UkPigeonRacing

Do you have a yearly budget for yor loft, how is it looking to last years budget.?

I spend the same each year unless prices go up then have no choice but to increase

Just spend what I want to spend. Don’t bother buying in others cast offs as I prefer working with what I’ve got and what I know. So no expense on trying to buy success which rarely pays dividends.

I've never worked on a set budget. Feeding so many pigeons costs so much and that's all there is to it.
What has changed is for many years they were always a dead loss. I fed them, they justified that by making me happy. Sometimes we got a card or something for winning a club race.
Before I retired and we had a big mortgage, every bag of feed I bought was a small guilt trip.
Now they are paying for themselves, I can buy a ton of feed if I want to.
The logistics haven't changed, just the situation.

Andy wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2026 7:58 am Just spend what I want to spend. Don’t bother buying in others cast offs as I prefer working with what I’ve got and what I know. So no expense on trying to buy success which rarely pays dividends.

I have a theory about why blokes who try to buy success rarely do.
Many of us have seen people with plenty of money pay huge amounts for the latest big winning pigeons.
Now, if they were good fanciers and had an ounce of patience that might set them up. But no.
Two years later the same people are paying huge amounts of money for the NEW latest big winning pigeons.
And so on.
Rather than scorn them, we should embrace and encourage them. They are injecting a lot of money into the sport.

This year I brought a new ETS system, which was obviously an additional expense, and next year I am hoping to move which will mean me buying a new loft. But happy with that.

I find racing is always a compromise because of a lack of funds. I have said before that I only have my old age pension to race on. Believe me that's very difficult if not impossible. I am fortunate that my wife has her old age pension coming in too which makes things a little easier but I have to do odd jobs wherever I can to pay for my birds otherwise I couldn't keep them.
Believe me it's extremely frustrating - but worth every penny so not complaining.

We are in the same situation, Dave.
Catherine had to retire a bit early and I kept going until I'd turned 68 but I was not able to keep going any longer. The spirit was willing but the flesh was very weak.
We are very lucky that we sold the house in Bendigo and bought our quarter acre of paradise. It's old and not very flash, but we own it and we can live on our pensions.
Since we came here the pigeons have gone to a new level. They have done very well all over the place and are more than paying for themselves.
We realise that we are very lucky.

not really set a budget as its my first few months with pigeons so I'm not to sure, but I spent a few £ on extending my shed by 10ft plus I bought 10 Y/Bs birds in from Cornwall was gifted 9 Y/Bs and 5 Stock birds I have bought birds and paid for them in a OLR as well.
so this new will be my first full year so I will work out from that