LEE & KEVIN BUDDLE of Dover

Talking to Les J. Parkinson

Introduction

While I have been reporting on the national races I have seen a few names appear on a regular basis. Not ones that are known as household names in the sport but fanciers who have missed out in the publicity stakes that dominate the sport so much. The partnership I am referring to is that of Lee and Kevin Buddle, Lee being the son and Kevin the father, who live in the South East town of Dover, Kent. Lee started to keep pigeons at the age of 16yrs in 1996 and this all started with a pair of unrung babies given to him by a local fancier which were kept in an old rabbit hutch.

Kevin & Lee

Partnership

It wasn’t long before Lee put a little bit of pressure on dad about building him a small loft. At first dad didn’t really encourage Lee as he used to keep pigeons with his dad in the 60s and early 70s so was fully aware of how much money and time they take up. With a lot more nagging and pleases they eventually built a small loft in the back garden and, is generally the case, they gradually added to the loft over the next 6 years until they finally moved to their current location on the allotment behind dad's house so that they had more room to do what we wanted to do and concentrate on the distance races. This is a good team effort and they feel that there is a big advantage to having both of them involved with the pigeons because they both do full time jobs and both on call and they also work the odd weekend. It works out at least one of them can stick to a set routine and be there at weekends and evenings. Also there never seems to be a time when things get left ‘till tomorrow’ as one of them will always do what they consider needs doing, for example: training and daily chores. It’s also nice to have 2 opinions on what needs doing. They may not always be the same but the options are always available. Even though they don’t always see eye to eye it seems to work out for the best in the end. There are occasions when they disagree, actually this is quite common, but that must happen with most partnerships when both involved are as passionate as Lee & Kevin are about the birds. Most of their disagreements are over silly little things, which are easily resolved when they sit down and talk and think about it over a nice cold pint. All the responsibilities in this partnership are equal and they both sit down and decide their parings for each year and also the racing plans for the year ahead. There is no slouching because they both get up at 5.30am to exercise the birds and to clean out and change the water each day.  Everything they do is 50/50 right down to the bills! The birds which they intend to send each week are decided by the both of them, and even when one is on holiday it is decided by text messaging – much to the dislike of dad but they are partners and stick to it!

5th section E 5th Open NFC Guernsey old hens 2007

Achievement

Every fancier has performances that they remember more than others. They have had many memorable moments since they have been racing pigeons but two really are going to take some beating. The first happened from the NFC PAU Grand National in 2002 when they were 2nd Section E 1154 birds, 4th Open 4071 birds 542 miles with their good chequer pied hen ‘Buddy’.  This was the year when there was only 1 home on the day in the whole country and ‘Buddy’ was clocked at 07.34am but dad missed her as he was doing a very important job making sausage sandwiches and a cuppa! Someone has to do it. One of the really nice things was to have so many friends and non-friends who they didn’t even know ring up within hours to congratulate them and they say thank you to all those people.

The 2nd moment was the NFC TARBES Grand National in 2005 when they clocked 2 birds on the day of liberation at 20.55pm and 21.05pm just 10mins apart from 547 miles. They were saying that is always a dream come true to get 1 let alone 2 from these distances on the day. That very evening was the annual barbeque for the boss’s (mother/wife) birthday and the garden was full of many people. They felt so confident that they had sent the birds in as good a form as they could possibly get them that they actually managed not to have a beer, to everybody’s amazement!  Lee said: 'It's lucky we didn’t as we got them both and I had to drive to the clock station 15 miles away.'

Other memorable moments are being 7th Section E, 64th Open NFC SAINTES in 2002, this being the only bird on the day in the Kent 500 mile club, also 3rd Section E 3rd Open in the NFC CHALE Old Hens Race in 2006. Lee was saying that it would be a dream come true for them to win a 500 mile plus National or even just to better their 4th Open NFC PAU. Everyone has their aims in the sport and they are what keep us all going and, who knows, some day that just might happen. Like most National minded fanciers both Kevin & Lee do love to compete for all the NFC averages as they feel they are a real achievement to win. Having already won the old bird average for Section E in the NFC in 2002 they know how good it feels to have competed against so many top class fanciers, and their birds, and come out on top. A real good feeling!  They have also come second in the Jim Biss trophy for the best average old bird races and coming 3rd in the National Flying Club trophy for best average all racers.

Belg Gamble, winner of 7th section E 64th Open NFC Saintes 382m 2002, 27th section G 206th Open BBC Bordeaux 438m 2003, 29th Section 38th Open BICC Tours 2005, 49th section 88th Open BICC Bergerac 435m 2006, 17th Section E 19th Open NFC Chale old hens 2006

Clubs

Like an ever-increasing number of fanciers their priority is with the National Flying Club and the BICC as these both provide the best long distance races and all the birds are kept in lovely condition on the transporters and return home beautifully. The NFC Grand National is their main aim each year but equally they love the International racing provided by the BICC. The shorter races that these clubs provide are a good stepping stone to the longer races, giving the birds the experience that they need. The shorter NFC and BICC races are always used to prepare the birds for the long ones with inland and channel races being used as well with the Kent Cosmopolitan Federation. They do take an interest in the other side of the sport and hold the position of president (Lee) with the Dover Premier RPC while dad is the Chairman and also one of the clock setters.

Lofts

The current loft construction is tongue and groove timber with a felt pent roof. Sputniks are used on all the old bird sections for trapping and a stall trap is fitted to the aviary on the front of the young bird loft. The loft is raised approx 2ft off the ground with a timber decking veranda running along the front of it. It is 34ft by 6ft with three 6ft sections for the cocks, one 8ft section for the hens and another 8ft section with aviary for the young birds. To the team a tiled roof is of no importance because the old back garden loft had a tiled roof while the new loft on the allotment is a flat felt roof. After racing with the two they have found that their performances are just as good in the new loft as the old and as we more often than not hear, all you need is good ventilation in the loft. There is no fancy heating used in these lofts because they see no advantage of using it. The ventilation on the loft is done through 1ft by 2ft louvers on the lower front of the loft and a 2 inch gap all the way around the top of the roof, this allows fresh, cool air in low and the warm stale air out at the top. On nice sunny days when they are about they have dowel doors open on the front of the doors. Unlike many of the modern day lofts they don’t have any grills on the floor as the old birds are scraped out twice a day but do have grills in the cocks nest boxes as it stops them standing in their own droppings and also eating any spilt corn that lays in their droppings too. They feel that these are beneficial to the cocks by not having to disturb them in their box every day by cleaning out so they are cleaned out once a week when the birds are off at a race. Ideally they would love more room for the same amount of pigeons but because they are restricted to the loft size on the allotment, and have a small back garden, it is impossible to have the amount of space they would like. The problem is most fanciers would like more space so it is a good job we are restricted at times. Elizabeth always tells people that if I had a ten-acre field I would fill it. There are limits Elizabeth!

Buddy, 2nd Section E 4th Open NFC Pau 2002, 124th section 425th open NFC San Sebastian 561m 2001

Position

As they live in the South East of England their racing is done from two directions. West to East for inland racing and training and South to East for Channel racing but they do believe realistically even Channel pigeons with the Nationals and BICC tend to dog leg west to east anyway with the majority of the birds going straight up the country. Position is always going to be an issue with many fanciers but here this is something that has never concerned them based on the fact that they have never favoured sprint racing and that is where position will count most. Position and its advantage is a very big maybe. Wind direction is usually an aid to the favourable loft position and it takes a very very good pigeon, flying its heart out, to take a good position in any national flying against the wind. Pigeons like this, if you ever get one, are worth their weight in gold! Living right down in the South East corner of England most of the time their birds from the long distance, or any channel race, tend to dog leg putting at least another 100 miles onto the calculated distance of the race. It takes a very well motivated and keen bird to beat the drag and score when you race into the corners of England whether it be the South East or the South West corners.

Family

No specific family are kept but the pigeons they do have they now see as their own family built up over the years with good long distance pigeons from Jim Biss, Brian Williams of Westmarsh, Kent, Paul Kendal, Jimmy Roy, Brian Denney and J & R Wills. As can be seen from the named fanciers, they have gone to some of the best in the country so cannot fail to achieve top results in the national races.

D900, winner of 12th Section E 17th Open BICC Pau 547m 2007, 27th section 31st open NFC Chale old hens 2006

Bringing in new stock

Many fanciers go for proven pigeons but the system these two have is a good one that more should use and that is to buy babies from good distance birds or fanciers and race them the same as your own. Once they have proven themselves at 500mls plus they then introduce and breed them into their existing winning family. They try to buy a couple of young birds each year for testing for the future, they will never always work but some do and when they do they are right for the job required. When they do introduce a new young bird it has to race the full young bird programme. Then as a yearling it will have a minimum of five channel races with one or two of them being with the NFC and/or the BICC plus another one must be in excess of 400mls. Then as a two year old it must go the full hog and go to at least one 500ml plus race. They always look for good long distance national pigeons because this is what they ultimately want them to do. In the past they have watched certain fanciers performances and brought birds off of them.

Inside the YB loft

Breeding

Hens are favoured for breeding but the reason for this is purely because they race more consistently from across the channel and they only breed from the very good racers. Some fanciers like big roomy hens so I asked about big hens for breeding but they said because they have actually never had any big hens they couldn’t really pass any judgement on them. They like to line breed and put winners to winners. Most of the pigeons housed go back to only three pairs of stock and the offspring of these are doing well and winning prizes at National level so this is also why they put winners to winners. There always seems to be something new ‘guaranteed to help you win’ come out each winter for the following season.  We feel that you should always stick to what you are doing with your birds, as change is not always a good thing.  There has never been a lot of change because they have used the exact same system for at least the past five years. The method they use to select the breeders is the Basket Method meaning they only breed out of pigeons that have done and been clocked from 500 miles plus. If they buy any birds in 90% of the time they will only breed out of them once they have been 500mls and the other 10% bought in are out of other peoples 500mle pigeons anyway so they have done the work prior to going to these lofts. On the actual selection side they say it must be luck because they really wouldn’t know what to look for in a pigeon to guarantee it breeds 500mile winning pigeons and they did say “To tell you the truth can anybody really tell by looking”? they feel only the basket can do the selecting. After they pair up the birds they leave it for about three days then cut tobacco stalks in half and put ample amounts on the loft floor. They also use nest felts which are we put in the nest bowls the day the pigeons are paired. These are used these for two reasons, the first is that they make a warm comfortable nest for the babies and parents to sit whilst incubating and rearing. The second reason is that it makes less mess in the nest bowl for them to clean and disinfect as all nest bowls get soaked in bleach after breeding for a few days. The stock birds are paired around Boxing Day as is the case with most fanciers they are both off of work for a few days then and can keep a keen eye on them while pairing and breeding. By breeding a few early ones this usually means that they have moulted out their wing by the time the Young Bird National gets here in early September. The race birds get paired on the nicest weekend between February the 1st and February the 14th they feel that a certain date is not important.

Jack, winner of 28th section E 105th Open NFC Pau 542m 2004, 23rd section E 90th Open NFC Tarbes 548m 2005 Clocked at 21:05 on the day of liberation, 22nd Section E 29th Open NFC Falaise 2003

Numbers and breeding

This year they had six pairs of stock birds but numbers will be cut down to five pairs for the 2008 season. They normally have two rounds off of the stock pairs but with their good hen Buddy who was 2nd Section E, 4th Open NFC PAU 542 miles in 2002 they usually keep three rounds, as she always tends to breed something special. The Buddy line flows through a good 80%, if not more of the pigeons housed. It is as always the intention to breed two rounds off all the race birds that have been clocked at 500 miles plus. They do like to foster out the first round of the race birds to other pairs such as the two year olds because the yearlings can be a bit haphazard. Then they let them bring up their own for the second round taking all the hens away when they have laid again and been sitting seven days. This is never always at the same time; usually it is over a two-week period between all the hens laying because there are two different age rounds. The birds are then allowed to settle before they start training for the first race.

Preparation

The partnership has noticed that the pigeon’s behaviour visibly changes when they are out exercising around the loft - the character changes in individual birds and they become harder to control. At these lofts the whole season is preparation for the Nationals and Internationals as this is all they aim for each season. Nearer to their chosen race (three weeks before) they are stopped racing and where possible given single ups from whereever Lee is working, although this is never more than 20 miles away. The preparation for the long distance races starts at the beginning of May when they start to move thei two year old and over birds down the coast from 80 to 150 miles with the local club. Then as the NFC and BICC races approach the teams are split as required for the longer races and this is when the daily feed is increased. They like the two year old and over birds to have about four channel races before their selected long distance race. It is also preferred that the later of the four is about 300 miles so they have at least 6-8 hours on the wing about 3 weeks before their long chosen race.  All these birds are paired in the middle of February and split towards the end of April and they are not re-paired until the end of the racing season. All they look forward to is channel racing with the birds every year and the more channel races they can enter in a year the better and both Lee & Kevin thoroughly enjoy getting them as the races get longer.

Thirty Eight, winner of 41st section E 137th Open NFC Pau 542m 2004 & 19th section E 81st Open NFC Tarbes 548m 2005 clocked at 20:55 on the day of liberation, 75th section E 203rd Open NFC Bordeaux 438m 2006

Sprint against distance

A team of sprint pigeons may only take one year to reach the ability to perform, and win, at sprint racing and these birds may be all over within four years. Distance pigeons are harder to establish as they start to show promise at two years old which means you have to nurture them along twice as long as sprint birds. The majority of distance pigeons start to become consistent at three to four years old and can keep racing well up to about eight years old, where at this age a sprinter will have been long finished his racing. You can get a distance bird to win sprinting with the feeding which Lee and Kevin have done earlier in the racing seasons but if you up the feed on a sprinter you may not even clock from 500 miles as it is just not bred into them.

Work

They say don’t be scared to work your birds hard to see what you’ve got and also don’t get despondent if you don’t have instant success just keep on trying as it takes years then all of a sudden something clicks and a certain line of birds in your loft will start to perform. This is what happened to this partnership and it took three years of hard work before they had any success at the distance. Like most fanciers they let the basket do the selection for them. They also say don’t be frightened to lose pigeons because if they have gone, you don’t want them anyway and only worry about what you have left in your loft.

Loft 1

Racing

The chosen system is the roundabout system, usually keeping 24 cocks and 24 hens, but due to the mess with Bird Flu in 2006 and this year they will have more like 30 of each for next year due to lack of losses and races. They start at the beginning of May with the short club and federation races down the coast this is for training and to start to get them moving. When the BICC and the NFC start their shorter channel races the two year olds and over then start to be worked in these races only in preparation for the long distance NFC and BICC International races. They like them to have at least one 8-10 hour fly in one of these races about three weeks before their chosen race, this is usually the Cholet NFC race. The main racing aim is 100% National and International races as this is the only racing that they enjoy and prefer especially when it comes to 500ml plus races.  However they do use the Club most weeks because they do like to support the local club, The Dover Premier RPC, and it is the only type of training these pigeons get. They race them every week where possible to get them in condition for the main races they are required for but do give them a rest period before their chosen main event. Well, with the new DEFRA ruling they can only go over the channel on a fortnightly basis so this year they have had to adapt to this ruling. In previous years they have been sent across the channel two, three and even four weeks in a row, providing the pigeon is up for it. Because of the system used the pigeons will usually hold their form for about six weeks of the racing season starting around the middle of June through until the end of July. They don’t prepare any of their team for sprint races because they only use them for training. With this loft it is a case of horses for courses which is why they mainly keep birds for the distance but do have a few that they use for the middle distance Nationals because if you want to compete in all the Nationals you need to have the right type of pigeon for those races. With both sexes their best condition at these lofts comes towards the middle of June this is when their behaviour changes. When out flying around the loft their individual characters becomes visible and they start flying individually and are harder to control i.e. getting them in! They usually select a few hens to keep going at the end of the season, so they don’t moult too heavy, as this then allows the them to pick a team out for the Old Hens National with the NFC and the BICC that is when they have one. These are trained in exactly the same way as the young birds, purely for easiness. At the start of the old bird season the birds get trained up to 20 miles and once the season is underway they very rarely, if at all, get trained due to lack of time, with both working full time. This is where the Club Inland racing comes into play. Three weeks before the first Young bird race they start to train the young birds with about ten tosses from 5mls up to a couple from 40mls after which they are then put into their first race that is usually about 80 miles.

A-Ring Cock, winner of 9th section 14th Open BICC Pau 547m 2007, 54th section 97th Open BICC Bergerac 435m 2006 & 53rd section 84th Open BICC Dax 523m 2005

Regarding the distances flown, on average they think that six to eight of the old birds would have been sent and clocked at 500mls+ as two year olds. It was also interesting to note that they also believe that a good majority of distance pigeons do get better after their first time over 500 miles. They also think that it is possible to get a distance pigeon motivated to win sprint races. It is all in the feeding and motivation for example two months before ‘Buddy’ was 2nd Section E, Open NFC PAU she won the Club and was 3rd Federation from Chichester 92 miles. They also think that you may not get a true sprinter to fly 500 miles as they are used to going all out for it straight from the liberation and will not hold enough back for the later hours on the wing. Pigeons will actually race up to 800 miles if they have only had one night out.  If any nights are spent out they consider them to just be homing as compared to racing! All the yearlings housed must do at least four channel races with the combine, NFC and the BICC it is preferred if they go to at least one 400 (approx) miles but no further. No yearlings have ever been sent to a 500-mile race based on their view that this is unfair to the bird as they are still maturing and learning for this type of distance. This is why they consider that they achieve more success with their two year olds and over. Everyone has their own ideas on how to treat young birds and the majority base the system on what they expect for the pigeons in the future. At these lofts they send all of the young bird team to nearly all of the club inland races but are not too worried if they are not successful. If they are clocked within 10-15mins of the winner then they know that there is very little wrong with them it is just a case of just lacking a little motivation to win. This is also a chance to select a few of these young birds maybe 10-12 for the young bird National and the BICC providing that they have a young bird race. They have tried in the past with not racing the young birds but not with much success the following year as yearlings because they lost a big majority of them, which has been put down to un-educated babies. What they do with the youngsters suits their birds and gives them enough education plus it puts them in good stead the longer races a couple of years down the line. They have never tried the darkness system with the young birds quite simply due to the hours that they both have to work. Also they wouldn’t try it even if they could because they don’t try to go out and win anything with our young birds. They are just raced them for education purposes. With not flying on the darkness system when it comes to racing the young birds, they are always somewhere on their last five primary flights.  If they are losing a lot of cover flights on their wing and going around their ears then they stop racing that bird. It is just not fair on them and as we all know you wouldn’t send an old bird in that type of condition. We started this section with telling you that the preferred system is roundabout but what happens if they go to the same race point. These pigeons are versatile and they have got used to a system where on return from a race if their partner is not there at that time then they are either given another hen as they are really quite rank or if it’s a hen they go with another cock. They have found that hens are just as happy to get in their cocks side just as much as seeing their cock. The hens are normally kept in an 8ft by 6ft loft fitted out with V-perches.  Some of them often pair to each other and in each corner of the loft there is a nest bowl with at least 4 eggs in which they are allowed to sit as it keeps them happy and content plus they will not be laying eggs every other week. At first this used to bother Lee & Kevin but not anymore as they have had many good performances from lesbian hens. For example this years 4th section E, 41st Open NFC Tarbes hen was pared to another hen in the corner of the loft and also 3rd section E, 3rd Open NFC Chale 2006 was pared to another lesbian hen and the second bird clocked on the day of liberation from NFC Tarbes 2005 winning 23rd section E, 90th Open was also a lesbian hen. There is one thing about the system used and that is they winter and keep every racer left from the previous years racing because all pigeons are pushed and tested really hard every year. Every two year old and over has done at least one 500 mile+ race and the best of these will be chosen to be bred from the following year. To finish on the racing this is what they had to say on the season in general. “The 2007 season was going very well all round with all the birds being well looked after on the transporters in our club racing and also in the NFC and the BICC. Just when the races started to come up that we like to compete in DEFRA (once again) banned all channel racing for a 2nd year running.  If this silliness, put on us by DEFRA, was to continue it would for sure kill off channel racing for good, which may put an already dying sport in even more jeopardy. Let’s hope for the future that DEFRA see sense and stop bullying us pigeon fanciers”.

A full view of the lofts

Late breds

It is always preferred to let all of the race team have one youngster per pair at the end of the racing season, with the odd couple kept to race but as they take so much time to mature they are not great lover of late breds. Most Sunday mornings, when the weather is good, we let each sex at a time have an open loft for an hour so they can play around, relax and have a bath but they don’t always bath each time.

Cleanliness/Health

All the old birds are scraped out twice a day first thing in the morning and during their evening exercise. The Young Birds are kept on a deep litter of Hemcore which is put in when we wean the first babies off and taken out after the last young bird race. If they are not performing then they are left in and are tested by a pigeon vet and treated as required by recommendations from the vets report whilst leaving them in and fed 25ml spoon in the morning and 25ml spoon in the evening. They use a natural product for respiratory every Tuesday called Mycofoem-T made by Aviforn. They are also given a 3-day treatment for Canker every 4 weeks during the racing season. This routine starts just before pairing and ends after old bird racing. Other additives given to the birds are multi-vitamins and Aminoacids on a Thursday and Glucose and Multi-vitamins mixed together on their return from a race. If a pigeon shows signs of an illness they are locked away on their own and a sample of their droppings is sent away and they follow the procedure as instructed by the vets. They never dispose of pigeons unnecessarily because they are firm believers that they should always be given a chance. Young bird sickness has in the past years been a problem at these lofts and it always seemed to appear just a week or two before the first young bird race. This problem makes Lee & Kevin paranoid every year with their young birds.  If the young birds get infected with this illness they are shut up and left in also their food is reduced and changed to just Depurative because it is more easily digestible. To help them through it they are given a product called Ropa-dair in their water for 3-4 days which gives their stomach a good clean out and then they are put on strike for another 3-4 days.  When they have improved and they feel the infection has completely gone they are given multi-vitamins and slowly bring their food back up stronger over a few days. Training for these pigeons is resumed again when they consider that they are 100% fit. If these birds were ever selected for a drugs test there would never be any trace of an illegal substance.  The only thing such a test may pick up if it could be the Canker treatment as this is the only medication that the partnership gives to their birds. Many years ago they always put a disinfectant called V18 in the drinker at the rate of 1ml per litre but they have now stopped doing this because they don’t like to give the pigeons too many products and they can honestly say that this has not effected either in a good or bad way any of our performances. Years ago a question I used to ask was about vaccination but in this case Kevin & Lee have only been racing for the last 10yrs so have known nothing else. Having said that they did say that they do not think it does the pigeons any harm.

Miss 45, winner of 4th Section E 41st Open NFC Tarbes 2007

Feed/Tonics

All pigeons whether racers, young birds and stock, are fed on the same type of corn and they also get it 365 days of the year and this is Versalaga best all round mix. They are firm believers in not using a depurative or any other light feed. At the start of the racing season cocks and hens receive a 25ml spoon of corn in the morning and a 25ml spoon in the evening (per pigeon), as the channel racing gets closer this is increased to 50ml in the morning and still 25ml at night. For 10 days before a 500ml race they each get a pinch of sunflower hearts to build them up. All the birds have grit and black minerals in front of them 365 days of the year and this is changed weekly. They also pick around on the allotment but this doesn’t worry Kevin and Lee because they are eating what they feel they need, especially onions which mum doesn’t like them doing! For all races whether it be 80mls or 580mls they always have glucose and vitamins on return, in water, waiting for them in their boxes and in their drinker. If it has been a hard, physically demanding, race, then they have glucose and vitamins for a further two days after the race. A bath and open doors are given to them on the Sunday so they can relax. The feeding method for the young birds is 100% Versele Laga best all round. They get very little in the mornings and the reason for this is that when they let them out in the evening they are under control when the time comes to getting them in. As a trapping mix we put a couple of handfuls of sunflower hearts on the board in the aviary and once in we feed them as much best all round as they want for an hour.  Its always interesting to know what products fanciers would use if they were limited my number one would always be Vior but everyone has their own choice. At this loft they only ever use three products in the birds drinking water and they were the last three products they gave their birds. These are Mycoform-T for respiratory problems that have been used this for 10 years. Multi vitamins with added Amino Acids, as these are the building blocks of the pigeon’s energy and a Canker treatment every 4 weeks during racing. If they were restricted any further their choice for the pigeons would be the vitamins and Amino Acids as they contain vital minerals for a pigeons health and ultimate fitness that cannot be got out of any type of corn.

Three OB sections

Problems in the sport

From Lee: “With the ever growing population of hawks in this country, and abroad, your pigeons have to face up to these predators on a weekly basis and these predators take out a lot of fanciers good pigeons. We also think that the winds seem to be getting ever stronger and if this is against you have no chance of winning, or doing well, in the big races like the NFC and the BICC. Another big problem for channel racers in this country is the ongoing battle with DEFRA and this is likely to kill the sport if they persist in having these silly sanctions against the British Pigeon Fanciers when the rest of the continent can go on as usual.”

On National racing

Lee: “One of the main things we think is that all the nationals and classics should get together for a few big races each year and have one big open result as well as their own club open result. This would create one ultimate Grand National with 10s of thousands of pigeons being entered only coming into the UK.  This would be along a similar line to what the continentals do in their countries. As mentioned before the Continentals have just 1 big organisation going to a National race point then this is split up into zones and provincials accordingly and this creates a single big race with big birdage and big prize money. In the UK we seem to have multiple organisations going to the same race point within a week of each other!  Why??  This is crazy cant we all talk and get together one or two of these.”

Widow hens' section

New Stock

Lee: “Sometimes people go out and purchase top quality pigeons, from a top winning loft, but never seem to get anything like the performances out of them like the ones of the fancier they have been purchased from. We think there is one simple answer to this and it is that their system that they fly is not the same as the fancier that they purchased them from. It just goes to show that it is not all about top quality pigeons but knowing what to do as a fancier with good pigeons. When we first wanted to compete in long distance races we went to our good friend Brian Williams of Westmarsh in Kent for birds and advice. To this day Brian’s bloodlines still run through at least 70% of our birds in some way or another.  We also admired the late great that is Jim Biss of whom we purchased some stock birds from in 1999.  These birds we out of his ‘Favori’ and ‘Navigator’ lines and we have had good success with these and they are bred in with the Brian Williams pigeons to create the base of our present day race team. In fact the first great pigeon that sticks in our mind is Brian Willaims of Westmarsh’s ‘Conqueror’. This little chequer pied hen won 1st Open BICC Perpignan, 6th hens International, 43rd Open International in 1996. This hen’s father and her brothers are the base of the birds we obtained from Brian. Another great pigeon must be Jim Biss’s ‘Favori’ winner of three Nationals at the long distance these being: 1st Lourdes 1985, 1ST Perpignan 1986 and 1st Perpignan again in 1987. ‘Favori’ was the best International racer during the years 1984-1987. Lastly Paul Kendal of Wantage with ‘Morning Glory’. This superb cock won twice 1st Section 2nd Open NFC PAU and 10th Section 8nd Open NFC San Sebastian winning an NFC Certificate of Merit. This pigeon and many other of Paul Kendals performances are the reason we have just started to cross his pigeons in with our own. We always look for the best birds available. Also if we went to another fanciers loft and were offered a pair of young birds we would only take babies off of what we consider to be that fanciers better distance birds. We would judge the young birds on their parent’s performances at the distance. There are lots of things that most fanciers consider in a pigeon but all that matters to us is that the young birds are healthy and that the parents have been successful at 500 miles+.”

Widowhood section

Who do they rate?

Lee: “Over the past few years in long distance Nationals there have been a couple of fanciers who have been consistent and have even better team performances. The first being Brian Denney of York - what a Tarbes Grand National he had this year with nine in the top 210 of the open flying 700 miles! The base of the Brian Williams' pigeons we have come from this great loft of Brian Denney. Secondly is John and Spencer Nicholson of Rochester. You don’t have to say much about this loft, rammed full of long distance winners and always successful from any long distance race they enter, especially the very hard race that is BBC Palamos. For a fancier to be classed as a top fancier in National and International racing he/she must be consistent in clocking in and be within the top 10% of nearly all the Nationals on a regular basis and in club flying a top fancier should make all Federation and Combine results. I also think that to be classed as a Champion at whatever level you race your pigeons you must win outright the top prizes up for grabs! This type of thing is what it takes to be a top fancier. Sixty percent of success is in the breeding of your pigeons but the other 40% is down to the fancier as without the correct feeding, medication, hygiene, racing, training and breeding you cannot get a successful team.”

X-Ring hen, winner of 3rd section E 3rd Open NFC Chale old hens 2006

Strength

Lee: “Our loft of pigeons is a lot stronger now than it was 5 years ago as our first real good performance at long distance racing was only 5 years ago and we are still building a successful team around this pigeon.  As each year goes by we are gradually getting more consistent birds to fly and be clocked at the long distance races.”

Tips and thoughts

Lee: “All our pigeons get once the season has finished is rest. They are only let out at weekends, weather permitting during the winter months because when we leave for work in the morning and when we get home in the evening it is dark! No treatments are given during the rest just multi vitamins a couple of times a week. We also tend to stay clear of eye sign as we have we have no knowledge about it whatsoever and we don’t hold any importance in it. We do look over the pigeon’s eyes because they can tell you if a pigeon is stressed, tired and de-hydrated. Also when they are all sparkly like a diamond you can tell that they are about right. In the past we have put the cocks and hens together three days before the basketing of a long race however on one occasion where the hens were so well, unbeknown to us, they got eggy in the race basket and on return they all only laid 1 egg. This was not good for them as it slowed them down during this race.  In the season of 2003 we never raced or young birds at all and this was a mistake. As yearlings a big percentage were lost due to the lack of education as young birds. If you are in a partnership you like us could motivate each other to remain successful. Although we fall out from time to time over the birds this makes us stronger and shows that not one of us but both of us makes the decisions and this makes us keen to win, also the dream that one day we can both win a National and walk up to the prize able together to receive our trophies. You must also remember that every pigeon fancier is an individual and should do what suits him or her and do what he or she get most enjoyment out of. Just because they are winning and are Champion at club level doesn’t mean they should have to move on and try something else. We enter most club races and enjoy our birds coming home each week for training purposes. We must admit that on the rare occasion that we do come up with a winner it is nice but we don’t see this as paramount for personal satisfaction. This is our sport and we are far from professional pigeon fanciers as we make no money out of our pigeons and with lack of time, due to both being full-time workers, it is not a goal we feel will ever be achievable but as previously mentioned we race for the fun not the winning, although the winning is nice!! Pigeon racing as a hobby is no different to any other hobby as the price of most things are always rising for example Golf and Fishing aren’t as cheap as they used to be. Pigeon racing is becoming more technical but it is just moving along with the times.

Young bird loft

Love of the sport

Lee: “We read all of the weekly NFC and BICC articles in the Homing World and RP and also take interest in all articles on Channel Racing and Continental long distance races. Most of all we just LOVE our pigeons all year round but we especially love the summer months when we can sit out in the sun and watch our pigeons return from their races. We wait and watch the first bird return and wait right through to the last one as we like to see our birds come home. Our local club arrange regular winter shows we feel that this is good for raising money for the club and also gives us pigeon fanciers an interest to pursue during the long, dark, cold winter months. There is nothing that we don’t like about this sport as if there was a problem with the sport that we couldn’t change, we wouldn’t continue with it.”

Thanks to Lee for the hard work he has put in gathering information for an interesting article.

1/10/07