MIKE BUNNEY of  Portsmouth

More than 50 years in the sport

The subject of this loft report is Mike Bunney of Portsmouth, who is in the second year of his term as President of the British International Championship Club, and enjoying his sixth decade as a pigeon fancier.

Mike entered the sport as an 8 year old in 1958 and apart from a break from the sport between 1966 and 1980 he has been immersed in anything “pigeon” ever since. His first loft was a 3ft x 3ft x 3ft cube, and great enjoyment was had with the birds housed therein. Mike’s brother, who raced into the Southampton area in partnership as Bunney & Taylor, was his first major influence in the sport.

Overall view of lofts

In 1980, after being out of the fancy for some time, Mike was working on the roof of a house and he noticed that situated in the back garden, was a run down, but still functional loft containing a mixed bag of pigeons including racers and “streeters”. After a short discussion with the owner, who was a pigeon keeper rather than a pigeon fancier, the loft and all its contents were swiftly relocated to Mike’s back garden and Mike was an active pigeon fancier once more. The street pigeons were quickly disposed with and Mike started to build his team. The late Bert Bryant’s lofts were then purchased and added to the original loft and soon after Mike started racing with the selected pigeons that he had purchased as part of the deal with the original loft. These pigeons, which were mainly Dordins, became the foundation of his team of long distance racers. Further additions of similar bloodlines were subsequently made from the late Jim Biss and these have been augmented over the years with occasional introductions of other pigeons based on  long distance winning bloodlines.

In 1983 Mike and family moved to their present address situated a stone’s throw from the shoreline overlooking Portsmouth marina. After renovating the house, the present impressive lofts were erected facing south over the marina, with the iconic Spinnaker Tower in clear view in the distance. The lofts measure in total 100ft long and are 10 ft deep with a 3ft wide corridor running the full length of the lofts. Set in a U-shape, the main body of the loft faces south and is divided into four sections, each section housing 12 widowhood nest boxes with automatic electric cleaning facilities. The floors of all sections are fitted with hard wood grills so that the pigeons’ droppings fall through into the space beneath. The arms of the “U”, at either end of the widowhood sections, and which face east and west, contain the sections for young birds; widowhood hens and stock birds, the latter also having access to a large aviary.

One of the widowhood sections

All birds, both racers and stock, are mated in February and a team of between 80 and 100 young birds are reared annually. The widowers are trained from 20 – 30miles on six occasions prior to racing and are occasionally trained from the same distance during the season in the build up to a long distance race if Mike feels they need one. The widowhood cocks are fed communally in a trough on the floor and Mike measures the amount that he thinks the birds require at each meal. This is gauged by taking into consideration the races that are to be flown and the amount of work the birds are doing both around the loft, in training and in races. As the distance races approach more maize is fed and this is supplemented by the addition of extra fats in the form of various oils. Mike also likes to use Gemthepax supplied by Brian and Viv Wall of Gem Products. The racers are exercised around the loft twice daily and Mike likes to see them doing a good 30 minutes on each occasion. In addition to the 48 widowhood cocks, Mike has also raced some hens with great success – see the performances of the great long distance racer “Solitaire” that accompanies this article.

Young birds are given a good education prior to their first race with Mike taking them as often as possible in stages out to 30 miles. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, some of these training spins often prove to be real “testers” with the birds returning well split up over a period of days. This does not seem to have had any detrimental effects on the babies later racing careers!! For confirmation of this fact I refer you to the performances of the three pigeons whose photographs accompany this report.

Mike Bunney in loft corridor with Ray Strawbridge

The Dark Chequer cock “Reliance” has a sheaf of top National and Classic prizes to his credit, including with the NFC:- 156th Sennen Cove; 38th Nantes; 33rd sect,196th Open San Sebastian on the day; 2nd sect 9th Open Dax clocked at 5.29 am second morning; Pau 10th sect 65th Open clocked 4.52 am second morning; 16th & 80th Open CSCFC Pau; 28th Open Rennes; 27th Open & 113th Open Bordeaux with the BBC; plus with the BICC 12th & 46th Open La Ferte Bernard; 19th Open Tours and 42nd Open Rouen plus a number of others. Is this a record number of wins in Classic competition by one pigeon? If there is a bird in the UK with a better record than this then will the owner please get in touch with me!

The blue hen “Solitaire” was 1st Open BICC Dax and was the only bird to be clocked on the day of toss in the U.K. In this race Solitaire finished at an amazing 7th Open Hens International and 131st Open International over all with 11,807 birds competing.            

I won’t bore readers with a long list of Mike’s other National and Classic positions but will point out, that he has close on 200 diplomas won in National and Classic competition including 2nd Open NFC Messac;1st sect 4th Open BICC Barcelona and 3rd sect 3rd Open CSCFC Pau to name but a few.

Here’s hoping that your rodent problems are behind you Mike and that the 2010 season sees the dawn of a “new era”.