Ronnie

Thanks Sportka mate

I have two freerange pol's which walk around the garden of a night i just lock them in a rabbit hutch to keep em safe and also saves me hunting down the egg's there allways in the hutch .How many are in the houshold ?i ask because 4 pol seems a tad to many to me i have me the missus and two kids and still give eggs away on a regular basis.Apart from whats been mentined about access to food and perches i cant see there being a problem.

A great shed sportka .Could i be rude and ask how much it was and what size i am looking for a new loft at the end of the season. Pm me if you dont want to say on boards.My current loft is two 7x7 garden sheds joined together and i'm fed up banging my bloody head when i go in it Looks a great loft .

I had to break my birds last year to new loft they where a team of youngbirds with three races left i broke them and carded in club and fed on the last two races. How i did it was i had an old dog cage and just put the birds in there every day for a week then when feeding time was due i would carry the cage to the shed doors and call them in and open the dog cage.I only broke them so quickly because some idiot let all my birds out after a week and i only managed to keep my young bird team i lost all my stock birds. The other thing to consider was i broke them to the same loft that had been moved to a new house a few hundred feet away. If i had to do it again i would use the same method but it would be about a month before i let them out and then i would let them out 2 a day until they was all broke.Then when they was broke i would let em out everyday after a week they should fly as a batch.

Roland i am not trying to pick an argument but surely what u say must be wrong otherwise there would be no use in using different systems for racing pigeons .If i raced a cock on widowhood and the same cock just flying to a perch surely the widowhood would race quicker.Or is it that systems just provide an extra lvl of fitness so the can fly at quicker speeds and still feel comfortable?Hmmm youve got me thinking now lol.

Great flying mate must be a great combination of Bird and manager. Well done

You can make a sling out of a pair of womens tights.If a sling is out of the question strap it up with tape and leave him in a box by himeself so he's not running round on it.The problem u may have is wether it sets well enough to race with.

Nice one vic

I feel for ya Jimmy it happened to me last year i lost all my stockers i'd only been racing that year so was devestated.

Does anyone know any times for this race? I flew this week and think i may be up there somewhere but not sure.It was advertised as the champion of cheshire but i can see that title beeing held up as i think there was only 20 lofts that flew .

7 from 7 fourgeres mustve been up with yours Vic i fly 340 to me thought i was on a good un in the Middlewich two bird open still should be in the top 5 though, 5th in club as well. 2 from 2 yeovil

I'm not experienced by any means this is my first proper season but i would say that i took first club and second fed with a widowhood cock who flew round for ages and he had scaly skin when i sent him but colour was more of a reddish pink than just pink.Hope this helps also mine fly for 1 hour each morning and 1 hour each night cept fridays when they first went on widowhood i had to flag them for an hour to keep them flying but that was only for the first week.

The more i read articles like this the more i am convinced you need two teams of racing birds to compete at all levels.One team for club and federation and one team for the big races and the distance. Also what constitutes a long distance race is it mileage or weather conditions and time on the wing. What i am aiming at is if you can get a good weather prediction and send pigeons 600 miles in a blow home would that be the same as a 3-400 mile race in normal conditions?And vice versa.

I feed fridays before 11am.

Ok reboot the computer and when its starting up tap f8 you will get a screen up asking to boot in various states pick safe mode and if it starts it will load into windows and ask if you would like to reset to an earlier date follow the onscreen instructions reboot to an earlier date and if it works all ya data will still be on there. Blue screen of death is usually due to hardware incompatability after an update or new hardware being installed(or failing).

i am in winsford(near crewe) and travel upto stafford and telford most nights so i could do a drop of somewhere along the way most nights.

6 cocks going to newton abbot in preparation for alencon. 2 cocks held back for middlewich two bird next week

Just found this on elimar pigeons website i hope you dont mind me cutting and pasting it here. VIEW FROM THE REDDINGS by Peter Bryant AI UPDATE JUNE 3RD 2008 The following is an extract from the Federation Colombophile Francaise (FCF) our French counterparts “I have pleasure in sending you a copy of notification from our Ministry of Agriculture which modifies the directives of 20 July 2007 and 24 January 2008. This is signed by the ministers for Agriculture and Ecology. In future pigeons from EU countries will be allowed to compete from France in the event of an outbreak of AI in their home country provided that any such outbreak is confined to a single ecological unit. This brings them into line with the situation in France and is of course dependent on any directives in operation in their home country. We believe that this decision by AFSAA (the agency that looks into diseases) is very positive for the pigeon sport and we hope will go some way towards keeping the sport alive. Their advice is that the epidemiological role played by pigeons in the spread of AI is minimal and that pigeons racing under the above conditions pose a level of risk that is nil or negligible. This is an extraordinary advance which has been made possible by the FCI lobbying of the EU. We suggest that this should be published in your weekly journal.” The following is an extract from a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. “We have been asked to review the position of racing pigeons with regards to AI following a request from Afssa. On 30th April Afssa came to the conclusion that a relaxation of the directives covering racing pigeons was preferable given the low risks they posed. This information can be seen on their website www.afssa.fr The Committee discussed this advice in May and can now issue a new directive as from June 2008. Low level risk assessment category had now been changed to: No participation by international pigeons from countries affected by more than one outbreak of AI. No participation by international pigeons in races which depart from or fly over countries where there is more than one outbreak of AI. Participation by international pigeons from countries affected by a single outbreak of AI are authorised with the exception of pigeons from the infected zone. Participation by international pigeons in races that depart from or fly over countries where there is a single outbreak of AI will be permitted with the exception of pigeons from the infected zone.” The General Manager writes: this is positive news from the French Government in that they will not necessarily exclude all pigeons from a country with AI. There will be conditions applied. DEFRA has been forwarded this information and, as matter of course in reviewing the Veterinary Risk Assessment, they asked the British Embassy in Paris to clarify the situation with the French Ministry. They became aware that an announcement was to be made by the French Ministry. We continue to push DEFRA for the revised Veterinary Risk Assessment which is taking longer than we expected. Peter Bryant, General Manager, The Royal Pigeon Racing Association

I think the first few tosse's need to be close to home say about 10 mile(unless your putting a few old birds in as well ).The reason being its not that they dont know where they are its because if they panic when there released they will have time to correct themselves before they go to far.if you have a few old birds to steady them there is usually no problem.Mine will start 3-4 weeks before the first race and have 5 tosses at about 10 mile then jumped to about 30 mile in the race line.I will mix in a few tosses of about 30-40 mile in other directions as well.But all this depends on weather.

Well i have a pied cock sat in my shed now.And i wont get rid of him just because he was one of the first pigeons in my loft and my missus loves him.He go's most races and comes behind the winner every week he's never been the first to the loft in his life but he is going Tarbes this year and i know he will home when he's ready.his youngsters are absolute rubbish and never last more than a week from flying out so i havnt even bred of him this year.But as a foster parent he is worth his weight in gold.Last year i lost a cock from round the loft who was sitting two youngsters when the hen used to get of the nest this pied cock would run in and feed the youngsters .I suppose the point i am trying to make is maybe racing pigeons dont need to race to be an asset to a loft.

Well you should deffinately have a section and an open winner.A bit undecided on the rest as position of the loft certainly has a lot to do with the results so in some circumstance's a club win and federation card is a good result in its own right even if your not up in the combine results.But dodgy sellers will allways find a way to boost sales.

Thanks alot guy's.I think the race i'm looking at will be my last anyway for my cocks as i only have 8 left and 7 are yearlings.Its my first proper year so would be nice to end them with a good result.Ive still got four hens i am hoping to race in a few opens and maybe the national from alencon.But if i can end my season with 8 experienced cocks for next year i will be more than happy ive only been out the top ten in the club once and even got a winner as well as second fed so ive a good base to build on.

How many pigeon fanciers are there in the uk? This could be a realistic proposition for some tv company.

In all seriousness in this day and age it could be televised .Even put chips in rings to map the birds via sattelite as they fly .They build up to the main event could have interveiws with favorites owner saying how they sent the birds maybe a tour round the lofts.Commercial breaks would consist of pigeon retailers paying premium rates to have there adverts aired inbetween.The possibilities are endless how much would some top pigeon stud pay to have there logo painted on the side of a to fanciers shed ...."Buy "insert product name here" as used by so and so this years big race winner"

OOoo we could use an official race starter and dress him in a flat cap and he can have a whippet with him just to keep the old sterotypes alive