Kyleakin Lofts

Happy birthday.

Good morning all.

Ayrshire North Road Federation Quiz night is scheduled to take place on Friday 27th November within Drongan Community Centre. Tickets will cost £10-00. The format will be similar to previous years, fish supper for the purvey. The Quiz Panel will be Mark Bulled, a top International fancier; Nigel Laycock, a well known supporter of the Federation and the compere will be S McGarry, New Kid on the Block. A blockbuster of an evening where some snippets of knowledge are sure to be gleaned and of course an opportunity to purchase YB's donated by the Panelist and others to help Federation funds. A night NOT to be missed. More information will follow and tickets are now available. Send your ticket order with payment to:- Kyleakin Cottage Halket Road Lugton East Ayrshire KA3 4EE

Good morning all.

Happy birthday.

There is evidence, but not convincing proof. We have had NE pigeons in our area and our pigeons have been reported in the NE. Why is this not convincing? From a Perth Racecourse race, I had a pigeon reported in Pitlochry and another was reported in Wick. There was no chance of clashing at this race, so more than likely BOP attack caused the scattering. My pigeon was back on the road and completed the programme after picking him up from this "mistake". There is nothing to prove the other strays didn't suffer from the same problem or were just "wandered", or as Andy Eadie says, not in the 2%.

North Road racing may be relatively new in Scotland since 2001, but both North and South routes are traditional in England, so I see no reason why Scotland cannot adopt sprint racing from North to South. This sort of racing in Scotland now has a 14 year tradition. Traditions are only worth maintaining whilst they serve a purpose and remain relevant, given social and modernisational changes. Due to the increasing BOP problem the NGB decided to adopt RSPB advice and recommend racing from the East coast. I believe this change started around the 1980's and they are now traditional routes. I don't think the RSPB advice helps nowadays, so perhaps the older traditions of racing up the centre of the country would be better, however I think there is a marginal difference in regard to safety from attack on the East coast route. The problem on this route lies more with the crossing from East to West. There is a period in the calendar when the English North Road racers and the Scottish South Road racers are very close and overlapping and this is a very dangerous time in regard to clashing, the subject of this thread. Likewise when the Western Scottish South Road racers and the Scottish North Road racers navigate from east to West they cross multiple Federation areas and are subject to the possibility of clashing. This is fact and a fact that increases the difficulty of a race controller's job. Not only do these controllers require to check their homeward routes, but they have to check liberations around their liberation and also arrivals across their route. This job has to be carried out thoroughly and involves a tremendous amount of work. Assumptions can cause mistakes and mistakes are only human. regular and continuous mistakes of the same manner are negligence. Does clashing occur? In my opinion it does. I believe it occurs when pigeons are liberated close to each other, at too short a time interval and when they cross paths, either all at the one time or in any permutation. Too many organisations are vying for that slot within what is sometimes a short time interval. Clashing does not occur when pigeons from the West of Scotland are released at the same time from the same race-point and are travelling into the same general area. Prior education is required to allow the pigeons the knowledge of when to break and head to their own particular part of that general area. These combined liberations would not only reduce costs, but also reduce losses.

We had a couple of occasions this year. Our pigeons were liberated from Arbroath. The Arbroath contact was unavailable, so the controller advised a liberation having received good reports from the conveyer. We later found out that the local contact was unavailable because his race birds were just arriving. From what I am able to gather, steam was rising from some fanciers. I have no hard evidence of this, but have verbal evidence. Arbroath pigeons went into the batch, some leaving with it, I expect on their return some of our pigeons went with them. Returns were very slow for both organisations. This would indicate a clash to me. Similarly, the following week at Montrose, our lib was around the time that the NE pigeons could have been in the area. Again our returns were very slow. No hard evidence or verbal evidence on this one, but it was a possible reason that a clash may have happened. NE pigeons were reported in our area and our pigeons in the NE and this seems to bear it out. As Davy says, more care must be taken , not only with liberations in the area, but with liberations where the flock could be in the area and certainly where pigeons would be arriving at the same time. As to flocks breaking up, for the shorter races, the majority of the pigeons are properly prepared and they are liberation and trapping races. The quickest away from the lib site and the quickest to trap will win the race with not a lot splitting the velocities.

Fact Now let's have the debate, if possible backed with facts, rather than just opinions.

Happy birthday.

Good morning all.

Eh, what's the prize? Never mind, my guess is that the best working dog is Gwen.

It was believed that large wattles and ceres served to deflect the wind from the pigeons eyes when they were flying home.

Have you any rubbers? They help save making mistakes.

At least you will know what it has produced and for how long it has been producing them. Question to ask is, "If he has been producing winning pigeons, why is he being sold"? Perhaps he has not been producing winners or he has reached the end of his productive days. For me, the best place from which to buy good stock pigeons is an entire clearance sale or a bereavement sale.

Looking forward to finishing my loft, working the team hard to come to an evaluation of their merit and my ability. The loft will allow me to adopt some new management principles that I have in mind. If it goes according to plan, these things rarely do, then I would hope to have a try at an Inland National at least and most of the channel Nationals at best.

Good morning all.

Happy birthday.

Ali had some stormers of fights and although they said he didn't punch hard, I wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of any of his punches. The sheer volume and speed of them was enough for most of his opponents.

Well done to your mum, George. David Livingstone, I presume.

Well done all. Stevie, I see your auld da is still keeping you to the fore. :D

Happy birthday.

Good morning all.

If the cats are near the loft they might stay out rather than risk the cat pouncing when they are trying to trap, especially if the cat has been on the trap looking in. This is just one step away from it actually going in. The SH could also be your problem if it has buzzed them at the loft.

My son's beardie when it was very small and one of the wife.