Very 1st Pigeon

[Guest]

had told my mum i was getting some ,sold my gunea pigs and bought a pair of another lad across town . kept in for a week ,let em out never to be seen again. about 1972 . only seems like yesterday??                     andy.

[Guest bakes]

my first ever pigeons was bred by dave woods flys in nuneaton church road club part of coventry and district fed very nice bloke i ow him alot had 10 bushaert's lost the lot to pob but when i told dave and went up to tell him he said leave it with me i popped back up to see how he was going on he handed me an basket in the basket was some more latebreds he said enjoy offered to pay for them he said get out lad dont wont anythink still got  them now all have been down to 50 miles training and most will be in the cov district transporter first oldbird race of the season i'll always respect him for what he did for me

 

all the best

k.baker

[ally mac]

 

You certainly have, Cracking loft you have now mate been there and with the new adjustments will see what its like when I come back to see you , TAKE CARE MATE

 

Kettles always on Harry.

 

Al.

[Guest ROCKYandRAMBO]

i can remember my first four like it was yesterday lol i had a blue w/f cock a cheq hen a black hen and a black w/f hen all leus verrottes from barry emms all four bred me winners and the blue w/f was called flash dont know why lol he never raced lol these where all late breds back in 1990 and ive still got there blood in my loft now

[holmsidelofts]

2 pairs of van reets bought from the BHW in 1990. 1 pair came from bert hession the other pair was bred by the robertson brothers. at the same time 2 pairs of van reets ( that i thought were van reets ) came from Terry Lodge at top lofts, but later found out through from others that the pedigrees were not van reet and were jan gronderlar pigeons ( only had one van reet bird in the pedigree and that was the prins). these birds mixed together bred 3rd welsh grand national, first east section Carlisle in 1993 plus lots of club, fed and open position. out of the one pair of blues every nest you would have a blue and a blue badge, the blue badge's were crap but every blue they reared won lots of positions at all levels. unfortunately they are no longer with us and back then i didnt understand the value of preserving your stock loft as it was always racing racing racing, and now that line of family is all but gone. We still have the 3rd national winner who is 16 years old and still going strong,and hes still filling his eggs , its a sign of vitality in a breed when you still have birds at that age that look really well.

 

Jas.

 

[boxer]

mine was a stray and what a stray it turned out to be    

[ritchie1]

simple my first pigeon was from my late uncle goerge of ritchie and white got the old cock back from bob white and a son off him and two cocks from bob white off the son of the old cock double grand son of stormqueen this was goerges no one stock cock hes 15 now but got 7 off him and went back and bought hens from bob and thats my stock birds and bought vandabelles for the club racing birds now three years old will get to the nationals this year for first time looking forward to next year with my distance doos

[Guest strapper]

i had been breeding budgies/canaries cocketiels etc for over 14yrs before selling some of them and being given about 17?..silver toye youngbirds,raced them, had around 6-7 left .

i had birds off fred cross cwmbran..which i swapped for budgies as he was going into them.

these provided me with my 1st birds i could score with.silver toye x kirkpatrick was one of my better pairings...fred had once topped the welsh fed with i believe was 26,000 birdage.many years a go.

untill he died in recent years, id stayed a very close friend....i believe that members of this site have his carmiel cardons etc.

i have nothing left of my earlier birds which i had won many club/fed cards with,but now..in the last 3 yrs,  have a much better depth of quality than ive ever had.

but i dont think you forget those 1st pigeons you had.

[pigeonpete]

Well my first birds as a ten year old, were mainly stray from my grandads, but i do remember a black pigeon i got from blackpool, on a coach trip with the sunday school in 1987, i picked it up in the town, proper scrawny townie it was, (baby) my mum told me to put it down, and i said no way, i ran off into a building, mum ran after me, it was only the mens toilets i ran into!!!!! will never forget the look on my ,mums face, or indeed the blokes in there!!!!  ;D ;D. i fetched the bird home, had no box!! it went in and out no problem, had it nearly a year, then 1 day i took it training on my wheelbarrow with the other, must have been all of half a mile!!! never saw her again.  

 

then i started again in 2005 with wildermeerch, from albert austin from winsford, still have 1 of the originals now a chq w/f cock called "sam"

[Guest KING BILLY]

an Ayrshire stray and a fantail hen in 1970 . The fantail hen landed on my canary aviary

 

so i built a box outside for it,  it was later joined by a blue ayrshire cock , both flew open bowl and reared a few young uns ;D ;D  

  not much has changed then ;D ;D ;D

 

 

[BLACK W F]

had pigeons all my life where i lived every kid either had pigeons or whippets or both  first real racers i ever owned where bred for me by my dads mate mctagget bros of gateshead at that time and for many years the loft to beat  top fanciers  they where the old emeels

[chickadee]

We were at a funeral in Lagan between Dalwinnie and Fort William and we heard that the blacksmith had white fantails in Newtonmore so we went to see him, we got this dovecote from ebay and as you can see it is very nice but it turned out the compartments were too small and the roof was a harbour for mites. we travelled all the way back up to get six fantails which we still have today, although the dovecote is no longer with us we now have four others and two lofts housing racers, fantails, Birmingham rollers and a few fancy breeds

[swilcox]

Mine was a cock called Big Bill, he was a dordin from Daggy Brooks who told me and my dad that he had flown Thurso and Dax, so we broke him out and trained him and sent him to Dax at 7 years old and we timed him, everyone in the club was amazed he done it, we didnt know any better!!!!!! I was 8 year old then.

[Guest Owen]

My first pigeon was a wild Quist that I got from the woods. It was without feathers and still in the nest. That would be about 1950.

I put him into a rabbit hutch and force fed him on my mother's Chicken Mash. Later he had the freedom to come and go when he wanted until one day he did not come back. I looked for him for weeks but he must have gone wild.

I lived in a small country village and all the lads were animal mad. Most of our Fathers' kept animals anyway. Then one day, out of the blue, one of the lads told us he had some pigeons. We all went to the farm to have a look. None of us had seen anything like it before. But we were all facinated. Later my Dad brought 4 pigeons home from a farm where he was working. He had caught them in the nest holes on the buildings. I had them and others that I caught myself until I went to the Army at the age of 18.

Strapper, the guy you mentioned, Freddy Cross, lived about 2 miles from me and we were great friends until we lost contact when I went to the Army. In those days Freddy had a menagery at his home at Underwood Estate, Llanmartin. And he had loads of pigeons there then as well. Although we had lost contact and never met down the years, I was very sad when I heard that he had died. They broke the mould when they made Freddy. He was definately one of a kind. A great bloke.

[sapper756]

Thanks for the replies folks, some very interesting ones, keep them coming

[mark croker]

I had pigeons with my mate i was 7 till i was 10, we seen a lads that had birds out and stopped to talk to him, he gave us some strays that got me going but i dont really remember them,  the first pigeon i got on my own when i was to 10 was a little unrung red i called red band from a fella called charlie smith,  along with a red stray, i let he red out and she dissapered,  he then got me a unrung blue,  that i called blue band  ;D

 

The sad thing is,,   My dad would only let me have two birds at the time,  so when i got offered a pair of van loons a month later they went,  i still have the rings off them,  97 rung    Good times  

[micci]

My first birds where heinz 57s from different lads on the estate, My first proper racing birds was a Cheq hen from a W Steele of Uttoxiter, and four from A,R,Hill of St Just, i saved up for almost a year to get them..what a long time ago that was, crikey

[Guest bristolkev]

i got my first pigeons 20 years ago from my uncle...the strains were clayton`s and s.b.coopers wish i had them now.

[DAVIDL]

 

 

  first bird i ever got was a pencil blue cock 33 years ago.......he was a 2 year old and i can still remember his ring no now (gb74x*****)   :)

[Taylorsloft]

2 fantails my brother got 2 racers from a pet shop in Belfast in 1962