Life in Bendigo.

[Trev]

It's Friday evening, and my darling wife said to me that after another week at work, I was spending more time than ever out with the pigeons. She was not complaining, just making an observation.
She is correct. Even though I spend a fair bit of time training and caring for the pigeons when they are racing, I stay away from them for a lot of the time. They need to be able to rest and not be disturbed.
Since I am at work all day during the week, that is not hard.
But now the racing is finished, and the new babies are coming through. The first round were coming out of the loft during the last week or two of the racing, so they learned to trap REAL good
Now there is another round of babies in the nests. Ooh, there are some super, super youngsters in there. So yes, I am pottering about, putting clean paper in the boxes, putting a clean nest bowl in if it's needed, putting a scoop of feed in a bowl as it's eaten, 004.JPG

Lovely looking babies Muzza, a credit to you.
Like the Mealey and Red in pic one, are they the Jos Thones ??
I also really like the pair in pic two.

[Murray]

All of them are half Jos Thone's except the one s in the second picture.
They are Patrick Boeckx youngsters Gordon is raising for my mate David.
They go good, the Jos Thone's. The little hen that was my clock bird the last two weeks is half Thone'.
I kept the grizzle and the blue bar white flight back for stock, they are too good to risk losing.

[Trev]

All of them are half Jos Thone's except the one s in the second picture.
They are Patrick Boeckx youngsters Gordon is raising for my mate David.
They go good, the Jos Thone's. The little hen that was my clock bird the last two weeks is half Thone'.
I kept the grizzle and the blue bar white flight back for stock, they are too good to risk losing.

They look good mate, the ones that Gordon is raising for your mate do look particularly nice

[Murray]

Nice birds there Murray, like the pair reds and grizzles will be good to see the grizzle on right of bowl when bigger

Yes, the grizzles are fantastic babies. Quality.

They are by the grizzle Jos Thone' cock, from a very inbred Jansen x Van Loon hen from my family. Lovely hen.
Interesting story. They were trying to nest on the floor in a corner, so I put a cardboard box down for them. Babies duly arrived, and all was good, for a week. Then they abandoned them. I think the others were getting in the box and upsetting them.
I had a baby off one of the red Thone' boys fostered under the Diver. So I put the red baby back under it's parents and slipped the grizzle babies under Diver and Mrs Diver. They took over and have raised them a treat.

The wee ones are starting to stagger around and eat out of the bowl and are great. I think they were not fed for about 12 hours when the parents stopped feeding them, so hopefully no harm has been done.

The funny thing is, the hen had only laid one egg and they hadn't hatched anything at all, but they took on big babies and have done a marvelous job with them. Old Diver was a good racer, he only had 3 races and won them all, and is a lovely animal. Very quiet and intelligent. He knows they are not his, but he is still feeding and caring for them.

I thought I was in a spot of trouble there for a minute, but it has all worked out.

[Andy]

Great little tale Murray. Glad all turned out well. It is surprising sometimes what they are willing to take on.

[Buster121]

Great news mate always risky but worked out well, look forward to seeing the progress updates

[George and Morgan]

Murray same thing happen me this year ybs were abandoned at 12 days old they to had nest on the floor never had it happen before

[Murray]

Cloud is building up and we will get some rain. At first it was meant to start about now, 7.00 pm Tuesday, and peak with up to 80 mm on Thursday. Now it is going to start about dawn tomorrow.
The Premier of the state, the Socialist republic of Danandrewstan, our Dear Leader, Chairman Dan Andrews, was on the radio, speaking in stern but kind tones, saying that 'we' predict heavy rain and flooding. Not only is Chairman Dan a political genius, he is a meteorologist!
No wonder we are doing so well.
No, hang on.....

[George and Morgan]

nice healthy ybs Murray good luck with them

[Murray]

The predicted torrential rain didn't happen. I seem to be the only one that isn't surprised. When very bad weather is coming, you can feel it in the air, or I can, anyway.
It stopped raining about lunch time, but when I got home there were showers. I kicked them all out, because they might be right, we might have a wet day tomorrow.
It's funny how the pigeons love having a bath when it''s raining. At one point there was a decent shower, and the baths were full of birds, all flopping around.
When I had given them a scrape and sweep, and done some housework in the lofts, I called them in, and had everything in in a couple of minutes.
All the sheds are closed up, the birds are fed and warm.
All is well.