holmsidelofts

As far as im aware they cant refuse any clock that has been past as exceptable by the union. If i wanted i could bring my toulet in and they couldnt refuse me the use of it. I would certainly be taking it to the union if the club refuse me. Good luck. Jas.

Salmonella/paratyphoid, Will be the next big disease to hit everyone. I was talking to a very well known pigeon vet not that long back and he says 90% of lofts have birds that are carriers of the disease. Thats why i vacinate every year now with a live vaccine from chevita after a 10day treatment. Its a killer disease if you get it. jas.

not a bad price at all, i bought my 10 x 8 shed 2 years ago its a log style shed cost £550 so looks like you have a bargin. well done.

where are they today

Steven van breemans the art of breeding is as said above one of the best books written about pigeon gentics. Professor anker was a geneticist who steven knew extremely well, and worked along side with until professor ankers death. I have known steven since 1989 and we used to correspond via letters before email came about and still do via email , Steven was also one of the very first people to recognize the darkness system and wrote lots of articles for the racing pigeon pictorial many years ago. Hes also know for his mechanical ventilation system which allowed him to keep over 150 youngsters on a very small loft extremely healthy. I have visited stevens home on a few occasions in holland and find him to be a very friendly and massively knowledgeable person on the sport of racing pigeons. I have subscribed to his online racing pigeon magazine since day one and can recommend it to anyone. As well as the monthly editions of the magazine you get access to some excellent articles written by steven and also the full transcript to his book the art of breeding which he wrote with professor Anker. I think if i remember rightly its £25 a year, excellent value. jas.

I dont think thats because of the mods or admin that they dont post, unfortunately theres to much rubbish being posted on this site and i think its right that they tidy it up, some of the answers in this thread is a prime example of this, keep it relevant and if you dont like it dont post, its as simple as that.

Baycox the best on the market, £5 from your local vet to treat 50 birds. Appertex by harkers is also very good and performs very well, I always use baycox. jas.

I like that quote strapper, i think i will have to pinch that from you my friend, lol.

Thats my point john, you know more than most being a breeder yourself how many birds they must be putting out each year, if they were that good there would be national winners everywhere from them but there aint.

I totally agree, nobody breeds all winners, and louella has breed champions from the birds that they have but you would expect them to based upon the amount that they breed, but for me they dont impress im afraid, but thats just my opinion, i would rather go out there and purchase proven winners or breeder than taking a chance, the problem is that its not just the cost of buying the birds its cost of keeping them when they dont win, or produce, but thats the nature of our sport really, to be the best its not all about spending the most money its a lot more than that.

I totally agree, nobody breeds all winners, and louella has breed champions from the birds that they have but you would expect them to based upon the amount that they breed, but for me they dont impress im afraid, but thats just my opinion, i would rather go out there and purchase proven winners or breeder than taking a chance, the problem is that its not just the cost of buying the birds its cost of keeping them when they dont win, or produce, but thats the nature of our sport really, to be the best its not all about spending the most money its a lot more than that.

i dont dispute that mate, the same as you dont know me, Ive been in the sport for 30 years and have had the opportunity to visit and befriend some of the best fanciers in the world, im not having a go at you im just stating a fact, about big studs, The quality of the birds i have had from them on the 2 occasions i did purchase from them were very poor, one of them couldnt have been no older than 15 - 18 days old, no feathers under the wing, they never raced well, or breed anything. to get the best you have to have a relationship with the person who sells them, as you know that any way. It wasnt a go at you as i said i dont know you but i know from my experiences with louella, i was at the blackpool show this year and thought louellas birds were some of the worst pigeons there. but thats just my opinion. Jas

now thats the kind of person i like some one talks the truth, I have nothing against louella in fact i think as a business they do extremely well, and for someone starting up in the sport i think its not bad value for money but any serious fancier would have to pay a fortune to get the goods from louella, my other problem with big studs are they are in business to make money, you cant tell me if you wanted say for instance rolland jansens and they didnt have any available they would tell you that, you would be given what ever they had and you would be none the wiser, its the difference between a sale or not, and they wouldnt loose a sale i guarantee you that. a pedigree is only as valuable as the paper its printed on unless you have a a dna test thats the only way to prove if that bird you purchase is from the pedigree its supplied with.

A hell of a lot more than i would ever get from louella, believe me i have had their rubbish on more than one occasion, but if you want to waste your money then go ahead, i dont need to i own better stock than you'll ever likely to own in your life time.

i dont disagree but based upon the amount of birds they breed every year the percentage of winners to birds bred are not that high.

Id have to disagree there really, louella puts out 1000's of birds a year and a huge amount of them end up lost or in the dustbin. As owen says when big studs like louella go to a champions loft they not only purchase the winners but also unproven youngsters from them, they then pair up these youngster to produce even more youngster are paired up and its these youngsters which are then sold to the public, who will then keep them as stock and breed from them, by that point you are so far removed from the high performers that your chances of getting fantastic birds from them are very greatly diminished. You dont get 6 champion pigeons for £130 from anyone. If you want birds out of the champions from them you will pay hundreds or even thousands for them from louella. The old stock they are selling are the birds they bred out of the youngsters they purchased which are not proven racers. You dont see the likes of invincible spirit up for sale, they dont sell older stock that are producing champions why would you regardless of age champions continue to produce champions regardless of there age. As owen says go to entire clearance sales, buy the proven breeders or the winning racers, that way you have more chance of producing the real champions.

No worries mate im glad its useful, more people should be using a microscope.

Hi mate. I have been using a microscope now for a couple of years and have had the pleasure of studying with one of the top pigeon vets in the uk. below are some images i have taken from my microscope over the years, hopefully these will try and give you an idea of what you are looking at. There are 2 ways to examine dropping samples under a microscope: 1st is the smear method, by smearing the sample on to the slide and adding a small amount of water to it then add the cover slip, this method is more difficult to read for a beginner as you will have all the waste food and proteins etc to look through. 2nd and my preferred method is to float the sample in a heavy salt solution for 20 minutes, this cause the debris to fall to the bottom and the eggs rise to the top. These samples are 100x magnification ( 10x objective lens with a 10x eye piece) but you are seeing an image in the photos of more like 300x as i have a video camera attached to the lens of the microscope and the lens of the camcorder is also magnifying the image. I am in the process of making an instructional dvd on microscope use which will explain in detail how to use a microscope, When it is finished i will put it up for sale on this site. hope this helps. Jas.

Cheers timo, look forward to it. jas.

What about us Apple mac users any plans to release on this platform. cheers. Jas.

Whats the times from the club like kev, do you know anything?

Cheers tom, where would we be without you, lol Jas

Is this the best around, what do you know tom, if so very well done to flowie.

Yeah thats good going, Any times would be great.

Seems like it was a good race. Well done to the WNR fed on this, Is is what we all want is good races, good returns and birds well looked after. Jas.