The Paul Swindell
Personality/Barcelona profile
Jim Emerton
Q1 How did your love and desires of marathon racing into Ireland evolve?
I met a man as a small boy my father knew his name was Harold Elliott a top long distance French racer. He befriended me and that meeting has kept me out of serious trouble all my life meeting Harold’s great long distance pigeons. Those pigeons, I idolized them and still do to this day. There were 5 times, 6times, 4times France national pigeons every where in that loft, so I was hooked on long distance pigeons. So dad bought me a brand new 12 foot loft built by the great racer Pat Maconville of Lisburn. I was 13 years old, joined Hill Street hps and clocked my first pigeon at 15 years young from kings cup with a late bred barless mealy cock, won 1st club Oakhampton smash with a white grizzle late bred hen bred from a pure white cock and a black pied hen I bought with the £6 I got working in the farmers field. Harold asked me to help him with the pigeons so we agreed so I asked Harold to send the 5 time France cock to Barcelona or San Sebastian and he agreed but when it was time for the cock to go he would not send him. So I said when I get my own place later in my life I will send to Barcelona. I met a girl and bang, Barcelona was out the window I still won races, got lovely kids a business and a busy life style. Always reading about long distance pigeons e.g. champion Woodsider ///endurance ///conquer ///newslad and Irish Barcelona pigeons Barcelona Billy, Barcelona blue bell, Bann king 2 times Palamos into Ireland 1044 miles, so Barcelona has always been in the back of my mind for years. I started back racing pigeons after my lofts, pigeons and home was burnt in 2001. I started back racing sprinters then was hit with serious pigeon lung caused by enclosed widowhood lofts full of bloom and the sprinters had to go. I got my pigeon lung sorted it took 3 years. My small daughter Courtney asked daddy can we get our pigeons back again, she missed them. So I had to rethink my new loft and its construction for my health and the kids. I started of with a grill floor with a 5 foot pit underneath it, bought farmers tin, farmers tin is heavily full of special vented slits that do not let rain in but lots of warm fresh air in, the warm air is caused by the warm sunshine heating all day on the farmers tin making the tin extremely warm. That heat keeps our lofts in at a lovely temperature all through the night until the warm sun rises up the next morning at 4:30 and heats the tin up again.
Q2. Which people and pigeons have you admired in the sport?
Harold Elliott double hall of fame France, Franky Phillips kings cup winner and St. Malo national winner. Tom Marshall top national French winner, Hughy Phillips, Jim Donaldson and Ken Hine but today when I started back my top fanciers in my new world, the great distance fancier Dave Goddard is my very top fancier I bought my pigeons from Jim Donaldson, plus many special hand picked pigeons from different sources.
Q3. What is the nature of your obsession with Barcelona International as the race of all races?
I took all my gold rings to turkey and got the gold melted down and had a special ring made for the first pigeon I clock from Barcelona its says fly or die and a plain part for the ring number to be engraved into of the Barcelona pigeon, I totally believe it can be flown into Ireland again. I believe my little hard day pigeons will breed my Barcelona pigeon. I sent some pigeons to the Poitiers with the BBC some time ago its 600 plus miles to me and I lost all the French pigeons I sent but got 3 late breds yes late breds. One reported on cork light house but the fancier that reported it did not return that one, the 2nd late bred reported in a farm yard dead on the 2nd day /3rd, before I was phoned by farmer not fancier and the 3rd late bred was found in my loft on Monday. t was carrying 9 nest flights bred in November! The sire was bred by Jim Donaldson containing Jim Emerton’s Barcelona Dream his 879 plus miler cock. The dam was bred for me by Tom Marshall top long distance flyer. My brave pigeons had no convoy to help them home, so after achieving this I believe my pigeons can do the 997 mile Barcelona race to our lofts but I believe it’s a 1,300 miler to get home.
Q4. How will you dedicate yourself to the preparation for this race?
All my young birds do not get trained the year of their birth, I like them to grow out naturally not stunted by hammering ybs up the road 100 tosses and races in the year of their birth. Young birds for 6 months, old birds for life! Then I train them 4 to 6 times from 7 miles to 40 mile on the week of the 4th old bird race and then that Friday straight into 164 miles first lift. I lose very few this way, they get 3 to 4 inland races 2 channel races i.e. Talbenny 190 miles & Bude 250 miles, then a land race if they don’t get a hard enough race from Bude 250 mile. I need flying hours on the wing to get them race fit, without killing them with tossing and too many races. You must keep the fly in them and the will to face the tough Irish Sea at the end. Then all the late breds and yearlings must fly France 438 miles to 460 miles and all top 25 in national prize winners go to the stock loft to strengthening it. All 2 year olds will be from now on, going to Barcelona international with the BICC. Hopefully we can at some point clock a brave pigeon from 997 miles Barcelona into Ireland. I need to complete my special ring with a number of the first Barcelona 997 miles pigeon’.
Q4(Part 2) Why is it so difficult to achieve with the distance you have to fly?
Its so hard to achieve the 997 miles Barcelona race because there are not many tough Irish pigeons left in Ireland any more. Its full of soft Belgium sprinters type of easy lost pigeons, mostly lost from between 100 miles and 160 miles because their navigation compass in their heads can’t cope with distance and they are not built for hard day weather conditions at long distance events. Some can, but not many! My opinion is I need small to medium compact well balanced single tail feathered pigeons with dark coloured eyes flying into the sun for long periods at a time on the first day for 16 hours never touching the ground. This is the type I need to continue to breed, that’s why I believe its so hard today to fly huge distances with modern day pigeons.
Q5. What special solid and liquid feeding,and distances will you prepare your birds on?
Jim I feed better quality heavier feeding at the end of the racing so the pigeons get a great moult put on real good bodies with lots of rich oils on their corn with a lot of multi vitamins in the drinker. I like my pigeons to be heavy until they finish the moult no winter mixes for me. I clean my pigeon’s health while they moult with no fret marks I do them for worms, canker, paratyphus, e coli and cocci, then I inject for Paramixo. All pigeons are done each year because my pigeons are so important to me as I have put in so much thought in breeding the right type and effort to build these tough little pigeons, invested a huge amount of money travelling and buying and eliminating the weak and poor breeders. To build my pigeons to take chances with their health I do not clean out below the grill floors as I want my pigeons to build their own immunity to all kinds of infections and so far it has worked. In the racing season I never breed from my racers because I have their parents. My racers only race on round about, never get a pair of eggs until after they fly France; they pick up a mate on morning of basketing for the race they are going to. When we pick up the pigeons that are going to the first French race, we split the rest until the next basketing morning then we let them run together for 1 to 2 hours to pick up a mate we put straw down no bowls they build nests. Whatever pairs take we send them both to that race, we are not trying to win the kings cup or any cup we just want to fly France 466 miles an further away so its not important who pairs to what and then after that team is basketed we split the rest up again until the last race and do the same. So our pigeons never have eggs at all. A 500 miler should fly 500 miles even not paired that’s my belief, and we have 215 brave pigeons home from 20 French races. We believe pigeon fanciers are making pigeon racing very hard for themselves, we make it and keep it simple.
Q5.(Part 2) Are you ready to become world famous in pigeons, after due publicity??
Jim, I am not looking for fame, I just want my brave wee pigeons to be famous for flying Barcelona 997 miles that will be enough fame for me. If get some publicity by our scribes it all helps to promote long distance national racing. I just want my pigeons to be famous, flying France and Barcelona will be enough. My kids love pigeons and it keeps them out of trouble but in Ireland there is no encouragement for kids in pigeons.
Q6. Which birds or men do you rate in the UK?
I like K & L Buddle they have outstanding results with their top performance racers and breeders I really respect their results and they are very nice people. Next would be Geoff and Catherine Cooper, top international racing pigeons and fanciers. Their pigeons are very fast one day international racing pigeons, yes they are outstanding. Geoff cooper said this year when he was on the panel at the Irish night with the stars in Dublin, that the Irish fanciers have lost their good hard tough long distance pigeons. I totally agree with Geoff, we no longer have enough fanciers interested in Irish long distance racing to keep tough Irish pigeons in their lofts in any quantity. Irish French racing is nowadays about getting numbers of pigeons home to help the sprint and middle distance fancier clock in race time because the sprint to middle distance racers are the back bone of long distance racing into Ireland because there are more of them. If only long distance fanciers sent to France there would only be 25 percent of the total entries away in the French races and if the organizations gave the long distance minded fanciers a 575 /625 mile race a lot of the big names might not clock. We might not clock but the Swindell family will be sending no matter how far or hard the race is. Swindells bred, all our pigeons to be lost or clocked from France no exceptions! Dave Goddard is my man, as he has his old family of tough pigeon, you don’t have to burn the tyres of you car to train them. Dave has a great family of inbred pigeons they have crossed with every family I paired them to. Dave Goddard’s to fly France for us when asked to. I would like pigeons from Frank Kay a fanciers pigeons I wanted years ago but could not get them; he clocked 2 pigeons from 800 plus miles years ago. I wanted this type of pigeon for to go into mine for Barcelona. I respect Dave and Vince Padfield for their great results and their great pigeons. I believe they need crossing with tough Irish pigeons with pace on the winning day not just pigeons homing into Ireland but not sprinters ,,,,when i say pace makers i mean pigeons that win in the top open posistion from Bude 250 miles / Penzance 300 miles on good 1100 /1200 ypm velocity. I totally believe Padfield pigeons have great navigation in the heads they are great long distance pigeons over land from Barcelona 700 plus miles I believe over land they would fly a 1,000 miles. In my quest to fly Barcelona my problem is the last part of the cold Irish sea, it will take tough little Irish pigeons to finish the race that have been bred to do it for many years. However, there are not enough tough Irish pigeons left here, I am sorry to say, that’s why I am trying to build them back again.
Q7. Will you fly my strain in Ireland??
I once wanted Jim Emerton’s Barcelona Dream cock direct children to build my base but could not get them. I got a late bred to fly into Ireland containing Barcelona Dream 879 miles in its pedigree, at 600 plus miles from Poitiers a big start. The Emerton pigeons have real determination and durability in their blood for Barcelona. Jim I want to fly a pigeon from Barcelona with in the race result hopefully with both our great pigeons blood paired together in my fist Barcelona pigeon at 997 miles. Jim I need some help from you in finding tough Barcelona blood. I need the encouragement and help to drive me on to achieve this goal for all serious long distance minded fanciers.
Q8. Are you going to join /support the BICC??
Yes I will be sending all Barcelona pigeons with the BICC so I will need their support to do this.
Q9. What are the total qualities of a marathon pigeon and who has good ones?
A marathon pigeon has to have guts to keep on fighting to want to get home plus the never give up attitude. A pigeon that comes from a long line of performance and endurance long distance pigeons proven over many years. It must be small to medium well balance pigeons hopefully dark chq, blue chq, blue smoky, chq, or dark blood red, red chq. Helping it to get past the raptors over 1,000 miles to me lol, lol, lol, ha-ha.
Q10. How far is Barce and the distances you have clocked??
Its 997 miles to me and we have flown 600 plus miles with our late breds.
Q11. How will you create a strain of your own??
I have tried to build it already; I just need 800 to 1,000 mile blood to put into my tough hard day pigeons. I am going to Poland very soon to visit 1,000 miles Barcelona pigeons, plans are in place.
Q12. Is the BICC popular in Ireland and why-and my trophies?
Jim no the BICC is not popular in Ireland 90 percent of men are finding it difficult to have enough pigeons left to send to Penzance never mind France. From Barcelona no fanciers I know of, are prepared to lose their best top pigeons at Barcelona 997 miles. I want to win your trophy for my kids and my many long distance friends who have passed away. I want to break your record and you present my loft manager the lovely Courtney my 12 year old daughter, with your trophy. I would be so proud that you handed it over to her it would be the pinnacle of my racing carrier.
Q13. When will you send in the BICC races in preparation for July Barcelona migration races?
I need a BICC programme to work out my programme dates. Jim I hope to send to Barcelona our 2 year olds this year 2017 if all goes well in racing programme. I will be doing my best over the next years racing long distance pigeons, to try to fly pigeons from Barcelona. Jim I am a very passionate fancier in long distance racing, I wont waste your time, I want to do this as it has not been done for years.
Q14. Please discuss any other facets of pigeons and yourself for the world to see.
I have a lot of very different methods and facets in pigeon breeding, racing methods and breeding practice that most fanciers will not be interested in. It’s just my own views and methods that are working for us; I am a very unorthodox type of fancier. It’s so difficult for the fancier to understand about breeding pigeons as fanciers do not have a base family of pigeons to build a family on. We as fanciers are always buying in fancy names of the latest craze and not trying to build a family of their own. I have my own ideas on the eye and its not eye sign Jim, not eye sign. It’s more important for my long distance pigeons flying into bright sun shine to have dark strong colours eyes at the long distance races flying 16 hours on the wing. That’s for a other time. I have a good breeding programme to produce top performance pigeons at the distance and that’s for pigeon fanciers interested in flying long distance racing on a regular bases. Jim I hope we can really do long distance pigeons justice, thanks for this opportunity to put this on paper.
Yours in sport
Paul
