Sunday 28 August 2011

Consistent!

That's the word that best describes our birds in this years Europa Classic. They have produced all series so far with them being 44th, 48th, 61st and 223rd in todays training toss from 40 miles.

I am hoping to give my own youngsters a training toss this afternoon which will include all the youngsters yet to be in the basket. I will start them at 7 miles and then hope to increase that to 14 miles and 27 miles in the next few days.

The birds in the loft are moulting heavy at the moment with feathers everywhere. I am glad when the moult is over as hate the feathers blowing all over the shop!

Friday 26 August 2011

Burger van closed?

The burger van I mentioned yesterday must have been closed today as the 3 birds who stopped of at it yesterday were on the mark today. They were 6th, 7th and 8th! I am keeping my fingers crossed that this burger van is closed on the final race! lol. The other bird we have was 160th today. They were trained from 40 miles once again.

Thursday 25 August 2011

All flying and ready to go!

The last of my youngsters are now flying for an hour at a time and grouping very well. That now gives me 46 youngsters in total plus 3 yearling cocks who have raced this season. All will now been trained in the basket and I will be aiming at the 10th September for their first race. Some of the older youngsters are falling to bits with the moult but all will have a race this year.

The Europa birds trained today from 40 miles and it turned out to be a funny one for our syndicate birds. '07' was again our leading bird and she has now overtaken '13' as the bird I fancy for the best position in the final race. '07' was 39th today and the others were in a group of around 30 that arrived a long time after the main group. Their positions were 462nd, 466th and 485th! (Think they must have been sight seeing or stopped off for a beef burger or something!)

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Easy Day

The pigeons were given a loft fly this evening around the loft with them putting in a good hours work and trapping like rockets! Hopefully the weather will keep nice over the next 2-3 weeks so we can get some really good training into them.

The Europa birds were trained once again today from 40 miles and the entries were 39th, 58th, 105th and 146th so very pleased with that.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Training again

The youngsters in my loft were trained again this afternoon and were taken to 14 miles. I basketed 41 and all were home before us in a good time. I am hoping the weather is good tomorrow but I think rain is forecast. I want to get plenty of training into these youngsters before the race on the 10th September. Half the team have been trained twice to 28 miles with the other half having their 2nd toss today.

We are back up to 4 in the Europa now after '12' returned from the 5th Hotspot. The Europa birds were trained today from 40 miles. We had 11th, 168th, 339th and 466th. Under 2 weeks now until the final race! Can't wait!

Monday 22 August 2011

Training

Our youngsters were trained today. We have had 30 out to 28 miles but have halted training while we are waiting for the final round of youngsters to be up and running with the main team. We have 47 in total (2 of which have broken legs). We have rushed the other 17 to get them grouping and flying out around the loft. Today was a cracking afternoon so I decided time had come to basket all that I felt were ready to go. I decided to leave the youngest 6 at home who have only been out flying for 4 days! So in total 39 youngsters were basketed along with the 3 old birds I have left. They were taken to 7 miles and they beat us back. On checking numbers I am 1 missing. I have no idea who it is at present but will check tomorrow. I am going to get these 39 on the road regularly now and hope to get them into the race on the 10th September.
After training tonight I let the team back out and they put in a good hours flying. They are exercising and trapping as well as I have ever had pigeons which is a promising sign of things to come!
By the way '09' made it back in the Europa 5th Hotspot so that means we will hopefully have 3 in the final race this year!

Sunday 21 August 2011

Europa 5th Hotspot

The birds had the 5th Hotspot today and '07' did the loft proud being in the first group home after 4 and 1/4 hours from 165 miles. She trapped just 16 seconds behind the winner to claim 35th. I will have at least one in the final race and hoping when the rest of the result is published it will show the other 3 have also made it in to the final.

I am quite excited as this pigeon is off my Number One stock hen who herself was 24th Open in the Final in 2009 and finished 9th Ace Bird. She also won 4th Hotspot, 15th Hotspot and 39th Hotspot. Her nestmate finished 29th Open in the Final race in 2009 and was also the 17th Ace Bird. Their half sister last year was entered and won 4th Hotspot and 74th Hotspot. Added to that that the No.1 Hen bred a youngster last year to win 37th and 96th Hotspots and now this year has bred 25th and 35th Hotspots. It is a very good line of pigeons and one I am hoping to develop over the next year or so to produce the pigeon to go that step closer!

**The Bullet has also recorded on the result being 196th and 14 mins behind the winnner. At least thats two for the final and to be honest the 2 I wanted to have in the final! Hopefully the other 2 will also make it back. There are 444 birds home at present so still 114 (or 1/5) still to come!**

Thursday 18 August 2011

Quick Update

The Europa birds were trained today from 40 miles and all 4 of our birds are still in with a chance of the big one with them being 26th, 110th, 266th and 491st today from 40 miles.

The youngsters in my own loft are now all (47) grouping and hopefully another week of loft flying will get them ready for the basket work again. There are only two races we will be sending them to this season as young birds and the first one is on the 10th September and the other on the 24th September. We are going to have to rush them a little more than I would have liked but thats just the way it has worked out.

Monday 15 August 2011

Again!!!

For the 2nd week running after the Hotspot the birds performed well. The birds were trained in the Europa Classic today from 35 miles with the birds recording 3rd, 29th, 59th and 351st! Why they didn't perform like that yesterday is so annoying! I am hoping they have a good week now in training and then go well in the 5th Hotspot on Sunday.

My own youngsters have now all been outside the loft and all bar 8 are grouping well. The main team are putting in good work in the evenings and once the weather comes good will be back in the basket in readiness for the races in a few weeks time.

Sunday 14 August 2011

Bad day at the office!

I am struggling to remember when I have been so disappointed with the birds this season. The 4th Hotspot in the Europa turned out to be a complete let down. The birds have been so consistent this season and we have usually had at least 3 in top 200 throughout the whole of this series. Today didn't go to plan though and the birds struggled into positions 368th, 431st and 511th with '12' not showing on the result sheet. I guess they are entitled to a bad one, with the only positive to carry forward being that they still have time to put things right. I will be eagerly waiting for the 5th Hotspot now and hoping they can get back on track! There were 599 birds sent today and at present 65 birds missing.

Thursday 11 August 2011

Training in the Europa

The birds were again trained from 35 miles and the syndicate birds were 30th, 165th, 174th and 579th. Once again it was 'Smoking Bullet' who was our first bird home and he now has 13 top 50 finishes from the 22 races to date!

In our own loft the youngsters have been exercising around the loft the last few days. I think I have decided to sacrifice the majority of the racing this season and concentrate getting the team of 48 (thats every youngster in the loft) up and running in time to be entered into the last comeback race of the season. My main aim is to form a team for next year.

I have 2 cocks left from racing old birds and have had another return today after being lost 2 months ago from Lilliers in France. He is in super condition so obviously been in somewhere! So that is 3 cocks for the widowhood system next year before they are topped up with the best cocks from this years young birds.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Europa Training

The birds were trained again from 40 miles and I am pleased to announce we had 1st, 127th, 128th and 176th! '09' was the pigeon that arrived first and it came as a bit of a surprise as he has been middle of the pack for most of the races to date. The other nice surprise was that '12' is now back in the loft and was 176th. He has missed the last 6 tosses but appeared in last place on yesterdays trainer so at least he has made it back and came in the main pack again today. So that takes us back up to 4 pigeons in the race and with the way they are flying that can only be good news! This result means that all 4 of the entries that started training have now been in the top 6 at least once!

Monday 8 August 2011

I wish!

I wish todays result in the Europa Classic had happened yesterday in the Hotspot! The birds that I pooled yesterday were 2nd and 6th today in the training toss and the other entry was 146th! They have hit super form and I can not wait for the next Hotspot as they are on fire at the moment! We have top 50 positions galore this year and are now up to 20 in total with 8 in the top 11! The stock birds have really produced this year. I have been ruthless with them and it is paying dividends at present!

Sunday 7 August 2011

Europa 3rd Hotspot

The 3rd Hotspot in the Europa Classic was held today and 638 birds were raced from 120 miles. We had one in the leading batch to arrive and clocked 10 seconds behind the winner to record 25th. The other 2 entries performed well also winning 163rd and 210th. The birds are performing well at the moment and things are looking bright for the bigger races ahead! '07' is now up into 92nd in the ACE bird standing so hoping she can continue to climb the leaderboard and follow in her mothers footsteps!

Friday 5 August 2011

Europa Training

The birds performed well in todays trainer from 40 miles. They were 10th, 19th and 200th. Roll on the 3rd Hotspot which should be the next race they compete in!

My own birds have been just loft flown the last few days and I have taken the opportunity to break in the 16 later bred birds that have been just left to mature in their own section for the past 3-4 weeks. I made a mistake by not allowing them to go outside when they were younger. They were pretty strong so thought I had better make it sooner rather than later to break them in. I let them out and being so strong they took to the sky and went everywhere! On the end of the night there were still 14 out around the surrounding streets. Not the way to do it really and one I will be trying to avoid in the future. I am now up to 11 so still missing 5, but at least another 1 is in the area. I guess you learn by your mistakes! ;-)

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Europa Stat!

The birds were trained today from 35 miles and the 3 birds we appear to have left in the race were 9th, 174th and 230th

I have been looking through the charts that I have produced in the 3 years we have sent to this race to test our birds. My first year back in the sport, we sent 3 and had no top 50 positions out of the 32 race series. (In fact our best position that year in all races was 163rd). Best Final race result was 422nd.

The 2nd year we sent 3 again and this time we had 8 positions in the top 50 including 6 in the top 20 from the 34 races! We did get a 1st in one of the training races and our best Hotspot position was 37th. Best Final race result was 176th.

This year we sent 5 but only 4 started training. Out of the 16 races so far we have totally eclipsed last years already and we are not even half way through winning 15, top 50 positions and with 9 positions in the top 20! Added to that we have had 36th in Hotspot 2 which is the best Hotspot position we have achieved in the 3 years to date.

I gave myself a 5 year plan to win this race and we are currently well on track to progress for the 3rd year in a row! I am already planning my breeding pairs based on the information I have obtained from previous races and hopefully next year will be another step closer to winning this race. Mind you this year isn't over yet! ;-)

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Relieved!

My birds that were fit were basketed and taken to 28 miles this afternoon from their 2nd toss at this distance. 25 were liberated and 24 have returned in one group which was a relief to see! Hopefully now I can get another 4 or 5 tosses in this week and then increase the distance for next week.

The Europa birds were trained from 60 miles today and the syndicate birds were sloppy to say the least and has to be the worst they have performed to date. 313th and 422nd were the positions the birds had with the other 2 failing to make the result. Hopefully they will have returned now and will be on the result again tomorrow.

Monday 1 August 2011

So much where do I start?

The last few days have been crazy that's for sure!

Firstly the Europa held the 2nd Hotspot on Sunday and we had 4 birds in the race. There were 679 birds in the race. I am pleased to announce in the 3 years we have entered the Europa we have achieved our highest Hotspot position with 'Rasbull Smoking Bullet' taking 36th. I am over the moon with that as we have a 5 year plan and we have seen significant improvement year on year. I have a very good feeling we will be seeing a higher position in the remaining hotspots! The other 3 birds were 429th, 469th 636th so they need to start upping their game!
The birds were trained today (Monday) from 35 miles and we had 49th, 128th, 449th and 627th.Once again it was 'Rasbull Smoking Bullet' leading the way with our best position. He is flying unbelievably well at present and has now recorded 10 x top 50 positions out of the 14 races including 5 in the top 11....outstanding!

Our own birds have had a nightmare in the last 48 hours. 36 were trained 28 miles on Saturday evening and after 1 hour I had a group of 10 return. Hours passed until nightfall and nothing else came. The following morning 3 arrived before I left for work at 7am and by 9am I had another 12. So that totaled 25 in total. I was fully expected to come home from work in the afternoon to see at least 7 or 8 sitting on the loft but to my horror I had just 1 more! I did have another arrive about 6pm which put me up to 27. Two birds have broken legs with one having totally shattered his left leg and I dont think it will heal as it too bady smashed. I have splinted the both birds legs and have given them every chance. Today I then had a phone call from Llandrindod which is north of Usk and one of the missing 9 will be picked up soon. So that will leave me with 28 in the loft of which 2 to have broken legs!

The bird have been fully rested today and given plenty to eat to build them back up. They will be back in the basket tomorrow which will again be from 28 miles and hopefully the 2nd time will be nightmare free!

The youngsters in the breeding loft are now coming close to being weaned off and I have just another 8 to come over now. The eggs are being removed and the boxes closed down. I will have a backup team then of around 23-24 which I will allow to mature and then get them out exercising in the next month or so.

I will update when I have been training next and all going well that will be tomorrow evening!