Life in St Arnaud

[Devo1956]

Yes Devo, it is education.
I may be wrong, I certainly have been before, , but bringing the later youngsters, which are flying like little rockets, into the the team?
I guess you could just one day stick them in the box and send them 15 or 20 or 25 miles, wherever the older ones were, and shrug when some of them don't return.
But I don't. I start at my front gate. I do that With the early ones, and later with the late ones.

Stepping stones in life lead to good development, for the longer journeys we may take. It is the same with our birds.

[Murray]

Yes Devo, it is education.
I may be wrong, I certainly have been before, , but bringing the later youngsters, which are flying like little rockets, into the the team?
I guess you could just one day stick them in the box and send them 15 or 20 or 25 miles, wherever the older ones were, and shrug when some of them don't return.
But I don't. I start at my front gate. I do that With the early ones, and later with the late ones.

Stepping stones in life lead to good development, for the longer journeys we may take. It is the same with our birds.

Travelling it well is what we should aim to do.
But one day every single one of us, every one, no exceptions, will die. That is not avoidable.
But what happens next is very much up to each of us.
If that worries you or makes you angry, why?

[Murray]

I stuffed up.
I've got some hens on plastic eggs while the last of the youngsters are finished and weaned.
Only today I put my hand under one and ooops. These aren't plastic.
I'd say they are well along too, so I can't throw them out.
Never mind, I guess there's no such thing as an "accident".

[Murray]

This from Ad Schaerlaeckens today encouraged me that I might be on the right track.

How happy M was. His pigeons were super and to show that he mailed a video of his pigeons training high above the loft.
'At least half an hour each time.' I thought my own thoughts about it, but didn't want to spoil his mood. I feared that the pigeons would do that.
And, unfortunately for the man, that's what happened. The first flight already a cold shower. 'How could that be with pigeons that trained so well?'

TRAINING
Well, that is not training as it should be.
When you enter the loft, the necks of pigeons in shape become, as it were, twice as long. They are 'ready to go' and rush outside with a lot of noise. So much so that you are afraid that they will hurt themselves.
You do not have to chase them outside either, always a bad sign.
If you then turn around, you may not see them anymore. They may not have made a turn but left in a straight line to distant horizons and then return in groups. If they stayed together, eyebrows may go up, if they then remain sitting quietly on the roof, you may even fear.
Pigeons in shape do not sit still. Old ones do not and young ones do not.

[Murray]

I am pleased by something that might have some people foaming at the mouth.
Took all the young birds back out to the 8 mile point today for a toss.
It took 10 minutes for them all to arrive, then half of them went. "bugger this, we are not going in, and flew over onto the next door garage and pulled leaves off his tree.
I'm pleased that the young ones have quickly caught up with the big youngsters.
We will press on quietly now.

[Devo1956]

The joys of free flying, youngsters racing across the sky. Finding out about what flying is about, in different winds and conditions.

[Andy]

Good to hear all is going well Murray.

[Murray]

I saw something pleasing.
The first national race in Belgium was last weekend and was won by Nico Reynders of Sluizen.
The winner is a Jos Thone' pigeon, quite closely related to my Grizzle Thone' cock. Good to know the pigeons are winning today, not just generations ago.
The winning pigeon was first of 18,000 pigeons and flew 1810 mpm, (1979ypm) over the 300miles.
The youngsters from the Grizzle cock and the Billion Dollar Baby are very good. I like them.

[Murray]

I've got to go to Bendigo again today and have a tooth extracted. Not looking forward to it.
So I flew the youngsters this morning, they did their hour, and I've fed them well, I might not be up to much this afternoon. I'll chop up some veggies for them this morning, keep the nutrition up to them.
I've started playing with Ronnie, the big dark grizzle youngster. He's paired up to the little black hen, and sometimes I dont let her out with them. After their fly he almost flies through the bars of the sputnik
I'm not doing it much, I don't want him fired up too much just yet, but it seems to work.....

[Buster121]

Good to see all going well mate