Bugsy

Keeping well Jas, not missing birds as I have been a silent partner with Williams Bros of Tredegar since I sold the birds and enjoying it very much, plus he bought most of my top pigeons therefore a little bit like home from home. Anyway back to this bl@@dy thing called Paratyphoid, I was in the company of one of the world's best fanciers(Belgian) last Friday night and he said they leave absolutely nothing to chance in terms of the pigeons health and Paratyphoid is undoubtedly one of the most (if not the most) feared diseases on the continent. From my experiences I would most certainly recommend trying to prevent it rather than having to try a cure. John B.

Agree with Jas, as an example children are given MMR vaccine's because the virus's are killers and therefore the vaccine is used as a preventive and saves a lot of children from becoming ill or even dying. During my pigeon career I have never mistreated or abused the use of antibiotics or anything else, but have to agree that paratyphoid is becoming a problem and I know a lot of top flyers who inject each year for peace of mind, plus they also state they have no or very little trouble with Y/B sickness. John B.

Chris Vasey has it absolutely bang on, there is a preferred method of treating with nystatin and that is on a light feed(professional advice), also seems to me that we have a lot of budding vets among us !!!!!! Leave the recommendation of treatments to the professionals, leave the drugs in Spain or any other foreign country where they can be bought over the counter, treat when needed and only when neccesary and believe me this helps you on the quickest way to the top.

Strap Thats bloody typical of Ray !!!!!!!!!! John B.

Plenty said after last week's race (and rightly so) this week they have it spot on, birds literally tumbled in, up at 7.30am from Maidstone, had 4 together 11.05 flying just under 168 miles. 24 from 24. John B.

Rhondda Red is smack on the money, if you have the same people on a different route you get the same result, most of you on this thread have said how bad the condition was on your birds when they returned, that is not caused by clashing. I have a saying in work ' IF YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE PEOPLE, CHANGE THE PEOPLE'. Its going to be a cracker of a race tomorrow, nice SSWind, so nice and steady, best of luck to all. John B.

Adam You really shouldn't be using other peoples names in publicising what they are supposed to have said, if they want to publicise then let them do it. John B.

Tom, you are right in this needs looking at as a whole, from adversity comes opportunity and this is now a golden opportunity for the WNRF to do the right thing and conduct a thorough investigation into the race and then publicise the findings. John B.

The first thing that should happen is for Terry Tremeer to get all of the Feds officials together asap and have a thorough investigation of what happened, the output should be a report which details all activities from the time of collecting the birds, time the transporter was fully loaded, time the transporter left for the racepoint, when the water was put on the birds, when annd where the weather forecasts were obtained, line of flight info, in a nutshell the whole shooting match. Secondly the WNR Fed should publicise the full report as I am sure it could and would help other organisations but most of all it shows that the federation has nothing to hide and its most important assets are its members and their birds. I know Terry personally and he works tirelessly for the fed and the fancy in Wales and I am sure he would niot be averse to publicising the findings as there are a lot of questions to be answered. John B.

Lots of reports in South Wales of Y/B's returning late from races minus their ETS ring, what do fanciers think of the proposed new rings that will have the chip in them ?

Why can the WNRF liberate in Epsom at 7.45am when birds directly on the line of flight at Newbury are held until 10.00am. Newbury is 45 miles away and the birds would have been there about 8.45am, what was the weather like at Newbury for the birds to be held ? Not a very good race at all with huge numbers of birds missing and will have a detrimental effect on the fed next year without doubt. Won the club today but big gaps between the birds and the members first birds. John Burgham

Wattle, I can also tell you that the birds that were only squirting recover well and if they are any good can continue racing at the top level, I had PMV ( the birds) back in 1984 and at the time thought it was the end of the world, the Y/B's had won 4 out of the first 8 races and then went down with it (confirmed by MAFF), I got rid of all the ones that had twisted necks but the others got better themselves and then quite a few of them went on to win big prizes, including the hen that won 2nd welsh Nat Thurso and the car nom 2yrs later, so keep your chin up old boy and keep on smiling. John Burgham.

Chris (numpty) are the Grizzles from H.Minnett ? If so they will fly 500 miles on the day no problem as I know a little bit about them !! John Burgham

Probably the greatest was the 'Supercrack' I had the pleasure of handling his fantastic specimen two years ago at the House of Robert Venus, Robert has him stuffed and sits proudly on his mantlepiece. What this pigeon won and the dynasty of winners left behind will takesome beating.

Not sure for definite but I believe the great 'Adams Boy' raced by the late Mostyn Owen was a LD, and this pigeon topped the mighty Welsh Combine twice, from Crieff and New Pitsligo (320 & 410 mils). John B.

One of the best lofts ever to fly in this country flew a combination of the LD's with Verheye's & G.Josefs and thats LEE & COOPER, they owned one of the best stock cocks ever and he was bought from Massarella and it was known as 'SUPERSTUD' and was from direct Dhaenens. These boys could really fly a pigeon and the same pigeons raced from 50 to 600 miles. John B.

Sent you a pm with the number Norfolk Al.

Norfolk , you can get it by post from a friend of mine - Nigel Cowood, I will dig out hisnumbe and post for you. Its used on the two days following birds return from a race

I fly with a very good partnership in Tredegar ( I am the silent partner) and the race on Saturday was an absolute bloody disgrace. We had 26 from 31 but that is not the story, the story is in how the birds came and as Owen said they were like drops of blood, way behind with the first one at 14.15 and only 3 by 15.00hrs., the last one on the night was at 21.10 almost dark, 1 Sunday morning and 1 Sunday afternoon in the pouring rain. Now if you want your Y/B's flying all day from 66 miles then this was a good race, the problem here is going to be if the Y/B's are confronted with this kind of flying week then it won't take long to destroy them. The name of the game is up and home ! As the time was passing on Saturday the first thing you look at is the condition of the birds as they land and our birds were A1 so it wasn't sickness that held them back ( flew hour no probs Sun morning) so what was it ? I certainly would not attach blame but would welcome enquiries into races such as these and give good constructive feedback to the membership. This thread has been great and Tom don't take things personally as you are leading the way with this info malarky.

Hope they work in for you, if they do they are going to need a lot of TLC.

Amoxycillin from the vet, will do the trick every year without fail and will only cost 5-8 quid.

Start with 80, first race is Newbury 87 miles, longest is Lillers 260 miles. Will be flying 8 Y/B national races, 3 WNR Nat, 3 WSNFC and 2 Welsh South Road Nat's.

Had a problem like this many years ago, looked for a solution for mites that live under the skin and came up with cream for human scabies, it worked a treat. However theadvice fromDelboy is sound as it is always best to seek the pro's advice on issues like these. Ps bet the scabies cream works though !!!!

Good pigeon in Maesteg apparently, around 6.30, if its true its a cracker into the westerly wind

Dennis Ford and Preece Bros have clocked at 18.24 and 18.37 respectively