peter pandy

Electric fences are legal and the humane way to safeguard our birds from predatory animals. The shock does not kill or injure only gives them a fright so they dont return this is due to the one second pulse emanated from the energiser.

Yes that was the headline in Tuesday's Daily Express and I had to check the date as I thought it was an April Fool, However what is printed was........ Pigeons have been recruited to help the fight against pollution.Ten birds will be fitted with sensors to monitor the main ingredients of killer smog - nitrgen dioxide and ozone in London. The public will then be able to get an update on pollution levels by tweeting their location to @ PigeonAir. Twitter spokeswoman Helen Lawrence said: "Pigeons that tweet live pollution information..You've got something really powerful". The pigeons will be following in the wing beats of coal mine canaries, used by miners in days gone by to detect toxic gases in tunnels. You could not make it fckn up.

P.M. sent.

Well thats the birds onto the top of the privot hedges eating the sprouting new growth leafing buds. I have often wondered if it harms them in any way as the droppings are firm and their normal colour so perhaps not. I feel sorry for the guys who have sparrow hawk attacks at the loft and was reading up lately on the Sweedish Goshawk trap developed by Meng 1971 and how simple they are to make. Mind you they are illegal in this country...

I usually take it down in November and do any touch up if needed such as painting the red with enamel paint rehanging it in February . Put a new tail on it this year.

Reading all the posts on BOP and nobody has mentioned the TERROR EYES balloon deterent. I now have the birds on open hole from 09.00-17.30, day about till they are paired and although lofts close bye are recieving unwanted visitors nothing so far in the past 5 years since moving here has disrupted the ambience of me or my feathered friends. Perhaps the amount of crows in the vicinity is a help and they can be a nuisance at times when they come round the side of the house as if in ambush mode.

Stevie, He could only advise you to get yourself down to the South East corner whaur you could flee craws and win umpteen Nats. LOL :emoticon-0136-giggle:

Like many reading this you will have been to quite a few Moots,Quiz nights and took in what the panel experts have to say, however, do some give you a bum steer by advocating the opposite to what they actually do ?. I can think of quite a few and in magazines read the same, after all, are they going to tell you how you could beat them, THINK NOT , It is the same with Beans !. I have enquired through the internet where tannins [skins on beans,peas,tares etc] are poison to our birds as was told by one of Scotland's top distance men. Piffle comes to mind and I do believe Harker's Michael Binns has quashed that theory. He has justified what I wrote in earlier posts that Beans Rule for the distance. On looking through an old letter from Marcel Desmet to CJ Williams regarding a feeding programne, he was advocating 45% Maize, 30% Barley, 5% Wheat, 5% Sunflower, and 15% Beans,Peas and Tares and he won Barcelona.

Goes brittle with age and becomes unstable, Creates condensation. Better and cheaper in long run with metal sheets.

I have 5 pair of prisoner stock in a small shed which were never separated from last year and they have all went down on eggs after throwing down Marsh Reed for them to help themselves. They were never split due to me being happy with their young last year. The rest of my stock birds are freedom stock and go out with the racers to keep them supple and fit. I have noticed when I let each sex out for a fly they always head South West for a mile and circle a few times then head West before disapearing and returning from no obvious direction a goodly while later. No doubt when they pair up it will be twice round the chimney then roof time. I see the Midland Fed race programne starts on April 16th WHY I dont know ! it used to be the last Saturday in April when all the Feds started so what is going on.. Oh aye its tae fit the SNFC sprinters in OR should I say the East coast holiday pay benovolent fund..

NAW, the train headed West so I imagine a coal fired Power Station in Ayrshire perhaps. Back at the Jubilee Hospital this morning and the Surgeon reckons I may have an infection in the knee that was replaced so it was blood samples and another appointment for a scan with the chance of a sample of fluid taken from the knee for further tests. The burds were a trifle late going out today but the Hens disappeared for a while and turned in around the 2 hour mark with the Cocks doing a similar time in the air. What was noticable was over 100 Craws flying around in a large circle about 1 mile out at the same time, Dont know if they spied an interloper or not but it was unusual to say the least. Picked up a Himalayan salt lick for the birds as the craving for it will be on them shortly.

I was wondering if anyone had experienced a young bird flyaway yet ?. My wee girl was in the day and was asking if I had any youngsters yet to which I replied I have not paired up yet. She was saying that she remembered in 1973 when I lost them all What happened was the youngsters were up for the very first time and were all on the loft roof. I cleaned out and when returning back outside they were nowhere to be seen. At the back of my loft was the main railway line with a shunters siding beyond, where the coal trains from Boness Pit would pull and shove up the hill, dump the wagons and return to Boness, Another train would come along and hook up the wagons and take them to wherever in Britain. On looking over the fence there was my 40 youngsters sitting on top of the coal when a train coupled up and left with them all stupidly sitting there. Last seen heading West and never seen again.

Can one assume Midland are not included in the Lanarkshire Plan for Amalgamation ?. We only have about 40 members now and all are in the West Section.

Another beautiful day although minus 2c when I dumped the Hens out at 0800 but they were up and away for 30mts before returning to the area. Back in at mid-day and Cocks out for the afternoon. The Mrs and I went cutting rushes and I must appologise by writing in another post to cut them at 8ins lengths when it should be 4ins. any way we filled a garden bucket and that should see me through the first round nest material before repeating same for second round nest. I dont know about others but I normally put a small quantity of nest material in the nest bowl then scatter a handfull on the floor for them to continue nest building and will encourage them daily till material is not being lifted then stop it for a couple of days and start dropping material on the floor again and normally this encourages them to start building again. I will on occasion have some nests 6ins higher than the nest bowl with a degree of difficulty for the birds to get onto their nests but that can keep them attentive. At present my nest boxes are closed with a 6ins portion on the front where I have a 4ins square wooden block for them to stand on. This block does not move as their is a 4ins nail hammered into the middle of the bottom then grinding off the nail head and a 1/4 ins hole drilled into the nest box floor so it cannot be knocked out the box but allows it to rotate when claning out. Something I picked up when at C.J's. One week before pairing I will remove the nest box fronts as they are not required with my pairing up methods. Cocks are on 1/4 Barley 3/4 mix..Hens on 1/3 Barley 2/3 Mix.

Another quiet day in the Metropolis doing crosswords etc with the Mrs when the peace and quiet was shattered with the arrival of family and Grand / Great Grand Weans for Mothers Day, Nobody told me, and the fact my Mrs is not my maw does not wash with my lot. A hasty retreat to the loft was called for so ended up putting the Hens oot fur a flee and straightening out a couple of feathers with the kettle. How they manage to bend them is beyond me ?.

Wignall & Barnie Manchester have excellent Birds with performance to match. Wignall & Barnie Manchester have excellent Birds with performance to match.

Shift the Hens at 12 days and start them on R/About the Cocks and Hens will feed them when in the section.

Looks a real stoater..

Gled somebuddy els kan make a misteak LOL.

Aye you are bang on there Stevie. The best Yearlings in The Scottish Central Combine wiped out at 300 miles.

Watched a Peri attempting to get one of Uncle Albert's birds to-day but they have learned to keep at the same level as the toe rag and they are all safe and sound.

MMMMM 4 Million voters put a X for UKIP at the last election and got nowhere. About half of that number voted SNP and we got a Government due to our voting system. Personally I think Trump will be good for America.

I had to stop on post 208 as I had something in my eye but am now recovered. The two Red Hens I had from the Red Rock lookalike were both different in their make up as one was slim built while the other was all chest and were both average size. They both went to the first young bird race from Locherbie 65 miles to me and the slim one won 1st club 3rd Fed 6,500 birds and never went in a basket again as I had lost her sire. She went on to breed a good number of 520 mile Combine Pigeons and 600 mile SNFC birds..Her sister the chesty red hen did not return till the start of old bird racing the following year round about May. It was obvious she had wintered out as every feather was frayed and tattered but she still had a reasonable body on her regardless of her travels in the missing 10 months. She paired to a cock and went down on eggs and I have to say she looked and handled well and when having a blether with I think Dennis Dall he said pigeons dont fly with their feathers but with their muscles which was a new look on things so I sent her after a few trainers where she came alright to a 230 miler where she astounded me by not only winning the club 300 birds but high up in the first 10 in the Fed. That was the end of her racing career as a yearling. At two she scored from Avaranches 520 miles and as three scored in Nantes 600 miles.. Another which comes to mind was a gift Van Der Espt which was lost at a young bird race and returned 7 months later also tattered and frayed one week prior to the First Old Bird Race so remembering past experiences I sent him to the race that week to be 1st club 5th Fed 4,000 birds and his next race was the Scottish Yearling Derby from Cheltenham where I sent him alone fully pooled. While waiting that day I had a phone call which had me leaving the loft for 20 minutes and when I returned he was in the loft sitting on his nest. Only 14 pigeons were clocked in in race time with his velocity being 399.8 he was the 15th home. Pools were returned and I was told if he had not been a full pooler they would have gave him his position. He also went on to score at 520 miles and was sold for 50Pence when I had to pack in. To be perfectly honest I wish all my young birds would get lost and return after the Winter as they must have the iron constitution to survive. I would also save on the feeding bill.

Congratulatons to you both.

Mick, Please forgive me if I have insulted you or the Irish population by referring the above as "a bit Irish".. It only means ....""Seems to make no sense but works perfectly""..