Last night I pulled out a Pigeon Racing Pictorial magazine from June 1972!
There were two articles about feeding and nutrition, which really do illustrate how far the feeding of pigeons has come in 53 years.
The first was by Dr W.E. Barker, and addressed feeding pigeons aimed at long distance racing. A large part of the article is concerned with the comparative merits of beans versus peas, which were clearly the usual diet in most lofts. He then spoke in favour of the practice of adding some extra carbohydrates and fats, either in the form of oats or perhaps maize, but he noted the reluctance of many fanciers to use maize at all.
The other article was by a South African flyer, Jock Duff, about the wonderful advances in the production of pellets for racing pigeons. He was very enthusiastic about them, and predicted a day when every pigeon fancier would feed them alone if he wanted to be competitive.
Oh how things have changed. When I first had racing pigeons in the 1980's I was feeding plenty of good New Zealand maples and some maize and wheat. Now, training a team of big youngsters in the middle of winter, I am adding so much maize and safflower to the mix that they are probably getting about 7% peas. And leaving some.
After I've chopped up a few peanuts in the blender, added a tablespoon of oatmeal and a fish oil capsule and whizzed it up then added it to their feed, what they are eating is nothing like 40 years ago.
I don't eat meat for breakfast, lunch and supper, and I have come to believe the pigeons don't require heavy protein feed at every meal.
These old magazines are terrific food for thought. Speaking for myself I am inclined to be a creature of habit. I've kept the same old pigeons for years, trained and fed them a certain way because it worked once, and the shift from our old home has changed a few ways of thinking. I've got some new pigeons and some different thoughts on training them.
It can't be a bad thing.
