wot got u into keeping pigeons?

[Guest]

i used to keep budgies/cocketiels/canaries/ finches etc...but m8s of mine had pigeons...i always said no to keeping pigeonswhen me m8s asked wouldnt i like them.

then one day i had a paper that sold alsorts in them and saw in the pets section 12 silvertoye youngsters free to good home.

i rang up and drove the 12 mls for them, when i arrived the guy said hang on ill call them in?...i thought oh god how long will i be here for now...but they came down within a few mins and i examined them at close and took all 12 home in wot i recall as a spider webbed rickity basket the guy gave me.

these birds fasinated me ,and there were if i recall correctly, a dark cheq cock that was outstanding and shinny.

that was it i was hooked.i put them in a 12ft by 10ft aviary... and from then on i started to sell off all the other birds id had for over 14yrs.

after a few weeks id sold nearly all my other birds and put the 12 pigeons into a shed with a aviary attached.

to be truthful i was scared to let them out lol...i remember leaving them a bit late and lost 3 straight off the 1st day i let them out.

i then was given drinkers and feeders off m8s and a few more birds.after the season went by i used them birds as stock and was given birds from a good friend of mine fred cross.

i had white grizzles off him and a few other colours.the dark cheq i had, i crossed with a white grizzle hen and it proved by chance to be one of the best pairings ive had ..they produced card winners for me 4ths 5ths and so on.the next few seasons saw them produce 1st cards winners and i never looked back as i gained in experience and knew wot birds were worth keeping.

now after 8yrs being in the sport i am fortunate or was up untill last yr to be a decent flyer /winning averages 3 yrs running,now its all start up for me again after getting rid of all my birds last year .

its funny how things happen that changes ur life and unexpectedly for me to be keeping and doing fairly well with pigeons i for so long didnt even look at....paul

 

[westy]

my dad had them as a kid and he told me about them one day and i was very interested.

[Guest]

I stayed in school to 'a' levels and then came out and got married within 9 months in 1971!! A mistake I'm afraid.........but anyway, my father in law was a retired miner in his 70's and his son in his 40’s who were going to start up with the birds again. One day they came to me and asked if I'd be sec of the pigeon club.........pigeon club? What’s a pigeon club I asked? The only pigeons I knew were in Trafalgar Square. They explained to me that the Merthyr club was 69 lofts strong wanted to split, or I should say the top end of the valley boys wanted their own club. The problem then, and still the same as now I would imagine, is that the birds tended to come down the western side of the valleys and come back across half way down the valley and for the boys at the top end of the valley the birds would fly back up. Above us at Merthyr is Pen Y fan at just under 3000' often shut us out.

So I became sec of the pigeon club not having a clue. I went to the first meeting and there were I think 30 lofts present. I had done research and spoken to Hayden Radford a great man who had been a founder member of the Heads of the Valley fed.

I was presented to the meeting by Tario Grans, a Spaniard by birth who was to be Chair, I told the meeting I wanted a pound off each of them so that I could purchase maps, a calculator, the RP velocity calculator etc. One of those present said he wasn’t prepared to give a £1 to someone he didn’t know. I told him it was his/their choice, I had no axe/ involvement. His name was Brian Lewis of Lewis Bros and he was Chairman of the giant Welsh North Fed, (which a few years later we joined), Brian withdrew and didn’t join, though he did a few years later after we became a thriving club. We became adopted by the largest workingmen’s club in Wales and at the end of our first year, we had a healthy bank balance, a trophy on every race, some super cups, and a photograph from Anthony Bolton to the winner of the last 3 OB races and 3 YB races. Our first prize presentation we had nearly 200 and Dixey was a our chief guest. I remained Secretary the following year and then left to be Secretary of the parent club at the tender age of 22 I became secretary of the biggest (£1 million turnover in 1974) and one of the toughest workingmens club in South Wales, the Gurnos social club. I kept my pigeon links through the club and my brother in law and as secretary was in a good position to support the pigeon club, I think we had 32 competing lofts at the end of that second season. In 1978 I got a job as a Brewery rep, a brand new car, expense account and excellent wage!! I lived next door to my father in law who was now in his mid eighties, a second hand loft came up and I bought it and some birds, for him rather than me, but alas I got hooked!! We competed in partnership and won our first two races with the same cock (the worst possible result cause I thought I knew it all….what’s new!!). The Gurnos pigeon club as I understand is still going but sadly is now down to only 9 lofts!

And what am I doing this year……… back as a pigeon club sec, cause no one else will do it!!

[Guest Bonzo]

i started off keeping pigeons in 2003 with a 4ft high x 2ft wide dove coupe i was only going to keep 2 pairs of white doves  but a neighbours freinds grandfarther was getting rid of his raceing pigeons so went went to have a look i ended up taking 15 pairs with me so had  2 go out and buy a 8ft x 6ft shed which led to getting another  8ft x 6ft shed for the young birds so in 04 joined a club for young birds only and won 4x1st so at the end of 05 went and bought a 24x6 loft and have not looked back.

[GREENGRASS]

We used to have more than 20 plus lofts all within a few streets where i grew up but not all were racing their birds, some kept fantails, rollers, tumblers but i was smitten with the racing pigeons of my grandfather. i think once you have kept them you never are far from them. the bug when it bites is hard to shake off.

[Guest]

hi albear m8...ive been sec for 3 yrs now as u ...cos no one else will do it lol.

im about 20 mls from merthyr im in abergavenny m8....paul

[Guest REDFOXKRAUTHS]

my da used to take me in the loft when i was 1 hooked straight away

[Guest]

Paul I remember comperat bros as top men in Abergavenny and an old chap across at Govilon, forget his name was friends with Jack Holmes at Hereford

[jupiter_19630]

My brother brought 4 pigeons home that he had managed to trap at his school. They were becoming a nuisance so they wanted rid, so my brother asked his headmaster if he could have a go at catching them before they called in pest control. My dad built me a small shed to keep them in. From that moment I was hooked.

The following year we started racing as a father and son team right uptill the late 70's when circumstances meant we had to give up.

From then untill last year I remained an armchair fancier. Then 4 pigeons tried to return to a previous owners loft that no longer exists. I managed to get them in to my shed and duly reported them.

The last registered owner was no longer in the sport so I was asked if I wanted to keep them. I said yes. Bought a loft off ebay. Bought some 06 birds and was kindly gifted some, and will be racing some of them this year.

Its true what they say. You never really lose the bug!

[Guest jason]

1988, in junior school a mate said we needed to get messages to each other when we leave junior school to go to high school. Pigeons became the answer.

3 of us started (and still do keep pigeons) but the lad who's idea it was, he never even kept a feather!!!!!

 

Thats how I started and over the last 19 years I've seen good pigeons come and go, but I'd be lost without them.

 

Jason

[bazza]

My father kept them as a boy,gave up when he moved from s,wales to london,then in 1984 we decided to buy some late breds.I was 11 at the time.We lived on a big estate in peckham,so had to have our loft on our balcony which was about 40 or so feet off the floor!It was about 12 by 6.Had a few successes till i went off to race bikes.Dad continued  until he moved back to Wales.As i lived in london used to visit and help out when i could,then last year his health suffered and my interest rose,so for one reason or another i moved down to race full time in 06!PHEW!

[Sally McQueen]

Well i have kept birds for 5 years now.  When i met Lightning and we brought our very first house i vowed not to have a loft in the garden as we lived next door to his parents who Lightning is in partnership with and where the huge loft is.  I went visiting my parents for a week and when i got home the loft framework was up.  CHEEKY!!!   :

 

But when we put babys in i started to come around and loved looking after them.  Now i love them wouldn't be with out them, and getting as competative as Lightning    

[Guest]

Paul I remember comperat bros as top men in Abergavenny and an old chap across at Govilon, forget his name was friends with Jack Holmes at Hereford

 

hi again,yea i know the comperat bros,clive is a m8 of mine...he has moved to the phillipines of all places now and is still racing over there,he regularly calls back to aber to see old m8s....jack was in partnership at one time with john smale(who is the chairman of my club )and then jack(who has a video film in the boddy & ridewood book) went on to partnership clive comperat and form an outstanding partnership at the highest level..as some will know if they know about the kenyon pigeons  they flew, and later on  clive won welsh nationals on the north on his own winning the queens cup amonst others.

we have had  a few national winners here over the years, all at distance my chairman has won 2 nationals and 1 or 2 2nds and a 3rd...also runner up to the queens cup.......paul

 

[Guest]

My dad had birds almost as soon as my parents got a place of their own. He & his dad had had birds together before that. This was Mossend / Bellshill, Lanarkshire in the late 1950's / early 60's when the numbers of clubs, lofts and fanciers were probably at their highest. My dad worked some distance away, coming home late evening, so I was left to feed the birds afternoons. First 'full time' fancier job was 1963 when my dad went to India to work on a year's contract. Was supposed to just look after them till he got back, but them down at the club convinced him that 'new starts' are usually quite lucky racing pigeons, so they'd to be raced. So I did and was until I left home at the end of 1967.

 

And that was it really, apart from a very short spell in Larkhall in the early 1970's when he went to Libya leaving me some birds, the ones he hadn't sold, until the end of 2001 when I started up again on my own. With one whole pair from LPW to breed a dynasty from (in 2002) except I didn't because the cock got out 3 days later and that was the last I saw of it, and although I bought-in another cock from Andrew Deans, the hen LPW sold me turned out to be barren ... guess I'd left my luck behind in Mossend.   I started racing OBs in 2003.

 

 

[paul l]

MY uncle in ireland keeps them i use to go there every weekend help out and was always intrested and now ive got my own loft and birds and love it

[Guest WINGS 04]

I MOVED FROM A FLAT TO FRONT AND BACK DOOR HOUES AND THE NEBER HAD THEM AFTER 6 MONTHES IN ASKED HIM ABOUT THEM HE TOLD ME TO GET A HUT AND HE WOULD GIVE ME SOME THAT WAS GOOD OF HIM BUT NOW THIS SAME MAN IS TRYING TO PUT ME OUT OF PIGEONS BECOSE HE WAS THE TOP FLYER NOW HE IS NOT I HAVE NOT LET M Y KID PLAY IN THER ON BACK GARDEN FOR MORE THAN 6 YEARS TO LET HIM FLY HIS BIRDS HE HAS NOT SAID A WORD TO ME IS MONTHES  HIS LOFT IS IN MY GARDEN  AS WELL BUT ALL HE HAS DONE IS PUT ABOUT ALOT OF sh** ABOUT ME HIS NAME IS JIM LUKSON

[gangster]

i remember as a kid there was an old polish guy lived around the corner ww2 vet that stayed here i used to sit on his wall watching his coming and going....well thats were it started for me at 5years old he gave me a stray and my old man hit the roof he did not like them...we moved and at 15 my dad let me have an old loft a guy was getting rid of and the rest is history apart from a couple of breaks ive had them since.....mick

[Guest]

A Fascinating read this thread, would love to read more examples.

One part I forgot to mention on mine . When I asked why they wanted me to be sec I was told 'cause you went to school!!', they had wanted to have their own club for many years but they were mainly miners and steel workers and none had had a decent school education, they were more than capable intellectualy, just didn't have the pen and paper skills; one of the most intelligent men I ever met could not read and write.

[DFisher]

i lived next door to the pub where the birds were marked and used to watch every week and club hq, we had some fancy ones and a few strays and then were given a couple of pairs of latebreds to start, i was 10 at the time, we kept these separate and then built a new loft  and had mainly racers

[Guest MBpigeonguy]

i sat at the window all the time watching wild pigeons, i spent a whole summer sitting in bushes watching them. so i went the where they nest and took a few so i breed them for a year and then i desided to race them,(i thouth maby i chould even race againced real racing pigeons) later i found out how different racers and wild ones are, well for the next 2 years i spent trying to get racers  

but i ended up getting 4 pigeons in october and 4in febuary> i gave alll my wild pigeons away..

[Guest TAMMY_1]

It was my son who first started up the birds, he used to go and watch them come home to friend of his grandpas, and he pestered me to buy a loft for him, which I did and got him a couple pairs of birds to start with, soon caught the bug myself and we worked together for a while and I ended up doing more and more until he finally gave up and everything was put in my name, glad he wanted them or I would never have bothered with them

[westy]

i have put full details of when i started and how on my new website that will be available for u to view in a short while i will post up the link when available.