peter pandy

Awa Stevie, Yir chests doon at yir belly, Haw,Haw.

Like yersel in yer foto LOL LOL :emoticon-0136-giggle:

I have the Full Hawkeye System and if I take a pedigree back to 5 generations then the text is small but easily readable, if you go back 4 generations then text is larger, and, if 3 generations its larger still, 2 generations is that big !!!!. Just a little of what I find marvelous about the system is that if a bird is mentioned more than once on the pedigree it is highlighted in differing colours So if their were three birds mentioned then they would be highlighted in 3 different colours etc etc..The identification is superior to other pedigree systems.

The birds are not Fat but too well muscle'd up with heavy feeding and not getting their freedom due to the weather to keep them trim every day. Some guys keep them in all winter and feed rubbish but you do what you think best. My birds are looked after 365 days a year and want for nothing as I am a great believer that even in the middle of Winter they should be in tip top condition which they wont be with having to eat more to counteract the cold and rearing youngsters. Just to put my tuppence worth in they have beautiful pink breasts and Blue flesh is not a result of to much protein.

Well thats all the birds Vaccinated now and I noticed some are a bit on the heavy side so have put them on 25% Barley. Its that time of year to be thinking about nesting material so I am going to collect reeds and chop them into 8 inch lengths as it would appear that if they are too short or long they dont build their nests the same, Fussy beggars. With a Blue sky and a nip in the air the Cocks went out and up till they were dots in the stratosphere, I could have swore a passing Jet had to manouvre out there way, they were that high and its vapour trail had a definate kink in it. The Barcelona Dream by John Ghent in the BHW had me saliving, and wishing I was years younger as I would give it a go with the birds I have introduced, confidence would be high. 3 youngsters I introduced in 2014 are now selling for £1500 with the sire producing fantastic National results in 2015 with the BICC at Barcelona.

Hawkeye Loft Management System. Probably the best in the world and the Pedigree print outs are superior to any I have seen.

I had a PM from a Basic member asking about 1000 mile racing and if I was into it ? NAW I wisnae. The greater distance club started by Dave Smith was successful to a point with birds doing the business and I believe John Ellis was an exponent of the club along with a few others. It is a pity it folded when it did as perhaps next year I might have something that would be available. I would be very surprised if the extreme distance to Pau, Perpingon or Barcelona did not take 1 years preparation, suitable to an experienced bird that had flown near the 700 mile Niort race a couple of times. If I were to give it a go I would have a small shed at my daughter's house well away from another loft and have them on open bowl 365 days of the year making sure they were toughened up and happy. This year though I intend to give Davy Jamieson a fright from the longest National and if TommyBoys is reading this post he has already picked him out. Its a Cheq Cock I call the Grand as his ring Number is 1000..

Strange thing happened to-day when a funny coloured round thing was in the sky, If memory serves me it was called the sun so I opened the loft windows and the Cocks started roaring their heads off. Let them out and they went ripping around the sky for an hour +. Eventually coming down and into a salt bath. When dried they were up again and chasing anything that moved but I just told them they would have to wait for another 6 weeks. That peed them off.LOL

Well Wattie he widnae be takin a Seturday nicht aff then LOL.

Their loft was in Standburn and they were always auld when I was young in the Sixties. They were always on the Fed results competing against over 6,000 birds. Aye it was nice to be reminded about them, Thanks.

DONE

Is Midland Fed included ?.

In the early Seventies I used to go to the Larkhall show, [the only one in Lanarkshire] always falling into the company of Eddie Newcombe, Dave Smith from Dunning, Wee Dennis the Menace Dall, Davy Angus and Willie Wilson were the ones who came to mind and after the show Willie went home and we all went to a small Italian restaurant for a meal and more bevy. Later in the evening we all repaired to Willies which was a full house with the top Fed men present where more bevy was consumed and pigeon races especially Nationals were won by everyone. Those evenings and well into the small hours were what the Doo game was all about and, How we all managed to get home in one piece is any-body's guess. The nibble at the back of my mind is that I cannot remember chewing the fat with big George Rankine which is disapointing but perhaps he was still in Ireland or he had coo's to milk as one would not forget his larger than life presence. Great nights off the past which I really miss.

At $250 I will stick with my terror eyes LOL

How to tell a good Bean Andy ? Well I am fec~ed if I know apart from the weevil hole as its escaped from the inside which brings me to the question of Tannin Poisoning !. If the Tannin which is the bean skin is blinkin poisonous why does it not kill the weevil ?. However back to the question. To me if you eat a bean and its bitter then its a new bean and if its sweet then its a year old. Other tests I have done is to take a hammer and smack whatever it is like a peanut for instance and if their in no oil on the hammer head then its useless and that applies to all oil bearing seeds. One other thing regarding feed if you type in GRAIN VALUES on Wikipedia it will give you an insight that the best all round feed is the lowly BEAN which has 20% Protein, 63% Carbohydrate, 2% Fat and 15% Fibre. What more do we need to give them.. One other thing is The Continental rubbish was introduced into Scotland around 1986 and we have had problems since with larger losses especially fewer birds making it home from the distance. We can call it Light Feeding I will say No Substance Feeding.

I left school in 1961 and started work on a dairy farm. In those days there were no combine harvesters and I had to scythe a path round a 5 acre field of wheat to allow a tractor to drive round with a cutting and binding machine. What I cut I had to gather into sheafs tie and stack manually. All the household pitched in and following the tractor all the sheafs were stooked in bunches of 6 to dry off. A couple of sunny days later all the sheafs were made into a large stack 9ft high with all the grain situated into the centre. It was a couple of months later when we broke into the stack and carted the sheafs down to the mill to be threshed. No driers in those days and it was the same with the local Carse bean which was grown for horse feed and by god the birds had problems at times getting them down their throats. It was only when reminiscing lately that I rememebered a conversation with the Bean farmer in November why he had not threshed any Beans that he had replied The Beans are poisonous untill they have dried and been frosted so come back in January. He died in the Seventies and that was the end of the Carse Bean in Scotland. Norval the farmer in Clackmannan grew the best beans in the U.K. and was contracted by Heinz to supply them for their tins. Heinz sent their Agriculturists for soil samples yearly and after analysing he would be told what to fertilise with and how much to the acre. Tons of Beans were ordered by all the top fanciers in Central Scotland and I really mean THE TOP FANCIERS in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. As the oldies passed away so did the quality fanciers and the new generation started getting the foreign rubbish which looks and IS meant to look Visually wonderful, However a mate who could fly a good pigeon and I, experimented in differant ways to ascertain if it was as good in performance or was it all cosmetic and we found the top of the range widowhood mixture was only good for flying 3 hours with the birds returning like darts with no body and if they were not all home within 4 hours then we were unlikely to see them again. Virtually all those feeds have no substance whatsoever.

Well for all the many years I have been involved in the Doo game I was shocked to read in The Racing Pigeon an article to-day by Dr Philip Quinn on pages 54-56 regarding Pigeon Diet,Nutrition and Digestion telling us that we are poisoning our birds by feeding them Beans Maize etc etc. It would appear that they are lacking Nutrient Balance, Cyanide releasing Glucosides, Enzyme Inhibitors, Mineral Absorption Inhibitors, Lectins, Gluton and Mycotoxins.. Some of the deficiences, Threonine, Tryptophan, Trichothecenes are some of the essential Amino Acids which we are not supplying them with and Tannins from Beans Peas etc are poison I could go on but shut the paper and had Mary make me a cuppa. A while later I thought I remembered something about a chappie who contracted YBS every year had a health shop and was flogging amongst other things crap medication, the cure for YBS. Into the Web and there he is BLUE SKY PIGEON. flogging Nutritional Products, Health Products, Racing Performance Products. Aye he is a clever C#NT..

Not naming names but some of the posts are insulting my intelligence and their intgrity. Feed, Water, Grit my AR#E. Lewis you are spot on.

My present race loft Andy was made to my measurements and is 20 X 8ft, the back is 7ft sloping to the front at 6 1/2ft . It has a veranda the full length apart from my door and twin polycarbonate windows which are hinged and can be dropped when I feel the need which is when the outside temp is 30c. The roof is corrugated tin sheeting and creates heat which is a must and ventilation is virtually non existent when closed up. It is roughly 2ft off the ground and faces South West. Apart from a heating panel in each section there are also Ioniser fans working through the breeding and racing season and switched off at night. When I erected this loft I put down 6 bales of straw but as we all know farming practices have changed where before straw was at least 2ft in length now its 6ins and breaks up to easily, Tried a season with Easy Bed and did not like the smell [dont think the birds did either] and this year will give Aubiose a try for the season. I have been to many lofts where the inmates have been successful and unsuccessful noticing that if the lofts not comfortable for you then it aint for the birds and these are the unsuccessful lofts.

Looks pretty cheap and will only serve a single wire not a fence nor will it be much of a pulse.

I notice Wiley has started a new topic which I admit to enjoying the many replies but I shall not interfere with responding to his post and will continue in the vein of my experiences and moving on to ventilation. My old lofts in the Sixties and early Seventies were your typical dowel fronts for ventilation. It was in this period when I became friendly with Eddy Newcombe and became a regular visitor to Macmerry. His loft was basically enclosed with glass windows and no noticable Ventilation which started a conversation along the lines of. If you have air coming in then you cannot build heat up inside as it would have to escape defeating the purpose as your loft would be the same temperature as outside and you want it to be warmer. At that time I thought the Barley straw on the floor created the heat. "silly me". I went home that day and as my brother was a carpenter we built a 40 X 10ft "L" shaped loft with 4ft square window, 3ft square window and glass door all painted white inside and Barley straw on the floor with 4 chimneys on the roof. The heat was marvellous regardless of outside conditions and performances with the same birds was astronomicaly improved. Our loft was in all probability the first in the Fed area to become enclosed.

I had a colony of pigeons with young and old all to-gether which to me was pure natural. Never had a youngster scalped nor go hungry as an old bird would always want to feed them and when I saw that happening that was my pool bird that week which very rarely failed me.

Had a wee problem with the last post as their was some script problem and would hardly let me type !. Something I feel that any novice reading this should try in fact dont try BUT make sure !!. The most important thing in being a success is consistency.. Now that comes in many forms and to me you have to have a daily programme where everything you do at the loft must be at the same time daily. For instance, Every day my birds went out at 9.00am and brought back in at 11.00am and given a 1/4 feed The change over of brooding takes place at this time in Central Scotland. Any bird that does not come in is locked out. At 13.00hrs a handfull of small seed such as Red Band suffices with the door slightly open to allow in any that did not enter earlier. 17.00 doors are opened and Hens are out for a fly and should be back back in at 19.00hrs for the change over and Cocks can go out untill 20.00 hrs then all in for the main feed and loft locked up at 21.00hrs. The reasoning in not having them out in the afternoon is that if you are observant the wild birds dont fly in the heat of the day and neither will pigeons in fact it is when the sky is at its emptiest. This is the most consistantly important thing you have to do. You will know you have it right because the birds will start roaring as the time approaches for you to make an appearance in their body clock. The above times suited me but perhaps not you so make the attempt to formalise daily times that you can keep in your daily schedule. It will pay handsome dividends off that I can guarantee.

I read lately in one of the papers that the chap who runs the RPRA one loft race swears by Aubiose Hemp horse bedding and as one will recall in an earlier post I was convinced Easy Bed killed my lawn which I am sure I was right as a small stock loft I had with E/B has no grass where I walk now. Anyway I have 2 bales of Aubiose down where my hens are and it appears to have better absorbtion under the perches so have ordered another 6 bales for the race loft. They say you are never to old to learn something new and I found an interesting read about Alkalinity encouraging trouble in the crop and intestines with cocci, canker and worms so I have started a programme of adding 25ml of Cider vinegar with Garlic to 5 ltr water Daily and will send away samples for testing prior to pairing. Going up to Hummingbird the morra for feeding and a browse for anything new. Wee Tiger brought me 4 bags of Scotch beans and they dont look too bad so thats the rearing feed sorted !. Can anybody tell me why all the Breeding mixes have Maize when its the last thing a feeder will pick up.??

Aye thats the chappie that flew in Carterton. We did not speak often but I can always recall his words to me which were. ""It was about time CJ had a no nonsense Scotsman in there to do the business."" And I am sure he would agree that I did. :scotland: