As I said before, widowhood just isn't for me so I can't give any constructive comments on it. However talking to one of our top sprint fanciers after last weeks race, Alan Akemenkalns, and he just shows a few hens to his yearling cocks on basketing day, he doesn't put them in their boxes as he thi...

I used to just use the normal form of widowhood for about 5 weeks. Put the bowl in, show the hen, etc. Just my opinion, but if the cocks are in blazing form and giving you 100%, after about 6 weeks it starts to show. That's why after six weeks the races were getting longer and some of the yearling ...

Well done m8 brilliant

I was told many years ago that "A Man who thinks he knows everything, learns nothing" something I have always tried to live by. Being part of a strong and very social pigeon club once again, I've had numerous conversations with some very good fliers, one of the topics was on selection. We...

Pigeon men have a funny way of "adapting" (for want of a better word) We have far fewer members now than say in the 1980's but far more Clubs! It'd be fascinating to wind the clock forward 50 years and see what the sport looks like then Probably a nicer sport and hobby then Mike People ba...

That is very true Tony, most fanciers are still very honest and genuine people, Jed Jackson's wife said to me a few years ago, that before his death, he told her if she ever needed anything just to ask a pigeon man, she lived by this until her passing a couple of years ago and was never disappointe...

Thanks for your reply Tony. Flying over is certainly something I hope the widowhood may help prevent. The trouble is the race program of our combine is crap to say the least. The first 3 races are only 34 miles for me. 7 of the 12 old bird races are from this race point. The longest old bird race i...

Sounds quite a good way of doing it Tony. It would be quite difficult to do that in our combine. Yes the odd bird can and does get in the combine result more than once through the season but the combine radius is around 72 miles South to North and 30 miles East to West so the results are very much ...

I try to select birds that hit top 1 percent a few times a season,
So if 500 birds in race they must be in first 5 of open if 2000 birds must be in first 20 birds in result,
Think if you start at top 10 percent and each season select stronger you will be a strong racer each season.

Yes I definitely agree with that mate, it can be a false economy and very frustrating seeing hard earned cash go down the pan week after week, I guess it's all a balancing act between what we want to achieve and how much we can justify spending to achieve it. As you say also, the numbers game is a ...