holmsidelofts

Anyone got the lib line numbers for the unc and nehu, just curious to what when they go and how many they let go. cheers. Jas.

Im also told that the up north combine are in folkstone, which is a stones throw away from dover. We dont want to hit them as it would be all over for us if we did with the number of birds they liberate.

Below i will try to explain the ventilation i now have on my young bird loft. This system was designed by ronnie williamson and i was impressed by what i saw when i saw it on a dvd. Originally my loft had an apex roof but i could never get the air flow right. you could always smell birds in the loft, the droppings if left for any length of time would get mould on them. So i decided a change was needed, so off came the apex roof and on went a sloping roof, the roof slopes from front to back. The roof consists of half inch ply, covered with galvanized steel sheets. on the galvanised sheets you have have a raised profile and a channel profile, on each of the raised profile you cut out the top of the ridge with an angle grinder for about 18-20 inches in length. You then attach battens the full length of the roof one at the front of the holes you have cut out and one at the back, this is secured and sealed to the main galvanized sheet. this is done to take the section galv roof ( we use translucent sheets but in the end we had to paint them as they effected the amount of light entering the loft when it was darkened). this goes on top of the battens and is secured down. this prevents rain entering the main galv sheets. as the main sheets have a channel in them the rain runs down there and not on the ridge of the sheet. you can see this in the picture below where the rain is flowing its in the channel and not on the ridge. Once thats done its time to move inside the loft, what you now have to do is make holes in the roof underneath the holes in the ridge of the galv you just cut. this is to allow the air to go out through the roof. See picture below: As you can also see theres a vent that runs right across the full length of the back of the roof this is the same at the front of the roof. There is also a low level vent at the front of the loft to let in air at low level. The principle is that air will enter the loft at low level and as it rises its warmed up by the birds in the loft as this air rises it has to have somewhere to leave the loft. under this system the air can now leave the loft through the holes in the roof. As you will notice the holes are above the poles we use as perches ( these have now been changed back to standard box perches to give us a little more room. The transformation to the loft as been staggering. you get really good air flow without drafts. The holes in the roof actually pull out the stale air as you will see in the video clip below of a feather thats trapped in the hole. As i was filming this there was no draft coming into the loft. I should also mention that half the front of the loft is covered in filon translucent sheets. and we have position the loft so that the sun rises on the one side of the loft and spends all day on the front of the loft, this i feel is important in maintaining an even temperature in the loft. video I have not raced out of this loft yet but now have 50 extremely healthy pigeons living in there at the moment and im extremely impressed how much of a difference this roof has made. its a time consuming project but well worth the effort. And just look at ronnies results 56 irish national wins, there are also a lot of big names adopting this system to.

Hi gail. I only found out this afternoon and was going to ring you this evening but couldnt find your number. drop me a pm with it. cheers jas.

Hi all. is there anyone in llandudno who could collect a pigeon from a non fancier for me whilst i arrange a courier to collect, the bird was lost last week and has been injured. it was picked up at the cable car center by staff there who reported it to me. im looking to get it picked up by a courier but its not the easiest thing to arrange these days so i need a day or 2 to arrange this. If you can help let me know. cheers in advance. Jas.

yeah welcome back everyone. Jas

yeah good luck to everyone who has sent.

Dont you just hate that, Good to get it back but they certainly know how to time there arrival dont they. jas.

Especially when it cost £30 to get it back if you loose it and its reported. jas.

Good luck today tom hope you have a good race. jas.

well said. It amazes me sometimes what people come out with, why use a product designed for human use when there are products designed for use in pigeons which have been tested and are at the right strength, plus theres a simple safe alternative treatment for yeast and thats Iodine, this tip came from a very well qualified pigeon vet and has been tested and proven to work, so why give them nystan. jas.

Yeah i know what you mean mate, i dont rate bamfords as well, id rather pay more for versa lega or beyers and get a good quality, very low dust content corn, i use bayers barley and pay £14 plus a bag, i tried bamfords barley and i think i paid £8 or £9 pound a bag the quality of the bamfords were aweful, there was way to much water content in the barley and the birds droppings went to pot, i changed back to beyers and perfect droppings again. you get what you pay for. Also you have to remember that these companies are in business to make money and we have except that, I have to be honest i would never buy any corn that was grown in the uk as i dont think we have the right climate and thats why the foreign corn is better but it comes at a price. jas.

I agree peter, i would never put birds form other lofts straight in with others, keep them on there own for a few days get them tested for worms, cocci then when you a comfortable that they are ok put them over, Also if they are very young and your other birds are older they will struggle to keep up with them when it comes to eating jas

Totally agree, just ask geoff kirkland one of the fines long distance champions the uk has ever had and hes widowhood.

For me it would always be widowhood, you get more consistent performance over a period of weeks where with natural you only get small windows to get it right and you have all the hassles that go a long with it, ie difficulty getting them to exercise, the hassles of youngsters you dont want, for me it would be widowhood everytime im afraid. its a difficult question to answer who would have the edge as theres lots of factors to think about.

God bless daniel. where Angels go Way up in heavens garden There's a magical castle in the sky Where god places our little angels, And teaches them to fly The girls become sweet princesses, And dance the day away The boys are charming prince's In this wondrous land of play The castle is made of lollipops And of all things that are sweet There's a river made of angels tears, For them to dip their tiny feet, The angel tears are not tears of sadness. They are tears of joy To see such sights is happiness For the chosen Angel girl or boy For as you know, not all angels Are picked to grace this castle in the sky Only the tiny cherub prince's and princesses, And here's the reason why God has a place for all he takes And puts them where they he deems The little cherubs need a world of play A land filled full of dreams A place where they can play all day And slide down rainbows so bright swing from the stars if they desire Then light the star lamps up at night Its now they huddle close together And some may take a snooze Only if they wish to Its up to them to choose The ones that are not asleep Are sending down their love To you, direct from moon beams They guide from up above So be happy for your special cherub From the soft clouds they will never fall For anything good that they may wish for Comes true here, anything at all Its in the castle they will stay with angels of their kind until its their turn to open the castle gate and its their mummy that they find The only thing that they must do then whilst waving goodbye to angel friends Is walk to paradise with mummy Just beyond the rainbows end. jas.

We use whats called the clicker system, its what people use to train dogs, you can buy the clicker from pets at home for £3.50. Everytime you feed the birds you click the clicker. They will eventually get to associate the click sound with food, what we do when we want them to come in is fill the food trays with food and call them in whilst using the clicker, they soon learn very quickly. It works very well and would recommend it to anyone when working with youngsters. jas.

As others said not the thing to do on race day, lots of birds about, good luck hope you get them all. jas

It would not be something i would do if im honest, i can see how you could get an accurate dosage to each bird on the corn. stick to the waater if i was you. jas.

Yeah i have to agree, i love my ets but the cost of rings are disgusting, for me to fly again this year i will have paid close to £100 for both the club rings and ets rings. something has to be done about the cost of these if the manufacturers want to keep these systems in the clubs.

Thanks tom. jas

Same for us they are some of the best sprinters around, as others have mentioned keith arnold, theres also mark caudwell who has won many rpra awards with his van reets. There are a lot around thats the only problem in my eyes you have to got to the right people to get the best, we did by going to bert hession some years ago. jas

I would never waste darkness birds on the early races, darkness birds come into there own in the latter part of the year when flying in the nationals when every natural birds have fell apart. For me the birds are on the dark from march 20 ish to june the 21st, that way they hold there wing feather longer so that when it comes to the longer races they are in there prime.

That the thing these days you cant turn your back on them for a second. I always have an air rifle around i find the sound of it going off scares the hawk anyway. What you will find with a sparrow hawk is they are very predictable, they attack from the same direction all the time, where i am they come through some trees and attack from the side. soon cured that issue with some strawberry wire stretched across where he come in. he now has to come from a different direction and by this time the birds have seen him and they take off out of his way. good luck with the other bird you should get him in the morning if you havent already. jas.

Frank is spot on, Ive been doing the darkness for 20 years now and i like you will be parting youngsters over in a week and they will be fine. I have found no benefit anymore in rearing winter youngsters, especially the way the weather has been again this year you struggle to have them out, they mature earlier in the year which means you have to train them earlier and you have to feed them. I prefer youngsters leaving around this time as the weather starts to break and you can look after the properly. they will race just as good as winter youngsters do. jas.