Counting up!

On return home from work today I noticed a pigeon on the loft roof that I thought had returned from this week's race from Folkstone. On closer inspection it turned out to be '89' a blue cock that I in fact lost 2 weeks from Maidstone (171 miles). It is in super condition so where has he been until now?

Checking through my computer records I have been working out how many youngsters I have lost in racing this season. I have sent to 6 races and they have been up to 200 miles which is what I planned to do at the start of the season. In those 6 races I have lost 14 birds in total, which sounds quite a lot but considering I sent 26 to the first race and also another 2 in races following, that equals 28 birds that have been raced and I still have 14 of which 10 have flown the full 200 miles. So that is 50% of the birds that I raced have completed what I have expected of them. I believe that is a good percentage of birds to carry through the winter.

In addition to these 14 I also have 14 late bred birds which will be trained up through the winter on chosen days. I plan to take them at least to 76 miles the site of the 1st race and what is left will be kept through the winter as well.

The Europa birds were trained today from 50 miles and they recorded 130th, 154th, 292nd, 375th and 401st out of the 811 that trapped with the 401st bird being within 2 minutes of the winner!