THE RACING PIGEON 19 APRIL 2024
5 has been boiled; if they do lay within the next few days the dummy egg is taken away. There is no need to mark the dummies as they will show up much darker in the nest. In no circumstances mark eggs with a pencil or ball-point pen as this will cause the youngsters to die in the shell. Those that have been sitting 20 days on dummy eggs are given a day-old youngster to rear and I have found that after rearing a youngster for about 18 days the hen has laid without any more trouble. Using a barren hen As I have said, barren hens can be most disturbing but sometimes can be a blessing in disguise for their racing ability. I have had three barren hens over the years and each one has more than earned its corn. In fact, the last one a few years ago won a new timing clock in an open race after I had put a pair of warm eggs under her three days previously. This is one of the benefits you get from barren hens, you can have them just how you want them. I mean in the condition they race best at, by putting eggs under them when required or putting a day-old youngster when they have been sitting the required time. I am sure the barren hens must reserve a certain amount of energy by not laying. By adopting my methods with barren or slow laying hens, the cock she is paired to will not take too much out of himself by continually driving, espe- cially if they are yearlings. Cocks at this stage and age are inclined to drive much harder than the older birds, thus using up too much energy. This with the small amount of food they eat during this process can set them back several weeks. I trust this helps my friend and helps him not to get too downhearted. The amount of setbacks one gets in the sport from time to time must make the novice wonder if it’s worth it. But Rome was not built in a day and according to past history the number of times the scaffold collapsed when they were rolling the large boulders to the top did not make them give up. When you first come into the sport you get these setbacks and think “why should it happen to me”, but these things can happen to the best of us. The longer you keep pigeons the longer you learn to live with the troubles and setbacks you get – like a bad race or being well beaten from a certain race. You act like a bear with a sore head, but before you know it the birds are away again, you time in a good one and you soon forget the previous week. I am afraid the newcomer or novice to the sport is often over-anxious, especially at the vital moment of incuba- tion and rearing period. Only once in my 50-odd years in the sport did I feel like packing up, that was in 1968 when some scum broke in and stole ten of my birds and they knew which one’s to take. It was not so much the value of the pigeons, but to think I had given the thieves hospitality and I had been taken in. It was only through my wife’s persuasion that I did carry on. When one reads of fanciers packing up through vandalism or break-ins by the lowest of the low, I know just how they feel!
BLUE COCK ‘FLASH’, NU69L19776. Winner of 7x1st prizes, 1st Hexham 247 miles, as a YB 5-Bird Specialist Club only two birds on the day, 2nd Stonehaven, beaten by loftmate. Sire the ‘Good Delbar’ and dam ‘Toey’.
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