THE RACING PIGEON 29 MARCH 2024 Surrey Bird
3
that our red pied had made the highest bid of the night in the Tividale sale, selling for two hundred pounds! I still think he and his dad may be pulling our legs, but he assures us
caused amusement amongst those there. Mick bought our little grizzle hen, now named ‘Grizelda’ and has promised to keep me updated with the progress of all four babies,
A big thank you to Gregg for all his hard work and for the smooth running of all the Amal sales. Once Matt was home and we’d sorted our
It has been over two weeks since I last wrote and we have been full steam ahead where the pigeons are concerned. The racers have now all laid and are sitting tight, with the first eggs due to hatch this coming weekend. These will all be rearing one young bird, most will have their own, with a few raising chicks floated from the specials loft. We have been busy with the Futurity and Breeder/Buyer races we entered and young birds have been going here, there and every- where! For those that don’t know, the NRCC and North Road Amal sales are conducted on WhatsApp groups, with fanciers letting the admin know when their rings are ready to be auctioned. Once the young birds are purchased the buyer then arranges collec-
that they aren’t. Dan and I had a great plan that we were going to share the winnings from both races, but it wasn’t to be as Dan got outbid. Hopefully he will have better luck tonight and we can still get rich together! The last of our travelling and delivering babies for sales ends today, when we drop our two off to Andri Giedra for the Barnsley South Road Gold Ring race, after that, it will be back to following the WhatsApp groups. I have thoroughly enjoyed the rearing of this round of young birds for all these competitions, and even if we get nothing back from it, I want to do it all over again in 2025! I am hopeful
birds out, we then set off to the Denaby Cadbey Miners Welfare Club in Tickhill to take our four young birds to the sale organised by the Derbyshire Federation. We were the last to arrive with our babies, and there were over sixty lots to be auctioned. There was a good turnout of potential buyers and a buffet was provided for the half time interval, but seeing that Forest would be kicking off at three o’clock, we didn’t stay until the sale had finished. Thanks to Mick Debenham who messaged me later in the day to let us know who had purchased our entrants. Mick told me that due to the auctioneer knowing that each pigeon
Barnsley Blue.
that someone, somewhere will do well with a pigeon bred here and I’d be thrilled to receive some positive feedback at the end of the year. If we are fortunate enough to win some pennies from it too, then even better. Now we can concentrate on the breeding of our own young bird race team. These will be weaned later than in previous years, but all being well, they will miss all this miserable, damp weather and be born into sunny Spring days where they will have the sun on their
in our lofts has a name, he had named all four before bidding started, which had
good or bad, which I very much appreciate. I apologise for not asking the auctioneers name, as we did have a chat and then saw him the following morning at the Thrybergh Working Mens Club for the sale held by one of the Barnsley Federations, where he was in charge of proceedings once more. Again, there was a good turnout, and we stayed this time to see our two sold. Good luck to all who supported both sales and well done to those that put in the hard work doing the organising and auctioning. The travelling didn’t stop for us once the weekend was over, as we had purchased a ring in each of the Tividale and Hurst Hill sales, one being held on the Monday evening and the other the following night. Thankfully for us, we have a good friend in Dan Gelder who lives up that way and he offered to take these to both sales for us. This meant we could drop the babies off to him at a time that suited us, thank you Dan. I was in a state of disbelief last night when Dan informed me
Highest bid of the night?
tion, so this requires little effort on the breeders part. We were lucky enough to secure rings for each of the three sections in the Amal this year, which obviously means that buyers could be anywhere in the country. The Amal Secretary Gregg Johnson does a grand job in organising the transport of young birds purchased out of the area, to make life easier for the buyers and to save them the courier costs. So early last Saturday morning, Matt drove our five babies bought in the South Section to Gregg before he set off driving and delivering them to their new lofts.
Hurst Hill hopeful.
Barnsley Gold Ring.
backs and not have to worry about Mrs Sparrowhawk, who will be sat firmly on her nest. Now the racers are sitting, and we have more time at home, we hope to start having them out twice a day. I don’t know how the weather will feel about that, but it’s been a good start to this week so far. I have seen some people have been making the most of this milder weather and have started their training. When you think about it, we are in the middle of March already and it won’t be long before our weekends aren’t our own anymore. We wouldn’t have it any other way though would we? I wish you all luck with your racing preparation, I am off to wind Matt up a bit more, as in two short days he will be like me, the grand old age of fifty! I will leave you with a selection of photos, of both old and young, bye for now. Jo Cuthbert
All sitting tight.
Little cuties.
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator