how much would you pay

how much would you be prepared to pay for new stock ?

The most i have payed for a stock bird was 100 pound. Nothing compered to some people.

same here johnnorm, most ive payed for a bird is £100 each.....

I find it hard to part with more than a 100 pound David . Even worse if it does not breed anything good

most I payed was £200 for 2 ybs a matched pair off a national winning flyer ....one had to be culled a week later they were in the holding section on their own at the time

We started again this year from scratch.

We have not had racing pigeons for a dozen or so years.

I spent three months doing my homework and trying to find 'quality' stock birds at a reasonable price, and I have to say it is nearly impossible, unless you know somebody who has a good family of birds who would sell you some.

I went to Tumley Lofts in the south west, also to Premier Lofts and also a guy in Scotland called George Slaven from Glenview Lofts who has some amazing Vandenabeeles with really top quality pedigrees and race results.

We bought 2 cocks and 2 hens from George, all yearlings, which have bred us a good lot of youngsters this year.  His price is £120 per bird.  The birds from Premier Lofts would have been considerably more and some go up to nuts prices.  Tumley Lofts have a selection of birds from £80 each.

However - and I think this is the best advice I could give anybody, having learned from my numerous mistakes of this year - instead of buying from big studs and paying crazy prices, try and contact people who are doing the winning and ask them if they would be happy to sell you a small kit of birds.

When we raced before, we built a family of good racing birds that would win and win and win.  To be honest, at the end of the day, the pedigree, ie, the piece of paper that a pigeon comes with, has very little bearing on what it is going to produce or how it is going to race if you are buying youngsters.  However, if you buy a small family of birds from somebody who is winning on a regular basis, you know that, simply because he is winning, the pedigree of those birds is good.  The other thing about pedigrees is that they are just bits of paper and anybody can write anything on a piece of paper and call it a pedigree.  In some instances, we could call them the page of lies.  How many people go back through a bird's whole pedigree to find out whether the particular birds mentioned in that pedigree are the sire, grandsire, great grandsire of the bird you have.

Because we had been out of the sport for so long and spent most of that time in Frogland, I knew NOBODY in the pigeon world, which made things very difficult.

Since we bought our initial few stock birds, I have been able to add to those through the kindness, help and generosity of some of the members of this forum.  We were too late to race any of our 2016 young birds but we are training them as much as we think is right and, up to now, the birds we got through people on this forum are at least matching the birds we bought initially.

There is no way on this planet that a pigeon can be worth thousands of pounds!

Phil

Our best stock pair were gift birds they have bred us 5xwinners and a few other positions and they have only been paired up since 2014.I no people who have paid loads for new stock and bred nothing remember you can buy the bird's but you can't buy the man.

VanReet Man123 wrote:

Our best stock pair were gift birds they have bred us 5xwinners and a few other positions and they have only been paired up since 2014.I no people who have paid loads for new stock and bred nothing remember you can buy the bird's but you can't buy the man.

I agree totally.

But sometimes we are forced into situations we are not too keen on.

Phil

Most I paid was 600 I think but I would pay a lot more if I could

think it depends on both your ambitions and your budget

True but how much would you pay and how much have you paid ?

personally im not very ambitious but the most I paid was 200 for a pair from louella, lost them in the fire a week after buying them so never know how they would have got on, I think gift birds are better when you know they have genuinely got the results on any pedigree

Yes that's a shame to never got to try them paul and yes gift birds are normally the best ..also change that attitude boy about ambition lol..

yes sir lol

in the past I have paid as much as £3,000 for a bird, but to be honest £50 is as much as I would pay now ,forget the paper pedigree , just let me run my hands and eyes over it, im not as daft as I used to be , I have just had some birds offerd to me for 250 euro and 500 euro each from a well known Belgium loft I would love some but I am not paying that at my time of life, will make do with what I got p.s. they win anyway

Mine win but we try to improve every year with new birds.you as you know cannot stand still in this game because you will get left behind

I keep a few different families ray so can do a good few different combinations so don't realy need to buy in for a long time if at all

Yes totally agree with what your saying our old family are still winning for us and have done for 20 years or so but we have had others that are better but we will continue to try others..also it gives us a buzz trying new birds..take these 32 ybs we brought in this year..fantastic at first but now our own are Taking over now they have a bit distance to do..

I think when you get birds to suit you , stick with them you will be along time trying to find something else , and the ones you have will have acclimatised to you and the terrain you fly them in

Not a lot now

Paul wrote:

think it depends on both your ambitions and your budget

That is it exactly, Paul.

It really depends on whether you want to win out of turn and you can dedicate a lot of money to your sport.

I still believe that the best way to find winning birds is to BUILD a family, but this takes years and years.
But, once you have a winning family, you must bring in NEW blood from time to time.

Phil