UkPigeonRacing

Hopefully everyone gets good returns Andy.
Sound like you have a good system with your youngsters

So I've heard this happening all over the country so can't be all BOP, some of these losses are by well experienced fancier's very successful in what they do, was it something in the atmosphere I don't know. To many small Feds sending small birdage, would it be better to have bigger liberations going to an area running to full capacity instead of being half empty. We should be trying to do something at the very least.
Maybe we should try & start ob racing later & yb come that to miss out the sparrowhawk & peregrine teaching there youngsters to hunt .So the losses from last Saturday & Monday cannot be sustainable if we carry on & don't try to understand why, or at the very least come up with a plan any constructive feedback

Well said Dave. There is something very odd going on with racing North and South at the moment.

The thing with this topic is the question was asked by an new flier. For a bloke with some years of experience and a family of birds he knows, he can very likely send most of his youngsters with some optimism.
For the newer fancier to be urged to send them all, have a bad race and be wiped out is a terrible outcome. All that work and all those hopes down the drain on day one.
I do urge caution at first.

Thanks for the replies lads we are trying to be as cautious as possible due to having only 8 old birds left ive seen some fanciers this week just gone send 80 an only get 24 back I have 43 I could send but if it goes as bad as some people have had it I could end up with 5 back we started last year and i should be excited about this youngbird season they have had plenty tosses seem healthy and im dreading it because whatever happens seems completely out of the fanciers control seeing what's happening across the board

As I said the governing body aren't interested at all, club's do the same thing year on year same race program with the same results lost pigeons never to be seen again ever or reported.
Why not try for a couple of seasons & change what we've been doing for decade's.
Give the ob a chance to breed in a natural time scale, not in November or December for the rings.
Youngsters bred later to avoid bop & the racing season to start later, if we don't try something then financially we've nowhere to go, more lost member's at the end of every season. I suspect it will be more of the same .

CHARLTON34 wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 8:24 am As I said the governing body aren't interested at all, club's do the same thing year on year same race program with the same results lost pigeons never to be seen again ever or reported.
Why not try for a couple of seasons & change what we've been doing for decade's.
Give the ob a chance to breed in a natural time scale, not in November or December for the rings.
Youngsters bred later to avoid bop & the racing season to start later, if we don't try something then financially we've nowhere to go, more lost member's at the end of every season. I suspect it will be more of the same .

I agree with what you have wrote Charleton, but at the end of the day. Its all about the loft management, pending on what type of racing you are doing. Club racing, OLR racing, The timing of young birds being bred, will differ in most lofts. on Olr it depends on when youngsters have to enter the loft, so i would like my youngsters. To enter the lofts in the first week of opening. So i would pair my breeders on Boxing day, giving me time to have birds ready for ready for whatever racing i was doing. Now this would be my program, but it will be different in other lofts. Good loft management for all tasks, for giving your birds the chance to show their true ability.

Maybe that was ok decades ago, but something has changed & we don't understand what's going on.
We just breed more to compensate for the losses which imo is a mistake, how we move forward with how it is after the weekend I'm not sure, but we need some radical changes in what we are doing at the moment this just isn't working. If we keep on making the same mistakes year on year & we don't learn from it your going to get the same result even if the management is good look at the results over the weekend & tell me that everything is ok because blatantly we all have a serious problem with pigeon racing & the very poor returns that a lot of experienced fancier's across the country encountered.

CHARLTON34 wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 8:24 am As I said the governing body aren't interested at all, club's do the same thing year on year same race program with the same results lost pigeons never to be seen again ever or reported.
Why not try for a couple of seasons & change what we've been doing for decade's.
Give the ob a chance to breed in a natural time scale, not in November or December for the rings.
Youngsters bred later to avoid bop & the racing season to start later, if we don't try something then financially we've nowhere to go, more lost member's at the end of every season. I suspect it will be more of the same .

Hallelujah!
What have I been saying for 20 years and how many enemies have I made?
The old "We have always done it this way" will be the death of the sport.

CHARLTON34 wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 9:33 am Maybe that was ok decades ago, but something has changed & we don't understand what's going on.
We just breed more to compensate for the losses which imo is a mistake, how we move forward with how it is after the weekend I'm not sure, but we need some radical changes in what we are doing at the moment this just isn't working. If we keep on making the same mistakes year on year & we don't learn from it your going to get the same result even if the management is good look at the results over the weekend & tell me that everything is ok because blatantly we all have a serious problem with pigeon racing & the very poor returns that a lot of experienced fancier's across the country encountered.

The problem is your working with a closed shop, and have been for a great number of years. As memembers of the RPRA, you dont get a say in anything. So there is a need for change and a big one too, lets look at racing over the UK. There should be a vote on going indepent, were each club would come under a main combine in the area. All subs and membership would go to that combine, now this would happen all over the country. The rings on youngsters will be own combine rings, to help relocate the bird soon as. Combine marking stations central for all clubs. So all combines would be responsible for their own division, with a monthly meeting held in the most cenral area of the Uk. To discuss the new format of moving the sport forward. The RPRA have had their day, and if there is no change. Then the same goes for the members. A no-show of confidence should be shown, before its too late.