Keith Mott

The Champions of Yesteryear (Part 44)

 Sid & Kitty Reeves

of Derbyshire

On a recent trip to Derbyshire I visited the fantastic lofts of Sid & Kitty Reeves. The partners have enjoyed outstanding success over many years, being lst Open Federation on a number of occasions and winning many premier prizes in the Midlands National Flying Club, including lst Sect. Angouleme. Sid was the third generation of pigeon fanciers in the Reeves familv, with his father and grandfather both being outstanding flyers. Sid had been into pigeons all his life and says his father was his mentor. 

Sid and Kitty liked to compete in all the races they enter, long or short, but mostly put all their efforts into the M.N.F.C. races. On my visit Sid showed me his good Imbrecht mealy cock which was bred in 1992 and raced on the widowhoodsystem. This handsome cock won from the Channel as a young bird in 1992 and had won every year since. In 1998 he won lst section in the Derby 2-Bird Nantes race and 9th Open, with the eight birds that beat him being on the south coast. A fantastic pigeon!

Sid and Kitty raced cocks on the widowhood system and paired up any time in January as long as the weather is good. The racers reared only one youngster each and then were split for a few weeks, before being re-paired to set them up for widowhood. Three weeks before the first race they were trained on good days from 25 miles and Sid maintaied that their widowhood system was kept very simple, but sometime, the hens were not shown on marking night to make a bit of a change. The racers were fed on farm corn and were broken down at the begin­ning of the week, on first class barley. All the cocks were raced through to the long distance and were not trained during the racing season. The partners had a wonderful big racing loft with four sections for the Widowhood cocks which were trapped through open doors. Straw deep litter was used on the floor all year around and each section had nine nest boxes.

Kitty used to be the loft manager doing all the cleaning out and feeding, but said the dust now makes her feel ill. She was a bit of a `mother hen' and likes the breeding season and looking after the youngsters. Her all-time favourite was the good Wildemeersch blue cock `Zip Along', who won 1st Open Federation six times for them. The loft was full of Channel winners including a cock that won 1 st Open Federation from Saintes.

At that time the partners had enjoyed great success with racing young birds on the semi­Darkness system. Sid said he had always locked his youngsters away at 5pm for years, not for a hardcore dark system, but that's the time his widowhood cocks went out every day. So he called it a 'semi-Darkness system'. The young birds were trained hard every day from 25-30 miles and race all the way through to Picauville (200 miles) with the M.N.F.C. The young bird section had a nice big wire flight attached, with stall traps and had straw deep litter on the floor all the year round. On my visit the partners showed me a little Janssen young blue cock, which had flown out of it's skin in 1998. It was sent to the boot race sitting eggs and won lst Open, with it's mate recording 2nd Open, then went on to win 2nd Sect. Picauville M.N.F.C., brilliant racing.

The Reeves housed 36 pairs of stock birds in two big lofts and these were paired up in January with the racers. The main family kept was Janssen VDB, with a few other odds, including Wilde­meersch. When Sid brings in new stock he liked good racing perfor­mances behind the bird and is keen on eyesign. Thanks must go to Sid and Kitty for having me around, their pigeons and lofts are a credit to them.

Sid and Kitty Reeves, one of the premier lofts in the Midlands, over many years! I can be contacted on telephone number: 01372 463480. See yer!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT. 

12/11/06