bill_bennie

Roly in response to your question about using GPS. Post #5. Here in the UpNorth Combine (Canada) the GPS is used for all measurments and like you say..... if by chance we have to move from a liberation point for whatever reason, the driver keys in the new GPS site and forwards to the combine race secretary and all the adjustments are made by him. The members will have to wait till the results are published the following week to find out the result of that particular race. We are advancing..........slowly but surely, not quite that good yet.

Seen it done years ago by an old timer over here with one of his flyers. He took a feather of the same size and colour and cut the shaft on an angle then soaked it in luke warm water for a couple of minutes to soften it, then a couple of drops of crazy glue (I don't know if you have that over there?) directly into the broken quill and slid the new flight in and "Presto" you couldn't tell it was a repaired flight other than it looking wet. After a couple of weeks I asked to see the bird's flight again, and I couldn't tell which one it was. An incredible repair job. Hope this helps.

Emile Bastin, I think was his name. He was flying around the time of the "Sion" & "Stassart" era. If my memory serves me right these three gentelmen switched quite a few birds amongst each other but nevertheless tried to keep their own families together. Back in the early 70's when I started I was told that these birds had exceptional character and their feather always seemed to be immaculate. Tough weather bird and liked all distances. Made a great cross when I put them to my best Jansens at the time. Bred some very consistent birds. Overall a very good family if you can find them today.

Hi MBpigeonguy.....welcome to the site. You will find you are not the only one from Canada on here and like it has been, said you will get lot's of help here. You are from Manitoba(?) where, what city, do you presently fly in a club. A little more info so we can figure out how to help you as there is a differant climate here in Canada than other parts of the world. Glad to have you aboard.

I beleive they are working on this at present (a permanent ring) but I have noticed a few rings stop working over time(?). No one has ever explained why this happens but atleast right now we just change the Et ring and re-register the bird. I'm a firm beleiver that over time it can only get better. Apparently there is a squabble going on amongst the suppliers about not letting anyone use any other band for a particular clock except the bands made by themselves. As usual with anything new they will get together eventually(?) and things will get easier as the Unions will start to dictate to them what the members want in their programs. If they want the business they will have to comply.

If I may break in here for a moment...... When I started with Et's in 1997 we, over here paid almost double what they are charging everyone now. We are charged about the same as you are over there now but we have found that if you buy in volume (ie: clubs - combines) you will get them for a cheaper rate thereby passing on the savings to the members. What has been said about loosing them,,, we don't put them on and register the Young birds till the week before their first race. Another aspect is the clubs don't have to buy as many rubber countermarks as the Et flyers are using the same ones every week for as long as the birds are racing (1-5 years?). Definate savings at club/combine levels and who saves in the long run.......the members. Thats the way I have seen it progress over here in North America. Just my thoughts.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS" & "HAPPY NEW YEAR" to you all, and may you prosper in the season(s) to come. All the best from over the big pond.

Have to agree with Ed (birdman), but i would say "Quality birds" first and foremost. You won't have success without them.

Ronnie/Roly. WinBird program. http://tshwane.50megs.com/winbird/winbird_racing_manager.htm This was created for clubs & combines as a racing program (computerized) so we may have some uniformity with the results from all clubs across Canada. This is free to any club that can use it but, it is not a program to chart the breeding/progeny of anyones loft. Hope this clears that up. I might add for those that are interested it works really great here for people interested in applying for awards. Our combine results are excellent. It does all the work and puts everything together in an instant.

"Ditto" from over here.

Boy I'm envious. Very much like Roly, paper partners till the middle of February. On the other hand over here I'm waiting for the lake across the road to freeze up. They call it "The Ice Fishing Capitol of the World". It's going to get 18 to 24 inches thick, we can actually drive a car across it when we go Ice fishing. To pair them up now all I would look forward to is constantly changing the drinkers for the next 2-3 months as sometimes the birds will only get about 10 minutes before the ice starts to form on the water. If not carefull young in the nest sometimes get a chill on their extremites (wing tips) and you can say goodbye to their racing career. Oh well....it's nice to see how you guys over there are making out, and I wish you all the best.

The latest form this side of the pond. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_he_me/bird_flu_1

Happy Birthday from Canada, and may you have many more.

Happy Birthday Speck.....from your freind in Canada. And many more to come we hope.

Here we go again....."NEW & STRONGER", coming out of Asia. http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20061030/hl_hsn/vaccineresistantbirdfluspreadinginasia

Server switch over. Andy says it will be working by tomorrow.

Here is the Web site. http://www.plosoft.com

Craig,,,,Mike Ganus has several familys of grizzles. Majority coming from Belgium. He has a young partner in Indiana who flys his grizzles and he flys a good pigeon. So good infact I beleive they will not even let him pool his birds. This young flyers name is Andy Skwiat, and has quite a few awards to his name. As far as the families are concerned there is Verheyens/Hofken,Desmedt Mathis, Plaisant Grondelaers.There even was a stray (Golden Witten) which has bred all kinds of winners/breeders for Ludo Claessons which Mike brought over here to North America and it is still breeding winners over here too. The list goes on and on........... Check out his Web Site and click on "Gallery of Champions" You will see that these birds can and do perform from all distances. Hope this helps.

Kaz,,,,if you have a garden shed see if you can coax it in there with some feed. See if you can lock it in, then darken and then (in the dark) place a tea towel over it and you should be able to pick it up comfortably to check out the band number. Like was said before the bird will not harm you (lol). It should stay calm when it is covered with the towel and hopefully you will not get alarmed if it struggles a bit. Lot's of luck!!!!!!!!!

Jason, you should be right proud of these pictures. Love to see the kid's with the birds, especially at that age. I'm in the process of training my grandson, or should I say he's training me to be a good "Papa" and telling me what to do when I'm around the birds so they will love their home. Kid's,,,,,,,,we all love them. All the best,,,,and love them both. That's what memories (pics) are for.

Something I posted on another site concerning a TV Movie coming out next week here in North America. We haven't been bothered as yet with the AI, but after this I beleive all "Hell" is going to break loose with the paranoia that may come from this? I sure hope the governments over here have been paying attention to what is happening elsewhere and explain in laymans terms exactly, that we do not live in the same enviornments where it started and it is highley unlikely to be spread by our birds. "NOT PIGEONS", but Ducks,Swans,Geese etc. are the most likely carriers. Bird Flu Hitting TV Screens May 9 By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 28, 4:45 PM ET WASHINGTON - Bodies piling up so quickly it takes dump trucks to haul them away. Barbed wire to keep whole neighborhoods quarantined. It's Hollywood's version of bird flu, a blur of fact and fiction that some scientists say could confuse the public. Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America," an ABC made-for-television movie, airs May 9, just as scientists are to begin testing of wild birds in Alaska that could herald the arrival of bird flu in North America. Scientists fear the bird flu virus could evolve so it could be passed from human to human, sparking a global pandemic. The two-hour movie plays up that notion to the fullest, with a running ticker that tallies tens of millions of victims worldwide. In one scene, the bodies are thrown on a pyre, like the carcasses of cows torched in the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain. The producers of the movie, from the writer of 2002's "Atomic Twister," bill their work as a "thinking man's disaster film." "We call this a plausible, worst-case scenario. This could actually happen. It may not be this bad but it could be this bad. The reason to portray it this way is to kind of give a wake-up call to everyone and this is something we shouldn't ignore and we should be as prepared as we should be," said Diana Kerew, one of the movie's executive producers. What's your thoughts? Should we prepare for this movie?

Interesting article in one of our (Canadian) papers from a highley respected doctor and his viewpoint on the AI. Hopefully there will be more like him speaking up on the "HYSTERIA" created by this. Stop chasing a phantom flu RICHARD SCHABAS From Monday's Globe and Mail Ontario hospitals are planning to spend up to $25-million this year -- enough to employ 300 nurses -- to stockpile the antiviral drug Tamiflu to protect their staff against an influenza pandemic. The provincial government is amending its emergency powers so that in the event of a pandemic, physicians will be compelled to provide services or face imprisonment. Prudent and appropriate preparations for an impending pandemic? On the contrary, I believe they are a manifestation of a mass hysteria that has lost all touch with its tenuous scientific underpinnings. The crux of the issue is whether the H5N1 avian influenza virus is about to transform itself into a highly infectious human disease. The disaster prophets have been predicting exactly this eventuality since 1997. I believe this scenario has always been speculative and, with each passing day, becomes less and less likely. H5N1 is bad news for birds but, as a human pandemic, it's just another false alarm. Influenza is an important disease. Unlike most viruses, it has the uncanny ability to stay one step ahead of the human immune system by adopting subtle changes in its external appearance. This so-called antigenic drift produces worldwide influenza epidemics almost every year. In Canada, influenza annually affects up to 10 per cent of the population and causes more deaths than any other infectious disease, primarily among the elderly and the chronically ill. Influenza immunization (Ontario has the best program in the world) can mitigate but not eliminate the problem. The human influenza virus can also undergo a more major change, a so-called antigenic shift, completely evading our pre-existing immunity and causing a larger epidemic or pandemic. Pandemic influenza can affect up to 35 per cent of the population. The actual illness may not be more virulent than a typical flu but a pandemic causes more deaths and disruption by dint of its higher attack rate. There were three pandemics in the 20th century, in 1918-19, 1957-58, and 1968-9, and we believe they happen, on average, about once every 30 or 40 years. This much we know, but not a lot more. We do not have a good understanding of how the virus actually makes the antigenic shift that leads to a pandemic. We've never had the opportunity to observe the process with anything like modern scientific technology. It is believed that the 1957 and 1968 pandemics resulted from a recombination of the pre-existing human virus with elements of an avian influenza virus. How this occurred is a mystery. The most popular theory is that recombination occurs when either a pig or a person is infected with both the avian and human viruses at the same time, but it's only a theory. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we must assume that the genetic change that creates a pandemic virus is a random event. Therefore, the fact that we have not had an influenza pandemic for 38 years does not mean that we are overdue for the next one. By analogy, a coin toss will, on average, produce a heads once every two tosses. But if you believe that throwing a tails makes it more likely that the next toss will be heads, you will make a poor gambler. H5N1 is a disease of birds that was first identified in 1997. It is part of a large family of avian influenza viruses that are spread by migratory birds. H5N1 is unusual, but not unique, in a couple of ways. It causes serious illness in birds and it can infect and cause serious illness in humans. The first appearance of H5N1, in 1997, caused understandable alarm. Here was a new virus that seemed to be on the cusp of causing a major human problem. However, when it quickly became apparent that H5N1 was not transmitted efficiently from person to person, the initial panic subsided and was replaced by the concern that it would recombine with human influenza or mutate into a true human disease. But H5N1 did none of this and faded into the background of south China. The resurgence of H5N1, in 2003, triggered renewed concerns. The virus was now more widespread among birds and the number of human cases increased. Speculation about a human pandemic revived. The World Health Organization and others sounded the alarm worldwide. The alarms are still ringing. What has changed in this time? Well, actually nothing of significance. The virus has spread among birds -- hardly a surprise since we have no effective means of stopping it. There has been a steady but small stream of new human cases among people with close contact with infected birds -- nothing new or surprising there -- and H5N1 still shows no capacity for efficient spread from person to person. Whatever changes H5N1 was going to undergo with regard to human infection, they most certainly haven't happened quickly. Surely, any open-minded scientist should question whether these changes are going to happen soon, if at all. Of course, there are vested interests that benefit from pandemic fear. Public-health agencies, such as the WHO, and a ménage of self-proclaimed experts, get personal profile and corporate financing by stirring pandemic fears. We have emergency planners whose livelihood depends on a steady stream of perceived threats. They want us to be ready. Whether we need to be ready is not their department. The media loves H5N1 because it provides an inexhaustible source of copy, complete with lurid photographs of dead chickens and people in containment suits. But the talking heads who sounded the alarm about an imminent H5N1 pandemic in 1997 and again in 2003, not to mention the mooted SARS pandemic, Ebola and many other false alarms, are the same voices warning of impending catastrophe today. When is the media going to stop reporting their predictions so uncritically? The most striking aspect of the medical debate about H5N1 is that there isn't one. Doctors are usually a cantankerous and skeptical bunch. They pride themselves on being evidence-based, requiring experiments or strong and consistent observations to be persuaded. The H5N1 warnings meet neither of these criteria and yet are accepted unquestioningly. H5N1 has been the biggest global health story of the past three years and yet none of the world's great medical journals has shown any appetite for a critical review of its precepts. What should we do? A human influenza pandemic is likely to occur some time in the next 40 years. There is no reliable scientific basis for predicting its timing, severity or the precise virus likely to trigger it. We should make prudent but limited preparations for this pandemic by enhancing our capacity to produce influenza vaccine and improving our surveillance for new strains of influenza virus. Ontario hospitals need those 300 nurses more than they need the Tamiflu stockpile. And we should calm down, stop chasing phantoms and spend our efforts tackling the myriad of real problems that we actually do face. Richard Schabas, Ontario's chief medical officer of health from 1987 to 1997, is currently chief of staff at York Central Hospital in Richmond Hill, Ont

Shadow, it's quite possible that there is 3 incidents that they are keeping their eyes on. Not sure, but click on the link at the bottom of the map page and you will find a few items about Defra, a cat, chicken(s) in Scotland etc. Hope this helps.

Just came across this site tonight. The most up to date that I have seen over here in North America. Includes maps,,,,,very interesting. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/birdflu/ Yours in the Sport - Bill.

Tony,,,, this is only part of what was posted on the Net,. Hope it helps? HEALTH Canadian Press August 2, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is banning the use of the antibiotic Baytril in poultry because of concerns the drug could lead to antibiotic-resistant infections in people. The agency's commissioner Lester Crawford ordered Thursday that approval for use of the drug, known generically as enrofloxacin, be withdrawn effective Sept. 12. Baytril is in the same family as the popular drug Cipro, which is used in humans. Crawford cited particular concerns about campylobacter bacteria, a growing source of serious illness in humans. Antibiotics used to treat it can be less effective if the germ has already developed resistance to Baytril, the FDA said. Margaret Mellon, director of food and environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the FDA's move is "a big deal." "It's the first time FDA has withdrawn a veterinary drug on the basis of antibiotic resistance concerns, fearing that use of the drug in animals is going to erode the effectiveness of the drugs in human medicine," she said. Dr. David Wallinga, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Project at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, praised the FDA "for acting decisively to protect the public's health." Campylobacter is commonly found in the intestinal tracts of turkeys and chickens, where it does not generally cause illness, Crawford said in his order. Use of enrofloxacin in poultry does not eliminate campylobacter from the birds but instead results in the development of bacteria-resistant to this type of drug, Crawford said. Resistant bacteria may be present in poultry sold at retail outlets. Crawford noted since the drug was introduced for poultry in the 1990s, the proportion of resistant campylobacter infections in humans has risen significantly. That can prolong the length of infections in people and increase the risk of complications, Crawford said. Complications can include reactive arthritis and blood stream infections. Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's centre for veterinary medicine, said Baytril will remain approved for use in infections in dogs and cats and for respiratory disease in cattle. He said the decision was made to ban the drug in poultry but not cattle because chickens are a major source of campylobacter while cattle are not. The FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine first proposed to pull the drug from use in chickens and turkeys in 2000 but the manufacturer, Bayer, asked for a hearing. Crawford acted after reviewing the results of that hearing. Bayer has 60 days to appeal Crawford's decision to a federal appeals court. Bayer spokesman Bob Walker said the company was surprised and disappointed by the decision. He said officials are reviewing the decision from a scientific and legal position before deciding on further action. The interest group Keep Antibiotics Working said many top poultry producers have announced they no longer use such drugs in chickens produced for human consumption. Such producers include Tyson, Gold Kist, ConAgra, Perdue, Foster Farms and Claxton. Yours in the Sport - Bill.