THE INDIVIDUAL PIGEON
by Jim Emerton
The media and many people label pigeons in various categories e.g. sprinters, distance and by fanciers' names e.g. Vandenabeele. This is symptomatic of the popular culture and commercialism. In many cases it implies certain qualities and characteristic performance traits, and let me tell you it's a generalisation. Every pigeon, and also person is an individual, and I try hard to treat them as such - even from brother x sister matings. My strain has been family bred for 38 years, and I expect every single bird to perform at differing levels of capability and different distances, with sometimes some similarities. We race ours through to Barcelona International at 710 measured miles, and on the way sprinters/middle distance/distance and marathon birds emerge from the same family. A bird like Musgrove Addiction did the lot, as did Obsession... on one system into Taunton. Think about it.
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Elimar - June 2014
