Ronnie

Ive got a mealy who is sitting 18 day eggs at the moment and ive never seen a pigeon so keen.He is normall placid but he's turned damnright viscious if you go near his box at the moment.

I fly by myself ,tghe missus will help if i need it and ask but i work on the railway so i have plenty of time to do stuff myself. It may be different this year as i am trying a team of darkness youngsters

Lol friendsloft i was training my young un's last year and was talking to a club members missus at the point i was liberating them(about 30miles from home)She was letting her hubby's young uns go as well.Well on friday night he said exactly that "not seen a basket yet these young un's dunno if i will do any good" Lol he still pooled five of the ten though

Ive invested in some van reets purely because they look good .How can i tell if they are supposed to be sprint or distance birds as what ive read about them there is two varieties.The strains ive got are the Daniel line's and on paper look impressive .they were allways amongst my first birds in last years young bird racing but bear in mind i was no where better than mid table in the club usually not that high .Its not important just curious lol ive crossed them in to my boscneid flyers breed now so we will see what happens on that front

Thats something ive wondered on since i started this sport Roland.If a pigeon is a great pigeon all well and good but how will we ever get a better one if we are just aiming to breed the same one through line breeding. Surely the ultimate goal is to better the pigeon(in a racing sense) not to clone it.

You to vic, and everyone else while i'm at it all the best.

If Linford christie changed his diet and training methods would he be able to run a marathon ?i think he would, could he win a marathon? maybe..Would he have the will power is more the question i think. Going back to the white rump pigeon.Could this be natures way of making a false eye like butterflies wings ,i mean at 300+ miles an hour a white hole may look like a big giant eye lol just a thought.

heads up Vic mate its anew year tomorrow

Really good article .But need the training regime with it like bluebar says is he training the day he is on 3/4 rations. Overall really good info thanks mate.

8 days for me

good point Stuart, youve got to remember that half the decisions are yours but the other half that arnt you may not like. Its a real case of give and take.The overall advantage i can see is the cost is half.(Unless youve got twice as many birds)

Thanks John

Could anyone tell me how do i go about joining the national flying club? Also how many young bird race's they have? Do i need my distances from my club and the likes?

I think the sport will pick up again.My reasoning is that we are heading for a recession and all though we all pay through the nose's for birds and tonics now, we dont have to.And it will all come back to grass roots flying either on the allotment or in the back garden.For the next few years people are gonna be so worried about the steady decline in our sport that lots and lots of advertising will take place and then when the recession hits people will think back to what there grandads and dads did for fun.And see alll the advertising about pigeon racing and BANGGG people will go mad on flying the birds and a new industry will spring up and The humble pigeon fancier will help drag us out of the recession and make britain great again and we will all be Heroe's and every one will worship us and our birds .the great pigeon flyers will have statues erected in there honour along side the statue will be another statue of there best bird in gold............NAhhh we will be lucky to be racing i reckon

I think the sport will pick up again.My reasoning is that we are heading for a recession and all though we all pay through the nose's for birds and tonics now, we dont have to.And it will all come back to grass roots flying either on the allotment or in the back garden.For the next few years people are gonna be so worried about the steady decline in our sport that lots and lots of advertising will take place and then when the recession hits people will think back to what there grandads and dads did for fun.And see alll the advertising about pigeon racing and BANGGG people will go mad on flying the birds and a new industry will spring up and The humble pigeon fancier will help drag us out of the recession and make britain great again and we will all be Heroe's and every one will worship us and our birds .the great pigeon flyers will have statues erected in there honour along side the statue will be another statue of there best bird in gold............NAhhh we will be lucky to be racing i reckon

Back garden for conveniance ,But i would go to allotment if other flyers around here did just for the freindly banter and atmosphere it would generate. would prolly never sleep though cos i would be worried about the birds all the time if it was on an allotmen.Lol i'm up half the night now with em in the garden.

I think the only thing i would be a bit jealous of is my garden aint big enough and i would like a better loft. If i was ever at the stage of being jealous of someones results and birds no matter where they lived or how much they spent then that would be the time to get rid of the birds. At the end of the day its a hobby for me and something to enjoy.As soon as the green eyed monster reared his head thats when the fun starts to go. Just my opinion.

Vic i didnt take it you was slating beginners mate . Just using myself as an example of putting bad birds through to emphasise the point that it does go on. And beleive me allthough i put a few bad birds in the basket ive seen worse birds than mine being put through.

totally agree with that Vic last season was my first season and some of the pigeons i put through leave me embarresed now.At the time i was naive but looking back at them, i would never train them let alone race them the condition they were in.Its embarrising now when i look back and ive allready appologised to some club members about it.The diheartening thing is no one told me to sort them out they just let me put them in the crates in bad condition i dont mean they was sick they just wasnt in the right condition most of them were just so run down.

Casting back to when i was a kid i remember the lofts of family and friends as all being open fronted lots of ventilation come hot weather or freezing cold the lofts stayed open to the elements "just keep em dry and let em fly" is a saying i heard once. Now i look at lofts and see heaters and darkness lofts and artificial ventilation pigeons only let out at certain times for a certain amount of time and i wonder about the losse's reported today compared to the past. I think that closed lofts account for the losses in birds with not enough natural light and air.As for the Birds themselves i hear people talking ,and the people who say the birds from the past where the best are the ones who now have closed up lofts.From a personal veiw i think the birds are better but the managers are not. This is just my veiw through listening and looking ive only had my own birds a year so i cant say from first hand experience.And no way am i saying i am a better manager than anyone else because the results are what talk and as ive not had any.....

Great record Chris .Also mr and mrs Kendal is totally outstanding.Ohh if i could just get a club card i would be happy Lol

Nice one Jim.What a good pressie for chrimbo

i would fly

Lol we let the kids by there own presents last year my two year old got my missus some sausage's I think my sister got a spoon of my lad. So god knows what i'm getting of em.My lad is 6 now so socks may be a banker from next year

Lol yeah Carl the suprise may be you sleeping it