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By Les J Parkinson |
This is the time of the year when I think to myself, “What if” a thought that many will probably have towards the end of the season. However, in my case after 60yrs of cleaning them out I no longer have pigeons, so I am looking at it from a different perspective. We are only here once (I think) so we must make the best of it and any mistakes we make along the way we must carry on regardless, no matter what we may think afterwards. In the pigeon world if you think hard about those mistakes you can avoid making them again the following year, or at least we should do, if not then we are fools.
I admit I have made many mistakes with pigeons; I like everyone else am not perfect, far from it, we will all make changes to stock and systems and they don’t end up working as we would have liked. We all sit there thinking what the best way is to climb up the results sheets, which is easier said than done. I am sure that in most cases this can be easily remedied by a few extra training tosses, but at the same time their food intake needs to be increased slightly because if you are taking it out you need to put it back in. I found using the Bifs products helped in such cases and I didn’t need to increase the corn with any extra work, they had plenty of vitamins and oils put into them and they stood them in good stead, especially for the longer races. What I did find was using Vior most days of the week also helped to keep them healthy, which is something that some fanciers find hard to did and that is the reason they are off the pace week after week. Bifs are natural products so can be used more freely without harming the pigeons, unlike using antibiotics which are never a good idea without proper advice. If you do use antibiotics you need to seek professional advice so that you don’t destroy the pigeon’s immune system. I am also a big believer that you need to stick to one brand of products because they are made to work together and picking one from this brand and one from another brand defeats the object, even though you think they are best for your pigeons. There is no doubt there are some good ranges of pigeon products about and they will work better by sticking to one brand, if they don’t work for you then try another until everything falls into place. Going back to Vior I have recommended this to many fanciers, and they are generally pleased, and they can see the benefits to their birds. I have not had anyone come back to me and say the product doesn’t work, I do accept that any specific product is not going to suit everyone. I am sure a good range of products is worth several yards in any race, even if you don’t train them enough to win, although we would all like one there is no such thing as an ideal world. If you are going to clock and win from the longer races your pigeons need to have a reserve stock of oil’s and vitamins in their system. Those reserves allow them to keep going longer, they call on them to keep their strength up. I used a lot of the Bifs products, and I am happy with the results I achieved in the National type races. In my early days of racing I was told that you can give too many products to your pigeons, they will affect them through poisoning. In such cases I go to the people in the know and ask the question so that I know first hand and not through the grapevine. This is where using the same range of products came to light, I was told that the pigeons will pass the excess of anything we give them through their body and out the other end. I was also told that a range of products work together to avoid such happenings. No matter what we do we all have our own ideas of what our pigeons need, are we always right, I don’t think so, but we can take advice from the experts.
The next problem pigeon fanciers have is how many changes do we make and cannot go back and remedy them. By this I am referring to the breeders we have in the stock loft, the ones that were breeding steady pigeons but not world beaters. The ones we part with because Fred down the road is winning with the latest fashion so we think we can do likewise. As we know that doesn’t always work because who is to say the pigeon’s we are looking at buying are going to suit the system we are using. Systems are what we use to suit our lifestyle because that is the only way forward, if it doesn’t suit us it is not going to suit the pigeons because they are the ones we are working on, expecting to do what we want them to do. We always hope that the pigeons we bring in are on the same wavelength as the ones we are getting rid of, but these new ones will perform better, we hope. The system we use can be changed and we can go back to what we used to do if it does not work out as we wanted it to in the first place. What we do have trouble doing is going back to the old stock birds that were working for us, if the new introductions do not work out as planned. The buyer of your old stock may have been watching your performances and thinking, “I could do better with those pigeons than he is” so it is highly unlikely that they are going to come back your way. There are two ways of looking at bringing in new stock, the first being you having a full clear out, the second is the sensible way, be patient and replace a couple of pairs each year. This way you can keep so many of your original stock as a safety barrier in case the new ones fall by the wayside. Replenishing the stock loft is always best being a steady process, this then gives you chance to think and weigh up your options. If you buy off the best pigeons in the world it does not say that they are going to win for you. Fanciers are paying more than ever for pigeons because we are all looking for perfection, unfortunately that doesn’t work in many lofts, in fact it doesn’t work in any walk of life.
When I built my team of stock birds up, I was fortunate to be in a position where I could purchase direct children of 1st National winners via Ferdi Vandersanden, in Belgium. Ferdi breeds pigeons on the artificial insemination system so can breed more than the average person off any individual cock. He also bred so many daughters off those National winners and they went into his stock loft where they were available to use with the National winners he purchased. In those days Ferdi was buying 1st National winners and Ace Pigeons but suddenly, the prices for that type of pigeon went through the roof and it became an impossibility to buy such pigeons at a price where they were no longer a working financial proposition. At one time I did have over 20prs of these pigeons which did a good job breeding many pigeons to win for fanciers around the country and a few abroad. They were not the best of club winners but when it came to the likes of National, Classic or One Loft Races they were at their best. I feel this was because they were being based on National performance winners, they were not necessarily winning a great deal in the club races, they can be a different type of pigeon. Plus, the fact that the stock birds off the National winners were in the longer races so the sprint events never came into the programme for me. In many cases the grandchildren of the National winners were producing better racers and breeders than the direct children, although they produced their fair share of winners.
On the subject of National winners there are many about who have won at the highest level and produced a line of winners. One particular pigeon I have seen a lot about over the years is “Nationaal I” who has at least 7 x 1sts National winners following on, this information was supplied by Chris Knowles who is always researching pigeons. He was a cock so more pigeons could easily be bred from that line, than if he were a hen. The problem was they were too much hit and miss for me, I say that because we had several here off “Nationaal II” and they were less than 50/50 in the stock loft. Even so the line was there with the winners so you cannot get away from that fact.
There are many pigeons that have bred many winners at club level, but they are different from 1st National winners, competing against a much bigger area. The number of club winners from any individual pigeon mostly depends as with all races, who is racing the offspring. We have many really good fanciers about who race sprint to about 300mls and win with ease week after week. This is down to two things, firstly they have good stock sense and know their pigeons and, they know what they are doing when it comes to conditioning them for those sprint races. You must also remember that sprint minded fanciers do not very often go for the longer National races, they don’t get the same satisfaction. Whereas 1st National winners are different, there are not as many National races in comparison to club sprint races, plus National races tend to be competed in from longer distances against much higher competition levels. Pigeon fanciers have different views on the races they want to compete in and that is where they get their enjoyment in the sport. As long as they are enjoying their hobby then they will keep going.
Anyway back to winning pigeons, I believe the best one I have ever come across is Mark Gilbert’s "Champion Melissa" she is a winner of;
1st National 1st International Agen/Bordeaux 11,444 birds.
Not only is she a top racer she is also a super breeder being dam of;
1st BICC National Pau 2018
2nd National St Vincent. 2018
And she is also, the grand-mother of;
1st National FC Tarbes 2018.
1st National St Vincent 2108,
1st National BICC Pau 2017,
1st National BICC St Vincent 2016
The above are the very top performances from this great hen, there are many more pigeons from this line that are winning and breeding winners. There are many top pigeons about, but they are not breeding the calibre of winners that “Champion Melissa” is breeding. She is an exceptional pigeon that would grace any loft.
If you wanted to go further on the line of “Champion Melissa” you don’t have to go much further than her grandsire “Mistral”
Winner 3rd, 8th, 12th National
2nd Olympic bird Cat E Marathon 07 Ostend
2nd National Marathon Ace cock Long Distance 2006
8th International Perpignan 14.812 p. 06
31st International Carcassonne 10.448 p. 06
42nd International Bergerac 3.180 p. 05
61st National Perpignan 2.019 p. 05
30th National Bergerac 463 p. 06
67th National Marseille 3.575 p. 05
“Mistral” is a half-brother to “Euro Diamond” won 100% prizes with 7/7 on the International races:
1st National Carcassonne 2.719 p. 06
2nd International Carcassonne 10.323 p. 06
3rd National Perpignan 1.452 p. 06
5th International Perpignan 14.900 p. 06
4th National Bergerac 1.320 p. 05
5th International Bergerac 3.180 p. 05
5th National Perpignan 2.020 p. 05
12th International Perpignan 17.654 p. 05
9th National Marseille 3.575 p. 05
21st International Marseille13.930 p. 05
23rd National Perpignan 2.210 p. 04
567th International Perpignan 17.570 p. 04
58th National Marseille 4.928 p. 04
281st International Marseille 19.627 p. 04 etc...
I was considering going further into the breeding of such Champions, but we would all get fed up with the results.
Before finishing I will bring one of the best lines that I came across, he was the fantastic;
“Full Try” winner of;
1st National Ace Pigeon
1st National Ace Pigeon Long Distance
1st National Ace Pigeon Long Distance KBDB 2004.
6th Inter Prov Barcelona.
31st Nat Barcelona 13,021Birds.
137th International Barcelona 26,928b.
50th Inter Prov Perpignan 2184b.
38th Nat Barcelona 12275b.
141st International Barcelona 24913b.
4th Inter Prov Perpignan.
20th National Perpignan.
53rd International Perpignan 17570b.
Now this cock paired to “Champion Melissa” would have made as good a pairing as you could possibly get. “Full Try” was bought by Dr Ferdi Vandersanden and he bred quite a few off him on the AI system. I had several here at stock and they all bred pigeons to win in National and OLR both here and abroad. There is a list on this site highlighting some of the top pigeons he is responsible for via the Elimar stock loft. For years he was not rated in Belgium until he was sold to a fancier in Japan for a high figure. Then suddenly, he was in demand, his offspring were popping up all over the place as breeders and winners. I did tell Ferdi he was the best pigeon he had in the loft and he had some really good National winners. There is a fancier in Belgium who built his National winning loft on “Full Try” what a pigeon he was.
Les J Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ. 01606836036 Mobile 07871701585. Email
