widowhoods going off the boil!!!

[Jack Barkel]

Hello Jimmy,

 

I totaly agree with what you say, after flying widowhood teams successfully in the UNC, I thought I would fly the South Africans into the ground with my widowhood methods. What a pity I was stone last the first year and the improvement was not rapid from thereon. I came to realise the old adage, " Adapt Or Die", and I adapted.

 

These discoveries and adaptations I have catalogued and hope to bring out as a CD or some other form, so people in both hemispheres can use my experiences to their advantage. I do believe however that we only need to change where circumstances differ from the normal as you staed in your last reply.

 

Here is the latest e-mail from one of my students, I can fill a book with similar results of fanciers that have stuck to my experiences. They flow in every or most weekends. I hope she does not mind me re publishing it here, as I am going away for the weekend and do not have time to ask her permission.

 

Regards

 

Jack

 

 

OTTAWA VALLEY COMBINE

CHALK RIVER

MAY 14/ 06

211.531 Km

05/14/2006

 

22 Lofts  616 Birds

 

1.    C Steacy             05CU11342                1132.8663

2.    C Steacy             05CU28370                1131.4529

3.    C Steacy             05CU10099                     1130.5461

4.    C Steacy                05CU28354                1122.1526

5.    C Steacy                05CU28374                1111.8343

6.    R Hatch Jr           05CUGTR5541                 1111.4581

7.    C Steacy             05CU11352                1110.9587

8.    C Steacy             05CU28379                     1110.0845

9.    C Steacy             04CU16678                     1104.8679

10.  F Steenwyk         05CUGTR5795                 1104.1535

11.  C Steacy             05CU11340                1103.7153

12.  C Steacy             04CU16782                1101.6084

 

Your friend and student,

Connie

[jimmy white]

:) my goodness, that certainly is some result :) wow,

 

were now at the moment here of some feds contenplating liberations, the weather at my place midlothian is shocking, raining and cold east winds, so we will wait and see,

 

p.s thanks for your prompt and sensible reply, jimmy

[carl]

I agree jack posts are most intresting,jimmy heres a link to jacks website i have found this very very intresting and a plesure to read.

 

 

http://www.allpets.co.za/jackbarkel/

 

excelent articles about roundabout/widowhood/eyesign/finding form etc etc.

 

Jack would it be ok if i put some of your articles on this forum.

 

 

carl

[jimmy white]

thanks carl will definatly have  look  

[Guest shadow]

I find that resting the cocks for a few days soon has them bouncing around the loft again as I only fly 16 cocks it works for me.

[TheSaddler]

Jack,

 

I respect your opinions - hopefully you've not taken offence to my post.

 

FYI - I race roundabout because I prefer a good team of hens, I find they are easier to condition and give 100% each week..

 

One hen this year was 3rd Club (beaten by loft mates) 12th Fed 1200 birds, 1st Club 41st Fed 4200 birds, 1st Club 19th Fed 4800 birds - And this was in three consecutive races, the last two results where in the Worcester Federation against some of the best widowhood fanciers in the UK, if not the world.. This proves that for me my system works - A good widowhood flyer would never have sent this hen...

 

[Jack Barkel]

Hello Sadler,

 

I did not take offence, just thought I must state that in my opinion the comment I made was not negative. Any system that creates winners is a working system, and I do not think for one moment you changed an old system?????

 

To Carl,

 

You can certainly put some of my articles on the forum if you would like to.

 

Regards

 

Jack

[speedbird]

decicded to repair them flying much better after locking hens in if this week they dont win i will get them sitting for 7days then put back on the widowhood done this before half way through the season with good results if they win sitting will leave em together as still fit as widowhood cocks so should & can beat widowhood cocks onthe natural

[Diamond dave]

JACK,

YOU KNOW THAT i HAVE THE UTMOST RESPECT FOR YOUR WORDLY COMMENTS AND WISE WORDS IN SOME OF YOU FANTASTICALLY INFORMATIVE POSTS BUT IN THIS CASE I HAVE TO ASK THAT YOU CONSIDER THE FACT THAT SCIENCE HAS IMPROVED THE WIDOWHOOD METHOD - NAMELY IN THE FORM OF FEED FORMULATIONS. i WOULD AGREE THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF THE WIDOWHOOD CONCEPT IS AN ULTIMATE SYSTEM BUT THERE HAVE SURELY BEEN MODERN DEVELOPMENTS THAT HAVE IMPROVED IT.

[Jack Barkel]

Hello Dave,

 

Only in feeding, which is progressing all the time, not only in the concept of the widowhood method. The system of feeding is not a widowhood system although it may be used in conjunction with it. The chopping and changing of the widowhood system as we were taught it many years ago, has not improved the widowhood and which I doubt will ever improve it, is not advocated by me.

 

The Belgiums had been perfecting this system 50 years before the British ever tried it, and I doubt if any wizard will come along and turn this system on it's head.

 

May be someone will devise a better system of racing a pigeon, but widowhood as taught by the masters, tried all variations before I tried it in England in the 1950s that I am sure of.

 

There will always be progress, this I agree, but some have been tried to their limit many generations ago. These are the things where I feel experiments will not improve the system as taught for many years by the experts.

 

Feeding has improved all methods of sport, but the idea of depurative and purifying systems and not purging, still belong to the Belgiums, no matter how we try to improve on this, it was still the early skills of these few Belgiums that changed

the art of racing pigeons.

 

We in the Southern hemisphere have had to change the method of feeding to be able to fly widowhood, but we certainly have not changed the system.

 

By the way the method of feeding to make the widowhood system work in the Southern hemisphere was devised by myself. No one else can lay claim to this feeding method that allows us to fly the widowhood system south of the equator, with the success of our northern counterparts.

 

Best Regards

 

Jack

[Diamond dave]

Once again Jack I appreciate your comments and the elequent way in which you deliver them.

As a matter of interest, rather than debate, is the feeding that different in S.A.?

[Jack Barkel]

Hello Dave,

 

Although we commence flying the same time as the Northern Hemisphere it is the middle of winter here and the birds are flying often in winds below zero temperature. Maize or Indian corn as we called it in the early days in England is a food that creates heat. Without about 70% of the mixture being this ingredient, widowers or any other system birds can not face the cold. Most Southern hemisphere countries race old birds for about 21 weeks, and this means that over this five month period the weather has warmed up, even to the extreme, and we can have eight to more weeks of racing in extreme hot temperatures, at distance of anything from four to six hundred miles.

 

Maize if fed at a constant 70% will cause the pigeon to overheat, so we have to feed Maize on a sliding scale as the weather gets warmer. Seeds can cause too much excitement and give them the runs. By the time the hot weather slides in I have dropped the maize by half and replaced it with peas.

 

We cannot pair our widowers up 90 days before the first race as they are still in the previous years moult , so we have to devise a method of cheating nature. We also must divide our widowhood teams into three, one team for the first seven weeks( short distance ) one team for the second seven weeks ( middle distance ) and one team for the third seven weeks ( long distance )

 

It took me a long time to master the problems that caused everyone to say Widowhood will not work in the Southern Hemisphere. Since I made my publication known to the world on how to make widowhood work in our part of the world, many laid claim to have been doing it all along.

However most of us know that if it was ever practiced by these claimants it was never published or even talked about.

 

There is much more to it than this however, which I mentioned in articles that I believe will soon be put up on this forum by Carl of the Oddfellows Sunderland.

 

Regards

 

Jack

 

 

[speedbird]

by repairing them they came up trumps now sitting 1week & if they win again this week gonna keep em paired as flying better now than before if no win spliting em back up & putting em back on the widowhood

[T_T]

Hi Hyacinth,

                  My cocks like yours, have gone flat so I've paired them up again and if I'm right in reading most of Jacks comments, it seems the wrong thing to do but I don't know what else too do.  Some say keep them in for a few days, some say train em'.  I have had two training tosses this week both cocks and hens in the HOPE that I can re-kindle some sort form.  They are in sparkling condition but the form is missing.  See what this weeks results do.  Gives me a headache.

[schouwman71]

Jack i think you should be writing books on widowhood as what you have said is good advice,i once knew a man who learnt me widowhood at the age of 13 and i was winning now ime 34 have a full tiime job plus a family and know how to fly birds but also try cutting corners with my birds now to save time ,but your advice is good advice and a lot would learn from you.

[Jack Barkel]

Hello Schouwman,

I am busy with a production on widowhood at the moment, I do not know whether it will be a DVD or a book, all I can show at the moment although I have started writing is the front cover. I paste it here just as a matter of interest to you.

 

Regards

 

Jack

[Saffer]

 

By the way the method of feeding to make the widowhood system work in the Southern hemisphere was devised by myself. No one else can lay claim to this feeding method that allows us to fly the widowhood system south of the equator, with the success of our northern counterparts.

 

Best Regards

 

Jack

 

In reality Jack.

Can you name one club champion, or Federation champion, who races Widowhood in South Africa?.

To follow on, surely a measure of sucess needs to be reached before saying widowhood can be flown like our Northern Hemisphere counterparts.

Did these methods allow you to win lets say over 50 races in your time racing there?

The results you quote are from Canada, Northern Hemisphere?

Can you please do the same for the Southern Hemisphere?

 

Not trying to argue, but just looking for some substance to that Quote.

 

Regards saffer

 

[Jack Barkel]

Hello Saffer,

 

I have clocked 17 out of twenty from 850 kilometres 512 miles all on the race sheet and winning the race.

 

I have clocked 19 out of 20 at 1000 kilometres 600 miles, all on the race sheet  and winning the race. I aso have a widow hood cock with 3x1st  2x2nds and 1x 3rd all over 400 to 600 miles.He could have won those six races if I had not clocked a loft mate to win as he already had wins from those liberation points.

 

I have taken the four positions in the first five in our shortest race winning the race.

 

I can quote many more exiting performances although I was never overall club champion, but was long distance champion.

 

Unil recently there were not many in South Africa, flew widowhood successfully but now since I revealed my method for the southern hemisphere they are increasing each year as more and more realise it is possible

 

There are many South Africans that can vouch for these statements I make here and I do have records of these wins. Most will confirm I never flew a race other than widowhood and round about, in this country.

 

There are fanciers winning with my methods on widowhood in Australia also.

 

The widowhood flyers are in a very small minority here because the average South African fancier thinks condition and form are the same thing. Once they realise they a not the same thing, more will turn to widowhood.

 

I do not know however of any SA fancier flying widowhood that is Fed champion although I hope to see them in the not to distant future.

 

Regards

 

Jack

[Saffer]

Jack

 

Point taken, I lived in SA, hence my name Saffer.

But lets face it, everyone has good races, some years more than others.

The key to this game is been consistant, hence I have always had a few

fantastic races a season. But it takes alittle more to get overall Champ.

But having a few races, is not enough to substaciate a method.

Widowhood, is a summer concept, we race in winter.

Celibate cocks and hens, have the identicle results, this

I have tried and tested, not for 2 racing seasons, but 5.

Different pairing dates, different feeding, different rearing and not

rearing.Different pigeons, all makes no difference.

Once it showed promise in the season of 1995, when saving and pairing

cocks and racing widowhood in September or Spring. But then again

with the murderous programmes in SA, anyone with Fresh pigeons in September

would do this.

 

With my afinity to South Africa, It is common knowledge that no consistantly winning Fed or Union chamipion is using this method.

Remi Pluym, from Belgium, in the VPU is the only fancier to my knowlede that races this system with any sucess.

 

Regards Saffer

 

[Mike Lycett]

Hyacinth

 

To be honest its a proven fact that hens always destroy the cocks on roundabout. THey always say you waste a good hen by only flying widowhood. Well, hyou waste a cock by flying roundabout.

[TheSaddler]

Mike,

 

I agree - Cocks on roundabout dont hold their form quite as well as cocks on pure widowhood. But I'd say you still get about six good races out of them.. I've had 23 club prizes this year and 9 have been won by the cocks... 14 by the hens...

 

It's difficult to balance the roundabout system - In my experience the hens fly better the more they see the cock. Its the opposite with cocks - the more they see the hen (in the week) the worse they get.

 

I tend to concentrate on the sex that are flying the best that season - Obviously this will have a detrimental effect upon the other sex....  The art of roundabout flying for me is to get your cocks and hens to hit form at different points in the season - In effect you then have a fresh team to compete with.