THE PORT NEWS
Ken Sharratt
My personal stories about my loft dogs
Nip
I was thinking back and all the wonderful dogs that we have had around
the loft. I remember bringing home a Jack Russel pup for my Dad. I
was in the Royal Air Force stationed in Shropshire on a helicopter
base surrounded by farms and I could not resist the temptation of
taking home in my kit bag the tiniest pup. I used to hitch hike home
and the little fellow nearly gave the wagon driver a heart attack when he popped his head out of the end of my bag. He never stopped
doing that and throughout his lifemy Dad would shout ,''Nip in ''.
He would jump into a bag and pop his head, happy to be carried around. We never had a single cat or fox around the loft and you could
leave the birds on open hole, safe and secure.
In need of a break
I also remember how an older, tired-looking dog wandered into our garden. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of. He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head and he then followed me down to the loft, slowly walked onto the landing board, curled up in the corner and fell asleep. An hour later, he went to the gate, and I let him out. The next day he was back, greeted me, walked inside and resumed his spot on the landing board and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.' The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'
Scamp
We used to have when I was a child, a mongrel dog called Scamp.
There was very little traffic in those days and your dog could stray
without fear of being knocked down by a car. He would often take
himself off across the fields to my grandma's house and fall asleep in
front of the fire. But he also used to visit a neighbour of ours and
fall asleep in front of her fire too. Sometimes he would take himself
to the local butcher and occasionally come home with a big bone. He
was quite clever and lived until he was thirteen years old and died in
his sleep curled up in the young bird section..
Results
West Cheshire Federation (South Road) Monmouth 1 race YBs. 80 members competed with 2346 birds from Monmouth on Saturday 13th August 2011 liberated at 1045 hrs in a light south west wind. Davies & McDonald from the Victoria take first place on 1507.503 ypm. Close behind by a decimal is Mr & Mrs A.J.Price also from the Vic on 1507.256 ypm taking second place and also third place on 1506 and in fourth place S.Williams from Rock Station on 1501.
Training with the Federation pays dividends. Photo taken by Port News' undercover
reporter.
VICTORIA HOMING SOCIETY
Monmouth 2 20/08/2011 liberated at 0750 hrs into a
west south west wind. 14 members sent 375 birds. The father and son
partnership of Ronnie & Richard Denny take first place with a cheq
hen on 1654 ypm and in second and third place we have Davies &
McDonald on 1652 & 1646 ypm with Griffiths and Sandland in fourth place on 1643 ypm.
Visiting the lofts of Ronnie & Richard, I learnt that they have
been having some problems with various species of Raptor and it has
got to the stage whereby they cannot let the birds out for a bath
without them being attacked. Sparrowhawks and Peregrines are visiting at
various times of the day. They believe that the Peregrine has a nest high up in the buildings of the Vauxhall car factory.
The winning bird for the partnership of Denny & Son is a little cheq hen who was obviously calling to a young cock as she has gone to nest since her return. She is bred like this. The sire to this pigeon is a yearling blue cheq Busschaert bred by Glyn Williamson of Llay near Wrexham and the dam is a blue yearling which is a Busschaert cross with a Jack Cropper bred from our stock. The grand sire is a Busschaert which is from the lines of the late Chris Davidson of Great Sutton and is paired to a Jack Cropper hen bought at auction at Neston Legion in 05 off P & K Robinson of Saughall Massie and was the pick of a pair of youngsters.
Richard Denny holding their winner from Monmouth 2 YB.
Young bird sickness
Following
on from my previous article and my experiences with YB sickness, I
have received quite a few emails describing how it is affecting
fanciers and my heart goes out to them. April, May, June, July and
August are the months that give concern, all linked to stress trigger
factors. I had a nice email from Richard Hodgeson:
''We have been fairly lucky up to now with our own birds as we
vaccinated early and had a very mild dose of sickness back in May,
which seems to have built up their immune system. I just hope that we
can keep them healthy for the remaining 4 races.
We always introduce later bred youngsters and always have problems. We
also always say that we aren't going to do this, but always do.'' Yes we all do it. Bringing together YB's of different ages, again added stress and a cocktail.
LOFT PROGRESS
Well the loft is up and we are currently measuring up for boxes and
the electrician is coming a week on Friday for the wiring. I have
always wanted to install an automatic dimming system. So after making
some enquiries, I found Alan from Crewe. He emailed me this message: '
Hi Ken,
Good to speak to you last week.
Belinda and I started our business 10 years ago after selling our
stressful Fire Alarm business. We have always kept birds and when I
had the time, I thought what an essential it was to be able to control
the lighting in our Birdroom having had to rush home before darkness
and then wonder if the birds were settled before switching off the
lights!
We have gained a lot of knowledge since offering our products to
fellow bird keepers - not only in the UK but all over the world. We
keep Nectar eating Parrots (Lories) and also Owls etc. We have found
lots of similarities between different facets of our hobbies but also
some differences! We are always please to help and advise and learn
from other fanciers whether it be Racing Pigeons, Canaries,
Budgerigars, Parrots or even Birds of Prey.
Please give me a ring when you are ready for your dimmer and we will arrange to meet up.
Kind regards, Alan & Belinda Fletcher.'
Well, another week comes to an end. Good Luck. Kind Regards Ken
Sharratt. email
