PETER DONOVAN
1st OPEN BICC GUERNSEY 2 OLD HENS 2013
by Gareth Watkins
The Donovans
In my capacity as press Officer for the BICC I have tried to highlight the winning fanciers in each of the club's races. The following report is based on an interview with Peter Donovan who in only his second year back in the sport has won 1st Open BICC Guernsey 2 Old Hens. It should be an inspiration to us all, in that National races can, and still are being won, to ordinary back garden lofts.
THE BEGINNING
Peter started in 1984 and raced for 3 years, taking a short break then coming back to help his dad who had developed an interest in them, but was terminally ill and needed help to manage the birds. At that time Peter's older brother John was a great influence in Peter's development as a fancier. The first loft was approx. 16ft x 8ft and was stocked with birds from brother John and other local fanciers and all birds were raced on the natural system. After a few years' break from the sport Peter returned "to the fold" with young birds in 2012.
THE LOFT
The present loft set up is L-shaped and consists of a 15ft widowhood loft with three 5ft sections with a corridor along the front of the sections facing south west. At right angles to this loft is a 14ft section that runs along the bottom of the garden which has 2x5ft sections and 1x4ft section. The lofts are cleaned in the mornings, but in Peter's first year back he had a lot of health problems with the young birds so decided to try deep litter this year to see if they would build up natural immunity. This seems to have worked as the birds have had no problems since using the litter. Nevertheless, Peter still scrapes out the widowers daily. In his first year back Peter had approx. 60 youngsters which were bred by top fanciers in his area. Although he would like to have a team of stock birds he feels that if he wants to compete at the top level he needs all the loft space available for his race team which at present are raced on widowhood but he has plans to race the old birds on the round about system in 2014.
MANAGEMENT
All birds are mated on New Year's Day and since Peter is still building a team to compete in the longer races he has yet to find out if he needs to mate specific pigeons at different times in order to have them in optimal condition for various races at different times of the season.
The racers are given their liberty twice daily for four days each week and usually exercise with enthusiasm so no forcing is necessary. The widowers also have two 10 mile training tosses prior to the first race.
This season Peter trained the old hens that were to be entered in the Guernsey National with his young bird team. So they had as many as 30 training tosses in the build up to Guernsey. The young birds which are kept on the darkness system are then brought along gently with just five races in their first year as Peter is still building his race team for the future.
There is no specific medication program at the Donovan loft and the only supplement used is a multivitamin complex once weekly.
FEEDING
The race cocks are fed measured amounts of a good quality mixture twice daily. The youngsters on the other hand are fed once a day but as Peter says - he's still learning and it’s a case of" trial and error".
THE PIGEONS
The main bloodlines have been obtained from local fanciers and friends who gifted Peter youngsters to start him off in the sport in 2012. All but 15 of his young birds were bred by his good friend Andy Bury of Canterbury whilst the BICC Guernsey National winner was bred by Dewi Staples-Jones of Croydon. [Incidentally, Dewi went on to win the BBC Tours Young Bird National later in the summer].
At the moment Peter's breeding plan is a simple one - "best to best" and his ideal pigeon is simply "one that wins".
I asked Peter what were the most memorable performances achieved by his birds and this is what he had to say:-"Winning the strong Surrey Fed gave me a lot of pleasure but that was a long time ago. This weekend topped the lot winning the Guernsey Old Hens' race with the BICC and having a youngster in the 1st 10 of the BICC Guernsey young bird result, plus 4th Open NFC in the Carentan race."
I think it’s fair to say that Peter certainly had his team on song all at the same time on that memorable weekend.
This is Peter's view on the future of the sport:- "The sport needs to be promoted in the national media in some way. We have top fanciers putting up top International performances and they deserve more recognition and exposure to the general public."
There you go then. Short and to the point just as Peter's hen's flying time to win the BICC Guernsey race!! Congratulations Peter on your recent win. I hope you have many more happy years in the sport.
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Elimar November 2013
