Bugsy

Just like to say a massive well done to Mark Sparey of Abertillery, South Wales in clocking an absolute cracker in the High Littleton Y/B national race from Tours, the distance to Mark is 347 miles and Mark timed his fantastic young hen to claim a top ten position competing against some of the best flyers in the country. Mark's hen was on the wing for over 9 hours and was the furthest flying bird clocked on the day. Not content with just the one Mark clocked another young hen flying over 10 hours and i belive there were only just over 60 clocked on the day from an entry of over 600. Superb flying mate and well done !!!!!!!!!!!!!! John Burgham

Hi Brian, any of the badge blood in this fed winner ? John B.

Where have all the posts disappeared too from yesterdays Welsh Combine and National Maidstone race.

Thanks Tenny, appreciated and be in touch. John B.

Tenny Can you clarify something regards the race, you say the race is from Maidstone yet thr program and the WSENFC website state the race is from Tunbridge, can you clarify please. John Burgham

Tenny We are sending to the South East National but we are not combine members, can we enter the ring nom ? John Burgham

There is absolutely no difference on any given day between motivated natural pigeons and widowhood, its down to the famous three - health, fitness and motivation. Granted widowers will sustain a higher level of consistent performance but never discount the natural boys.

Alec Just been looking through the pigeon books for sale on Ebay and there is a pictorial for sale from 1975 and one of the write ups is on R & M Venner of street, this edition and another one from 1975 are on sale with a starting bid of £1.50 or you can buy them for £2.00. John B.

Adam have a look at louella's on line sales and the pigeons they seem to be having difficulty in selling are the Van Lint's, what I see of them is they are not from a family base, the main Van Lint's are from quite a few different sources.

Chaired a panel in Nottingham back in October, Jos Thone and Alan Darragh were on the panel with me and these two guys both swear by it and both spoke very highly of the product, also use it myself, excellent product and helps the pigeons get back to where you want them after a race. John B.

The answer to this one is quite simple and I will give an example as the answer, I bought a direct daughter of champion Rainstorm from louella and she became our number one stock pigeon and bred multiple winners at the very highest level (fed and national). Champion Rainstorm was bred in 1975 and he was bred from a 1975 Y/B and bought by Massarella along with the other first Verheye introductions(how many would buy a y/b from a y/b) . The daughter of Rainstorm we bought bred our Champion racer 'National Man' a winner of 3rd Nat 410 miles, 8th Nat 410 miles and 10th Nat 322 miles, National Man is the Sire, G.sire, G.G.Sire of hundreds of winners including 3 x 1st National(his full brother won 9 x 1st). Now if you consider how this started with a y/b bred from a y/b to produce 'Rainstorm' then you can clearly see that both untried and tried will breed you winners, the trick is to have the stock sense to select for breeding and the ability to race them, quite simply thats what separates fanciers, always has done and always will because today just about every fancier in the country has access to good and well bred pigeons. John Burgham (hope this example helps)

I have inbred brother x sister, father x dtr and mother x son over a long period of time, the one common thing I can share is that approx 85% of the offspring do not make the grade and do not come up to the qualities the parents have. The first and absolute rule of inbreeding this close is the birds to be used have to be of the highest quality and soaked with top federation and national results, by this I mean they have actually won or bred themselves. The ones that have made the grade have all gone on to breed top performance pigeons wining right up to 1st National level but each of thm has been outcrossed at the next generation. You do have to know what you are doing and to recap the following is all important : 1. Only use the very best pigeons to inbreed (proven breeders/racers at the highest level) 2. Selection is important as the majority will not make the grade 3. Outcross the offspring Hope this helps as there has been a lot of good advice given and I am only speaking of my own experiences of inbreeding. John Burgham.

Stuart, just read a write up on B.Ferris, fantastic flyer with cracking results. John B.

Lawrie You are correct, they had no visible defects but did not come up to the standard of the parents. John B.