Mob Flyers

I thought that this subject deserved a bit more 'air time'.

Following on from a comment made on another subject, I thought I would open up the subject of Mob Flying - or People sending lots of birds to a race.

It seems that some people think it is a bad thing.  My comments are:-

If every flyer sent only 10 or so y/bs to a race, all clubs would go bust in a very short time!

What is wrong with sending 100+ birds - the owners have to pay the same per bird as does a person only sending 5 birds - there is no discount for bulk sending!

On the continent, it is quite normal for people to send upwards of 80 Y/Bs - We know Old birds are a bit different.

I used to send between 50 and 80 young birds to the first few races - that soon sorts out the rubbish.

Would you rather win (or get a good place) in a race with only 140 birds competing - or one with 3,000 birds? I know which one I would want to win - the one with three thousand birds!

If someone wants to breed 60 + young birds for themselves to race - what are they supposed to do. When I raced, I sent EVERY young bird I had to EVERY race. If you only send half of what you have, how do you know which ones are the best.

In order to improve the quality of the birds in your loft - firstly you need to choose the BEST birds from your loft. Therefore you MUST send everything, every week. It is only at the end of the racing season, that you can see which of your pigeons are the best.

I know for a fact that you cannot tell the quality of your birds only by how they do as youngsters. But if you don't send them to every race, you are only selecting from HALF of the full potential of your pigeons.

I rest my case.

As a bye the bye, I have ordered some leg rings from Lambournes this morning. I was surprised that they will take upwards of 14 days to arrive. I guess the guy must have lots of work.

All the very best to everybody who is racing this week. Has anybody started Young bird racing yet?

Phil

I.m a mob flyer simple as that but it's costs be a lot of money to do so and so far this year with only 4 wins I haven't won a penny where as it has cost me hundreds of pounds to send .but again that's my choice and if the birds are not good enough I will still not win

peel bros wrote:

I.m a mob flyer simple as that but it's costs be a lot of money to do so and so far this year with only 4 wins I haven't won a penny where as it has cost me hundreds of pounds to send .but again that's my choice and if the birds are not good enough I will still not win

That is EXACTLY the right way to look at things Ray and the right attitude as far as I am concerned.

This is our sport and our passion - we spend (or should spend) as much time as we can with our birds, feeding our birds, thinking about our birds, training our birds and so on -------.

We put all we have into our pigeons - and some of us hope that they will win and win BIG.  We also plough a LOT of money into our birds, it is great when we get results and can be quite depressing when we don't!

I was lucky, the last time I raced, I won enough money to, at least, pay for their food every year and most of the entry fees.

But then, we have to think of the cost of the birds, the lofts, the travailing costs for training and taking birds to the club house, the cost of other things like loft equipment and any meds we use - or any natural products we choose to use, baskets etc!

"It ALL adds up"!

But we do it because we love it, and the sport.  AND - if we wish to breed 100 young birds and race them all, or have 50 old birds and race them all, then that is up to US.  Plus it helps to fill the panniers and lorries.

So, for me, keep on bringing LOTS of birds to the clubs and let us make a real race of it.

I have a lot of friends in Holland and Belg' and they laugh when they hear of our birdages of 800 to 1,300 birds.  They have to fly against thousands of birds every week.

Those are my thoughts anyway.

Phil

we only ever have about 20 ybs but that's my choice due to living in a built up area and respecting neighbours and of course the time to lookafter them properly ...I think partnerships generally fly bigger teams it does not bother me do what you want I am too interested in what I am doing to worry how many birds are in other guys baskets their can only be 1 winner

The more the merrier in my view, I would rather be at the top of a result with a decent amount of birds.
People that sent s lot keep the club going.

Boosey wrote:

The more the merrier in my view, I would rather be at the top of a result with a decent amount of birds.
People that sent s lot keep the club going.

Your thoughts Boosey may perhaps depend where one sits in the life cycle of pigeon racing I suspect. True story A long time chook farmer here 3 race teams at one stage, has now cut back to one team only & he is not happy with those that wish to continue on as he did in his old ways & he is now jumping up & down for a rule change here to bring them around to his way of thinking .

I wouldn't say we have any mob flyers in our club, not who send 80`s and 100`s type of thing......I do think mob flying seems to go in areas I think, up north areas tend to empty the lofts every week...

Well said lads .we all have different reasons and I agree with darren. Worry about your own birds not bloody others

peel bros wrote:

Well said lads .we all have different reasons and I agree with darren. Worry about your own birds not bloody others

One of the power brokers here Ray "Old toss partner" was telling me Saturday how the move is on to curtail the chook farmers here with their big numbers etc. When I mentioned where was the extra revenue  going to come from to compensate for the lost birdage from them etc the room went silent & I felt as if I had stepped on a land mine for punishment, for asking the wrong question/query .

Knackered wrote:

peel bros wrote:

Well said lads .we all have different reasons and I agree with darren. Worry about your own birds not bloody others

One of the power brokers here Ray "Old toss partner" was telling me Saturday how the move is on to curtail the chook farmers here with their big numbers etc. When I mentioned where was the extra revenue  going to come from to compensate for the lost birdage from them etc the room went silent & I felt as if I had stepped on a land mine for punishment, for asking the wrong question/query .

I know that landmine feeling

oldstrain wrote:

Knackered wrote:

peel bros wrote:

Well said lads .we all have different reasons and I agree with darren. Worry about your own birds not bloody others

One of the power brokers here Ray "Old toss partner" was telling me Saturday how the move is on to curtail the chook farmers here with their big numbers etc. When I mentioned where was the extra revenue  going to come from to compensate for the lost birdage from them etc the room went silent & I felt as if I had stepped on a land mine for punishment, for asking the wrong question/query .

I know that landmine feeling

That's the type of punishment O/S one can get/receive at times if one questions the power brokers, about their intentions etc & you don't go along with there thought process as such .