UkPigeonRacing

NeilA wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2024 1:38 pm Selected in September Devo
Race team selected Sunday after the last old bird race in July all moved on straight away here
Results in the loft book decides all so it’s pretty much sorted with a couple of races to go
You may know by now I have no interest in strains / fashion
Worse thing for b me would be not moving on old birds then losing loads of ybs and ending up keeping old birds that were average through fear of only having half a dozen to race
I had 4 badly hit by peregrines this year I put one to stock I gave 3 fed winners away
I kept 3 old birds as the rest were average or ruined that was before I had raced a yb so it could have gone badly wrong but what went wasn’t to the standard I want
If you drop standards to fill a box I think it’s a error for sprinting same for stock

Andy wrote: Sun Oct 20, 2024 10:28 am

CHARLTON34 wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2024 8:45 pm Hello Neil, Andy would be in a better place to answer this question as he's flown the North program before a few year's ago. Think it was £1 a bird I stand corrected if I've got that wrong flying with the Combine in these short races, Andy is probably in 1 of the stronger clubs at present .

No hope of going North Neil. I would do but the only club anywhere near me racing North is the SW Lerwick club I think it’s called. They mark in Bristol and would be a 3 hour round trip for me. Also they aren’t taking any new members. The Dorset fed fly North but because I’m just over the border in Somerset I’m out of their radius.
I did race North a couple of years ago Dave and did ok but that was only for the year that the BICC, BBC, & CSCFC went North.
The combine are very unlikely to go North as it is predominantly dictated too by the big National and Classic flyers who are long distance flyers and just use the combine in preparation for the big races so don’t want to be going over 100 miles. The trouble here going East to West the furthest we can get is Ramsgate 168 miles on the East coast of Kent before they go into the sea
The combine charge £1 a bird for all races + a 10p club fee for all races. So that’s £1.10p for just 34 miles up to 108 miles. We had 11 races at 34 miles.
Yes Dave Glastonbury is probably the strongest club in the combine with some great members. We are still probably going to join the 3 counties next year and stay with the combine at least for another year.

On a different note and a bit more back to topic. Things are moving on quickly personally and we could be putting our shop and home up for sale in the spring and looking to move. Looking at moving down South Devon way which would mean I could still fly in the 3 counties and at least get around 200 miles. I am unlikely to re-join any of the classics and go back into distance racing as I do enjoy sprint racing. With all this in mind, and Neil I know I said I don’t keep stock birds lol, I have been offered and accepted 4 pairs of Lambrechts from a good friend of mine some of whom have already bred combine winners. So should add a few sprinters to my team for next young bird season wherever I might be at the time.

NeilA wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2024 1:38 pm Selected in September Devo
Race team selected Sunday after the last old bird race in July all moved on straight away here
Results in the loft book decides all so it’s pretty much sorted with a couple of races to go
You may know by now I have no interest in strains / fashion
Worse thing for b me would be not moving on old birds then losing loads of ybs and ending up keeping old birds that were average through fear of only having half a dozen to race
I had 4 badly hit by peregrines this year I put one to stock I gave 3 fed winners away
I kept 3 old birds as the rest were average or ruined that was before I had raced a yb so it could have gone badly wrong but what went wasn’t to the standard I want
If you drop standards to fill a box I think it’s a error for sprinting same for stock

NeilA wrote: Mon Oct 13, 2025 4:53 pm Use to race 20 cocks no more
Now I have 22 and there hens will now race nrcc mostly so 2 races a day for 4 or 5 weeks then I may send the hens to a combine with the 10 older cocks the 12 young cocks will be for the fed