In Yesteryears

[kraftykev]

Hi all

 

I was wondering how people trained and prepared their pigeons before every house hold had a car.

 

what made me think of this, is because I do long hours at work and can only race every other weekend and with the price of petrol and only having limited time to spend with my birds can I compete with the fanicer who trains his birds twice a day and races them on the widow hood system.

 

I only started back racing young birds this year and after all the training only raced the first two races due to work and the odd family wedding etc. I have always in the past raced my old birds on the natural system. I open them up in the morning and shut them up at night and they can do what ever they want all-day. I would give them a couple of tosses in the week and that would be it. But now im at my new club most race the widow hood system and seem to be training their birds a couple of times a day. well i cant afford to do all that training and as ive stated time is in short supply.

 

So the question is am i doomed to be last on the sheet or will my trusty kirkpatricks hold their own against all the modern day continental super pigeons

 

cheers

 

Kev

 

www.spencroftlofts.co.uk

[kirky]

kirkys will aways hold there own thats why there still around.

[THE FIFER]

by railway m8, you still see some of the old baskets with the metal railway form container on it, you took your basket to the booking office and got it on the scales, destination on the basket paid your money and birds were liberated by the station porter at the destination,and your basket put on the next train back,you then collected it from your local station, was great, same at racing,we had a club hut on the staion for basketing and birds went on the trains for racing, and were liberated by the convoyer ,

[OLDYELLOW]

if your flying widowhood you dont need to train after 2nd race

[PIGEON_MAN]

As a teenager I would cycle 20-25 miles with a basket of birds hung over my shoulder. I never train Widowhood cocks after first or second race they just get a hour in the morning and a hour at night

[Wiley]

if your flying widowhood you dont need to train after 2nd race

 

you dont need to but many do

[Guest bakes]

by railway m8, you still see some of the old baskets with the metal railway form container on it, you took your basket to the booking office and got it on the scales, destination on the basket paid your money and birds were liberated by the station porter at the destination,and your basket put on the next train back,you then collected it from your local station, was great, same at racing,we had a club hut on the staion for basketing and birds went on the trains for racing, and were liberated by the convoyer ,

 

i got lent a video last year from friend he dont race no more packed up due to health reason but still helps another local flyer out he still got his lofts and everythink as hes thinking of starting back up in the near future on the video it shows the barcelona international of yesturyears showed birds being basketed and loaded onto the trailers and after a good while off stopping off loading up more baskets at each station they got to barcelona unloaded all the baskets onto liberation site and seen the birds libbed with police garding the lib site in each trailer there was 2 blokes that would make shore water is topped up and birds are fed if i remember rightly was plain maize put into the top of baskets for the birds to eat took ages to the got to the lib site but was good to see how they do it in yesturyears my grans uncle use to race pigeons years ago and she loves it down mine as it brings back memorys of when she was a young gal seeing here uncles birds and so on ad she said there was non of them lorrys it used to be me and my uncle going to railway sation load birds onto trailers and have to go back and pick his baskets back up when they sent them back even training was the same my nans uncle use to go on train get to say 20 miles away let birds up a while away from station and walk back and get train back while my nan was waiting at his lofts for his birds to come back she got some old pics somewere she said she going to find out if she find them i try to scan them and put them up my nan is 80 this was when she was 10 year old when she use to go and see her uncle birds i dont no what club he use to fly in but would of thought somewere near attleborough as thats were my nan from in nuneaton but she said here uncle was a good flyer and stubborn with it never gave in until he suceeded and when he did he set an even bigger achievemnet and when my nans been round mine and seen me with my birds she said its like seeing my uncle year back im suppose to be his double what i say and do with my bird my nans uncle did the same im not going to ly to you some day last year when i had nock after nock it felt like someone was there standing beside me saying what ever nocks you get rid it out as when it does nit together it be worth the wait im not religus or anythink and ive had that same feeling twice this year my nan been down mine before when ive sent to race and i remember my misses saying come on in as it looks like it going to rain and i stood out side getting drenched looking up to sky and i heard my nan say hes the double of my uncle he wont come in until hes got one back in loft just leave him be as he not listening she right lol a bomb can go off could be thunder or lighning tanking down of ran i ride it out until ive got somethink back the buzz i get seeing my birds come over them trees from local cemetary is always worth the wait.

 

all the best.

[OLDYELLOW]

you dont need to but many do

aye but only if going a bit stale might get one in

[Wiley]

aye but only if going a bit stale might get one in

 

if you say so yellow, tell that to some of the top men in london and essex who give there cocks a 50 miler 4 times a week every week. And i know it isnt just down here.

[Guest bakes]

if you say so yellow, tell that to some of the top men in london and essex who give there cocks a 50 miler 4 times a week every week. And i know it isnt just down here.

 

best flyer in club as well as holds his own in fed most weeks birds are trained 30 miles everyday as soon as daylight breaks there up clear skys no one training at that time in the morning when most still in bed his birds are out grafting hence why he holds his own each week.

 

all best

[Guest IB]

When I first started up with pigeons in mid-1960's Lanarkshire Fed still sent birds down West Coast by rail. We had use of a bothy at the Edinburgh end of the Glasgow-bound platform where we marked birds and baskets were humped accross the line to the other platform and loaded to a BR road tractor & trailer, and taken to Motherwell station to be transhipped there onto the pigeon train. It was centralised clock-setting too, you collected a set manual clock from Motherwell on Saturday morning, timed your bird, and took clock back there Saturday afternoon.

 

There used to be a lot of wee stations on the West Coast Main Line between Motherwell & Carlisle and fanciers sent their basket of doos on local stopping train to likes of Symington, Abington, Elvanfoot, Beattock & Lockerbie, with as Fifer has already described, a label & note to Station Master to 'liberate clear of wires and write time of liberation on label.' He then sent the empty basket back to the station it came from.

 

Beeching put and end to all that he closed down one third of the rail network, along with thousands of stations, and sending trainers by rail had ended long before I started up. Its Motherwell, Lockerbie then Carlisle nowadays, but the same pattern was adopted with the training motor: Symington, then Abington, then Elvanfoot, then Beattock. And it was one basket of doos, 10p for a trainer in todays money.

[greenlands]

Hi Kev, my late mother and me used to basket the pigeons put the basket onto an old pram frame and walk about 3 to 4 mile and liberate for the old man to get them in.From there they wold go to the first race,Lancaster about 60 mile,good returns both for old and young birds.

[OLDYELLOW]

if you say so yellow, tell that to some of the top men in london and essex who give there cocks a 50 miler 4 times a week every week. And i know it isnt just down here.

everyone to there own , mine keep themselves fit around home , i also now a few fanciers that fly like that , its all down to choice

[greenlands]

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=82069

[greenlands]

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=34716

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52904

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=48154

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=27643

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=36139

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=50599

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=23515

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=25516

 

 

Here's a bit of viewing for you.

Lindsay.

[Guest bakes]

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=34716

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52904

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=48154

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=27643

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=36139

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=50599

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=23515

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=25516

 

 

Here's a bit of viewing for you.

Lindsay.

 

brillent lindsay

[Guest spin cycle]

i'm no expert..but my take is that you have to get/keep the birds fit. whether this is by road or around loft , combination or other system doesn't really matter. trouble around loft is sometimes keeping birds aloft particularly naturals. perhaps thats why some widowhood flyers train less as the pent up frustration of the cocks makes them fly well at home. motivation to both race and excersize are problems for me as a natural flyer...but a few tricks and variations have meant ( so far) i've been competitive over 250 miles and sprung the odd ambush in sprints.