Jim Biss

The following article was compiled shortly before Jim Biss' death in 2005. I'm bringing it to the attention of those who may have missed it first time around, as on 25th June 2011 John & Mel Halstead won 1st Open British Barcelona Club Palamos with a pigeon containg the blood of Favori, Natrix and Lama (the sire of Salve, who in turn is the sire of Turban). Immediately below are the pedigree and a photo of John and Mel's winner, now named Maurice.

Maurice

No present-day active fancier has either raced, or bought for stock purposes, as many top-class pigeons as Jim Biss of Brundall. Indeed it would be fair to say that he has spent a lifetime trying to improve the calibre of the long-distance racer - and he has succeeded. I thought it would be fascinating therefore, to learn from Jim just which of these star racers stand out in his mind.

At this point I must confess that this article has been on the back burner for two years. That's because whilst talking with Jim, other fanciers nominated their 'Six of the Best' (6 pigeons raced by others which they would have liked to have raced themselves) and several of the performers that Jim was to choose were, not surprisingly, in their lists. After all, how could anyone leave out the incomparable Favori? There was the danger that the reader would think, 'Ah, but I read about that bird last week' and so turn the page. Now, though, it's time to look afresh at Jim's choices.

He has taken as his theme, the 7 best birds he has bought in which he could then integrate into the Biss family of pigeons . His choice of seven champions is:

Favori - 1st National Lourdes 1985; 1st National Perpignan 1986; 1st National Perpignan 1987; 5th National Lourdes 1986; 12th National Pau 1986; 22nd National Pau 1984; 28th National Perpignan 1984; 29th National Lourdes 1984; 37th National Pau 1985; 48th National Perpignan 1985; Golden Wing winner 1986.

Crack Perpignan - 1st National, 2nd International Perpignan 1996; 2nd National, 7th International Perpignan 1995; 5th National, 16th International Pau 1996; 1st NPC Angouleme.

Scout - 1st National Angouleme; 1st International San Sebastian; 3rd National St Vincent.

Legacy - 3rd International Perpignan 1986; 3rd International Perpignan 1983; 63rd National Lourdes 1984; 89th National Lourdes 1986; 198th National Narbonne 1985.

Red Perpignan - 1st National, 3rd International Perpignan 1996; 17th National, 30th International Perpignan 1995; 21st National, 36th International Dax 1994; 55th National, 60th International Dax 1996; 202nd National Cahors 1996; 367th National, 664th International Dax 1995.

This is what Jim had to say: 'I purchased all seven of these champions at the end of their racing careers. Why would I have liked to have raced them? Because they were Super Champions, multiple winners at long distances in the most testing races and conditions, time after time. They were geniuses in finding their way home in fast time, winning in Internationals and Nationals, and proved they had unlimited constitution under severe stress, which is also a great protection against disease. After entering my stock loft they displayed great temperament and character and all were able to pass on their winning genes to their offspring and are very much the base of my present day family.'

It is noteworthy that three of these champions were purchased from French fanciers, yet even today the British completely overlook the French racing scene, preferring to bring birds in almost exclusively from Belgium, Holland and Germany - in that order. Jim's choice also contains two of the UK's greatest-ever racing hens, Knightsdale Lady and Hermana.

Jim continued: 'I arranged to buy Knightsdale Lady from Reg Churchill through the late F. W. S. Hall and when I purchased her I also bought four of her children. It was one of these that was to become the granddam of my great racer Natrix. Knightsdale Lady raced from Palamos for six years and was never beaten by any of her loftmates, scoring high up every time and winning the race outright on her 6 th go. Her record of 1st, 6th, 10th, 15th, 17th and 57th Palamos showed just what a constitution she must have possessed and I believe that constitution is something you can't have too much of in a family of pigeons. I hear people say, "You've got to breed speed into long-distance pigeons," but that's rubbish. The more long-distance genes you cram together in your breeding, the more likely you are to breed a bird that will fly for longer and faster. I consider Palamos to be the most difficult racepoint there is and when Knightsdale Lady used to fly it, The British Barcelona Club would send 1,000 pigeons and be lucky to have 150 home! This was at the time when I was really analysing performances and I knew that the likes of Knightsdale Lady and Hermana were the most outstanding hens anywhere in the world, and that because they'd scored several times in varying weather conditions there was no fluke attached to their performances. This was the reason I bought them. I would not buy a pigeon that had won one race and nothing else. I crossed both hens immediately with pigeons of a similar type. I don't believe in inbreeding - it's a negative move because when you inbreed, you breed in a lack of resistance to disease. Knightsdale Lady and Hermana were indestructible. Knightsdale Lady was a little bit bigger than Hermana, what you would term full medium. She was a beautiful old hen, so quiet and friendly, and she had such a big wattle she looked like a cock. Towards the end of her days I sent her back to Mr Churchill. Incidentally, I used to be a very good flyer of hens in my London North Road Combine days. There was just something I could see in them!

'I bought Hermana and her nestmate Hermano from Fear Bros of Clandown. They were probably the finest nest pair ever bred in this country, if not in Europe. Hermana won 1st, 8th, 12th and 15th National Palamos. She was an excellent type, medium sized and very quiet - easy to get along with in other words. I've found that nearly all the best long-distance pigeons are "steady" by nature. I also bought Fear Bros' hen, Prima, which had won 1st Barcelona and 5 th and 27 th Open Palamos, and all three of these Fear pigeons have helped to fortify the family I have in my lofts today. For example, one of my other favourites was Lama, who twice won 1 st BICC Marseilles for me. His sire was a son of Hermano, 2nd Barcelona, 7th, 9th, 10th and 127th Palamos, and Prima, and his dam was a daughter of The Fellow, 1 st Perpignan 689 miles. Lama was long cast in comparison to the others and not as solidly built; the others were made like middleweights. He had bravery and determination but not the strength and you could tell when he came back from a race he'd given his all. Lama has had just as much influence on my breeding as the others, however. One grandson (Turban) was 2nd Open NFC Pau 1993, two other grandsons (Yodle and Yetis) were 2 nd and 3 rd Barcelona 1997, and two great grandsons (Bapu and Bilbo) were 4 th and 9 th NFC Pau 1997.

'One of the other pigeons I've chosen is, of course, Favori - a magnificent pigeon in every way. He won 3 x 1 st French National. There were absolutely no faults with him whatsoever. He had such a nice nature that you never knew he was there and he was one of those pigeons that never used to have any intruders in his nest box! He was silky feathered, as are all the best pigeons - the quality and health of a pigeon are shown in its feather - and he too was medium sized.

'Out of all the birds I've had the pleasure to race I suppose Natrix was my favourite. Emiel Denys came here once and remarked that he had never handled a better pigeon. He was not one of those pigeons you'd call either short cast or long. He was very solid, medium sized with magnificent feather; in fact, I would say he was an absolute replica of his great granddam Knightsdale Lady. He had the same markings and identical shape of wattle - you couldn't get a closer resemblance. Natrix won from Pau, 645 miles, and was 1st BICC Marseilles three times. On the first two occasions he came home from Marseilles you'd have thought he'd not been, but before both of those races he'd had a good 12 to 14-hour fly in a prep race. The third time he went he hadn't and when he arrived home he showed signs of tiredness - for the first time. He'd had to fly against a very strong westerly wind and I couldn't sleep after I'd heard the convoy had been liberated, knowing what he was up against. He faced 670 miles, the last leg on his own and across the sea. I thought I was going to lose him so what a relief it was to get him home! He died in 2001 and, like I said, I classed him as my favourite.

'The only pigeons you can value are long-distance pigeons and when it comes to reproducing them, it is all about performance - I can't see anything else to look at. Having said that, it is most amazing when I think that I have never come across an outstanding long-distance racer that was what you would term "small". I've also found that if you have a pigeon that is deep keeled at the front and "up" at the back, it won't win over 300 miles. I learnt that years ago. And they all have that balance.

'It's impossible to say which of the pigeons that I've mentioned has had the biggest influence on my family because, as with all top pigeons, the story's never finished - their impact will continue to be felt in future years. What I would say, though, is that some years it can be the case where my winning pigeons all seem to carry the line of, say, Lama, but the next year it's the line of Natrix. Whether this is down to climatic conditions from one season to the next, I don't know, and nor do I send to enough races in one year for any assessment to be scientifically based. I can remember the days when we used to have blue skies with puff clouds and a shower was just that, a shower. Things have now changed. The pigeons in this day and age seem to have more to cope with and consequently it's getting harder to breed good ones. Even the very best stock birds don't seem able to produce good offspring every year. In my opinion, the attitude of many convoyers these days doesn't help either; sometimes it can be diabolical. Many are not pigeon lovers, not like the people I grew up with used to be.

'I've been breeding pigeons for 68 years and I've found that performances very seldom come in the first generation. It is more often the children of the champions, or their brothers or sisters, which produce the winners. If I'm judging pigeons I like the keel ideally to be like on a boat, then I look for full breast muscles. There again, one of my great pigeons, Drake, was all skin and bone so there are always exceptions.

'When speaking to fanciers, it strikes me how much they are always looking to fault their own pigeons and out them, whereas they should leave it to the basket. Also, when most fanciers breed, they seem happy if, of the eight closest ancestors, two are good pigeons, but that leaves six that are no good, or at least six that are unproven. This isn't the way to do it.'

I finished by asking Jim he ever sensed that fanciers who had sold him their champions later regretted it, to which he replied: 'No, funnily enough I was always struck by how easily someone would sell his best pigeon!'

Natrix - 1st National Marseilles 1986; 1st National Marseilles 1987; 1st National Marseilles 1988.