Tough first race!

Well today has been a good experience for my team of unraced yearlings. It has proved very tough for them and the fact that I have had only 7 from 14 to date shows exactly how tough! They were having their first race today from 97 miles and apart from 1 they all followed the batch into the valleys and didnt break. My birds then had the Brecon Beacons between themselves and the loft! This is what usually happens when I send to the first couple of young bird races. As all these birds have not raced before it would have been a whole new experience to them. Only my grizzle cock came the correct way (up the valley from Abergavenny). All the remaining birds that have arrived have come from the Merthyr direction. My first bird was 15 minutes behind the club winner and I am not concerned about that as this is unraced yearlings racing against experienced birds and I wanted to get returns rather than blistering performances today. I am disappointed with the returns at present though. Hopefully a few will negotiate the valleys and head for home soon.
My brother raced as well today and it proved a close contest between us with myself clocking at 2.56 (1312ypm) and him clocking at 2.59 (1288ypm). The birds that went through were 1+ hour later than these first 2! This goes to show how difficult it is to get a bird to pull out from the batch and head up the right side of the Brecon Beacons and the struggle they have if they miss the breaking point.
The focus now is on returns and hopefully we will have a good few more show their faces in the next 24 hours. The birds that did arrive were very tired and the fly will have done them the world of good and as I have mentioned the experience will push them on that bit more.
I will update tomorrow when I get home from work with details of any late comers. This week will see the birds have regular loft flying and we will see what next week brings. This is the first race of the season from an extra 20 miles than the initial race programme was planned so it has been tough but the birds will be better in the weeks to come!

First Race of 2012

Finally after 3 weeks of frustration and uncertainty the racing season is finally here! We have sent 14 birds tonight to Newbury (97 miles). The wind is against us but we knew that was going to be the case last week. It will be the first race for all 14 and I am just hoping to get them home tomorrow. The experience will do them the world of good.
They have had a quiet week again due the weather causing hassle. They have been out just 3 times this week. They did put in a hour and half on Wednesday and I was very pleased with that. They have been kept in due the weather Thursday and Friday.
The Federation have changed the race programme so we are effectively starting the season again from scratch which is great news. The South Road National programme has also been put back and that is great as well as I plan to send to a few of these races this season.
The youngsters have still not been out and I must really try and get them out this week as some are 5 months old and very, very strong. The weather and work have been against me up to now but I must try and get them out in the next week or so. They are in the aviary, so at least they have been able to have a good look around and see the race birds coming and going. 
The bad news is the Rasbull Share Syndicate for 2012 has been cancelled. All shareholders have been informed of the decision and the reasons and I will update the Share Holders page tomorrow evening when I have a bit more time. I am pleased to announce though we will definitely be sending next year and many of the Share holders have kept there shares for the following year. Any that are available for purchase will be put on the site and will be up for sale.
I will update after tomorrows race and if you are sending good luck!!

Frustating but correct decision!

Saturday proved to be a very frustrating day indeed! The weather forecast was always going to be dodgy at best. As I posted previously I would normally have kept the birds at home but due to the mileage increasing each week I had to put them in this week.
The weather was terrible all day Saturday and after numerous updates throughout the day the decision was eventaully made to bring the birds back to the clubs.
I agree with this decision and judging by some of the losses experienced by other feds who liberated, some as close as 20 miles to home and still had birds missing, going over to collect the birds was the best choice.
The weather has been even worse today and the birds have not been out again (4 days running) due to torrential rain. Tomorrow appears to be a bit better and I will be very glad to get some work into the birds around the loft.
I plan to loft fly the birds this week with hopefully a training toss from around 30 miles mid week will be given to just sharpen them up ready for the race this coming Saturday.
The federation are due to make a decision in the next 24 hours to say where the race on Saturday will be from. According to the race programme it is Guildford (131 miles) but with 1/3rd of the federation having not sent to any race this season due to one reason or another there is talk the birds will go from Newbury (97 miles).

First race is here!

The weather has been dreadful for the past 2-3 days and we failed to have the missing 2 return from the training toss the other day. The weather has been that bad the birds have not even been able to go out for exercise around the loft the past 2 days. I would have preferred to get them out but the rain has been relentless. I have just basketed the birds for the race and will be taking them to the marking station in the next hour. I have 14 going in total and just 1 who has stayed behind due to the hawk attack earlier in the week. I have 5 cocks and 9 hens and I am using this race soley as a trainer as the wind is severely against me. I have no doubt I will not even be in the club result this week. Any North wind in the air and I am always going to struggle. However, if they come well tomorrow when the wind changes and we have some South then I hope they will be far more competitive. The weather forecast is far from ideal and normally I think I would give the race a miss especially with unraced yearlings making up my entire team. The race programme though jumps to 131 miles next week and I want the birds to have some experience of the race basket prior to them getting too far up the road. Its a case of needs must unfortunately this week and hope for the best!

Death Valley Deja Vu

We decided to loft fly the birds on Monday and they exercised very well putting in an hour and trapping straight away when called. Tuesday the birds were out again exercising in the afternoon for an hour before being basketed for a training toss from Raglan (26 miles). 16 birds were taken and I decided to liberate them with m brother so the birds could have a little experience of being liberated with other birds. In total we let 25 birds. On arriving home there was not a feather to be seen at my loft or my brothers! We waited and waited until eventually I had a group of 5 and he also had 5 arrive together. Then for the next 90 minutes they arrived in ones. By nightfall I had 12 from 16 and he had 6 from 9. Today has been dreadful and is has not stopped raining all day. On getting home from work I had 2 on the loft and he has had 1 return. We are both missing 2 each but I feel sure when there is a break in the weather we will get at least another 2 of these home.
The birds are likely to remain in the loft tonight as the weather is so poor. I am hoping to get them out then tomorrow evening around the loft for an hour and hopefully they will then be ready for the race this Saturday!

Best training toss so far!

We had the 1 missing bird from yesterdays training toss on the loft waiting to get in when I got home from work this afternoon. I was going to give it a rest as she has now had 2 nights out on the run and no food. However, I made the decision to put her straight back in the basket within 5 minutes of being in the loft. All 16 birds were then taken to 34 miles and liberated into another fairly strong headwind. They took 55 minutes to return and as this was the furthest this group of birds has been and the wind conditions I am very, very happy with that. I feel the penny is starting to drop now with these birds and I fully expect them to push on after this toss.
I am unsure about training now this week. I would like to get another couple of tosses into them in readiness for Newbury on Saturday. It will all depend on the weather though. Failing to do that the birds will be loft flown for an hour each night and will be given access to the aviary in the day to have a bath etc. So after two disasters training in which I lost 9 and then the hawk strike both from 27 miles, they have turned the corner and 27 and 34 miles training tosses have procuded 100% returns which bodes well for the coming season.

Training better today

(One of the birds that returned this morning from yesterdays training toss!)

We had one of the missing 4 birds on the loft waiting to get in at 7am this morning. We then had another around 11am which has confirmed what happened to the birds yesterday! Needless to say this pigeon will be out for some time.
I did plan on giving the birds a nice bath and then loft fly them again at 6pm. However, the weather improved that much it was criminal to miss the opportunity to get another training toss into the birds. I basketed the birds up at 5pm and took them to Raglan some 26 miles to the loft. I liberated them with my brothers birds and on arriving back home there was once again an empty loft to greet us. No need to panic though as 10 minutes after arriving back the birds swooped over the loft and into the loft. A group of 15 arrived together and I was missing 1. (This was the bird that was on the loft at 8am this morning.) I could have kept him and not sent him but we have a strict policy in the loft that all birds have to complete the same training regardless. Hopefully she will work back in tomorrow.
I plan on giving  the birds another toss tomorrow afternoon and this will probably be from the same place and then I will look to take them further in the week in readiness for this weeks coming race from Newbury.
The birds are breaking no records at the moment regarding time but this will come as we increase the training. The past two training tosses were always going to be slow as they had a fairly strong headwind to fly into.
Before basketing them tonight I made a note of the birds in the loft and then compared their pedigrees. I was very pleased to see at least one bird from every stock bird in my loft in the current race team. This is very pleasing. We are very strict on the stock birds and any that do not produce are moved on as we are only interested in breeding from pigeons that are capable of providing us with young birds that are full of vitality, stamina and endurance.

Death Valley strikes again!

The race team are once again exercising very well around the loft with them putting in an hour each night. I decided to take the race birds training tonight from 27 miles. I took 19 in total and an arriving back home found nothing in the loft! After 10 minutes, 7 dived over the house roof and were very on edge and spooked. I had a further 3 return 5 minutes later and this was followed by 2 singles another 10 minutes later. At this point I was down 7! I went to my brothers to vaccinate his birds and he had trained from the same spot 10 minutes before me and he had taken 10 and on entering his loft he had only 4! He then had a single return soon after our arrival and a further one arrived after we had finished vaccinating. His were also very spooked! On return to my own loft I had another 3 waiting on the trap and that leaves me 4 down at nightfall. Neil is also 4 down!
I had trained at Usk a fortnight ago and I ended up losing 9! Neil has trained and lost 10 in one go, 3 birds that did return were cut and one was missing his entire tail! Another friend who lives 4 miles away had trained the other night just from 7 miles and all his were coming in 1's and 2's as well. So between us we are taking a right slamming when the birds enter Death Valley! Unfortunately for us, this is the only way the birds will fly as we are surrounded by the Brecon Beacons. The valley is littered with hawks from the base of Blaenavon, up through Crickhowell and onto Brecon. What can you do though? You have to train! So tonight we liberated 29 birds and between us we are missing 8! To make things worse at the bottom of the valley it is covered with electric pylons and there are more wires than I have seen anywhere else in one place. They stretch right across the entry to the valley. So between the hawks and wires getting a pigeon up that valley is proving more and more difficult each season that passes. Hopefully in the morning we will have a good many of these on the loft waiting to enter. Racing is starting on Sunday for us with a race from Swindon, but the weather and the wind is all wrong for me here in Brecon so the birds will not be sent this week. I plan to train another 3 or 4 times over the weekend and early next week and then send them to Newbury (97 miles) the following Saturday.

The 40 youngsters are doing very well and enjoy sitting out in the new aviary each day. They are very heavy in the moult at present and as yet have not been outside the loft! Some are 12 weeks old and they are very, very strong. If the weather is nice tomorrow I plan on opening the aviary and letting them out for the first time. They need to start going out now and tomorrow will be the day!

I have split the stock birds up and plan to repair these in the next week or so to take another round from them with their new partners.I enjoy doing this and hopefully will be able to breed some nice later bred birds which will guarantee me a nice race team for next year.

I will update tomorrow with news of the late comers, young birds first time out and I also hope to bring news of a further training toss! God help them as they are going to need it coming through Death Valley!

Racing is nearly here!!

The racing season starts in under 3 weeks and it has come around very quickly this year. I have been loft flying the race team for just over 2 weeks and they are flying fairly well at present. The hens are way out performing the cocks as we speak. I have decided to race Natural this season as I have youngsters still in the nest. This is far from ideal but I hope to manage to make things work at least until the youngsters are weaned off. I have been loft flying the cocks and hens separately as I find they just mess about too much if you let cocks and hens out.
I gave the birds there first training toss of the season this afternoon. I usually take them to 7 miles to start with but all 33 of them went straight to 14 miles. At present I am missing 1 bird and hopefully this will turn up later or in the morning. I split them into 3 baskets to reduce the risk of hawk attacks and casualties if a hawk did attack them. I think I will continue to do this for the rest of the training schedule. I am planning to take the birds again tomorrow but this time from 28 miles. I will keep them at this distance until I am happy they are confident and then will increase to 50 miles the week before the first race.
The breeding is going very well and we have around 34 weaned off and another 25 in the nestboxes at present. The birds going to the Somerset One Loft Race should be going in around 2 weeks time if all goes to plan.
I can't wait for the first race and I am looking forward to a good season!

Breeding

The breeding season is now in full swing for us as Rasbull Lofts as it is with most fanciers across the UK. We have nearly every pair either feeding youngsters or sitting eggs. We have got around 17 weaned off and with the youngsters + eggs in the nest we are around the 60 mark as it stands.
I have been busy this last few days sorting out the 12 birds that will be going to the Somerset One Loft Race. The timing for my top pairs has not been great but we are getting there slowly. I am also in the process of sorting out which 4 are going to B.Williams & Son and which will be going to Eamon Wright in N.Ireland. Both of these lofts will be testing my stock bird youngsters this season.
I have put a new trap on the young bird section and the birds love sitting out in it during the sunny weather we have been having the last few days. They like nothing better than relaxing in the sun and warmth.
I opened the racing section a few days ago and a few birds took the opportunity to venture out and try the new way of trapping (the trap has been moved). I plan to give the racers an open loft as soon as the weather warms up a bit and they can come and go as they please when I am at home.
Speak soon and I hope your breeding season is going well!

Change of Plan

We have decided to change our plans for this years One Loft entries. The Rasbull Share Syndicate will now be entering 12 birds into the Somerset One Loft Race. There is an estimated first prize of £50,000 and therefore we have decided we would be crazy not to attempt to scoop the 'big' one! We have reopened the Share Syndicate as we were origionally entering 10 birds split between two one loft races but now we are entering an extra 2 we have a further 8 shares available. I have purchased 2 so that leaves 6 available. These are on a first come, first served basis and they will not be available for long! They are priced at £30 a share and further information can be found on the Share Syndicate page on this website.

In the loft our breeding is going very well indeed. We have 26 youngsters and around 18 eggs. We have 5 birds weaned off and in the next week another 10-14 will be moved across. I cant wait now to select the birds that will be going to various places this year. We have 12 going to the One loft race as mentioned above, 4 are going to B.Williams & Son, a number will be going to Eamon Wright of Shortcut Lofts, 4 will be entered into our Pigeon Pixels Breeder Buyer and 1 has been purchased from the Federation Sale by a fancier in Newport.
We have a lot of breeding to go this year yet, and I am planning to auction a full round off the stock birds on the Pigeon Pixels Auction site later in the year. News will be given on this in the future.

A busy week!

It has been a very busy few weeks! Yesterday we had our club presentation in the afternoon followed by the Federation presentation in the evening. It was a very good night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was quite nervous about collecting the trophy I had won earlier in the season but managed to do it without tripping over and making a fool of myself!
My Pigeon Pixels forum is taking a lot of my spare time up at present and the site is growing all the time. We had our 3rd show tonight - Young Cocks which was judged by Byran Williams (Williams Bros, Tredegar) and I came 2nd and 6th from the 45 entries to add to the 3rd I won last week when it was Old Hens and kindly judged by multi Combine winner and RPRA award winner James Willis.
In the loft the birds are quite happy and settled. I have 15 youngsters that are now rung and I have around 20 eggs. I have been in discussions with Eamon Wright (Shortcut Lofts) and I am pleased to announce we will be sending a small team over to his loft to have them tested for us against the massive birdage that competes in the NIPA. (Around 20-28,000!) I am also sending 4 youngsters to another huge household name in the world of pigeons that of B.Williams & Son who won the BICC this year! Hopefully by testing our birds out this way we can find out far more about them than trying to judge from our own races.
Until next time....

Seems like ages!

Seems like ages since I last updated. Just checked and it was well before christmas so I hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Year. I have been very busy lately with the www.Pigeonpixels.co.uk website and this has been taking up most of my time. It has taken off very well lately ad any one wishing to join a very good forum please check us out. We also have an online directory and 0% commission auction site linked to the site.
In my own loft the birds are down on eggs at the moment with 6 having hatched, of which 2 will be rung today. I have not spent much time with the birds of late and I have been putting that right today with a few changes made to certain pairs who have not paired up in the racing loft. The biggest bonus is that I had 2 cocks that had paired together and I have split them up now and both now have new hens to pair to. I will be having another batch of between 10-14 eggs hatch now in the next week or so and breeding will then be in full swing. Hope your breeding season is going to plan!

Eggs!

The stock birds are now settled in their section. I have 1 pair that have still not paired up but I am happy to leave them pair in their own time. I had a pair that turned out to be 2 hens! So I have 7 pairs of stock birds that have paired up. 4 of those pairs have now laid and I will transfer these eggs under the race birds who have been left to their own devices. I have 14 pairs in the race section and about 8 of these have settled and several are sitting eggs. My main aim with pairing up early was to foster several of my best pairs and get them back down on eggs so hopefully by January I will have 4 eggs from all my top pairs. If I only have 12-14 young birds by January then I am happy with that as it still leaves plenty of time to breed my team of young birds for 2012.

One or two proving stubborn!

I still have 3 pairs that are not showing must interest mainly due to the fact that the hens were paired to other cocks in the same section last year. We will get there though! I have my top two pairs now paired up and that is good news! The race birds are together but they have been left to their own devices and will pair to who they want to.
The Rasbull Share Syndicate is now fully booked up this year and I am pleased to announce we have 8 different people who make up the syndicate for 2012. This is very pleasing and we have some old faces from previous years that prove the syndicate is fairly run and you get a run for your money. I can not wait now to breed the 10 youngsters that will make up this years team. Hopefully this will be a good year for the Rasbull Share Syndicate!!

Birds being paired!

I have spent the last few days pairing the birds up and taking advantage of this milder weather. Last year proved quite difficult pairing them up in the cold and they were uninterested. I have nearly paired them all up now. I have decided that I will not be bringing any more new birds in this year and we will roll with what we have. I have spent several hours updating various parts of the webiste and I think they have improved the site (especially the stock section!)

Could be another top stock pigeon arriving within a week!!

We are still planning another 1 or 2 introductions to the stock team and have targeted a number of birds. We will bring news in the next week or so if we have been successful in aquiring them. The two new hens that have been purchased (both bred fed winners) will be arriving at the lofts sometime this week. I will say this - the 2 new birds we have in mind are equally impressive regarding the breeding of winners!
We are also in contact with various fanciers regarding entering two more test lofts so our entire stock loft will be put to the test in the coming season. We currently have 9 pairs of stock and I think I am looking at 10 pairs of stock for this season. We have 6 youngsters going to Somerset One Loft race, 4 going to the RPRA, 4 going to the test loft of B.Williams & Son and hopefully another two test lofts will be taking 2 each. So that will be the entire first round of stock birds more or less sent to be tested.
The birds in the loft are now settled and the cocks are picking their boxes. I hope to start introducing the hens in the next few weeks and get them ready for pairing. They have been treated for canker and worms already in the last 3 weeks and currently being treated for cocci. This year I will also be treating for Paratyphoid and hope to do this in the next week or so. I believe they will then be more than ready for the exciting breeding season that lies ahead!

First introductions of the year!

We have dipped into the market to acquire two superb breeding hens that were just too good to not purchase! We were short of one stock hen but decided both were worthy of a place in the stock loft here at Rasbull Lofts and I am pleased to announce both will be arriving in the near future!

"Flying in the Pontefract South Road FC we have been either the Highest prize winner or runner up since 1999, and flying in the Pontefract Central we have been the highest prize winners for the past three consecutive years. In this time we have been the highest prize winners in both the old Castleford & District Federation and our current Federation, Normanton. This year being our best channel season to date we have topped the Federation at 335 miles, 400 miles and 501 miles. In our Club we have won 12 out of the 15 channel races flown over the last three years, topping the Federation on 6 occasions. Below are five of our best stock birds, you won't get much better than these:

Rasbull Lofts purchased 2 out of the 5 and they are detailed below!

Blue Hen - Bred 2 Federation winners and numerous 1st Club's including 4, 1st prize winners from 6 children in the current race team of J&S Toon! A direct Peter Van der Merwe!

Blue Hen - Bred 7 x 1st Club, 1st Fed, 2nd Fed, 2 x 3rd Fed, 4th Fed plus many other positions. This hen is a Wall, Lunt & Green Koopman!!

2 Excellent hens that have produced endless winners between them and wil be a superb addition to Rasbull Lofts stock loft!

Rasbull Share Syndicate 2012

We can confirm we will sending to the RPRA and Somerset One Loft Races this year. We are going to enter 4 into the RPRA race and 6 will got the Somerset One Loft Race. There are 10 birds in total and therefore 40 shares. These will be sold on a first come, first served basis. I will be having at least 1 share in each bird so that leaves just 30 shares available! The birds will be bred from my top stock pairs and anyone wishing to enter please email Rasbull@hotmail.co.uk to book your space. I will need the deposit as soon as possible as the RPRA race in particular sells out very quickly. More information can be found on the Rasbull Syndicate 2012 page of the website by clicking one of the banners!

Quiet!

There is not much happening at the lofts at present. The birds have been separated with the stock and racing cocks being put into their respective sections for the coming season and allowed to pick their nestbox. The hens are all together at present and will remain there until mid December when they will be paired up in readiness for breeding. There have been no new introductions to the stock loft this year although a big deal is being worked on at present and I hope to bring news before start of breeding...Watch this space!