State of pigeon racing in Britain ?

[Roland]

Was a school at Walgrave that the children raced. The birds were use to the noise of the play ground, and the parent etc. use to come and watch the birds home etc. But when that head moved on the new head closed it al down, but for 2 seasons it was well attended etc. Two new members gained, but there was great scope.

[Roland]

Of course the 'Parents' at the moment are the ones that allow their kids to  - or not - the birds... two things are the 'LOFT' taing up room etc. and worried that they will end up cleaning out etc. Know two fliers though that took over from their kids when other things take their interest naturally. Yet  that may that they may return later when married etc. and settled down.

   But if costs are needless, and it is having to compete with the morgage, and kids clothes etc. hen the wife will bann them!

[Tony C]

Personally I think the we should be concentrating more so on targeting the older generation. More than not have time on their hands, an income & transportation. Its a fact that most people in the pigeon game got into it through a member of their family. By targeting the old'uns a good % of these will have grandchildren, no doubt they'll be introduced to the pigeons at some stage and hopefully a seed will be planted for the future.

I would have glossy brochures printed in the 100.000s and sent out to Dr's, Dentists & Hospitals to be put in their waiting rooms, pay for adverts in gardening mags or whatever. Yes, its going to cost but word of mouth just aint doing the trick. We all know how it could be funded.

[ray]

 

lets all put our thinking caps on and talk about things we know aint going to happen until we get to the bottom of the true cause, mob fliers and dont go on ive heard it all, at the end of the day its a load of rubbish people spout,in my club 14 years ago we had46 members this year we have 21 members and the same people will tell you they left the game because its not a hobby now, the greedy people get greedier and the money people get richer, and until people open there eyes and see the damage they are doing to our HOBBY as thats what it is, there killing it sending a100 birds to a race rediculous 400 away in the club, they are killing the sport, no one else mob fliers and greedy people and if your one of those well its you im talking about you will never get people in this hobby, as long as you have people taking the spoils everyweek, ive taken my birds to schools, the bairns like the bonny ones but thats it, and as for your replies ive heard them all,  but im right ask your mates who arent racing ray

[Guest REDFOXKRAUTHS]

Personally I think the we should be concentrating more so on targeting the older generation. More than not have time on their hands, an income & transportation. Its a fact that most people in the pigeon game got into it through a member of their family. By targeting the old'uns a good % of these will have grandchildren, no doubt they'll be introduced to the pigeons at some stage and hopefully a seed will be planted for the future.

I would have glossy brochures printed in the 100.000s and sent out to Dr's, Dentists & Hospitals to be put in their waiting rooms, pay for adverts in gardening mags or whatever. Yes, its going to cost but word of mouth just aint doing the trick. We all know how it could be funded.

 

 

 

agree they have more time on there hands

 

[Guest REDFOXKRAUTHS]

isend a max of 10-12 birds and the people i beat this year were sending 20's 30's and 35.s

[Guest shadow]

All the methods of trying to bring in new members have been tried for the past 4 years in my area and the sum total of new members is two one teenager who flew 1 season then packed in and one retired person who gave it 2 seasons then packed in a lot of people in this day and age are not prepared to commit their free time for 365 days of the year and take the grief that can come from the rest of the family if they do not share the interest in keeping racing pigeons

[robinthfc]

All the methods of trying to bring in new members have been tried for the past 4 years in my area and the sum total of new members is two one teenager who flew 1 season then packed in and one retired person who gave it 2 seasons then packed in.. a lot of people in this day and age are not prepared to commit their free time for 365 days of the year and take the grief that can come from the rest of the family if they do not share the interest in keeping racing pigeons

 

I agree, that's why I have a lot of sympathy with the ETS, in the long run it will be good for pigeon racing in my opinion. We have to tailor pigeon racing to fit in with modern life style, life isn't the same as it was in the 50's but Pigeon racing hasn't changed that much.... just a bit more professionalism.

[robinthfc]

lets all put our thinking caps on and talk about things we know aint going to happen until we get to the bottom of the true cause, mob fliers and dont go on ive heard it all, at the end of the day its a load of rubbish people spout,in my club 14 years ago we had46 members this year we have 21 members and the same people will tell you they left the game because its not a hobby now, the greedy people get greedier and the money people get richer, and until people open there eyes and see the damage they are doing to our HOBBY as thats what it is, there killing it sending a100 birds to a race rediculous 400 away in the club, they are killing the sport, no one else mob fliers and greedy people and if your one of those well its you im talking about you will never get people in this hobby, as long as you have people taking the spoils everyweek, ive taken my birds to schools, the bairns like the bonny ones but thats it, and as for your replies ive heard them all,  but im right ask your mates who arent racing ray

 

I agree with some of what you say. I stopped racing for ten years, and when I returned I quickly realised it wasn't the 'hobby' it once was, and professionalism has taken over. When I stopped racing on average I should imagine most pigeon flyers had 18 foot lofts, homing 20 - 30 race birds [cocks and hens on natural], breeding 30 yb's. Now I have my old 22' loft, a 10' and a 12'...and that still isn't enough  .

I've no doubt people own more pigeons but send less, Even the 'professionals' in my artea own hundreds, and only send a small percentage. But then often its these big senders that are keeping clubs going nowadays.

 

When a friend came back into pigeons a few years ago he bought a brand new 18' loft, and he didn't believe me when I told him it wouldn't be big enough. "Its only a hobby" he said. year or so later he put another one up  ;D

 

I think a big problem for the future is new modern houses are being built with small gardens

 

[Bad Trapper]

Just like to follow up a similar point made by Swilcox, we have 2 Feds covering the same area and some members send in both Fed's and there race programmes are very similar and a lot of the time you end up at the same racepoint each week with half filled transporters. In the past Fed 1 broke away from Fed 2 because some fanciers were not getting a bite of the cake, so Fed 2 was formed. If you fly in one club in the are it cost you £120 a season plus birdage etc so double this if you a.re in both.Both Fed have dwindling birdages but they carry on regardless. The main reason they will not almalgamate is because of the split what happened in the 1980's and it is a matter of pride of  both commitees they will not see sence and go back as one Fed. Lunacy at its best!

[peterpau]

Doome and gloom !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It aint just our sport that's having problems. Yesterday I played rugger. When I was young and fit we ran six sides. Now we run three. I know of several other clubs in Warwickshire that are in the same situation. A couple of years ago we went to malory park race track on boxing day. One of the anouncers on the PA, was moaning about the lack of new starters coming into motorsport. Is it money time or what, For me all I think we can do is move with the times. Fistly bring in ETS so people on shifts or unable to be at home can compete. Second club boundaries should not overlap and neither should fed boundaries. Third no-body should be refused membership if they've not been susspended. Clubs keep picking and chooseing who they want to race against and it can't be right.

[Guest REDFOXKRAUTHS]

all it is is ps2 and all that i hate them and rather stay with my birds were as other tend to live on ps2's!!!! :-/ :'( > :( ??)

[Ronnie]

Someone make a video game about pigeons .I dont beleive mob flying is the cause yes there is a lot of it going on but but what difference does it make if one flyer sends fifty birds or five flyers send ten each its still the same amount of birds.If your birds going to win it needs to beat all the pigeons no matter who sends what.I agree with Redfox to an extent in that the youth prefer to play video games well that and stand outside my front getting drunk.The route of the problem is most adults betwwen 20 and 40 still want to be kids and dont want responsibilty so there kids dont get encouraged to do stuff except playing on video games to get them out of the way and get out around the estate .Out of site out of mind.

My lad is six and he is allways in the shed with me Yes he has video games and he does play out with his mates as well but its all in moderation.

Bloody hell who put that soap box under me?

[robinthfc]

Just like to follow up a similar point made by Swilcox, we have 2 Feds covering the same area and some members send in both Fed's and there race programmes are very similar and a lot of the time you end up at the same racepoint each week with half filled transporters. In the past Fed 1 broke away from Fed 2 because some fanciers were not getting a bite of the cake, so Fed 2 was formed. If you fly in one club in the are it cost you £120 a season plus birdage etc so double this if you a.re in both.Both Fed have dwindling birdages but they carry on regardless. The main reason they will not almalgamate is because of the split what happened in the 1980's and it is a matter of pride of  both commitees they will not see sence and go back as one Fed. Lunacy at its best!

 

Seems to be the same all over...two of my local feds go to the same racepoints everyweek in two different trainsporters, and wont get together because of something that happened about 30 years ago. That was alright when thery were both getting 2-3000 birds a week, but now they're down to less then a 1000 some weeks it makes sense.

 

Doome and gloom !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It aint just our sport that's having problems. Yesterday I played rugger. When I was young and fit we ran six sides. Now we run three. I know of several other clubs in Warwickshire that are in the same situation. A couple of years ago we went to malory park race track on boxing day. One of the anouncers on the PA, was moaning about the lack of new starters coming into motorsport.

all it is is ps2 and all that i hate them and rather stay with my birds were as other tend to live on ps2's!!!! :-/ :'( > :( ??)

 

I mentioned earlier about fishing having similar problems, and on the radio a couple weeks ago they were talking about young people not going into athletics. Possibly the government should do more and encourage parents to get their kids into more healthy pastimes and sports.

 

 

[Guest jason]

all it is is ps2 and all that i hate them and rather stay with my birds were as other tend to live on ps2's!!!! :-/ :'( > :( ??)

 

BANG ON......my eldest son, when he's plugged in, playing a game he doesn't even speak to anyone! and he says its easier to play a game than get a pigeon ready for a race. :(

[friendsloft]

When most of us were young computors at home wre a thing of fiction, we had to go out to make our own amusement, today they dont,every thing they want is on a computor for them to do , 5they can have adventures with out leaving the arm chair,the other day i went round to my son in law who was on the computor playing virtual fishing,i had a go at him, told him i would take him fishing for proper,his reply was why,go out to the lake to sit there freesing,have to buy bait,sit for hours not catch anything,where here i am warm and do catch fish, and it dosent cost anything, we as good parents must shoulder some of the blame,we buy them the computors and the games todays young are world beaters with their fingure tips,and are not interested in doing it for real. pigeons is now an expencive sport/hobby to come into now than when we started to me it is fast moving away from the working man,it is now becomming a richman sport, we are to blame for that,just look at the cost invovled in setting up. so you see everyone should shoulder some of the blame not just the goverment

friendsloft

[Guest]

I agree with what has been said in the last few posts: this problem isn't really just about pigeon racing, it affects all today's activity sports, and the root cause is the not-interested attitude towards activity sports generally held by the majority of today's young people.

 

Think you've got to identify the problem before you can solve it.  

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

I agree with what has been said in the last few posts: this problem isn't really just about pigeon racing, it affects all today's activity sports, and the root cause is the not-interested attitude towards activity sports generally held by the majority of today's young people.

 

Think you've got to identify the problem before you can solve it.  

 

 

 

SPOT ON THERE MY MAN WHEN I WAS A BOY (TEN TEAR AGO) THE PLACE I COME FROM WAS FULL OF GREYHOUND MEN EVERY BODY HAD A BUDGIE OR CANARY LESS FORTUNATE LIKE MYSELF HAD JACKDAW OR CROW AND WE AND CLIMBED UNDER BRIDGES TO GET PIGEONS AND IF YOU GOT ONE WITH A RING IT WAS A CHAMPION ,MOST WEANS AINT EVEN GOT A PET RABBIT NOW .

 

[friendsloft]

They have but its a virtual one on the computor,