drummondp842

I have been training 3 hens for weeks for this race, gave them their last toss took them 60 miles with my latebreds 12 in total. Got my first one 3 hrs later and ended with on 6 on the night. Got another 3 next morning with no tail and half a wing. 3 sytill missing two of them my fancy for the Gold Cup, gutted......

This is by far the best post I have read for a long time, I totally agree with every word, I have been in the sport since 1975 and have seen racing won by quality pigeons being superseded by winning by numbers. It saddens me when a new fancier comes into the sport and takes his whole team of 10 pigeons down to marking only to see the more experienced fanciers basketing 60/70/80 + pigeons each. Distance racing in my opinion is an art, however, if you fly by numbers you always get one. I look forward to reading more of your posts,

Not sure if I stand alone on this. This year my lofts have been inundated with lost youngsters from NEHU,DF,L,NW are other fanciers having the same?

I used to never race my youngsters training them myself up to 80miles, however, first old bird race I lost the majority of them. The big liberation is the key element. Once you have that under their wing so to speak the birds learn how to break.

There was an English fed at Perth on Sunday

Birds of prey cannot kill the amount of pigeons that are missing. Last week and the week before have ben very bad races with big losses especially from Buckingham. I put it down to birds not getting a chance in weather conditions forcing the birds to come up the West Coast alien to them. Before they know it they are completely disorientated hungry and tired and invariably will go down. The weather hasn't helped one bit even the next day with mist coming in. The losses have been eye opening and I firmly believe the weather and static in the air is firmly to blame.

We flew our open race from Leicester and it was a belter with many birds missing on the day. I saw the forecast and when I saw the weather especially the thunderstorms down south I decided to keep most of mine at home glad I did. I honestly feel that when there is electricity in the atmosphere it does something to the pigeons. When there is an air show this also seems to do something to them. We race predominately down the East Coast and when we get an East wind the birds usually will keep there line, however, racing from the middle of the country this can cause the birds to race up the West coast and get hit by raptors all the way up. I sent only 5 and got 4 home.

I absolutely agree with everything said and would also like to add that the modern day flyer racing widowhood, roundabout or whatever also flies by numbers. The more they send the more chance one of them will be at the front of the batch.

I had problems with a magpie stealing eggs and young out the next eventually caught it and now it has stopped

Happy to help also.

Merry Christmas when it comes and a Prosperous New Year to all

Great day and saw a excellent run aution by Gavin and his team