Educating yougsters

[Guest Davy Fleming]

The following is my  opinion and  only my opinion. Youngsters are what they are "young birds" not old ones that have a great deal of experience, so therefore need educated for there future. My own Fed decided a couple of years ago to have a race programme that took them to just over a hundred miles. ( BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL FOR US NUMBER WISE )  meaning short but plenty races and give them an education without stressing them out mentally and physically (at least that was the thought behind the matter). They also have a chance to build up there immune system without the stress which brings on all sorts of probs. As firmly believe youngsters pick up far to many things very easy nowadays. Whether we like it or not this is the present days probs not what we had 30 years ago and we need to address this as we see it because things are not going to change, unfortunately.   It would be my personal opinion that the biggest prob with youngsters are Bacterial and Fungal probs and no one can ever make me change my mind on this one as seen it many many times over the years and had the proof in front of me in black and white. As far as youngsters are  concerned have shorter racing and educate them for later in life because they will come across some hard times but will be well up for it as the training they had  in there learning process that they had as babies and the valuable time they have to MATURE . This won't sort all the probs we have i.e. illness clashing and anything else but at least they will have a better chance. And don't always blame your race controller as maybe it's not always his fault as feel this is an easy kop out for most people and there management system.   I know some National flyers that don't even race there youngsters and  are always in result so that tells me you don't have to race babies to be successful later in life. You should consider trying it because it won't be any worse than that of the heartbreak that the Lanarkshire members and there families  have had to endure over the weekend because remember it does go into the house and not kept in the loft.  Take care guys and gals

[Guest WINGS 04]

well put davy i think you are right about it going in to the house

[DODC]

Well said Dave,my thoughts are the same.

[john short]

davy, i totally agree with you.scottish midland fed are only going as far as appleby this year.i believe it was decided to try this  to see if it would allow better education for the youngsters and to hopefully allow higher birdage for old bird racing.time will tell if this will be the case however like many other feds from what i understand,there has been quite a few losses already.i would also point out that i believe we have an excellent race controller in andrew mckee.

[Guest Owen]

I like your style Davy. No-one likes to loose their youngsters and I am sure that many that are lost are not bad birds. And although I agree with your sentiments when you say, " Don't blame the Race Controller", we really must look at the way this job is being carried out. On the one hand, the job could be much to complicated and difficult for anyone to do it in a better way. On the other hand there could be carelessness and cavalier attitudes involved.

The real problem, I think, is two fold. There has to be proper and regular feed back from the officials after each race, and the members must be prepared to feed their information back to the officials. This should be automatic and totally adhered to every time a race takes place. This sort of analysis should then be used to decide future strategy.

Then there is the health and welfare of the pigeons. A properly trained and qualified person should be in charge at every basketing event. He/She would be there to stop unwell and unsuitabe pigeons from getting into the crates. The number of birds in the crates would come under that remitt. And the condition of the crates and drinkers should be checked to ensure they have been cleaned and distinfected properly.

I also think that all Club pigeons should be vaccinated by nominated Club Officers. The vaccine would work out cheaper but more importantly, you would know for sure that all the Club birds have been vaccinated before they go into the race baskets. I say this because I know for sure that birds in this area have suffered with paramixo. There should be no way that these sick birds can affect the rest of the Club birds.

There are a lot more things that can be done to improve matters if we all got down to taking the young bird losses seriously. I think the Sport is in a state of fast decline if we do not get down to sorting these problems out. It is either we stop blaming the World and his dog and take responsiblity for what we are involved with or I am sure we will loose it. We really can not go on blaming others