I recently had a call from Derek Lawton of Crewe asking about the age of pigeons breeding, in this case it was about a cock that he still has in the loft. Derek parted with practically all his pigeons after a little trouble with a neighbour whose grandson used to visit on a Saturday and kick the ball about while he was waiting for the pigeons. The result was that Derek only kept 3 old hens plus a younger 3yo hen who had lost one eye and an old cock. Derek was saying that he noticed this hen was going to nest so made a quiet corner for her. There was only one old cock in the loft who is 20yrs and Derek thought he was a bit old but one of the eggs hatched out and has made a nice young bird. Considering these 4 hens and 1 cock never go out he knows who the sire is so as they say, “There is still life in the old dog yet” Derek went on to say that he does miss the pigeons and think’s he may have acted a little hastily when he got rid of the birds but thinks it is too late in life for him to start again. Anyway his 5 have become 6 and she is sitting again so who knows there might even be more additions. I did have an old Dordin cock at 19yrs who filled an egg but at the end of the year I parted with him, he was a good cock who bred some good pigeons for the fancier who had him off me for a few years but was brought back later in life to finish his days with me and he lasted longer than I expected. I remember Keith Turner’s “Red Daniel” filling an egg at a later stage in his life but I couldn’t recall the age so I called Chris Knowles who is a big friend of Keith’s. As expected Chris knew and was telling me that he was 19yrs when he filled an egg and I think it was a strawberry type hen. Chris went on to say that Brian Dearn’s “Masterpiece” filled at 19yrs as well. This is all down to the constitution of the pigeons and there is no doubt many more that have filled egg’s very late in life. The problem is few fanciers persevere with pigeons into what is a ripe old age, they are generally gone before their teen’s. There is no doubt we don’t have to be young to introduce new life into the world. And when you look across the board at all forms of life and I mean all, we do see youngsters coming along from males in the senior time of their lives’ and why not if they have the stamina. Again, in all forms life both cocks and hens can become infertile, we hear of barren hens quite often and no doubt some do get passed on which is not fair but it does happen. It’s the same with cocks I have known the odd ones not to fill egg’s and it can be a problem. The one thing I do look at is have the offspring still got the constitution from the source that has brought them into the world in the first place. I have seen pigeons breed into their teens and the young have not had the strength of the pair they are bred from. However, they can always be transferred under younger stock where they are getting a better start in life. There are fanciers about who always breed off their yearlings and never breed off them again because they believe they are the best breeders. Like everything in life, we have our own ways and ideas of how we do things, some better than others. I will keep in touch with Derek to see how the old man progresses in life.
As you know I very often make a reference of talking to people, this is how I move forward with what I am writing at the time and gathering other fancier’s points of view on pigeon racing. I was recently talking to Brian Lee who was saying about the ETS clocking systems and where many fanciers still don’t take note of dates and times. Brian believes that many fanciers don’t look at the sheet on striking off nights and this is where they need to take notice. When we took on the NWCC this year and Kim came on board to enter the details we sat down and discussed the way we were going to check the details to cover anyone who decided they wanted to try and get the upper hand by any means they could. We went through every detail on the ETS sheets and decided that we would both make checks as a precaution, we could always miss something, two heads are better than one. The main line to check tells you the date and time the bird is marked and then the time the system is struck off on race night. As has been found out this is the best way to make sure that everything has been done right. Brian is not sure that these checks are always done and if not, this is really the only way the door can be left open with the ETS system. I don’t totally agree because with any system you must trust your markers. However, I am a strong believer that it would be a very rare occasion where the markers were not genuine pigeon fanciers who could not be trusted to make the birds. They are a genuine breed who take their pigeon racing seriously and do a good job week in week out. But even with ETS if you have two people working together there is a way of cheating and that applies to any system you care to mention. Having said that I do believe that the ETS is by far the best and most secure system to use. As we all know if someone wants to cheat they will and far too often they get away with it and we all know why. I think I better leave the subject at that before it all becomes a rather complex issue.
Well the old bird season has gone by and the losses have continued for some fanciers and from what I am hearing there are a lot of unhappy fanciers, with some seriously considering leaving the sport altogether which we can do without. I fully understand fancier’s frustration at seeing so many empty boxes in their lofts, it takes time to build up a team of pigeons and many are saying they have lost good pigeons this year, one’s they were not expecting to lose when the season first started. Let’s hope everyone finishes on a high by having a good young bird season which allows them to replenish their depleted old bird race teams. If you can get yearlings in the right frame of mind they will race well, there are endless lists of top class yearlings that have not been one year wonders they gone on to be red card contenders for years. It is also a fact that they race well through to 500mls but as we all know many are not prepared to risk them going that far. You can look at the longer races for old birds and see yearling’s year after year gaining top positions. In the NWCC Saintes race into the North West over 500mls, 7th & 8th Open were yearlings so don’t give up on next season before it starts because you have lost some good 500ml pigeons this year. Even good pigeons are replaceable and the yearlings are the ones we are all looking to start our old bird teams with, excellent pigeons are a bit harder to come by but they do come along. At the time of writing these notes Geoff Bebbington was telling me that he has a big team of young birds because he is starting fresh after a few years away from the sport. Geoff works for himself and he was saying it got to the stage where it was all work and no play so he re-started with pigeons and now has more than ever racing to two lofts. One is at his old address where his son now lives while the other is at the new address, no doubt going between the two lofts on race days can be a bit of a nuisance but it is early days. He did send yearlings to the Saintes NWCC race where he had them on the day to be 19th & 22nd Open. Going back to those young birds of Geoff’s their first 3 tosses were all at 20mls. I think there are far too many young bird losses attributed to going only a few miles down the road. As soon as they get into a proper flight mode they are in their home area and at times are known to keep going and never return, in fact we have all taken them for a toss and they are coming split up all day and some not at all. These are the cases where they have gone too far before realising where they are and then getting split up only to learn bad habits before the season has started.
While on the subject of the North West Classic Club, this is my first year back as secretary, Mark smith was very persuasive in getting me to return. Anyway, we have had 4 old bird races and they have gone well with good reports all round. Other fanciers in the North West have taken note and even at this early stage enquiring about joining for next year. This year in the 4 old bird races we paid out just short of £8,000 which we are pleased with and we still have the young bird race to go so hopefully we might get to £10,000. I was talking to a friend of ours much further up in the North West who was saying that several members in his area have said they are coming back to the club for next year and with the proposed stand at the Blackpool Show we should be OK. This is one of those positive moves in the sport that we need more of but it does not happen often enough. All we need now is a good reliable marking station further up country but if fanciers want to compete hard enough they will get their pigeons marked one way or another. Anyone interested in a marking station can all and we can see what we can do, we had a very good one at Preston for years but they closed, that is the ideal place.
It is Saturday morning and I have just heard that the Mid Cheshire Fed cancelled their first race from Worcester because of bad weather reports. I don’t know what forecast they were looking at because the one I saw gave a good spell of weather which was a gap to have three races from such a short distance. I have also just heard that several organisations have liberated this morning from the same area of the country where the Mid Cheshire should have been. Unless there is a clear blue sky there is always doubt in someone’s mind as to what we should be doing. Even so reports are that they had a good race and the weather was as I saw it the night before so a good days racing lost.
Les J Parkinson.
11 Rushton Drive,
Middlewich,
Cheshire,
CW10 0NJ.
Tel: 01606836036 or Mobile: 07871701585.
Email:
website: www.elimarpigeons.com
