Life in Bendigo.

[Trev]

I took the cock birds for the first toss since the winter.
12 yearlings, and 2 two year olds.
It always seems strange, on the 1st of August race horses and pigeons have a birthday. So my young birds are now yearlings.
They had been fairly well educated before the winter.
Most of them are paired up, a few of them are on eggs, and others are courting. So I was pleased to see that most of them trapped reasonably quickly on their first go.
When the excitement of that had settled down, I let them all out, and they flew and played for 2 hours before finally all dropping in.
I couldn't be more pleased.

Nice one well done Muzza, good to hear things are going well for you. Keep up the good work and I hope it pays dividends

[Murray]

I gave them another short one after work yesterday.
I got held up for a while at some road works, and when I got home most of them were in the loft. A couple of younger ones were messing about.
I let them all out and they flew very well for ages.
I am very pleased with the pigeons, but doubts are growing about the races. The race area includes some fliers who are flying 40 kilometres further and to the south east.
So I am going to be the short marker, and out to the west. The drag will go past me about 6 or 8 kilometres away. I will have to do some serious training to make them break away and come to me.
It will be interesting

[Buster121]

I gave them another short one after work yesterday.
I got held up for a while at some road works, and when I got home most of them were in the loft. A couple of younger ones were messing about.
I let them all out and they flew very well for ages.
I am very pleased with the pigeons, but doubts are growing about the races. The race area includes some fliers who are flying 40 kilometres further and to the south east.
So I am going to be the short marker, and out to the west. The drag will go past me about 6 or 8 kilometres away. I will have to do some serious training to make them break away and come to me.
It will be interesting

Good on yer mate, that is my problem as well furthest west and give overfly to all and birds get dragged over

[Andy]

That is also my problem with only racing in the nationals. The main drag is always to the East of the country and combining that with predominantly West winds it does make it harder for them. Even if I went to a club that race down this way in the combine I would fly in I would be almost the shortest flyer and South of the main drag. That is why I’m not too worried about racing youngsters. I think there is more to be lost than gained from doing so.

[Andy]

Looking forward to seeing how your racing goes Murray.

[Murray]

So am I, Andy, so am I.

I was told today that the program is forward a week, and the first race is the first weekend in September. I was pleased to hear that, even though they were on light rations and limited exercise in June and half of July, which is the middle of winter here, they are very full of energy and I fear they might get stale.

They all had a few 20 kilometre tosses in the autumn before I put them away. They have remembered and are leaving quick and trapping fast from 12 kilometres. This is going to be important in these sprint races.

Next week they can go back to the Burns Road point, 20 kms, as many times as I can, then a couple from the north east, not very far, to encourage them to break away.

Only been training the cocks, I want them all paired up, on eggs or hatching by week one. They are too young, I think, to respond to the widowhood.
There are a few lovely hens too, which I may train separately.

If the wind is against me, I won't win a thing. But it will be fun.

[Murray]

My pigeons seem to have adopted a new tactic. To give me a heart attack.
I am training the cocks and hens separately, to encourage them to fly keenly and trap quickly. Appears to be working.
A couple of days ago I took the hens out for a short spin, just to get their minds on the job. I released them and drove back to Bendigo. At the turn off from the main road is a busy intersection, with a large shopping centre. On the intersection are numerous power poles, stay cables, power lines etc.
I was sitting at the lights, when the hens went over at about 1000 miles an hour, and about 2 inches above the top of the power poles!
If anyone was watching me sitting in my car waving my arms and yelling "Get up! get up!", they would have thought I was mad!

[Buster121]

Did they beat you home mate makes you wonder if they know exactly what there doing or playing us

[Trev]

My pigeons seem to have adopted a new tactic. To give me a heart attack.
I am training the cocks and hens separately, to encourage them to fly keenly and trap quickly. Appears to be working.
A couple of days ago I took the hens out for a short spin, just to get their minds on the job. I released them and drove back to Bendigo. At the turn off from the main road is a busy intersection, with a large shopping centre. On the intersection are numerous power poles, stay cables, power lines etc.
I was sitting at the lights, when the hens went over at about 1000 miles an hour, and about 2 inches above the top of the power poles!
If anyone was watching me sitting in my car waving my arms and yelling "Get up! get up!", they would have thought I was mad!

Hope they all made it back safely mate
I've got some wires across the back gardens where we are and sometimes when the birds are loft flying I wonder how they manage to miss them lol

[Andy]

Always a worry but most of the time they see them well enough. I had the large power lines and pillion’s around us down in Cornwall but never had any hit them. Hope they all returned safely.