Watchfield Writings 28.12.10

Watchfield In The Vale Flying Club with MB
*Remember there are No Secrets from a Bottle, just Hardwork, Dedication & Determination*

Well folks here we are again and its now the 22nd December, the snow is all around as it has been for the last few weeks, its absolutely freezing during the day and even colder at night with the drinkers freezing over twice a day.

The loft has it stands comprises now at the start of the breeding season is 13 pair of racers and 18 pair of stock, all birds were paired up on the 4th December and to date we have 29 of the 31 pair down on eggs. I did transfer some of the eggs from some of the stock pairs under the racers which i don’t wish to breed from this year, i put back together the parents of the NFC winner as they have been paired differently since 2007 and as this pair are both 2002 birds i have got to be realistic and make the most of this champion pair whilst i can.

I also have three other hens which will form part of our race team, these have not been paired they are 2 x 2010 birds which both returned from the Wessex combine Guernsey race which in my opinion was the hardest race we have competed in since being down here, one scored 2nd, 5th & 7th in 2010 and the other was actually youngbird of the year winning 2 x 1st & 3rd also topping the Wiltshire federation once, the other is a chequer 2009 bird who has flown Bergerac in 2010 and come with the federation winner from a shorter racepoint, these will be prepared specifically for the NFC races and be entered into the 2nd & 3rd NFC races on their first eggs of the year.

I have been really busy of late with the help of the members of pigeonforumotion.com, i held a fundraising auction in aid of costs incurred with getting the “Watchfield Triple Chance Race” of the ground for 2011, and would like to say a massive thanks to donors M/M C Aldridge & Son, W&P Brown, M/M R Titcombe, J & V Draper, R&P Habgood, Pete Berry, Ken Thorpe and of course the buyers from the site, very much appreciated and we raised £417.50 which will cover costs of purchasing rings and help towards transportation for the race. As a thank you to the members of pigeonforumotion i donated 10% of monies raised back to the site for the buyer of the fundraising youngster judged to have performed best in 2011.

We have also brought to fruition the “Pigeonforumotion Oneloft race for 2011”, this was the brain child of fellow member Kev Dyson who along with other members had been discussing this idea since July 2010 and unfortunately through building works planned in front of his lofts will not be able to continue with this competition for 2011. So we have resurrected this idea which was basically to allow members to breed youngsters to be tested in some of the bigger races which they could not normally compete in ie, NFC, CSCFC, BBC etc and as we have a large empty section at the end of the loft we offered to take this idea forward and this section will now house these oneloft birds for 2011. The concept is that I will purchase 40 rings from the National Flying Club for 2011, with the objective of these birds competing in the NFC young bird race in 2011, these rings will be sent out to competing members who will place these rings on their own birds and send them back to me during March for entry into the oneloft.

These birds will be raced by myself in our name, but any prize/pool money won by these birds at either club, fed or National level will be forwarded to the original breeder along with any oneloft prizemoney won, which is generated from an entry fee and fundraising we will run through the site prior to the race and paid to the first three returning oneloft bitds from the pre-races and final race. These oneloft birds will be housed in a separate section from our own youngsters, treated and conditioned as we would normally and will have private training along with our own team, they will be entered in a number of races with our club and the Wiltshire federation prior to the main NFC race, the draft programme for these oneloft birds will be, 23/07/11 Seaton 86 miles, 06/08/11 Exeter 105 miles, 20/08/11 Exeter 105 miles and then whatever remains will be entered on 03/09/11 Fougeres, National Flying Club 216 miles.

So to date the oneloft event will be a truely UK affair as we will be receiving birds from members who live in all parts of the UK, the loft will see 4 from Guernsey, 6 from Rotherham, 2 from Leeds, 2 from Bedford, 6 from the North East, 4 from Wales, 4 from the North West, 2 from Scotland and 6 from the Midlands with no doubt a whole host of different breeds and colours being sent down by the competitors we will provide regular updates on the progress of this event and possibly continue this with the survivors into 2012 as yearlings.

Our own team of 2011 youngsters will see a first round which are due to start hatching from 1st January 2011, these will be non-darkness and will compete in three races only during 2011 then put by for the 2012 season. We will then breed a later round of which 10 will be rung with the “Watchfield Triple Chance Gold Rings” possibly a couple of High Littleton Platinum rings for their Tours race, these will be put on the darkness system and will race through to the September races including the Wessex combine race.

Mum & Dad have just managed to get down for a visit and came bearing gifts, a car full to be precise containing all the Christmas presents and cards from the family. This was a nice surprise for the children as this visit had been cancelled previously due to the bad weather and Mia & Ben love seeing Nan & Grandad.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a fantastic 2011 when all your hopes and dreams come true.

Well that’s it for this week, try hard, work harder, be happy and good returns.

Any news/views to Mark Brown
Email - mb1973@hotmail.co.uk
Tel - 07593 279 375

excellent write up mark, enjoyed reading it very much.....................especially the parts about our oneloft. also forgot you had promised 10% of the auction money back to the best performing ybs bought

looking forward to seeing how these auction birds and the oneloft birds do in 2011, and thanks for organising the oneloft and running it for our members......

thats not a problem at all David, enjoy it and looking forward to the challenge now

The hard part will be the first month or so, when all birds from 16 or so different lofts get together in the same loft, all with differing levels of bacteria both good & bad, some can have quite a high count and survive and win with it, whilst these levels will kill others.....

But this will be thrilling for all members and for me & Clare, the fun this will create even before they get in a race basket will be unbelievable

yes true mark, as far as im concerned it will be the only chance i get to race in the nationals.................other than that it will be just club racing for me.

well i am well up for this one now, just got to get things sorted with the oneloft section at back end of january, ie put a window in the side, split section in two and sort out the trap on the front

also in your post you mention the possibility of a yearling challange/oneloft, if all goes to plan are you prepared to continue with this.........

yes mate, thats my goal a second bite of the cherry so to speak

if all goes well and (fingers crossed), would love to get some of these onelofters into the Saintes NFC 2012 race, similar format to the yb one, just to have a second chance has the YB national is normally dominated by the eastern lads due to the prevailing westerly winds (we better get the prayer mats out for light southerly winds on 3rd September LOL and then you never know)

sorry mark, i know somewhere you said the race points we will be racing from....but could you just post up again the race points and distance when you get chance please.

DAVID wrote:

excellent write up mark, enjoyed reading it very much.....................especially the parts about our oneloft. also forgot you had promised 10% of the auction money back to the best performing ybs bought

looking forward to seeing how these auction birds and the oneloft birds do in 2011, and thanks for organising the oneloft and running it for our members......

Will second that

DAVID wrote:

sorry mark, i know somewhere you said the race points we will be racing from....but could you just post up again the race points and distance when you get chance please.

7. The first draft programme for these birds (if federation stick with proposed) will be:-
23/07/11 – Seaton (Wiltshire Fed - 86 miles)
06/08/11 – Exeter (Wiltshire Fed - 105 miles)
20/08/11 – Exeter (Wiltshire Fed – 105 miles)
03/09/11 – Fougeres (National Flying Club - 216 miles)

Excellent Mark, good write up

Birds will be in good hands with you mate.

After a lot of thought i am looking at the possibilities of sending the oneloft birds as trainers with the Solent Fed on th 20th August as they are going to Eastbourne.

This IMO should set them up perfectly for the National, as if they cross the channel with the NFC and hit land around Brighton (as is most cases with the YB National due to Westerly winds), they will have to think hard from this solent fed Eastbourne race as the other 2/3000 birds will be flying direct west along the coast to Southampton/Portsmouth etc

Ours will have to pull out on their own and come a North Westerly direction at least 60miles on their own

its a big jump for them from 105 miles to 216 is,nt it, i thought they would have had 140ish race in between

Excellant write up mark, well done
Ken

peel bros wrote:

its a big jump for them from 105 miles to 216 is,nt it, i thought they would have had 140ish race in between

No mate, that would be the norm for us down here, we do have a yelverton race with the Wilts fed which is 131mile to us, but its going further down the leg which imo wouldnt do them any favours in the route....

i'm not mapped yet for Eastbourne but would guess this will be around the 130mile down the South East

We also have another couple of options up our sleeves which are not confirmed yet, which could be Guernsey (144mile) or Carentan (148mile) so we are trying

well at least everyone is in the same boat

Another great write-up Mark, Well Done

smilinassassin & vader




Shaken not Stirred

May The Force Be With You



PGW Lofts North

hi mark , i know you will but check the long range weather forcast before the yb national
that yelverton race might come in handy if the wind in a easterly direction i know it never is at that time of year but you never know section D always have a night mare in the yb national but one year there going to get there day , i think that eastbourne might be to far west a channel race might be better but your the boss so good luck .

Thanks Kev,

will do, leaning towards a yb channel race if the weather is kind, might even be training around your way mate

Another great write up well done mark keep it up mate