peter pandy

Another beautiful day yesterday and as I came out the loft at 1300 hrs wondered where all my cocks were ?. On looking skyward many dots appeared far more than I had out and racing around until they took off heading North with what I believe was two Peregrines chasing them. 5 minutes later some reappeared still very high up and dived down to the loft. A head count later said that all was well and will ascertain later to-day if the other local guys have dropped any. My neighbour Eddy whose loft is 100 yards away watched all this and commented he was glad he had not put his out as he is want to do to get his in amongst mine for a decent fly and it was the same with Albert as his had been out and were back in for the usual Saturday coffee afternoon and putting the world to rights. Having just recieved a phone call with a bit of bad news from a mate it is beyond belief that some so called fanciers can be real sh#ts who are quite happy to accept donations from me for £100 yet cannot return a little help that would cost them nothing but rest assured they have just lost roughly £500 income this year for their inability to see further than the end of their beaks.

Aye its a funny auld game right enough but I have to say I have had a lot of good Late Breds that have won positions out to 600 miles. <_<

Neither Wiley it was my ramblings which was about twice the length of the above.

Sorry to say but I still have no edit button..

Well yesterday's post dissapeared so will endeavour to try again. Thursday began with with the normal pre pairing dropping's samples and crop swabs making sure I was getting the cotton bud the full 10ins in !!, with the help from the wife you will understand where my measurements are coming from and posted to the Deweerd Laboratory for testing as I never blind treat apart from shoving 100mg Rodinazol tablet down a youngsters throat when weaning. Its funny but when I see the Deweerd name I always think about Bernard De Weerdt from Kortemarke as he was a frequent visitor to C.J. Williams twice or thrice a year and we spent many an hour at the loft discussing all the topics of pigeon management under the sun. He was pleasantly surprised when I enquired about the late developement of his family and was their any particular reason why as his birds originated from the same source as C.J's namely Marcel Desmet who when living was another frequent visitor along with Senator La Haye, Van Bruanne, Van Der Espt and Maurice Delbar. Bernard then told me that his entire young bird race team was sold every year apart from the odd youngster that had made its mark and at the end of Old Bird racing a team of late breds were reared which was the Yearling team for the following year. They were not trained until the following Spring and raced out to 150 miles. So basically they became late developers with his entire race team starting out as a late bred which to his reckoning made them slow moulters so he could compete distance races in July/August as three year olds. I have to say the DeWeerdt stock birds C.J. had, never bred anything of note but that could have been down to my predecessor who was a complete waste of space and way out of his depth.

Thanks for all the replies guys and its all gobblygook to me as I use this contraption like a typewriter and dont know how to paste, transfer etc and I have in the past used the back arrow and had no problem in my limited capacity of being a dullard. :emoticon-0136-giggle:

Nae EDIT button on mine either

Andy, Perhaps you can answer my dillema !. When writing a post there are times I have to look elsewher to ascertain my facts are correct, Yesterday was one of those days and I did not post immediately and went looking for further information so was on another site for about 20 minutes. Would I be correct in assuming that if you have not typed any further for a certain period of time the post deletes itself ?.

Can not believe it !!!! I have sat her for ages writing about Emiel De Weerdt and Marcel Desmet and lost the blinking lot. Will rewrite it another time.

Well. You know the old saying "You can lead a horse to water etc." Me, if I was desperately determined they were having Barley I would close the lid on the hopper till what was in the trough was eaten. Pigeons are not ruling my system so they eat what and when I want them to. I just have to show them my yellow feed bucket and they are dropping out of the sky with the Hens vacating the aviary into their loft in anticipation which is how it should be.

Neil, With pairing up in a month I have reduced the Barley in the mix to 10% and my total mix has been increased to 20 grams per bird. I weigh all my mix feed out, so 16 cocks are having 320 grams in total of mix in a trough and if they want more feed then the hopper of pellets is there for them. If they dont eat all the mix within 15 minutes I will reduce the mix by 5 grams so the birds would have a total of 240 grams of mix the next day and I am still only feeding once per day. Perhaps you are overfeeding the mix so try weighing it out exactly. It is not unusual in my loft for the birds to empty their trough then head for the hopper.

Their is a post regarding weak back pigeons which reminded me of an instance many years ago. I was standing in a queue at the Edinburgh Show in the Waverly station about maybe 45 years ago talking to Johnny Robertson of Jedburgh and he was inviting me down to his loft which I accepted and dates were fixed. In the same queue a chappie was eary wigging the conversation and later approached me to see if he could persuade me to take a look at his birds which he had introduced and I agreed to visit the following week. The guy's name was the late Tam Patterson from Pumpherson and we became very friendly over the years. However I digress as am wont to do, On approaching his loft he had empty baskets on the lawn and asked me to handle all the inmates and put what I liked in one basket and disliked in the other. An hour or two later his loft was empty and in the baskets. He asked what I thought so I said all that I disliked were only put their because they had a weak back and unbeknown to me I had picked every single bird he had purchased from a top English National Flier Named Aurther Munns from Chatteris. The other basket contained all his own birds which had done well inland but could not get them from across the pond so I told him to try and pair up a month later than normal which he did and they started to score from the distance. All the Munns pigeons were gone within two years due to being useless.

Four weeks to-day I will be pairing up so to-morrow I will half fill a vial with droppings from each section and shove a 5 inch cotton bud down four birds "one from each section" throats and wiggle them about at the bottom of the crop then send away for analysis from Belgica De Weerd. Any problems gives me ample time to sort it out although I am confident they are free from problems.

Hold bird in both hands firmly facing you and separate both wings at same time.. Tail up = weak back..tail down = strong back.. The tail will always go one way or other.

Simple answer to that Stevie Yer Overfeeding.

I have had this problem when reading reports so I will clarify. HOPPER = Is a receptacle that can hold a large amount of feed. Mine can hold 100kg easily and only has one type of feed in it. ie Pellets. TROUGH = Is a receptacle which takes perhaps 1kg of feed and sits on my floor and which I put mix into ensuring their is nothing left and is lifted and put away till next feeding time. Confusion = When I read Alf Baker many years ago he said he fed in a hopper 60% Maples 40% Maize when in actual fact it was in a trough. The difference would appear to be an English thing.

Aye Alf, And the wife put my pants straight into the bin LOL

It was a Thursday afternoon before the Fed Young Bird Open and I was admiring this Blue Pied Cock as he was going about all the Hens old and young looking for something to pair up to. The old Hens were off their eggs and Cocks sitting and was obviously desperate to tread and was not giving a toss whether the Hen was married or not and as his frustration grew so dis my hopes for a goos time from him on Saturday. The doors were opened later for the evening fly and after they had excercised all they wanted they hit the house roof and mucked about as pigeons do. They were brought in and fed the evening meal and as I sat there in the loft it became apparent the Blue Pied Cock was missing and checked to see if he was still outside. As I sat with my brother wondering where I had last seen him it came to me that I saw him on the chimney pot birling and sweeping his tail and my worst thought was that he could be down the chimney. Now back then I lived in a 4 to the block and our house was the upstairs flat and I lost the toss of the coin to go out the skylight window and climb the 10 feet to the roof breast, on looking out the window I shouted down that their was no way I was going any further and my brother who was a carpenter shouted dont worry I will make you up a ladder to climb up the slates and just hook it over the roof breast. So he did, and I did, and pants required immediate removal as I did not really realise just how high it was, anyway I shimmied along to the Chimney and looked down to see the Blue Pied on a ledge 12 feet down. I gave my brother another shout and told him to sling a weight up to me using a fishing rod with the instruction that if the weight hit me I would brain him when I made terra firma again but on the first cast I luckily managed to catch the lump of lead and told him that in the shed he would find a hammer and cold chisel and at his leisure would he make his way into the attic. Now this is the tricky bit as I lowered the lead to where the Blue Pied was sitting I started to gently swing the lead against the chimney brick and my brother pin pointed the brick that appeared to be what the lead was hitting and proceeded to chip the brick from the chimney. After what seemed a life time as my past had flashed in my brain on more than one occasion he made the breakthrugh and one loose brick went crashing down the chimney and knocked the electric fire to bits and it was the wrong brick as he was about two feet below the bird and had to take another brick out, fortunately enough this one ended up in the attic and he managed to grab the Blue Pied safely and will I manage to get myself down from the roof. It was getting dark when the Fire Brigade arrived with a turntable ladder and rescued me. As for the Blue Pied or Blacky Blue we could not make up our minds what colour to put down on the race sheet he was 1st Club Nom and Accumulator and 5th Open Fed with £100+. Observation is the key word..

Funny you should mention Hawks as my Brother in Law "Basics Uncle Albert" lives 100 yards away and was telling me this morning that one had been hit at his loft yesterday afternoon and would I be so kind as to get my "Terror Eyes" back up as he has not had trouble from them since the "Eyes" appeared 5 years ago. DONE.

Probably too high for you LOL

Regardless of the outside inclement weather the inside of my racing loft is like the inside of a house. I can sit inside it and am not aware of the weather outside. I know the birds are happy with their environment and If they are happy and showing it then I am too. To-day when it was wall to wall sunshine the Cocks were roaring their heads off which is to be expected as they are in fine fettle and it is the full moon when all wildlife is at its peak or should be if all is ok. In 28 days time they can get down to the business of choosing the hen they want to spend the rest of their lives with as I never force them to take up with a partner they would be unhappy with. The reason my birds are flying the skies is due to the fact that with it being a new team they are mostly 5-10 months old and are still what I term running. I thought you would have clocked that fact lads. When section 2 went out at 10.00 they took off S/W and were gone for 1.1/2 hrs probably gave you a visit Steve the time they were away.

Well I am a poor old age pensioner who only wants to give his birds the best after all I wont eat Gruel when I can afford Steak. Typical Doo men get the cheapest but it works out the dearest in the long run..

Tommy, Nice to hear from you again Now "Real Foods Edinburgh" are importers of many nuts and grains and where John Bosworth gets his from. I had my last consignment from them about a year ago and the Peanuts are still soft and tasty and S/Flower I add to my Bread as I make my own and they are the same.

Welcome to the funny farm He Haw. :emoticon-0140-rofl:

Wiley, I have already posted that I feed ad/lib Spillars layers pellets in a large hopper and obviously the 30 Cocks are into them at daybreak around 08.00. I will put them out at 09.00 if the sun is shining and 10.00 if its not but its dry. They are locked out till 14.00 when the trap is dropped and whistled in to be fed 150 grams Barley 150 grams All Round Supreme and 10 grams Columbine All in One mixed to-gether and fed into a trough. So all they are having is 10 grams off hard feed each. Doing my homework 20kg bag of Pellets will last me roughly 35 days for the 30 cocks so that will be 19 grams of Pellets daily = 29 grams of feed per bird daily. I think you will agree that all in all I am a heavy pellet feeder which has surprised even me and I thank you for bringing it to my atention.