stevebelbin

Wind will always be a major factor in pigeon racing, nothing you can do about it. In the UNC you can normally guess where the combing topper will be. And its normally on the coast. I was at a coastal loft a few month back on the day of our Lille race and the bloke I was talking to predicted that the oastal lofts would be where the combine winner was and he even predicted which lofts would get them and sure enough he was bang on. In my club you can predict who will get the birds and you also know when you may aswell not bother looking. The club I fly in is the shortest from the race points in our fed and we should be first drop but they get dragged over unless theres a strong head wind. When I look through the BHW i rarely look at the winning bird unless it was from a loft that sent only a few birds in races with high birdages, these are the lofts and birds my respect goes out to.

I raced to the same size loft, but it was split into two lofts. I had 7ftx6ft for YBs and 5ftx6ft for my widowhood hens. Then in the 12ftx6ft loft was for the widowhood cocks. It was extended this year with an aviary which has been a massive benefit to the birds. If you want to race to 4no. 6ft sections you will have to limit yourself to numbers, but in the long run that is not such a bad thing as you will be inclined to only keep the best. So 6ft widowhood cocks, 6ft widowhood hens, 6ft ybs and 6ft stock would work well, but I would prefer to not keep any stock and buy YBs in each year and have more room for your widowhood cocks.

Chill, there only pigeons at the end of the day, just a hobby

Definately keep them as they are street wise and will look after themselves in a tough race later in there lives. Its obviously down to the individual birds but they are best kept to at least have a chance, as at least they have used their brains on their own to work back :-).

Your birds look top class and the new lofts look spot on

The best feeding system ive seen work (for a 100-200mile race) is to feed on a thursday night 'popcorn maize', as much as they can eat. Then on friday morning at 10am popcorn maize again, as much as they can eat and about 2ish feed a bit of redband and a few peanuts so they have drink. The lad ive seen feeding this way, had them coming like bullets .

Have you many left to send Carl, lads in thornaby have had a hammering YB wise??!!

My old racing partner's dad used to race them and he always went on about the good old days of racing shorties. I think there is still a club in middlesbrough that races them.

I would say looking at your loft pics, the mesh needs to be finer, 1cm square would stop squirels etc getting in !!!

I lost less Ybs training last year (as in, didnt lose one in approx 25 tosses) than this year and last year I had more YBs in less space. This year I doubled the space and halved the amount off YBs and I lost 5 ybs training. So Im baffled about the overcrowding!!. One thing I will say is the birds last year were much tamer and although they did have a few problems due to overcrowding i.e. a bit of respitory they came much better from training. I think its a combination of people breeding of birds that have not proven themselves, the wires, hawk attacks, clashing and the weather conditions we have had the past few years.

Last year and the year B4 i was feeding V-Laga best all round for my channel birds, which is fairly cheap. Then this year for a change I followed V-Laga's feeding systems which involved feeding all-sorts of fancy expensive corns, and I had to have 4 bags of corn on the go, which itself was a pain in the backside. My birds flew much better when they were on the cheap Best-All-round corn and their droppings were always better, whereas the droppings on the Gerry+ etc were always much more loose. Now their finished ive resorted back to the Best-all-round and their droppings are perfect again.

Thats what I was saying in my earlier post, no one can predict how much birds are going to go for in the auction house.

Also as I mentioned earlier, Easitox, £2.50 per tube that does 60 birds and its as simple as one drop on the neck and no more lice. Then its just a case of putting malt vinegar in the water to keep any further lice away, Simple and Effective

I think the UNC are racing too late into september, the national race is still 3 races away and the days are drawing in quick already, so they will need to be up early for that race to give them a chance!!! Plus, the birds will be dropping to bits.

Good come back Gez LOL

I would say a pigeon is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I went to a sale last year and it was predicted that a pigeon called the Dickens Cock would go for approx. £1500 but it actually went for £4000 at auction. Also birds that the owner didnt think would make much, were going for crazy prices. I would buy Gez's pigeon for £360 or more any day of the week, if I was still racing.

My yearlings this year were trained hard but only very lightly raced as YBs last year, then as yearlings this year they went to a few early inland races, then had a few weeks rest B4 going out to 400miles, were they came really well. If I was still racing, as two year olds I would have every faith in them coming back from 550miles as they still had a lot of fly in them from 400miles. I think its more to do with how they are fed through the winter which decides how well they will fair up on a hard channel race.

Id say go for it Wiley, the birds I got from Mike are spot on, Ive not raced them as I got them for stock, but they look and feel the business

Same with me, I hate leaving mine with someone when I go away. My dad has been doing them the last few times and when I tell him what to do, he thinks he knows better and questions everything I tell him. Mind for a non fancier to be expected to look after 30 odd birds must be a bit daunting LOL, especially when the dropping start to build up after a few day. ;D

It sounds daft but pigeons are creatures of habit and maybe someone else feeding your birds did cause a bit of stress . Mine rarely see anyone else other than me and are very wary if anyone comes into the garden. My old loft was on an allotment path and the birds could see everyone walking past, so they got used to people other than me. Yep, canker is one of the biggest killers of form in pigeons, so from what ive been told and read they are to be treated every 3rd week for it during racing. Im not saying you should as yours are kept as pets and dont go through the stress, that racing causes ;D.

Whilst racing, due to the stress, I was told to treat for canker every 3rd week with a different treatment each time, Flagyl, Spartix and Turbosole etc. With yours Sam, something must have stressed the bird for the canker organism to get a hold, sometimes its something stupid like losing a perch to a more dominant bird etc.

Ive noticed over the last week or so, that there is now about 30-40 strays on the flat roofs at work, this batch started as one pigeon last year and has now spiralled, with it pairing up and breeding and attracting loads of strays to join them. They are in good nick so there no excuse for them to be lost!!!

Mike Lycett has some good Vandebeeles, I got a pair of him this year and they are cracking looking pigeons.

Brought to front for Paulo

Hi sam if its canker, which it sounds like to me, i have some flagyl tablets at home you can have. I bought a load of boxes when i was in spain last year and have loads spare.