THE RACING PIGEON 29 MARCH 2024
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Hugo inspecting one of his birds.
The new Kipp & Son racing loft.
week. So motivation is of little use. To excite a bird too much before basketing can mean the bird using up much of its energy whilst in transit. My father and I much prefer to send our entries off in as calm a state as possible”. I was interested to know how the partners achieve this air of calmness. The reply was, “It is very simple we allow the birds which as you know are raced on the ‘total Widowhood’ method to have access to each other and their nestbox but we leave them together for two or three hours when it is a long flight. In this way the excitement is ‘spent’ and the birds are basketed in a calm and happy frame of mind. They have had the opportunity to re-bond with their mate and go away with the minimum of stress. In this way it is the pigeons will burn less energy whilst in confinement”. I was interested to find out what was the method used to send the birds to the shorter club training flights? Immediately the grin returned to Hugo’s face. “We simply slide the doors open that keep the sexes apart and they are in their boxes in no time and we bring in the training panniers and pop the cocks in one while at the same time doing likewise with the hens”. I paused for a second and blurted, “But you said that you don’t try to motivate your birds!” With a chuckle Hugo answered, “You must understand that I am an idle guy and it is much less effort to catch the birds in their box than it is in the loft”. I thought I don’t know about idle but I believe that Hugo and his father are very cunning. The final thing that I wish to inform readers about is the partners attitude to medication. I wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that the medicine was something that they try and steer clear of and only treat when it is absolutely necessary. I was a little shocked to hear that it is a long time since their birds had been treated against trichomonias and Hugo believes that their birds have built a
strong resistance to this particular problem. Hugo expanded by telling me a short story. “A few years ago we introduced some birds off a friend who had good long distance birds to cross into our own stock but to our horror we found that the young nestlings off some of the crossings had tricho so we disposed with both the young and the new introductions. Then we repaired our birds and the resulting offspring were fine. We informed our friend about the problem and he said that if he didn’t treat his birds often they had the problem. So we knew that we had made the right decision to cull the new pigeons”. My thoughts went to comments that I have heard many times about how the best birds never had a day’s illness in their lives. So it follows that the strongest pigeons also have the strongest immune system. I will finish this piece with two short tales which highlights both Hugo’s thoughts and also his keen sense of humour. On one occasion I was with a good friend who wanted to hear Hugo’s opinion about whether he should send a yearling cock off one of Hugo’s pigeons to another long distance flight only a couple of weeks after a long race? In typical Hugo fashion he said, “Yes send him he will love it”. My friend reminded, “Remember he is only half off your bird”. The immediate response was, “Still send him he will half love it!’” I had Hugo on a panel for a ‘Pigeon Moot’ that I chaired and after the event apologised to him for the questions not being of the highest calibre. He laughed and replied, “That’s no problem I didn’t need to think too hard!” That’s Hugo Kipp a fine man and with his father Wulfrum a very talented long distance pigeon fancier.
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