Andy wrote: ↑Sat May 28, 2022 7:55 am
Hi Killer. If racing North Road the races from Thurso 523 miles and Lerwick 620 miles are both marked on the Tuesday (for me at 8.30/10.00am). Thurso are due for a Friday liberation Lerwick for a Saturday. If racing from Barcelona South Road 700 miles they are marked on the Sunday morning for a Friday liberation. It is unlikely that they would be moved off site until a liberation is done. It has been known for them to be held for a week or more. I think 10 days is the longest I can recall.
The thing that I do find a bit frustrating is that we mark on a Thursday morning for a Saturday race from 100 miles. But these are nationals with multi marking stations and pickups. A lot of members would be flying a lot further than me from these races.
I have to say Andy I don't mind the Thursday marking for the shorter races as I know these bigger organisations will look after the birds properly. That is one of things that concerns me more with our fed. Our club is the last pick up before heading to the race point, the lorry often doesn't leave us until between half 10 and 11pm. Now this weekend for instance they have a distance of around 200 miles to drive which will take in excess of 4 hours which means they arrive on site between 3 and 4am, the birds could then be liberated by 7am. Now I might be a cynic but those guys on that lorry have been on the go since early afternoon and in a few hours are going to be heading back home again so my guess is that they just put heads down for a few hours before letting the birds go first thing so are the birds being given water before liberation and have they really had enough time to settle down after a long journey before being set loose !!! This week the birds were at Yeovil which is only a couple of hours drive but even at that distance they wouldn't have arrived on site until around 1 to 2am and the birds were liberated at 6.45
I do agree Trev. I do think birds are less likely to have a drink in the crates if marked the evening before liberation. As you say with them marked on the Thursday morning I know that by the time they are liberated on the Saturday they would certainly have drunk in the basket.
Back just enjoying club racing for the time being.
We use water on basketing night ,we had a Stewart cont how May drank ,we worked out 70 % drank ,opened up our eyes ,because some of the loud mouths yar who it,all I can say is try it ,
We use water on basketing night ,we had a Stewart count how May drank ,we worked out 70 % drank ,opened up our eyes ,because some of the loud mouths yar who iall I can say is try it ,
