THE RACING PIGEON 29 SEPTEMBER 2023
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Surrey Bird
lots about what to do next, do we keep them training for another week and send to the final race, or cut our losses and just start afresh for 2024. We decided that we didn’t want to keep training and then the same situation arise next Thursday, so we will have a team of unraced but well-trained yearlings to get going next year. I’m sure there will be those thinking ‘I knew you wouldn’t send’ and ‘you can’t keep them to look at’ etc etc
Well, no big fanfare as to how our young birds fared racing last weekend, as we ended up not sending. We had every intention too and sent our numbers in after replying to the weekly Thursday text from Club Secretary Pete, then that evening he told us that we were the only members wanting to send. He did say it wasn’t a problem and that he would go to the club to mark our pigeons, but knowing no one else was wanting to
Little feral visitor.
expect he wandered out and couldn’t find his way back. As I moved towards him, he flew off and spent ages sat on our Specials loft by the house before disappearing and I’ve not seen it since. Before splitting the young birds, we kept them to their normal routine for a couple of days and they were able to enjoy one last bath together. They are losing their flights and body feathers but nothing like the old birds who all appear to be having a good moult. Plenty of baths for them all now, espe- cially while this spell of warm weather continues. We bred several later babies from the new stock we had brought in, and these are still in the new aviary, along with the two gifted from Shane Reading. The cock, ‘Shane’, is making into a strong pigeon and it won’t be long before he will go in the Specials loft to find himself a box. I’m looking forward to seeing what he and the stunning ‘Shania’ will breed for us next season. The older babies in the aviary are almost through their moult and boy, how some of them have changed. I’ve added a photo of one of the grizzles as he was then and as he is now, they mature so quickly. We will be holding onto some of these to go back into our own stock loft, but others will be available, as well as a round when we pair up to help towards the rising costs of pigeon racing. We haven’t raced as much as we wanted too or should have the last couple of seasons, what with bird flu zones and our own circumstances and we have lost our way a
Last bath together.
and you aren’t wrong, but we’ve made that decision and at the very least, we’ve got some cracking looking birds to look at during the winter months! We have already parted them and with the old birds, have six hens over. This may change if we have sexed any wrong, but in case it doesn’t, we have moved ‘Ollie’ and another two year old back into the racing section from the Specials loft. Both these two have flown out and will at least keep a couple more hens happy. The young cocks will take a while to find their feet and boxes in that big section but have got plenty of time to sort themselves out. Our cleaning frenzy continued when we had no race to
race, gave us doubts as to whether it was some sort of sign due to the hot temperatures forecast, so we kept them at home. In hindsight, we may have dodged a bullet as there are differing reports concerning losses on the Saturday and as it was, only one hundred and fifty-two birds were sent by just seventeen members in the whole of Warwickshire Federation. I know that there are two big Futurity races coming up, those being in the Amalgamation race this coming weekend, followed by the NRCC the weekend after, so people may have decided to skip last Saturday and wait for these big races. The pigeons were liberated from Wetherby at eight fifteen in a light south west wind and Appleby Magna and Trent Valley clubs
Stock hens bath time.
Young cocks not knowing what to do.
Grown up grizzle, ‘Shane’ and ‘Shania’.
bit. Moving forward, we have had to make changes, bring in new birds alongside the Klak’s and I feel confident that 2024 will be a different story. Our birds have been flying well for others, winning club races and scoring Fed cards, so we know it’s not been the birds that were the problem, but rather us and our own management. We have some racing for others in both the Amal and NRCC Futurity races so will be cheering those on from afar. Good luck to you all for your remaining races, I wonder how many of you have big alterations planned for the long winter months ahead, lots I imagine! Jo Cuthbert
compete in and now all the baskets have had a good clean and spray out too, in fact all that is left to do is the young bird section and as the race hens will be staying in there for the winter, we won’t have to think about doing that until next year. As I sat taking in the sunshine, mulling over whether we made the right decision not sending and wondering what kind of race we may have had, I noticed a feral baby that was sat chilling on one of our plastic garden chairs. I must have been sitting there for over twenty minutes before I even spotted it and I think it came from our neighbours house as they have had a pair of streeters nesting under their solar panels for months, I
dominated the result, with P, C & C Cooper taking the first four positions. Their birds took one hour and forty minutes to fly eight two miles, recording velocities of 1436. Fellow Appleby members J Havens and Litherland, Bailey & Harrison took the next eleven positions, with J Havens doing 1413 and Litherland, Bailey & Harrison’s best velocity being 1405. Mr Gilbert of Trent Valley took positions sixteen to twenty, his first pigeon recording a velocity of 1383. Congratulations to all on the result and I hope everyone had good returns. I did wake up on the Saturday morning feeling disappointed and a little regretful that we hadn’t just sent, and we did speak
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