Paper does not fly.

[Devo1956]

To be honest, i dont know how many times i have been told this, but everything in life we use paper. If you buy something from the shop you keep your receipt for proof of purchase. Then if you buy a car, its good to find out has much information about the car, Service History, Mot if needed depending on the age of car. All repair work was carried out on the car. Then you may buy the car.

Well when it comes to buying racing pigeons, you can get all the information from the birds Pedigree. So the first thing to check is the birds Id ring, does it match with what is recorded on the pedigree? is the color recorded correct. A good thing to record, is the name of the owner address and phone number if not on pedigree. This will be good for future reference, so we can now check the Sire and Dam. What we are looking for is racing information about each bird, you can then move on in history to grand sires and grand dams. Again looking for much information on the family lines of breeding.

This where the are of breeding starts to give you that buzz, its knowing what is the best way to cross breed one family of birds to another to enrich the blood lines, This is were you have the information in front of you, remember the bird you bought,.You can contact the owner for some advice, on will the bird you bought off him be a good cross with this family line, You are hoping to future bred, you can also do some research and gather more information.

The art of breeding is the way forward in the sport, and it is proven by the results not only in racing , but the breeding of 5 generations of champions breeding champions is all about the art of breeding at the top level of this sport.

[George and Morgan]

i'm only taking in raced birds now Dev give up on pedigrees and free unraced gift birds

[Devo1956]

i'm only taking in raced birds now Dev give up on pedigrees and free unraced gift birds

I understand mate, i am just a lover of getting my head into research and paperwork. I find it a great feeling when you can sit down and plan future breeding, its the buzz of finding that racing quality we all are looking for. Hope you are ok mate, enjoy what you have, everything else is a bonus.

[Andy]

I do understand what you’re saying Dev and breeding for success is also the thing that I enjoy most about the sport. The racing is primarily there to test what you’re breeding to see if you are moving forward. The pedigree does give you a bit of an insight into what a pigeon may be capable of but that’s about all. One of the things is that no 2 pigeons are the same, even bred from the same birds. How often do you find that one youngster is good and the other useless. You could breed 6 youngsters from the best pair possible and you’d be lucky to have 2 top youngsters. The other 4 wouldn’t be worth keeping. So without testing the youngsters you wouldn’t know which ones are the best. The other trouble is, and I know top fanciers that do this, that these fanciers have lofts and aviary’s just for birds to sell. These birds may be bred down from their best but they have never been out of a loft let alone tested. There are so many birds offered for sale this time of year that have just been bred to be sold.
I think the best way to improve your stock is just to breed and test the ones in your own loft with maybe the odd introduction either from a clearance sale or from a fancier you personally know. The best pigeons I ever brought cost me £10 each from a fancier that I knew and was packing up. Myself and dad went to see him and had the pick of the loft.

[Devo1956]

I do understand what you’re saying Dev and breeding for success is also the thing that I enjoy most about the sport. The racing is primarily there to test what you’re breeding to see if you are moving forward. The pedigree does give you a bit of an insight into what a pigeon may be capable of but that’s about all. One of the things is that no 2 pigeons are the same, even bred from the same birds. How often do you find that one youngster is good and the other useless. You could breed 6 youngsters from the best pair possible and you’d be lucky to have 2 top youngsters. The other 4 wouldn’t be worth keeping. So without testing the youngsters you wouldn’t know which ones are the best. The other trouble is, and I know top fanciers that do this, that these fanciers have lofts and aviary’s just for birds to sell. These birds may be bred down from their best but they have never been out of a loft let alone tested. There are so many birds offered for sale this time of year that have just been bred to be sold.
I think the best way to improve your stock is just to breed and test the ones in your own loft with maybe the odd introduction either from a clearance sale or from a fancier you personally know. The best pigeons I ever brought cost me £10 each from a fancier that I knew and was packing up. Myself and dad went to see him and had the pick of the loft.

Great points you have raised Andy, like i have always said. There is no golden rule in this sport, and that is what makes this sport boil over in your blood. I know it does with myself,. I dont want to have a dream, i want to make one.

[Andy]

I do understand what you’re saying Dev and breeding for success is also the thing that I enjoy most about the sport. The racing is primarily there to test what you’re breeding to see if you are moving forward. The pedigree does give you a bit of an insight into what a pigeon may be capable of but that’s about all. One of the things is that no 2 pigeons are the same, even bred from the same birds. How often do you find that one youngster is good and the other useless. You could breed 6 youngsters from the best pair possible and you’d be lucky to have 2 top youngsters. The other 4 wouldn’t be worth keeping. So without testing the youngsters you wouldn’t know which ones are the best. The other trouble is, and I know top fanciers that do this, that these fanciers have lofts and aviary’s just for birds to sell. These birds may be bred down from their best but they have never been out of a loft let alone tested. There are so many birds offered for sale this time of year that have just been bred to be sold.
I think the best way to improve your stock is just to breed and test the ones in your own loft with maybe the odd introduction either from a clearance sale or from a fancier you personally know. The best pigeons I ever brought cost me £10 each from a fancier that I knew and was packing up. Myself and dad went to see him and had the pick of the loft.

Great points you have raised Andy, like i have always said. There is no golden rule in this sport, and that is what makes this sport boil over in your blood. I know it does with myself,. I dont want to have a dream, i want to make one.

A great way of putting it mate.

[Buster121]

I do understand what you’re saying Dev and breeding for success is also the thing that I enjoy most about the sport. The racing is primarily there to test what you’re breeding to see if you are moving forward. The pedigree does give you a bit of an insight into what a pigeon may be capable of but that’s about all. One of the things is that no 2 pigeons are the same, even bred from the same birds. How often do you find that one youngster is good and the other useless. You could breed 6 youngsters from the best pair possible and you’d be lucky to have 2 top youngsters. The other 4 wouldn’t be worth keeping. So without testing the youngsters you wouldn’t know which ones are the best. The other trouble is, and I know top fanciers that do this, that these fanciers have lofts and aviary’s just for birds to sell. These birds may be bred down from their best but they have never been out of a loft let alone tested. There are so many birds offered for sale this time of year that have just been bred to be sold.
I think the best way to improve your stock is just to breed and test the ones in your own loft with maybe the odd introduction either from a clearance sale or from a fancier you personally know. The best pigeons I ever brought cost me £10 each from a fancier that I knew and was packing up. Myself and dad went to see him and had the pick of the loft.

Great points you have raised Andy, like i have always said. There is no golden rule in this sport, and that is what makes this sport boil over in your blood. I know it does with myself,. I dont want to have a dream, i want to make one.

A great way of putting it mate.

Agree with Andy, I also wish you all the best in achieving your dream Devo

[Andy]

As we say Dev, there are many different ways to success. But I think the best way to stay at the top over a period of time is to produce a family of your own where you own and know the ancestors. That way you have a unique family that know one else has. I think if you are continually buying in new stock you are relying on some of what you buy doing what you want. But because you don’t have any of the predecessors you are virtually starting a fresh every time.

[Devo1956]

Yes Andy i see what you are saying , but some people dont have that time left to carry out this long journey. It's ok when your young coming into the sport, you can build over the years. I am talking about different individuals in the sport. Some choose it all different ways but that is their choice.

Like I said, if i was to get birds again, i would buy what i think is the best for my breeding. 3 pairs made up of Gunther Pranges Ringlose line X Leo Hermanns 003 Line. Now this is how i would start off breeding. Again someone would choose different, but not for me.

So if you think back when you started the loft project Andy, how would you say your breeding program has gone,. Are you anywhere near building a good solid foundation for your next step forward?

[Andy]

Yes Andy i see what you are saying , but some people dont have that time left to carry out this long journey. It's ok when your young coming into the sport, you can build over the years. I am talking about different individuals in the sport. Some choose it all different ways but that is their choice.

Like I said, if i was to get birds again, i would buy what i think is the best for my breeding. 3 pairs made up of Gunther Pranges Ringlose line X Leo Hermanns 003 Line. Now this is how i would start off breeding. Again someone would choose different, but not for me.

So if you think back when you started the loft project Andy, how would you say your breeding program has gone,. Are you anywhere near building a good solid foundation for your next step forward?

Unfortunately Dev lots have changed over this time that have been out of my control. Firstly our club effectively folded and although that didn’t worry me to much as I could race across the channel most weeks it did mean that they had no other races other than in the big races over the channel. Which wasn’t to bad until covid hit. Then brexit. This meant that channel racing wasn’t available so they turned North. I then had the bad trainer from 18 miles that wiped out most of my team that had flown well over the channel out to as far as Pau 500 miles. I thought that going North wasn’t too bad and although not going to be able to get to Barcelona I could go to Lerwick instead. This would still have been over 600 miles. I had a few reasonable races on the North but then things changed again. The nationals and classics then decided to go back South but only for those that got a CPH number and had a visit from a vet. Both of which I won’t do. This together with less marking stations it would mean far more travelling to get the birds marked. To mark for the internationals it would mean around a 200 mile round trip. The CSCFC did have a bit of a North road program at the start of this season which I was going to send too, but this quickly changed. The longest 3 proposed races were cancelled and instead they just had 2 races at around 160 miles to me. At £2.50 a pigeon I thought it was a waste of time to basket on a Thursday morning for a Saturday race from 160 miles when I could get the same distance with the combine, basketed on a Friday night for 85p a bird. At the beginning of last year I decided to join Glastonbury FC in the WOESRC. This is a strong club and combine with a lot of top class members. I raced virtually the whole of the program with the combine both old and young birds. These were races flying East to West. I didn’t have a bad season overall and enjoyed the club side. I am almost the shortest flyer in the combine. The trouble is that it looks like next year the combine are going to go “down the leg” as they call it. In other words racing from Devon and Cornwall, West to East. It will mean that I won’t be the shortest flyer anymore but it is yet again a change of direction for them. It is making very difficult to get a team together when things keep changing. I do think I am starting to get a foundation of sorts but it has been very difficult.