Sunday 21 March 2010

Busy!

Well this week has been rather busy to say the least! I have not had a day off in work for nearly 2 weeks so finding find time to do the jobs in the loft is quite difficult. I have to say the lofts are as dirty as they have ever been, but despite that the birds are looking nice and the shine around the necks and feathering is superb! Must be something that the birds like about a dirty loft! I think sometimes I have my lofts too clean and maybe the birds are relishing the fact they are feeling more like pigeons! ;-)
I have now 13 in the nest which are growing well. 11 have been rung and the size of your fist. 2 hatched out about 3 days ago. I have 6 eggs with 1 pair to lay due to recently being paired due to losing partner during training.
I picked up 6 birds youngbirds yesterday. 4 from a club mate which were a variety of Van Reets and Dhanens. I then went to the lofts of the well known Mel Mayo who lives in Bargoed. I have to say this man had a presence that very few pigeon men achieve! His lofts are on a site directly opposite his house and I could have spent all day talking to him. He has won Nationals and bred National winning birds for other fanciers. He is most definitely regarded as one of the best fanciers in Wales. He took me and my brother around his lofts and his birds looked class. I was amazed with certain aspects and would have said I wouldnt have believed it if not seen with my own eyes! I picked up a lovely mealy from him with a shadow type marking on all wing flights. I also picked up a bird from Lovell Brothers who also have won Nationals into Wales.
So all in all a very busy, but interesting week. With the birds I have picked up and the ones in the nest I have a total of 24 young birds. 6 eggs. I still have 8 young birds to pick up from various fanciers which I have bought. I am so looking forward to trying my own birds against these youngsters I have introduced to see they compare against them!
Racing starts in under 4 weeks and I have just been loft exercising the 5 race birds during the last few days. I will wait until a couple of weeks before the first race then give them 3 or 4 tosses on the line of flight. Roll on the 17th April!

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Going well

The 11 youngsters in the nest are growing fast now. All looking healthy and well. I have trained my race birds and they are doing ok. I let the 5 out for loft flying today and yesterday and they exercised really well. They flew for 45 minutes tonight. So really happy with that. Hope they now start to come into some good form ready for racing. I had two eggs of 'Rasbull Trish' that I had fostered under another pair, and didn't think they were full. To my delight they were hatching when checked this afternoon and should be out by tomorrow. That will take me up to 13 youngsters in the nest. I have 5 in the young bird section. I am due to pick another 7 up within the next week and hopefully within 2 weeks will have 30 in the young bird section. I am still waiting for 3 pairs to lay again, so hoping they go down on eggs now within the next couple of nights.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Update

Picked up 4 babies from a club mate earlier today. That now puts me upto 5 youngsters in the section. I took 3 race hens with me and let them go in Merthyr (20 miles). All home. I had an egg from the first of the non sitting pairs last night. So hoping the other 2 or 3 pairs lay as well now fairly soon. I am 50-50 whether to enter the Europa syndicate at the minute and may put on hold my plans until next year. I am concerned I will not have enough youngsters for my own race interests. But I will decide in the next week or so what I will be doing for certain. The youngsters in the nests are looking well and growing quite quickly. I have rung 9 out of the 11 now. I gave all the stock birds a bath this morning which they seemed to enjoy! Until next time.....

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Disaster!

Disaster has struck! In my wisdom, I decided to give the race birds a 20 mile toss. The weather was beautiful although a little cold. I let 5 birds go. On arriving back, no birds were to be seen! I waited for about an hour when two came like rockets over the top of the house. I knew immediately this was not good. I waited and waited for the others. The 3rd finally came an hour and half later. At nightfall I was missing 2 cocks. 1 of them being Samwise Ganji. (I had big, big hopes for this cock this season.) Both were also sitting 2 day old youngsters. I decided to wait until the following morning to see if the 2 cocks would turn up. I got home from work at 2.30pm expecting to see at least 1 if not both waiting to enter the loft. However, my hope soon turned to disappointment as there was nothing about. Last night I then had to make a decision what I was going to do with the youngsters. In the end, I choose to smash 4 eggs and foster the youngsters under the pairs who were sitting those eggs. Both pairs have accepted the young ones and feeding well. However, this has damaged my 1st round numbers significantly as I now only have 11 youngsters and 2 eggs left in the loft. I am also down to 9 pairs of birds, and need to re-pair a hen and cock. So all in all, a total disaster of a training toss. It has no doubt done the 3 birds that returned the world of good but as for the consequences.....lets just say I am bitterly disappointed. Well onwards and upwards as they say!

Friday 5 March 2010

Youngsters!

Well 2 have hatched and 5 more hatching. Cant wait for the rest to hatch out now and then the breeding programme will be in full swing. The cocks have gone on a quick training toss and should be arriving back fairly shortly. Think they will get used to coming back to the eggs / youngsters if they know what is expected of them. I have spent the afternoon installing CCTV throughout the loft, garden and at the back of the house. It is great, can now watch the birds from the living room. There is a motion sensor been installed also which I keep triggering everytime I go out the garden! lol. Happy days!

Thursday 4 March 2010

Youngsters should be hatching tomorrow!

The first of this years young birds will be hatched by tomorrow. I have 18 eggs at present, after fostering my top pairs under race pairs. I am hoping for a good hatch percentage. I have been getting my race birds out the last week or so, and I am really pleased how the hens are exercising, putting in excess of a hour each time. The cocks seem a little less interested at present. I have really worked on the trapping and they have improved 1000% over the last week. I did basket train the 4 race hens on Monday, about 8 miles and all home. I will pick the days carefully and take it turns to train the cocks and hens separately. The clubs first race is on the 17th April, so every effort will now be made to get the birds in tip top shape ready for this date.