HOW DID YOU START

[blaz]

years ago as a young kid i wanted a pigeon loft but always told no from my dad. then i found a drop out from a race walking about on the promenade portobello it did not have the strenth to fly so i picked it up and took it home we then stayed in a flat 3 flights up in my bedroom a cardbourd box was its home and getting fed on popcorn seed from the health food shop did not know then it had been to a race so i had the carbourd box open at one end pressed against the window so it could see out a few days passed befour my dad found out he went mental let it go he said no i am keeping it it is mine i said so my dad got the bird out the box opened the window and out went the bird to me screaming i went out to see if i could see it but it was gone a few hours later my dad shouted me up my dad was sitting watching the tv in living room with window open when my pigeon flew right in and landed on the mantel piece and sh** now it was his turn to scream i got my 7by 5 hut to keep him in and a few other birds fantails tumblers etc etc he was not to keen on me picking him up all the time and soon disapeard but if it was not for him would i have race birds now i wonder

[phillips]

i started keeping pigeons years ago keeping them in a wardrobe think i was around 12 14 yrs old started racing at the age of 16 and beat the top flyer in derby at this age and was banned from the club for doing so

never raced another bird untill 5 yrs ago and doing well now down to the towns top flyers the willis bros

they set me up with 4 pr of pigeons and ive bred from them and scored with their youngsters from anything from 70 to 500 miles since then ive learned and heard of top flyers performances such as frank bristow and brought in birds from them and its made my team of atheletes better today

thankyou jason  

[ChrisMaidment08]

mine was 44 years ago when my brother used to give me a shilling per bird for him if i cought any i spent lots time trying  and had a few these were kept in old dog kennel on stilts from there to purpose built loft at which time i developed the idea of widow hood  orange boxs  it worked but in them days i thought you had to keep catching them to put in boxs ;D ;D  when my brother left home i took over untill i left home and moved other side country and got some reds from farm  i will always remmber them when sitting if hens come off they went back to farm and come back late after noon ;D ;D the good old days of the sport

[andrecrock]

Great story mate,i was born in a pigeon loft i think.As far as i can remeber back there has been pigeons about.

 

andrecrock

[lawrie]

i used to watch a few guys flying there racers when i was a kid, and from about 12 i always wanted pigeons.

i started reading more into it and finaly got birds, i think its the best hobby ive ever had and the best sport there is. onto my second loft now, and planning to get another small shed next year.

[bird man of meath]

kept buggies cockataiel wife did not mind. next door seen hurt bird and knock in .put it in a box till strong enought to fly home. let it go it came back  but think the buggies anoyed him left after a few week so. middle child cryed 4 him. so grandad got 2   4 her. buggies anoyed them so they left so go rid of buggies and got some pigeons wife hates  them so when i get more pigeons i have 2 put them in under the cover of darkness she still thinks that there is still only 4 out in shed 12 now all blues or chekers cant put colour in or she twig it. :)

[Guest]

My start was in 1956 when my mother was a house maid for a 'well off' family and they had faintails. During school summer holidays my mother used to take me with her to work and I used to spend my time feeding this lady's fantails, and asked if I could have a pair. My mother said NO, and as kids go, I never understood the word NO, and kept on and on about wanting them. My dad used to always be in his workshop and I remember that he wouldn't let me in there for a few weeks. That year I was sent to my grandparents for the weekend and on my return my mother told me to go out in the garden, and to my surprise was a dovecote screwed to the wall of the house, with a wire cage all round it. in it was 2 white fantails, that the lady who mum worked for had bred for me. The following year 2 grew to 6 fantails plus a stray black hen racing pigeon, things went on from there.

[Guest spin cycle]

some lovely stories...i suppose some may have started after 'stumbling' onto a site like this..hope so...bit of hope for the future perhaps

[Guest]

id never even heard of pigeon racing until i met my partner, we have fancy pigeons and we're just looking to start racing.

[pjc]

pigeon racing is in my blood, parents still race and granfather raced for over 50years. Once its in your blood its hard to stop, brother has no interest what so ever!

 

Phil

[jimmy white]

my father raced pigeons as j white and son in millerhill rpc ,,,me being the son i became very interested when i got a stray in [su 51 ca 4406 ] hope the owner forgives me now i actually dont know if my father reported it and got to keep it,, but it was "my bird" i then got my dad to buy me a  mate  [out the petshop, two bob  ] from then on ,,pigeons and pigeons , my first trophy was in 1958 which i still treasure  ;D unfortunately my father died at the young age of fifty and prooved to be a good pigeon flier at that time  

[Guest kev d]

i remember i must have been 5 or 6 at the time my dad having a loft

in the back garden of our council house in gawthorpe west yorkshire

i lived on a big astate it went round in a big circle and seven people flew pigeons

all in a space of a few hundred yards . i spent all my time with the old flyers in the club

fri and sat night , most of them have gone now and all of them treated me like there own son

some of the tales they used to tell me i of what they did , idid not know if they were true or not

but i will never forget them they were true and honest men . some times i wish i could turn back time

and be right back there , kev d

[ALF]

I started going into 1 of my uncles lofts as a young kid ( 2 of my uncles and 2 of my cousins raced pigeons ) and that was me hooked and i was soon in the loft every day and ended up in partnership with him and learned quite a lot from him mostly in the pub on a friday night after the doos were away ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D We stayed in partnership until he died about 11 years ago and since then i have raced them on my own..

[Guest anto]

i started with plgeons a long time ago we keept the birds on the roofs of the flats sheriff sfreet in the heart of the

north inner city of dublin there were very vew houses in the city then everybody lived in council flats there were

lofts on all the roofs all the birds keept were strays most were caught down on the river lify when the corn boats came in

you would spend your hole summer on the river snairing birds they were the good old days when racing birds dident

cost thousands of pounds the birds were free and the food from the boats were free i wish those days were still here

[Lennut Tar]

i started with plgeons a long time ago we keept the birds on the roofs of the flats sheriff sfreet in the heart of the

north inner city of dublin there were very vew houses in the city then everybody lived in council flats there were

lofts on all the roofs all the birds keept were strays most were caught down on the river lify when the corn boats came in

you would spend your hole summer on the river snairing birds they were the good old days when racing birds dident

cost thousands of pounds the birds were free and the food from the boats were free i wish those days were still here

 

Nice topic etc & some great stories above, one may say. For me !!!!!!!!!!!!! my brother 1st had them for 2 years, then lost interest etc &  took up bugerygars (Shocking !!!!!!!!!!, wouldn't have a clue how to spell that one). Anyway, I  then stepped up to the plate fool that I'm & took over with the pigeons, that was in 1956. Now for some strange reason ?????????? I'm as confused & bewildered now/today, as I was back then, so if someone can help me. "Please do".

Enjoy.

 

 

[DOVEScot]

We lived in a mining scheme and we had a huge garden which was like a small holding and we always had Chickens etc, we were allowed to keep any pet as long as we looked after it, I had the lot pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, dogs you name I had it at one time when I was a kid, we used to get pigeons from the fanciers there were about 50 in the scheme with all different types of birds mostly racing lofts

When I moved out I only had room for dove cotes in the properties I had and now since we have settled here we have now three lofts and four dove cotes, four chickens, three rabbits, 12 guinea pigs and two dogs :'( :'( :'(

I am racing this year for the first time but I have been help by a few members on here to get me schooled, Mainly Valiant and his mates, Tammy, Rembrant2coo, Clockman, Sammy and a good few others that offered their advice and help, and of coarse Billy McKechnie who is my loft manager and the brains in the team And Ma WEE Chickadee who is the loft Manager :K)

[micko and jack]

we always had Chickens

I had the lot pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, dogs you name I had it

I am racing this year for the first time

And Ma WEE Chickadee who is the loft Manager :K)

 

OMG Duncan I never realised YOU were a farmer hahahaaa

and its good to hear you will be racing this year  

and Jack and I wish you every success

I KNOW you WILL do VERY WELL

how do I know this

EASY

Carol is THE LOFT MANAGER

and having Carol as loft manager great idea

as YOU scare children and PIGEONS haha

proof of this

Jack threw biscuits at Duncan HONEST hahahaaa

apart from that

carol is much much easier of the eye  

you racing in Scotland

GANGSTER racing in England

I hate to be the bearer of BAD NEWS for the rest of you

DON'T waste your hard earned cash

sending birds to races

against Carol / Duncan or Mick

it will be a terrible waste of time, money and birds

how do I know this

no I'm not physic

(maybe a bit mad just like the rest of you here haha)

ITS CALLED THE LUCK OF THE IRISH hahahahaaaaa mick

[stantheman]

I started when one friday my cousins husband came and asked me if i could time his birds in on the saturday as he had to work and his dad was away i was 11 at the time and did not have a clue what it involved anyway he took me up to the loft and gave me a brief demo on what i had to do then took me up to the club for marking i was completly hooked from that moment on, saturday could not come quick enough i was at the loft hours before i needed to be waiting with excitement i was then shouted at by fancier at top of the street that birds should be here soon by now i was shaking and then i seen 2 birds coming straight down the road towards me! i started shaking the tin as i was told and shouted at them they both landed on the drop board and went in i was like linford christie and was in the loft after them this is where it went wrong(or so i thought) i could not tell which pigeons were which and after what seemed an eternity i found them took the rubbers off and put them in the clock and came out of the loft chuffed to bits  the old boy up the street shouted you took to long mate never mind. The afternoon went on and i just kept clocking them in as i knew no different then my cousins husband arrived from work and said that the old boy up the street had told him i was too slow and had lost a lot of time he said not to worry as i would get faster. we went up the club to hear the clocks read off it was then that my cousins husband tapped me on the shoulder and said its going to be close pity you lost so much time anyway it came to reading his clock out and everybody looked up when the first one was read out

he turned to me laughing and said you wernt that b****y slow were you we have won it

but have cost us second place. from that day on pigeons have been part of my life

[Merlin]

 

 

 

As a very young kid,the first pigeon I ever seen up close,was in an orange box on the wall, kept there by my older brother still vividly remember the colours as it sped down across the gardens,after,"escaping" almost sixty years ago now,still involved with them,some wonderful times and even better memories,with many fanciers,lots of them sadly passed on now.

[tomm1e]

when I was 12 my grandad, using orange boxes, turned an

old derelict chicken coup into a little pigeon loft. The nest box

fronts were old railings. He even fitted it with a cat proof let made

out of tin and weighted with scrap metal. (I wish I had a picture)

When he had finished we went to a farm near the East Coast main

line in Horden and asked the farmer if we could

buy a couple of feathery legged tumblers which lived in a barn.

When we first let the birds out they shot off onto a roof and I went

off in a huff. But my grandad got them back in.

I have kept and raced pigeons on and off ever since.

[ch pied]

standing in the old man's loft , with me two arm's the one length , i was handed a scraper and told to get cracking , 45year's ago , defo something wrong with my head ,lol

[Tony C]

How did I start?...... 'I'm afraid that I was very, very drunk'.  :B

 

[Roland]

Went to London to visit an uncle, my Dad's sister. Was put on the train at Kettering and they picked me up at St. Pancress. He was a top fancier, done exceptionally well from Barcelona etc. 1953.

Fell in love with the matelica necks. - I love all birds, animals.

Pester me dad to no avail. Then two years  later the family all went up London.

My elder brother, dads favourite also wanted them when he saw them... Took three pairs home. Collected some more off the train  the following April.

The rest is history.

[Guest Paulo]

Come from a pigeon racing familly its in my blood.

[b.massey]

I have been onto pigeons 15 years. I was 8 when I first held one at my primary school and loved it since. When I was 14 all my pigeons where killed by a rat of a guy who was jealous but it never stopped me. The fact that the pigeon people out there all got in contact and helped me get birds/loft and build a family again. The story was in Daily Record and the messages I got from letters or phone calls made you see how much fanciers stick together. I was blown away and it was then I realised I was in the main sport. Since then I have moved onto bigger loft and more birds but back in those days it was a one section loft of 5 pairs, it really made me the pigeon man I am today. Also know I can never learn all there is about racing/showing so to learn something new every day is also magic