RHONDDA VALLEY FED
Reports by Martin Dunn
C. R. JONES & SON OF TREBANOG H.S
YOUNG BIRD AVERAGE WINNERS 2007
This loft visit is to Trebanog H.S's Chris Jones who had an excellent season during 2007, with the icing on the cake being winning the federation young bird averages to cap off a wonderful year.
Chris is also a good worker for the sport. He’s the federation Vice Chairman and the one who arranges the beautiful trophies the winners receive at the annual presentation night. Added to this, Chris together with Chairman John Williams are the 2 people that can be relied upon on a Friday night to meet up with the transporter and transfer all the crates from the feeder vehicles to the main transporter every week during the season.
When you add his roles as secretary of the Trebanog club and the Rhondda Valley 2-Bird club you wonder where he finds time to take care of the birds so that he can put up the excellent performances that we will show as this write up moves on.
Back to the start, Chris started up as a 12 year old in 1978, joining the Penrhifer H.S.. This was the original Trebanog H.S., but had to move head quarters when the drinking club shutdown. Success was not long in coming, with Chris breaking his novice status as a 14 year old when winning 1st club, 3rd Welsh north road federation from Ludlow, this in the days where 20000 plus pigeons were the norm.
Chris’s father then came into partnership with him during the 1981 season, taking an interest after running Chris to clubhouse every Friday and Saturday. These days due to health problems his father only helps out during the warmer days during the summer.
As stated earlier, it,s difficult to see how Chris manages to put up such good performances with the roles he carries out within the sport, but races that stand out for Chris are when he sent 4 birds to Elgin in the late eigthies, clocking all 4 within 5 minutes for 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th club. Another highlight was sending one pigeon to the Lillers young bird National, clocking for 1st club, 13th national.
Although Chris did say the highlight was when winning 1st Welsh South East National from Maidstone young birds in 2002. This was a Louella Bred 6 for £99 pigeon that turned out to be a brilliant racer leading up to the race and Chris was brave enough to race him on again in 2003 before retiring him to stock
The stock these days are based around Planet Bros Van Loons and Janssens from Trehafod’s Graham Pearce, with the Van Reets blended into them, these from Bert Hession, Dean Pallat and Brownlee, Nee sons & Ward from the North East. Chris has approximately 14 pairs of stock and he likes to pair up the week before he goes to the Blackpool show.
Chris races 12 cocks on the widowhood method and 16 on the roundabout method, so as can be seen not a really big team considering that he does also send with the Trehafod club with the Welsh North Road Fed.
Chris and his Father picking up the their trophies for 1st Rhondda Valley 2-Bird club Ramsgate.
The widowhood cocks are paired after the Blackpool show and are allowed to rear before being parted. They are then exercised to build fitness before receiving 5 training spins before the first race. The roundabout team are treated in the same way, with the roundabout pigeons trained at least once per week when racing starts. The widowers do not get any more training, just flown around the lofts.
The cocks are let out on a Sunday just to have a bath and relax around the lofts, and from Monday to Thursday they are let out morning and evening for 40 minutes. They do not go out on day of basketing.
The roundabout pigeons are only let out once per day, but are kept fit with at least one or more training spins during the week. These also get a bath the day after the race, before slipping back into the weekly routine.
The race birds are fed Versele Laga Super Widowhood mix, with Buxtons best barley being fed at the start of the week. The widowhood cocks are fed in their boxes with the Roundabout pigeons being fed communally on the floor. Chris gives them as much as they want with the pots and trays being removed after 20 mintes, when what’s not eaten gets taken away.
Added to this the birds are given multivits twice per week and electrolytes can be found in the drinking water on the birds' arrival home from a race. Chris also likes to mix Provit onto the corn during the week.
As for treatments, they receive the compulsory PMV vaccine, with the usual ailments of Cocci, Worms Canker and Respitory being administered on a routine basis. Chris also injects his birds with the Paratyphoid vaccine, something he thinks helps with the young birds.
Chris and his Father picking up the Young Bird Averages in the Rhondda Valley Fed presentation night from W.H.P.U. Secretary Gail Jones.
As for the young birds, around 50 are reared and are raced on the Darkness system, with both sexes mixed together, as Chris prefers this. He’s had a lot of success with young birds sitting eggs and on a small young bird. The young birds receive as many training spins as Chris can get into them out to 40 miles before the first race, with very little training done when racing starts.
The young birds are generally exercised around the lofts, morning and evening, forced to fly around 45 minutes with the last 15-20 minutes they are left to do as they please, playtime as Chris calls it. Chris will occasionally train if the birds are not going well around the loft.
Chris has no problems with the Darkness young birds moulting out; he believes in regular baths to help the moult along and he has no fears about their racing ability as yearlings and onwards.
Now for a summary of his 2007 season when the main honours included winning the young bird averages in the Rhondda Valley fed, 230 members strong, no mean achievement. At club level he was the highest prize winner for the 8th time in 10 seasons, excellent consistency, with his main wins including 13 x 1st club and 11 x 2nd club, winning the O/B averages, Y/B Averages and Combined Averages.
Some of the highlights included Ramsgate Young birds where he won 1st club, 1st Rhondda Valley 2-Bird, 1st South Section in the Welsh North Road fed, 15th Welsh South East National, With a Belg-rung cock that managed to win 3 races as young bird in 2007.
Hope you have enjoyed reading how Chris manages to obtain so much success, despite the amount of time he devotes to his roles within the pigeon sport in South Wales.
