pairings...

calm down ian........just keep taking the tablets, youll be ok soon.....

David i must say it is the feral pigeons which gives this great sport of ours a bad name

When my work colleges see me reading a pigeon book there comments are the only thing good for them is the oven or another comment is look at them S### machines

yes i think your right don, people who dont keep/know anything about pigeons presume they are all the same as ferals who s**t all over the place and carry desease.....they dont know they are thourabred racing machines who are nothing like a feral.....they think of them as flying rats.....

Yes you are correct 100%

i do sometimes think of those racing birds who get lost and live wild, its a shame they have to live like that scrating for food and having no shelter......sometimes we loose good birds as well as bad dont we ?

Yes that's how the cookey crumbles

Can always remember the parknership of Price and Hale who we raced against they were top class and they had a team of reds and they were called the red arrows these's pigeons won everything as a team 123.134.234.345 you name it they won it

We had a bad race from exeter and the whole team were lost with only 2 being reportrd in ireland and this team of pigeons had won fron every inland race point even exeter

the thing is with reds and silvers and nice looking birds people tend to keep them because of there looks very rarely get them back

once remember getting a red pied nehu rung cock in years ago, it was one of the best looking birds id seen.......reported it and owner transfered it to me. we raced it a few times but i think we eventually lost it so it just goes to show that looks arnt important when it comes to racing.....

too true david but it still dosent stop people taking a liken to them

oh yes, true ian......i think thats why so many get lost never to be seen again. i do think tho ian that a lot of fanciers make a lot of how a bird looks and if it looks nice they assume its good.
ive read/heard some say "thats a nice looking bird, i bet that breds a good un for you" or "i bet that wins for you"........

something you shouldnt do introduce strays into your loft they bring in all sorts of dicease

yes true ian, i think whenever bringing any bird into your loft it should be seperated for a week or so incase it is carrying anything, never put it straight in with your own.....doesnt matter who its come from.

too true david very good practice

The team of Red 's i had commented on were of multipul prize winners and they were pigeons of 5,6,7,8 and even 12 first prizes

Yes they looked good but the owner never kept anything if it was not able to race and race well or as i should have said Jim would not take prisoners

Jim was always 1st or 2nd highest prizewinner every year, so i don't think he kept them because they looked good??????????????????????????????

no but what iam getting at is people tend to keep the bonnie coloured pigeons

Sorry Ian got the wrong end of the stick, you are right that some fanciers do keep the donnie coloured pigeons

its always nice to get a winner that looks nice, but i do think a big % of fanciers go on looks......and if it looks nice they asume it will be a good bird, ive heard it time and time again......but also ive seen top prize winners that look horrible and you wouldnt have them in your loft if it was judged on looks alone...

cant work them out wish i could

fanciers think too much ian........just send them and see, thats the best way.

yes david your right. one way to find out isnt it.

well up here in the north east the favourit saying seams to be "let the basket be your judge"
Wise words i think,
i use to love the pretty pigeons but i moved north and the basket is most certainly my judge

has to be really doesnt it, unless you have some other foolproof way of picking the best.....amanda, how do you select your pairings ?winner to winner/best to best ? or do you have some other method like eyes etc.....

DAVID wrote:

has to be really doesnt it, unless you have some other foolproof way of picking the best.....amanda, how do you select your pairings ?winner to winner/best to best ? or do you have some other method like eyes etc.....

Yes my method is a Davey
And we will use eyes to certain extent, The stock birds will be put back the same as this year, and as for the racers well, after the basket has judged them we will see whats left and then Davey will sort them out and then decide who and why.