H & P Archibald's Barcelona Bob
Over the next few months I hope to highlight the performances of some of the best extreme distance pigeons in the UK and will start the series with a profile of the terrific long distance racer bred, prepared and raced by Peter and Heath Archibald of Dover.
One of the finest looking pigeons I have handled in my time in the sport is owned by the Dover father and son partnership of Peter and Heath Archibald. Not only is this magnificent long distance racer a good looker but he has the credentials of one of the top long distance racers in the British Isles with 2nd & 4th Open BICC Barcelona and 5th & 35th Open BICC Pau International amongst a sheaf of other top positions in long distance International races.
The partners' lofts are situated at the top of a very steep garden. Once at the top of the garden the visitor has a terrific view out to the south over Dover and the English Channel.
The racing loft measures some 30ft x 6ft and is divided into five sections and houses 30 cocks and just 30 youngsters. The usual practice is to mate some of the cocks to stock hens and these cocks are raced on widowhood whilst the remainder are raced on a form of roundabout system.
BLOODLINES
The vast majority of the birds housed originate from an old friend of mine none other than Robert O. Jones of Resolven, South Wales. These were introduced in the mid 1990s and after a slow start, in which they took some time to acclimatise to their new surroundings, they then rapidly made up for lost time and have now established themselves as the mainstay of the loft’s channel successes.
The R. O. Jones pigeons were bred down from generations of top long distance performers into the Welsh Valleys and included the bloodlines of many winners from Thurso and Lerwick into Wales. Amongst those included in this initial draft of birds introduced by Heath and Peter was the blood of Viking Queen who was reported in Norway from a Lerwick race, and promptly returned home single up, in an epic 800 mile fly from Norway to her home loft in South Wales.
The bloodlines of Ko Nipius and later Clwyd Lofts Jan Aardens were also blended into the Jones long distance team and these went on to win 1st Combine 17,000 pigeons at 300 miles and bred a 1st National young birds from 225 miles plus many more winners when racing into Wales.
So as you can see from the above, Barcelona Bob's gene profile contains literally dozens of top class individuals spread over many generations of tried and tested long distance racers.
The photographs that accompany this article do not do Bob justice as he really is a magnificent specimen with a bold, noble head and superb bone structure and feather quality. He could win 1st prize in one of the top shows competing against show pigeons.
The home of Barcelona Bob
RACE RECORD
The following is a brief outline of Bob's early race record and preparation for his successful trips from the Catalan Capital.
Bob was never raced as a youngster for no reason that Peter and Heath can recall but perhaps it was because they could see his potential?
As a yearling he went through the club race programme to Tours 260 miles and in 2007 as a two year old he had club races through to Le Mans and was then sent to BICC Pau where he was 1st section and 5th open on a very wet day.
2009 - raced through to BICC Pau and was a little off the pace but homed safely.
The 2011 season saw Bob entered in one inland race followed by 5 short channel races to Tours at 260 miles and then to Barcelona to take 4th open BICC.
In 2012 he performed even better after the following reduced preparatory race programme of one inland race followed by Le Mans and BICC Tours then off to Barcelona to win 2nd Open BICC.
Peter & Heath
MANAGEMENT
All birds at the Archibald loft are mated in early January and where possible they like to single rear the first round of babies. Once the youngsters are weaned Peter picks the best weather and starts to train the old birds out to 20 miles this is usually about two weeks before the start of the old bird season. During this time the birds are exercised regularly on good days and they usually go with a fair bit of vigour but they are never forced to fly. Yearlings are given a few short channel races in early May usually with the East of England Championship Club and the whole team might get a 20 30 mile toss midweek if the weather is suitable and if the partners think the birds need a pick me up.
The birds are fed by hand on the various Gem mixtures with Gem Irish mix introduced once the races reach 300 miles. At this time they also have Hormoform, sunflower hearts and peanuts added to their daily diet in the build up to the longer races.
Medication at the Archibald loft consists of a regular treatment for worms and canker with the addition of Flightpath every month throughout the year. Naturaline is also given in the drinking water with the addition of crushed garlic. The partners have never suffered with young bird sickness amongst their flock since using Flightpath so this very limited medical programme seems to have helped the birds develop a strong immune system.
There you have it then, the background breeding and race preparation of one of the finest long distance racers in the British Isles at the present time.
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Elimar - January 2014
