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Patrick Mcdonald Juvenile Ace 2009

 

PATRICK McDONALD

‘Juvenile ACE 2009’

By Robert Wilson

In the town of Drumchapel in the West end of Glasgow, lives a sensational young talented pigeon fanatic – Patrick McDonald. In only a few years that he has raced pigeons in his elite back garden loft, he has raced to the extremely high levels of pigeon racing in Scotland with pigeons obtained from top lofts across Europe.  I visited Patrick on a nice warm day during the time of early April and was presented with a platter of biscuits and cakes provided by his mother in a welcoming manner. When arriving at Patrick’s home I could tell that I was going to be inundated with surprises. Firstly I was shown the lofts and the pigeons, then the conversations began around the family table, with trophies and pictures of his birds surrounding us.

It all started a few years ago when Patrick had fancy show pigeons and as time went on, Patrick got to know other people that also kept racing pigeons. Later Patrick and a friend who also kept fancy birds as well a race birds, went to a late bred sale and was gifted some un-rung latebreds from fanciers that where at the auction that day. From that day on the fancy pigeons were culled and his lofts and aviaries where converted into racing lofts.

On Patrick’s first year of racing, he only participated in about 4 races in his local club as he needed to build a team for the following season. It was in his second season of racing when the first successes where flapped together, and Patrick was crowned 2nd Best Young fancier of the RPRA Cumbria region. It was after this time that Patrick was so motivated to do more winning in the sport and so pigeons where obtained from highly successful lofts from across Europe such as Menne & Daughters, winners of 1st International Barcelona 2007 and Leo Heremans from the late partnership Heremans-Ceusters, described as the best racer in this century in Belgium.

   

Leo Heremans

From these pigeons, many top birds were produced and so thus are where Patrick’s 1st SNFC Section F came from - ‘Miss Heremans’. Both her sire and dam where bred by Leo Heremans, the super breeder sire ‘Diamond Cutter’ is from the Olympic ace ‘Olympiade’ winner of 2nd National Ace pigeon KBDB 2002 and the dam ‘Saphire’ from the super line of ‘Natalia’, ‘Bettinie’, ‘De Jan’, ‘Den 444’ and of course ‘Den Euro’ winner of West European Ace pigeon in 2003 as well as 1st National Ace pigeon 2003 and now owned by the Eijerkamp Family.

Other breeders in Patrick’s breeding loft are pigeons like ‘Friedhelm’ a son of the ‘Super Bordeaux’ winner 1st National, 2nd International Bordeaux, ‘Marijke’ a direct daughter of the 1st NPO Orleans winner for Jos & Marijke De Ridder which is coupled with ‘Jeff 227’ an inbred double grandchild from the famous ‘Jonge Artist’ of J.L.N. Houben. The most recent acquisition made to the McDonald breeding loft is ‘Louis’ a son of ‘Attila’ when paired to ‘Rianne’ from the Van Dyke x Houben pigeons, this cock is now coupled with ‘Miss Heremans’ which Patrick recons, a great crossing!

  

Patrick receiving the Guy Barrett Trophy at Blackpool 2010

 

Menne & Daughters

Patrick not only employs a select team of breeders but also race birds. In the loft there are never any more than 30 old birds, so 15 couples and this is including yearlings. From his breeders and older race birds combined, Patrick breeds around 50 young birds for himself. And from this at the end of the season he recons that there will be around 15-20 left over by the time he has sent the majority of his young birds to both of the young bird nationals in Scotland with the SNFC and also the SNRPC where success has come from both. As well as young birds Patrick has in the past few years raced well with his old birds in the local club, federation, combine and national from 50 miles until near 600 miles. In 2009 Patrick also flapped together when racing in the Premier Reims gold medal race 26th and 29th National as well as 2nd and 3rd section F, SNRPC with only 3 birds sent. Both hens funnily enough are sisters from different years, 2006 and 2007 and come from pigeons from Heinz Seegmuller, Menne & Daughters and a little blood from the un-rung pigeons that Patrick started off with.

  

‘Leslie’, winner of Leicester 2008 and sire to several first prize winners & ‘K9’, winner of several first prizes in the club, federation and combine

The loft that Patrick races to is 24 feet and has four compartments, one for the hens when they are wintered, one for the old birds and two for the young birds, one for the first round and one for the second round. Patrick also has a smaller loft at the side of the garden with two compartments, one for some breeders and one for the distance cracks!

The new trapping system installed in early 2010 for the race birds

  

‘Cosgrove’, 3rd Best Middle Distance 2009

 The collection of RPRA Medals

I’m sure to say that the super team of birds employed at this time will go on to be heard more of in the coming years. Since 2008 Patrick has been practicing different theories in the sport, as it is from this way the success has came from as many different tricks, as they say are being played. Patrick shows me the compartment for the young birds and this is nothing more than box perches and a fountain drinker.

Inside the loft for the young birds – Simple, but successful!

I asked why many prizes are taken in such a plain and simple loft, as we see many of the big names with a selection of different boxes and other methods used to motivate the birds, and he replies, ‘It’s the birds and how they are managed, not the equipment. I like to keep everything simple so there is no need to complicate things’.

Speaking of management do you receive help from anyone I asked? ‘Yes, some of the biggest names in pigeon sport these days have got some form of help whether it’s from family or people they employ to maintain their birds. I have my father who is always there if I need him, when I am unable to do certain tasks as I may be busy with other things. At the moment I am young and enthusiastic about pigeons and have a true passion for them, but I like to go out some times with my friends and socialize and so I occasionally I get some time away from them which is nice, this being in the winter time of course so my father can pop in and out of the loft if he needs to in order to maintain the drinkers and feeders’.

The corridor drinker system

In the feeding bins that Patrick uses there are a few different mixes of corn and so they are mixed until Patrick is happy with it. Patrick states that he is no diet expert but he tries to get the feeding right, and so different feeding is applied accordingly.  Grit is another subject that was mentioned while the visit was taking place. It’s always available but is given fresh every day 365 days per year and this is mixed with a combination of red stones, and yellow fielding blocks which are crumbled into the mix!

When medicating, Patrick says this is only really done a few weeks before coupling when me or my father will treat for Salmonella, a true effect in pigeons when breeding and this powder for of treatment is obtained by good friend and expert pigeon Vet, Dr. Henk De Weerd of Belgica De Weerd/Interpalomas Lofts in the Netherlands. Other products used on the pigeons are Electrolytes from the firm ‘Natural’ in Belgium, this product is used on the return of the bird’s arrival from the races.

A summary of some of the most important results that have been performed in only a few years:

Winner of the RPRA Guy Barrett Trophy 2009

1st Section F, SNFC Leicester 2009

1st Best YF RPRA Cumbria Region 2009

1st Best YF RPRA Cumbria Region 2008

1st Open Glasgow Federation, Kelso

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Kelso

1st Open Glasgow Federation, Otterburn

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Otterburn

1st Open Glasgow Federation, Otterburn

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Otterburn

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Catterick

1st Open Glasgow Federation, Wakefield

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Wakefield

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Leicester

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Kelso

1st Open Glasgow Federation, Catterick

1st West Section Glasgow Federation, Catterick

1st Open Glasgow Federation,   Otterburn

1st West Section, Otterburn

2nd Caledonian Combine, Wetherby

2nd Best YF, RPRA Cumbria Region 2007

2nd West Section SNFC, Leicester YB National 2009

2nd Section F, SNRPC Gold Medal, Reims

3rd Section F, SNRPC Gold Medal, Reims

3rd Caledonian Combine Wakefield

3rd Section F, SNRPC YB National Leicester

3rd Best YF, RPRA Middle Distance Pigeon 2009

4th Section F, SNRPC Wanstead Flats

4th Section F, SNFC Leicester

26th National, SNRPC Reims Gold Medal

29th National, SNRPC Reims Gold Medal

+ Numerous other 2nd and 3rds!

This article on Patrick McDonald and his pigeons is now, unfortunately coming to an end. I am sure that Patrick and his birds will be spoken about in the coming years, and that many more articles will be published in the United Kingdom about this true, young maestro. I would finally like to wish Patrick much success in the future of the sport and hope many more winners are produced!

Robert Wilson

Patrick McDonald

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