Jim Emerton asks:
DO STRAGGLERS BECOME GOOD PIGEONS?
I love birds which in their early career have long periods away from the loft and out of race time. If of the right inner potential, they may gain a great deal of survival and navigational skills via being in alien lands, in parks, cities, fields and lofts and tested to the inner core of being of existence, of life itself - sounds like my youth!!
Most of my top birds which are the ancestors of my strain today were part time strags e.g. Barcelona Dream/Mystical Queen/Oddball/Dark Velvet/Dax My Girl etc. Given nurture these all became key birds in my ambitions as a marathon man. Some birds always came in good time e.g. Dark Enchantment/Dot’s Delight/Diabolos/Dark Expected/Dorothy’s Courage/Delta Lady/Dedication/Sister Damien/The Dutchman. All these birds were of one family from my foundation birds, and 38 years later I am using them at Barcelona International with all the lines represented in the strain formation.
The moral of the anecdote is value your birds, dig in with a vengeance and persevere against all odds. It is a truism that hardship maketh the man and his birds.
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Elimar - July 2014
