Les J Parkinson - What’s on my mind.
Racing has all but finished for another year, time to take a look around the loft at what we have left and what changes we are going to make. We need to move fast nowadays because come November, which is only a few short weeks away, some will be getting ready to pair the birds up again. I have said it before, I often laugh about pairing early. When I was keener than I am now for the shorter races I would pair on the 6th December. At that time, which was in the 70’s, I was told that I was wasting my time, they didn’t say that when I took the young birds down to the club and they started to beat them. In those days we couldn’t breed any earlier because the rings didn’t arrive until two weeks into the New Year, this was to make sure that the birds were bred in the year that was on the ring. I have concluded that I don’t need the extra work on those cold winter days to spend more time in the loft than is necessary. Breeding so early for the following year was only done to get them in the right feather to send them into the later young bird races where the money is. On the other hand, I was talking to one of the North West’s best fanciers who was saying that there is no need to breed so early when you can get the same result through using the darkness system. I have to say my experience with the darkness was not what I wanted, yes, they looked like oil paintings and raced well as young birds but the following year I lost them all when I sent them across the channel, which was a new experience for me. There is also the point that in those days the winters were much colder than they are today.
Losses
A subject that has been discussed by many all season, I know the BOP have been accused of being the culprits but let's face it they would have to be eating machines to clear as many as are being lost on a weekly basis. It would be near impossible for the BOP population in the UK to see off the numbers that are going missing. Yes, they are responsible for many of the losses that we are experiencing, but nowhere near them all, there are too many. Most of us have seen the BOP attack and kill our pigeons and it will continue to happen. It looks as if there is something about our pigeons that attracts the BOP population to them, unlike the feral population who look like in mostly being left alone. We all see the feral pigeons in the town centers, and they have now found a new home, in the solar panels on houses. We are experiencing them on our roof panels and even though I have paid to get them cleared or discouraging them they are still there. Why else do they disappear, ever since man started racing pigeons there have been losses, some lofts more than others so there's another reason why losses have been experienced, but as far as years of racing goes, a natural loss because they never all have the homing instinct in them. Are there more wires for them to be dodging, not really, we have them above the loft, but the pigeons miss them, so that is not much of a reason for the losses. That leaves the airwaves which are more than likely the reason so many pigeons are going off course in their aim to get back to their home loft. All those points put together can send pigeons off in the wrong direction, never to be seen again, I still don't think as a combined unit they cause so many losses.
There is one other thing that I am sure is the reason why so many pigeons fail to reach home. I am confident it is down to the way we breed pigeons, too many pigeons are bred from that have been bred for stock purposes over 2/3 generations without being tested. I am sure those pigeons lose the ability to find their way home and turn feral. You only must look at the strays in town centers to see pigeons with rings on to see where many are going. I was once talking to D. C-T about breeding and he was saying that we need to breed at least 6 off a pair to find the good one, the above average pigeon that wins out of turn. The problem is we don’t all have the space to have a decent race team and room to breed so many off each pair. There are many winners found through careful breeding and selection of the pairings. However, there are far more that are found through luck, more than judgement, and there are an awful lot of fanciers who have said the same thing.
Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail:
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com
