsay, Can I have a wee loan of your Tardis :emoticon-0136-giggle: :emoticon-0136-giggle:

Just type in "Terror Eyes Balloons"..

All the birds vaccinated this week and inspected for "beasties" with some having hosts under the wings, All were dusted and the following day on inspection were still there, I had Wee Mary hold them and tried removing them but to no avail so had her try as she has nails but still could not be pried off. Closer looking and what I thought was Feather lice turned out to be dark marking on the feathers !!. ( must go to specsavers ). Wiley with his 3 I's is a refreshing Post and much needed to compare differing ideas on Basics and I wish him all the success in his endeavours. I know when I started one year ago I never imagined that it would be read by over half a million views yet the longer it goes repetition tends to creep in and perhaps if I return to a Daily report the reader would perhaps find there is little but subtle differences between us. To-day for instance my Cocks exercised for just over the hour mark and at our Saturday afternoon meeting the mates were saying they wish theirs were as capable and as fast as mine. I restarted Hormoform again at 2 Grams per bird mixing in Matrix to powder the feeding which is 30 Grams in total per bird and they are only fed once per day after exercise. Three Litres of Water has 30 Mls of Cider Vinegar added which is their Daily intake at this time of year.

I have had one hit in six years which survived with TERROR EYES erected.. 100-150 yards both lofts are hit regularly but they don't have TERROR EYES !!! Is that not saying something regarding protection.

I am sure I wrote in the past where a good friend had a job 40 miles distant and every day that's where his birds were and he had a super season. The following year he was working closer to home and he was back to his normal middle to bottom of the race result. Jings they were fit that year..and they were fed by the Hopper system..

To conclude whether right or wrong.. Can birds smell water ?? I don't think so, or are they just creatures of habit ?. Why !!! When they can see Water wont they go near it until thirst forces them to ??. Are they fearful of a different object in the loft !! If that is the case they wont be drinking in a basket. If they don't drink in a Race Basket dehydration is the killer not the Bassa's in the sky. Animals including humans can go weeks without Food "Tiger excluded" but only days without Water even much less in high Temperatures where its probably hours before dehydration. I don't expect many of us have experienced dehydration !!, I have and it is an experience I never wish to go through again where your body wont do what the brain instructs it too.

It would appear "NOT" that my last posts have disappeared so will try again.. Martin aka "AYE READY" had me thinking about my Eltex drinkers which were nearly as old as myself which had cracked enamel and had started leaking on the bottom, I replaced with plastic drinkers and noticed they were a "tad" wary of them which surprised me as they were in the same spot on the veranda but a different colour,, It played on my mind for a couple of days so I responded with a little experiment.. Day ONE I removed the drinker and screwed 2 eye hooks onto the wall hooking basket drinkers on, Filled to overflowing the birds were fed and I retired to the greenhouse to watch which was a waste of time as the birds would not go within six inches of them, Day TWO no water had been taken so they were fed again and although some approached the drinkers NONE drank. THIRD day some water had been taken so birds fed drinkers topped up and they all went for a drink although I could sense they were apprehensive.. Day FOUR I cut up nest fronts to resemble basket conditions and fitted onto the wall so now they had to put their heads through to get a drink, No water taken. Day FIVE birds fed and all drinking although still apprehensive. Day NINE and no problem with them drinking now. Will conclude later..

R.I.P. Ian.

Better overfly !!.

With me having to basically start again from scratch it is difficult trying to get a team of three year olds, At present I only have 17 Two year olds that if possible will have one 500 mile race with whatever is left going to the Gold Cup in 2018.