THE RACING PIGEON 19 APRIL 2024
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Winning Naturally by Alf Baker WINNING THE NATURAL WAY
The Older Breeders I have said before I am only guided by my thoughts when writing. Let’s deal with old pairs, those that bred winners the first time of asking. These are always your first mating, hoping that once again they will do the same, but one forgets the older they get the slower the progeny. I never rely on old pigeons to breed my racing team. By doing so you are inclined to overlook the others but one is always tempted. I am sure a lot of producers fail when they get past eight years old, because they are allowed to rear their own young. I have a pair of pigeons that had bred winners for ten years mated together, but after the age of seven years, I’ve always transferred their eggs under good two year old feeders. When pigeons get past eight they do not make the full amount of soft food that is required to give youngsters a good start in life. Not only do they fail to do this, but old pigeons are beginning to look for an easy way to feed their young, and instead of giving them wholesome grain, they start to feed them with too much water, which is much easier to regurgitate than peas. They become useless as parents like the wet feeders. Some pigeons deteriorate far quicker than others. Those that show a sign of rheumatism or have come through a bad moult at the age mentioned, I would not breed from. Although in the past they may have bred winners each year, they are over the top and past their best. After all, it’s the good constitution of pigeons that keeps a family together and these have shown a weakness at a far too early age, especially when you have pigeons half again their age full of life, that each year come through a perfect moult, no wonder they were hard to beat when they were on the road. Fanciers think deterioration comes through hard work. Although I have only flown two pigeons in my whole life that were five years old, during that time they have had to fly hard, and it takes a brave man to take good winners off the road at four years old, but this I have done for the last 45 years. I am sure it is why I always held my own and have never had to rely on old pigeons to keep me at the top. If you are not breeding one or two good ones each year when you have lost those that you have relied on, the loft is doomed. I never use small seed when birds are sitting the first round of eggs. As I’ve said many times, the seasons are changing, making the winter drag on to the early spring, and birds will come off their nests for it. Old pigeons know just how long to stay off their eggs before they get chilled. Not so the yearlings who often come off when you open the loft door. That is why I fill the hopper up, plenty of grit and water in the morning, and never go in the loft again till late in the evening. When on their first round of eggs birds need quietness when sitting, especially the yearlings, who can ruin a round of eggs by keeping coming off them every time you open the loft door, but after the first round they settle down and are no more trouble.
Chapter 16 Breeding to Type
There are many sides to the sport of pigeon racing that give one as much pleasure as the racing season. Foremost is the breeding season. Some fanciers have a knack of pairing two pigeons together and breeding winners each year, and this comes from success and observation over the years. When you have a successful loft, the winning genes are so plentiful I’m sure if you let your pigeons pick their own mates you would still hold your own, providing you have a basic strain as your family, and not as most fanciers do when they start, go to different lofts to obtain their stock. Just because you have purchased winners, or sons and daughters from them, does not mean you will produce the winning genes. On the contrary they will be different shapes and sizes, and last but by no means least, a different type. The latter, to me, is the main factor when mating two pigeons together to produce the goods. A big cock to a small hen, or vice versa, would be useless to produce the perfectly balanced pigeon that to my mind is most essential to win races. I would never pair a long-casted pigeon to a short one. Likeness in head shape and length are the main things when I mate my pigeons, using the deepest colour eyes, full of richness, never the same two colour eyes paired together for breeding winners. The violets to the red, white and blue, or the red pearl eye, which comes down from the violets thus using the same basic colour, the dark brown eyes to the orange red eye, again from the same basic colour coming down from the dark brown eyes. But by letting them select their own mates; although holding your own, you would soon lose the basic type you started with. It is this base which one is always looking for when one matches a pair of pigeons together, the pleasure and achievement would not be as great as from using one’s own judgement and from the result of study through the winter months before mating. Even if in your own mind you have matched a pair of pigeons to perfection, it does not mean to say the first nest will be what you were looking for. There are so many genes in a pair of pigeons and you don’t always get the right ones. I’m sure one cannot condemn a pair by only taking one nest from them, but must give them every chance to prove their worth as breeders, and that your judgement is correct. One must take at least three nests from them, leaving them together for the whole breeding season. I am sure that the longer they are together the truer the type. I sometimes had to wait till the final nest to get the type of youngster I had been expecting. Surely when you match a pair of pigeons together one always visualises the type they should breed, but as I have said, it is not always so. I stopped the mother of ‘The Laird’ at three years old. She proved herself by winning several prizes from the distance, but the type she was breeding was the main factor and she was breeding winners. I knew I could win with them before I ever raced them, as they were typical of the type I had held my own with over the past years. I am sure there are many fanciers who could kick themselves for trying to burn the candle at both ends. Good producers, even though they are excellent racers, are not worth sacrificing, as the amount of money they would win on the road is nothing compared with the amount their progeny would win and how much they would help to keep you at the top. The same applies to pigeons that win from the same distance each year, using the old phrase, horses for courses. I am now talking of races of 300-400-miles. Don’t be too eager to push them on. Wait till they become sluggish or cunning and you have had the best from them at that distance then push them on. These 300- 400-milers are not little fish, they are the middle cut of the salmon which is very tasty and to me is the ideal distance to call a race. Nine times out of ten these races are won by the most consistent pigeons previously over the course, and by taking them further too early in life you take the edge off them, and make them plodders. Too many 300-400-milers have been chucked away by chasing average trophies. I would like back some of the good middle-distance winners that I have lost at a final Classic, which can sometimes be called the graveyard for this type of pigeon. Not because of the distance do they fail, but it is the type of race they meet, weather etc, from that extra 100 miles, and when the true racing pigeon runs up against a heavy belt of rain, trying its hardest to get home it goes round it. Those that are some distance behind, reach the rain area when it has eased off or cleared up, keeping them on their line and leaving the early ones to fly miles off their course and forcing them to have a night out.
Chapter 17 Observations and Yearlings
Much has been written and can be read on the sport of pigeon racing, but one can never learn more than from observation. Especially is this true of yearlings after mating. All the years I have kept pigeons, my eyes are wide open looking for those yearlings that show keenness and are full of activity. I remember a yearling blue pied; the day after his hen had laid her first egg, he was bubbling over with joy chasing after everything even the sparrows. Other examples were two yearling blue cocks that I noticed were sitting at 7.15 in the morning when I went to open the loft up, although their hens had only laid their second egg two days previously. I am sure there is a good race to be won with any of these three cocks if sent in the same condi- tion. Among my yearling hens, I had two that, during the winter months I had to keep on parting, as they were always in the corner of the loft together. Although being parted four weeks prior to mating the birds, as soon as I tried to pair them up with two cocks, they went straight together again in one of the nest boxes and would not look at any of the cocks. So I left them together as my memory told me I had had this happen before, and those were the two best hens I flew that year. After they had both laid I took two of the eggs away and when the incubation time came I gave them a day- old youngster to rear and repeated this during the racing season. It is one of the great pleasures when you win with those birds with which you have used common or stock sense, or like the three cocks you spotted prior to racing. These one should not over- look when it comes to pooling. I know past performance is a guide to most fanciers when it comes to their final selection as regards to pooling for the Classic races. But, only too often the experi- enced pigeons are beaten by younger pigeons that are being put over the course for the first time. Nine times out of ten, you have noticed the younger birds’ keenness before the race, but we all rely too much on past performance and sometimes give back pool money the birds have won in previous years. I am always looking for some- thing else in my loft to beat the good old ones as I have proved over the years a good pigeon when first sent over the distance will pull out its best. A fancier once wrote asking what you do with a young hen that is barren. I know this is most disturbing especially if they are from your best pigeons and you want a round of youngsters from them. In the past I have had several young hens who have not laid their first pair of eggs in the usual time of eight to ten days. After this time I handle them to see if there is any sign of them laying, seeing if they are high in the rump, low in the vent, with the vent bones slightly open. Failing these signs the hen is given a warm egg late afternoon and nine times out of ten they take to it, even those I am doubtful about. After 14 days I substitute one of the feeder’s eggs which
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