Luck Of The Irish

[Guest Shannon]

Have only spent a short time looking at a few forum topics, but am pleased with what I read. Good conversations via the keyboard here. I've always considered myself a better breeder of good pigeons and less of a racer of good pigeons. One year, my second in Pennsylvania, I had 12 cocks and 12 hens selected for breeding pairs. The birds were mostly an old family from a friend in Maryland. But I had a couple of nice older mealy cocks from Tom Nettis in New Jersey and a lovely light blue checker hen from my dear friend, Frank Greenhall, later the American Racing Pigeon Union president.

 

I mated one of the mealy cocks with a dark checker hen, so that left one old mealy cock and the young light blue checker hen left in the basket. I was confident about the mealy/dark checker pairing as they were both from compatible old line familes. The other pair was more problematic. The cock was bred for stock by Tom; the hen from Frank had flown in a one-loft competition as a YB but was from a cross. She had placed in the 150m race and did well for all of the races, so what I'd call "proven." But you all know about crosses being paired to another strain. Sheer guess work with pretty poor odds for breeding anything worth a try. Don't get me wrong, I've always line bred each line--and I always kept only two in my stock loft--but was quick to cross either line with some new purchases. My Aarden line did well in the races when crossed with my Janssen line, for example. My Janssen line did especially well as YB flyers when crossed with a Roodhoft cock. So I took the pair out of the basket, threw them into a nest box and let nature take its course.

 

Five squeakers were produced from the "throw 'em together pair," all light red checks, and I selected the last one in the nest to return to Tom, along with the two old mealy cocks, as he simply had loaned them to me for the breeding season. The red check was a larger, gangly looking squeaker but with solid frame, muscling, and lovely soft feather like his dam. Of course, Tom flew the bird in the YB series.

 

OK, Shan me man, bring this crap to a close, will ya! That red checker young cock won four first concourse diplomas in America's largest concourse at the time--the Central Jersey Concourse. Tough compettion and large numbers of birds in competition--usually in the 2 or 3 thousand-bird range. When Tom called me and told me I thought he was pulling my leg--just a little. But he wasn't. Then he stocked the cock the next year and NEVER bred a youngster worth a perch. So he put the bird back on the racing team as a three-year-old. The red checker promptly won another 1st in the concourse. No damn way! So . . . you guessed it--back into the stock loft where he stayed, never to produce another pigoen of any merit. Neither did his sire and dam.

 

Hmmmm, luck of the Irish indeed--good and bad! But end of the luck.

[billt]

Good read there Shannon, I know a lot of people breed winner to winner and I guess they must be successful but I can't say it's been a good formula for me, perhaps it's me and not the birds

[THE FIFER]

interesting reading,

[Guest Shannon]

Thanks mates. Appreciate the fact that a few of you read this prattle. Guess my point for all this is that you need a bit of luck to breed the good ones. Yes, breeding best to best works. Yes, line breeding works. Crossing between two line bred families works. Out crossing works. They all work to some extent. I've used them all. Final tally--no one approach works better than another. Too many variables. Too many exceptions to too many rules. Otherwise all the fanciers who practice line breeding with old families would win out of turn. Guess that's what makes breeding and racing so much fun. And so difficult.