Finished for the season

[George and Morgan]

sad just looking at her i would let her spend the rest of her life at home no more racing

[Andy]

sad just looking at her i would let her spend the rest of her life at home no more racing

I am going to see how she goes. Her eggs are under another pair at the moment. She is a nice hen bred from good long distance stock. I will see how the youngsters turn out and possibly put her into the stock loft next year. I don’t think that she will be in the right mind to race now.

[Murray]

That's true, Andy.
The hen has had a couple of hits, and this one is a bad one. I think it would be unkind to make her go again.
She might breed something good, and anyway, one pigeon doesnt make a huge difference to the feed bill.
Let her be.

[Andy]

I’ve shut her in a nest box this morning on a bed of straw. How she got back I don’t know. I know she probably hadn’t gone far but she can’t fly at present and struggles to get around. She was being picked On a bit by some of the cocks as she couldn’t get off the floor. She wasn’t sitting her eggs so I decided the best thing was to shut her in a box where she can eat and drink in peace. Her eggs are under another pair.

[Trev]

sad just looking at her i would let her spend the rest of her life at home no more racing

I am going to see how she goes. Her eggs are under another pair at the moment. She is a nice hen bred from good long distance stock. I will see how the youngsters turn out and possibly put her into the stock loft next year. I don’t think that she will be in the right mind to race now.

I have a cock bird here now that I was gifted by Des Coulter, he was a cracking youngster but in his first and only race he came home with no tail an a few wing feathers missing but no other visible injuries, he seemed to recover well but sadly now every now and then (usually during times of stress) he goes off his wings and can't fly for a few days so there was obviously some internal or mental damage caused that is never going to heal. He will see out his days here now, he has bred a couple of decent pigeons so I will breed from again this year.
Good to hear your hen hasn't given up the fight Andy, hopefully she will make a good recovery.

[Andy]

This hen is still shut in a nest box. Taking a while to recover. She is still limping badly on one leg and one wing is dropped, can’t fly at all. The bad eye is very pale still compared to the other one. She does seem a bit brighter in herself though. She obviously took a fair beating and was luck to get away.

[George and Morgan]

hope she makes it for you Andy i will be ringing 2 ybs to-morrow from the hen with a broken wing

[Trev]

This hen is still shut in a nest box. Taking a while to recover. She is still limping badly on one leg and one wing is dropped, can’t fly at all. The bad eye is very pale still compared to the other one. She does seem a bit brighter in herself though. She obviously took a fair beating and was luck to get away.

Poor thing it sounds like it's going to be long road to recovery Andy, the Hen I have is getting around ok and feeding alright. I did have to pick her up from the garden the other day as she couldn't fly up to the trap, I'm not sure her wing will recover as there is quite a bit of muscle missing, I don't know how she got home !!!

[Andy]

I have left the hen shut in a nest box since being hawked. She is still limping quite badly. I let her out of the box this morning and she was keen to see her cock but she started to get chased about and wasn’t able to get away. She was going to get beaten up if left. So I put her into one of the empty young bird sections. She did manage to get up into a box perch.

I thought she may benefit from being able to move around a bit more. I did feel a bit bad having on her own and had thought that I would put her back in the nest box tomorrow as at least she can see the other birds. This evening though I had a stray in. Probably training, no wing stamp or phone number on her. So I put that in with my hen. I will be weaning the first youngsters next weekend so I could put her with them.
She is taking a long time to recover but I think she is slowly.

[Murray]

She is slowly improving then.
Good effort to get up to a perch. Given time she may be okay.
They are remarkably tough.