Maybe to give Raymonds Fingers a rest I can give a summery of his system. This only really applies to his distance pigeons.
Starting with young birds, Raymond is lucky in the fact that his distance pigeons exercise very well, when they are given there freedom so once they are flying freely and the young bird races have started they are entered into a 60 or 70km fly with little or sometimes no training (I don’t recommend this but he gets away with). After 1, 2 or 3 flights the pigeons are left to moult.
The main racing system is natural for long distance with both the cock and hen flying and its normal for Raymond to Fly the yearlings to Bordeaux or Bergerac, Two year olds to Brive or St Vincent and the 3 year olds and older to Barcelona.
Nest positions and pairings are left natural so that there are different pigeons on different positions on any one weekend. Raymond has enjoyed great success flying to young in the nest believing its given them extra motivation.
On selecting pigeons Raymond normally looks for Balance with a strong back (a must for distance flying). He is lucky in the fact that his pigeons have incredible eyes but he doesn’t pay so much attention to it!!! One thing Raymond does like to do is bred extra children from his very top pigeons and put them back for stock, regardless if he needs them or not!!! He does like apple shaped pigeons and he likes to see the tongue stay down when you open the beak.
On medication one thing Raymond forgot to mention is Respiratory treatments. Both his Brive and St Vincent winners were given a Respiratory Treatment three weeks before basketing, the treatment came from Van De Sluis.
Raymond, maybe Van De Sluis could pay us a guest visit to explain his Paratyphoid Treatment????
With regard to wings I will leave that to Raymond.
Stuart