Les J Parkinson - What’s going on this week.
Another season is finished and now we are starting to look at what we have left in the loft. Here at Elimar Lofts, which is my own race team, and Ebony Crowley has a small team of her own to race. Between us in total for the year we have won 11 x 1sts, 14 x 2nds, 9 x 3rds which includes the sections. We are only a small club nowadays, but we are in most races keeping up around the top 10 in the fed against some tough competition. We didn’t send to 3 races and the last race we sent to we did not take the clock in we were behind and finishing for the season anyway. I finished because a couple of weeks earlier I had decided to put all the best young birds on one side as we went along. However, what we have left in the loft has had the best schooling for young birds than they have ever had at Elimar. The problem we have now is sorting them all out with around 50 hens and 32 cocks. As we know this is likely to change as youngsters mature over the next few months, we might very well see a different count. It is always possible that at this stage a few might be bold headed hens and sharp headed cocks that are not showing themselves as well as they might. During racing it was the hens that stood out better than the cocks and we ended up with 10 more hens than cocks, the total made up of 14 cocks and 24 hens. My problem is I am always thinking “What if” by that I am referring to, what if we cut down to equal cocks and hens. The hens are the ones that have shone above the cocks during the old bird season with the young birds being about the same ratio. I have my mind set on the proposed Five Counties Continental Flying Club, provided it is accepted as a legitimate organization and I see no reason why it should not be. This organization is looking at channel racing which is what I want to compete in. In my own loft I have often found the hens better when it comes to the longer races, or channel races into the Northwest. I am aware that there are races into the northwest from the likes of Guernsey already on the calendar but for some reason I don’t like that as a race point, and I am told there are only 20 spots available for the 2026 season. The proposed Five Counties Continental FC will be a benefit to the sport by giving the fanciers in the northwest the chance to have the old federation type channel races so that pigeons can be prepared for the National races. This is obviously a benefit to pigeon racing, giving our sport a much-needed lift. Getting back to my own team of racers and what am I going to do with the excess of hens. I need to utilize the section’s better, by having a section to race the hens which can be raced on a semi widowhood system, something halfway between roundabout and widowhood. I am thinking of getting the breeding part of the season out of the way and using the stock cocks with the spare hens. We have 8 sections, three for the roundabout cocks, one for stock birds and for sections perched out for young birds and the hens. Many years ago, I would be the first to pair up around here but over the years I have started looking at breeding in a different way, mainly because it is another job to do looking after young birds for 3 months of the year when coming up to 77yrs I don’t need to. One thing I have learnt is, looking after a 42ft loft is time consuming and not the best of jobs to be doing. Since I wrote the above, I have been spending a bit of time watching the young hens and I am not seeing much sign of there being anymore young cocks amongst them. From time to time, I will keep looking but I think I have found all the cocks, could have done with another handful to make it a bit more even. I have also decided to keep the excess of hens and use what was an additional old bird section with 4 boxes. I had a god set of 27 perches off Craig that he made so they will now sort out my problem with an extra place for the spare hens. I am only talking of late September and thinking to myself, what a good team we are going to have for next year.
Results.
This is the last race for the two local federations starting with the South West Cheshire Fed race from West Bay when 339 birds were liberated at 10am in a strong south-south-east wind. Gary Adamson from Duddon PFC took the first three in the club and fed clocking up vels of 1887/1885/1879ypm. Mr & Mrs Keith Lovatt from the Crewe West End FC recorded a vel of 1815ypm to take 1st club 2nd fed stopping a landslide by Colin Lindop who took the 7 positions with his best both being on 1799ypm also collecting 6th 7th 8th fed. Mr & Mrs Nigel Shaw from the Hankelow club nipped in amongst them with 1st 3rd 4th club 5th fed on 1809ypm. Chris Hitchin is 9th fed after taking the top 8 positions in Winsford HS with a leading vel of 1796ypm. Middlewich 5B winners Jones Bros & Karen Jones are 1st & 3rd club 10th fed on 1796ypm with M & H Smith coming in between with a vel of 1795ypm. The local 4 feds had one liberation for a change, be interesting to see a combined result.
Les J Parkinson. 15 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: 01606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail:
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com
