Respiratory

[NeilA]

The best national flier I know to talk to and probably equal to anyone would race his ybs everyday of the week if he could test and test again from a young age ,he keeps no pets

From your previous post if he keeps stock birds he has pets? There will be top fanciers that don't race YBs at all also. I myself when racing used to race YBs right to 368 miles. I found it didn't make them better old birds

I keep stock king not sure if there pets there 10 cocks there 7 are fed winners with 5 plus fed cards in the top 3 per cent some are double fed winners
2 I added recently one for a certain thing I like and one Mike picked for me to try
I have one more who is starting to blank but he’s bred fed winners for 3 different lofts but not won the fed himself he was picked for me by Shane Langton that’s the 10
So there there for a job to breed winners or they go
There not for keeping as pets or flogging babies from

[king]

The best national flier I know to talk to and probably equal to anyone would race his ybs everyday of the week if he could test and test again from a young age ,he keeps no pets

From your previous post if he keeps stock birds he has pets? There will be top fanciers that don't race YBs at all also. I myself when racing used to race YBs right to 368 miles. I found it didn't make them better old birds

His stock are his winners are close to his winners not bred down from a bird that great grandsire flew 600 miles etc actual winners his lines go back to 1975 and earlier
He kills any shit no pets they have to breed 500 mile pigeons or they go in the bin
Simple system he get them fit tests them and tests them some more
as babies he races every week
Maybe when others win the NFC and BBC national in a week like he has they could challenge his methods

He sounds like a top fancier. Many of my stock have raced over 600 miles themselves and the others are direct off 600 & 700 mile winners in NFC & BICC races. One cock here has flown 600 miles 4 times and has many positions in the longest flying section of the NFC. The lines of my stock go back to 1948 and the loft they came from won Lerwick 565 miles 15 times. A nd South road the loft also won the section in the BBC 8 times up to 700 miles. They weren't kept as pets either every yearling in the loft had to fly 500 miles.

[NeilA]

He is King very top level with winning long distance pigeons , he sends to win not to complete the distance that’s no good to him
If I went into that I would go straight to him for stock
He’s a name you would know well his father founded the pigeons in the 60’s originally in the Wescott pigeons and over time winning lines have been added
to what is his own family really

[king]

He is King very top level with winning long distance pigeons , he sends to win not to complete the distance that’s no good to him
If I went into that I would go straight to him for stock
He’s a name you would know well his father founded the pigeons in the 60’s originally in the Wescott pigeons and over time winning lines have been added
to what is his own family really

PM his name, I should know him.

[Andy]

Like i have said on topic, we all all have our own ways of how we manage our birds. And as the owner of these birds, it is your duty to care for them. Giving good nutrition and looking after their health day by day.
It is a 365 day sport and can be very testing to the birds. So i feel it is important ,first of all make sure you keep up to date with yearly vaccine for Rota virus, salmonella, Para.

Healthy pigeons in good condition are necessary for successful and good breeding. Prevention is better than cure, so in this article we take a closer look at why vaccinating before the breeding season and when weaning youngsters is so important.

1. VACCINATION AGAINST PARATYPHOID BEFORE BREEDING
Paratyphoid fever or salmonella is a common obstacle that can cause major problems in the breeding season: poor fertilisation, mortality in the egg and then death of nestlings or even the breeding pigeons themselves. That is why it is recommended to treat pigeons with a suitable antibiotic for about ten days every year about six weeks before the breeding period, in consultation with your vet.

If you regularly have problems with paratyphoid, it is also recommended to vaccinate against paratyphoid immediately after treatment. Be careful to leave enough time until the you pair the pigeons (four to five weeks), otherwise you might have a very bad breeding.
​Since mid-2016, high levels of mortalities in kept pigeons (racing and fancy) occurred in lofts across most states of Australia. Emergency animal diseases and notifiable diseases, such as avian influenza (AI), Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and pigeon paramyxovirus virus type 1 (PPMV1), were ruled out as the cause. Investigations of these events found they were due to a rotavirus (a member of the reoviridae family).​

In March 2017, pigeon rotavirus was detected in sick pigeons in Tasmania.

Clinical ​​signs​
Clinical signs in affected birds have included depression and reluctance to go out and fly, vomiting, diarrhoea, regurgitation and hunched postures. Birds that appear sick often die within 12 to 24 hours, with deaths in affected lofts continuing for approximately 7 days (Figure 1).​

Mortality rates of up to approximately 30% have been reported in affected lofts. While the history of the pigeon rotavirus outbreak on the mainland indicates there may be a lengthy carrier status for recovered birds of some weeks or months, the full nature of the disease is yet to be elucidated.​​

This is just my thoughts, i have always said the health of the birds is Paramount. Along the way, other forms of a virus may come along. It is your choice on treatment of your birds.

I raced before PARATYPHOID was ever talked about. The first fancier in my club to ever catch PARATYPHOID was the only fancier to vaccinate against it. I've kept birds for near on 50 years and never had a fertility problem. Clear eggs are rare in my loft. 10 or more birds are over 10 years old and all filled this year. The only pair not to fill is a cock of 21 and his hen of 12. Although they did fill a couple of eggs last year.
Poor fertility is common in pigeons today with cocks as young as 6 now not filling. It's not all down to PARATYPHOID. Medication is playing its part also.

From my first round of 22 eggs I only had 1 that didn’t hatch and that had been pushed out of the bowl.

[MIL]

I can agree with you Andy that we all have our own ways of keeping and managing our birds, and its up to each person to determinev how happy they are.
Me, I'm not going to try and persuade you to change your ways because firstly I know I'm wasting my time, and secondly I know you're happy with the way you do things

Murray, I appreciate what you're saying about the racing over there being so open. Me, I grew up competing in the polar opposite environment
Rugeley is a mining town in Staffordshire and at our peak we had 88 members sending over 1,000 birds a week in the 1970's
The radius of the club was only 1 mile circular from the Town Hall. I could see 37 lofts from my back garden
Let me tell you, you didn't need to go to clock opening to understand if you were behind or not.
You knew within 20 secs of the 1st bird arriving if you were close or not
If your birds missed and did a whip round or two you were toast - simple as that
That's the environment I was nurtured in

I sold my own birds in 2007 but I'm still involved in the game through various means, doing online auctions and helping friends out with advice when they want it
Let me tell you a true story, because it has an impact on what we're discussing
Phil Bourke had bought birds off our partnership years ago but I wouldn't say I knew him very well
About 2.5 years ago a van went off the road at 60mph, went through a stone wall and crashed into the 3 cars on my drive
It was only the cars being there that stopped it coming through the house
To cut a long story short when the insurers gave me the nod I got Phil to do all the repair work on the house and wall
That's where the relationship got stronger
We'd talk pigeons daily, and he'd hear me on the phone to Gordon Bros daily (because we always speak daily and have done for over 20 years)
At that point I think Phil got his eyes opened in terms of "mindset" and "attention to detail".



So, from the start of the 2022 season I started to help Phil a little with medications/supplements and such like
Prior to that, with respect, Phil wasn't winning many cards and races a year
With the same set of pigeons Phil hasn now won 30 x 1st since the start of the 2022 season
So the way I fly pigeons might not be everyone's cup of tea but I know what works and what doesn't
I don't do pigeons to make up the numbers

Last week Phil decided he wasn't loving the weather and left the cocks at home and only sent hens
His hens were 2nd and 4th and their velocity would've won 4 or 5 Clubs locally
That didn't make them good birds, far from it
When I sae the cocks droppings on Sunday morning (see below) I didn't like them - especially as they hadn't raced on Saturday

I sent them to 4-5 trusted friends who didn't feel there was too much amiss though.
Nonetheless I'm prepared to back my instincts and I told Phil we needed to intervene - and whilst we're at it sort the hens out too
You can see this weeks result on the "Guess the time" thread
You can also see the droppings on Friday below too - I'm much happier with them.

My birds never lived on medication, and neither do Phil's, but I will be proactive and step in if I feel it necessary
My experience has taught me that if you wanna race here in Rugeley on clean food and clean water all the time not only will you not win you'll get destroyed
Not only will you get beat but you'll go home with 50 shades of naff all in your arse pocket
How do I know this? I've seen dozens of local fanciers fly that way against the "proactive" lofts and they eaten alive ALL THE TIME
That's why I am the way I am and I believe what i believe and if you wanna be competitive all the time then you have to be proactive
Bury your head if you like, but against good competition you'll invariably come unstuck

[Buster121]

I cannot see anything wrong with the droppings so would you tell me what I should be looking for, every little helps as they say, also off topic I used to race from Bridgtown back in the 70s and 80s

[MIL]

Hi Buster

In my opinion the first 2 sets of droppings that you see pictured had down feathers (a positive sign) but considering they hadn't been raced I was disappointed with the colour and texture of the droppings.

Compare them to the last set of 3 which were taken on Friday morning (birds had drank clear water on Thursday) and I think anybody would reasonably agree that they were better

Indeed, Phil is 1.2 Club today and likely 6th and 10th Federation

The birds beating him are all short and all East of him so a really good effort on the day

(He also timed a cock and a hen in - 2 together)

[Buster121]

Hi Buster

In my opinion the first 2 sets of droppings that you see pictured had down feathers (a positive sign) but considering they hadn't been raced I was disappointed with the colour and texture of the droppings.

Compare them to the last set of 3 which were taken on Friday morning (birds had drank clear water on Thursday) and I think anybody would reasonably agree that they were better

Indeed, Phil is 1.2 Club today and likely 6th and 10th Federation

The birds beating him are all short and all East of him so a really good effort on the day

(He also timed a cock and a hen in - 2 together)

Thank you for that information the bottom ones look like a browny colour on my screen, yes Phil did well

[MIL]

If they were "brown" to me then I'd sort that out soon enough