EAST DOWN COMBINE

Reports by Clifford Browne

Stephen Brown & Sons - EDC Fanciers of the Year

It was a bright December day when I made the short trip from Bangor to Dundonald to visit the 2012 EDC Fanciers of the year Stephen Brown & Sons. This very successful loft won this title not only this year 2012 but also back in 2006, no mean feat in an organisation which can boast many great racing lofts. Some of the following background to this loft I have taken from my 2006 report.

Stephen holding 'Thirteen', the father of the loft

Stephen races with his two sons Stephen jnr and John but with the boys now grown up Stephen senior is the main driving force behind this loft. Firstly let’s start with a little background to this loft. Stephen says that his grandfather presented him with a pair Tipplers for his tenth birthday and that was the start of his love affair with pigeons. He kept all sorts of pigeons at the start until one day his grandfather got him a pair of racers from a work mate. It was the offspring from this pair that were the first birds he raced back in 1978, having joined the Dundonald club. Between 1978 and 1994 Stephen raced in the Dundonald club, firstly on his own and then in partnership with good friend Len McKinistry and one of the highlights of this partnership was winning 4th open EDC Talbenny Y/B Derby.

Stephen also was in partnership for a period with his lifelong friend Davy Hamilton (now racing in Bangor) and again this partnership had their share of success, the highlights being the winning of the EDC open three times. At this time they raced to an allotment situated on the outskirts of Dundonald. Then in 1982 Stephen got married to Sharon and they bought a house which was ideal for keeping pigeons having a large garden. Stephen raced here until 1994 and again had his fair share of success but by the end of 1994 he decided to discontinue racing as he then had a young family and a mortgage to pay and also as a committed Christian a lot of his time was spent around his church. He felt that these were his priorities rather than the pigeons although he did hold on to four latebreds for sometime as one of his sons had still an interest but. Eventually he parted with these to Davy Hamilton and it was not until 2001 with the family grown up a bit that he felt that once again he was in a position to take up the hobby he loved. This time he joined the Dunedin club affiliated to the NIPA and he remained a member of that club until the end of the 2004 season. Here again he had many successes, some of the highlights being achieved with one of his best pigeons at that time, a pigeon called “Thirteen”. He was a son of Digger, one of the latebreds which Stephen had given to Davy Hamilton. His wins included twice winner of O/B of the year in the club, 7th open NIPA Rosscarbery O/B Derby 8147 birds, 2nd sec “D” 21st open NIPA Kilkenny from 22,763 birds. “Thirteen” won 26 prizes in club, Section & Open before being retired to the stock loft.

The main lofts

When Stephen started back in the sport in 2001 the birds he started with were from Cliff Stewart and David Hamilton (Bangor). These consisted of birds from the late Doodles Lambert, Huybregts from J & P Weeder, and sons & daughters of a cock Stephen had given Davy when he left the sport. It had been a good season for Davy & Cliff as they had won E.D.C. Fanciers of the year. To these Stephen added birds from Jeff Greenaway from Jeff’s National Cock “Back to Back”, The Late Bred Hen plus others. Most of these birds were bred down from Jeff’s original Old Pair. Jeff had won N.I.P.A. section D Fancier of the year on several occasions. Stephen also had birds from Terry McGeechan (Scunthorpe). The birds he had from Terry were from his “3 Times A Lady Family” and of course his Gevaerts, Terry having been at the top of the Scunthorpe & District Fed for some time. Stephen also had birds from Adam Luke (Scotland) and Robt Shaw. Then there were the birds from Ann and the late Frank Tasker and what can one say about their results over the years other than simply fantastic. The birds he has from the Taskers are from his Filmstar & Willy Thas families. Stephen would like to thank all these fanciers for their help and friendship. They are all very successful fanciers, each havin their own methods of feeding, training etc. and Frank was kind enough to share his methods with Stephen for which he will be forever grateful. So armed with a combination of the above birds and Frank’s methods, let’s have a look at Stephen’s set up and methods.

A well filled garden

I mentioned earlier that Stephen had a large garden in which much to my surprise in addition to his lofts he had a number of smaller sheds which housed a mixed collection of chickens which were allowed to roam freely around the garden and I managed to identify a number of different breeds. Stephen also grows a lot of his own vegetables. But back to the pigeons. There are 4 lofts in all. Wooden structures, two with tiled roofs. All lofts are 8ft wide with the young bird loft being 24ft x8ft, the stock loft is 14ft, and the two old bird lofts are 16ft and 8ft. The lofts are kept in deep litter with a floor covering of “Easy Bed” several inches deep and this avoids the need to be continually scraping out.

Some 50 to 60 Ybs are reared each year and a team of about 30 are entered each week for racing and the old bird racing team would be between 40 and 50 with some 20 to 30 entered for each race. There is also a further 32 or so stock birds. All the young birds are put on the darkness system and the old birds mainly fly roundabout although he does fly a small team of around 10 widowhood cocks. Unikon ETS is used for timing in both young and old birds.

Old birds are paired up around Christmas and before racing are treated for both canker and respiratory with other medication only being used if found necessary but Cider Vinegar is used regularly in the drinking water.

Stephen is a light feeder and uses mixtures with no beans and except when breeding will add barley to his mixtures which for young birds amounts to between 15 and 20%.

Exercise is 1 hour per day for both old and young around the loft and training down the road for old birds is about 5 or 6 tosses for each bird and as Stephen does not usually start his hens until the 4th race this means that he appears to be, at the early part of the season, giving the birds a lot more tosses than the 5 or 6 just mentioned. Stephen likes each racer to have been down to around Castle Bellingham or at least to Newry before its first race of the season. Young birds he likes to have as many tosses as possible before their first race and this may be as many as 15 and he makes a point of missing the first young bird race.

I asked Stephen for some of the high points of his racing career. Winning “Fancier of the Year” twice rated as tops but also the 2011 result in the Old Bird Skibbereen classic when the loft won 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th West section. He then went on that year to win West Section Fancier of the Year which also figures very highly as a high point achieved by this loft. Also highly prized was being highest prize winner in the EDC 2bird club in both 2010 and 2011 and then 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th open East Down Combine achieved in the Ken McConaghie 2012 Skibbereen YB Derby. Stephen Brown and sons are a team which whilst taking racing seriously also remember that it is a hobby to be enjoyed and this is just what they do. Congratulations again to them on their outstanding success.

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SHOW RESULTS

At Bangor the first two shows for handled classes were held for Young Cocks and Young Hens with judges Sam Regan and Adam Palmer and the club thank them for coming to judge. The results were:

Young Cocks: 1st & 2nd Plunkett, Pollock & Nelson, 3rd Lambert & Stewart, 4th C Browne, 5th & 6th Lambert & Stewart, 7th J & I Moore, 8th W Hamilton & son.

Young Hens: 1st C Browne, 2nd J & I Moore, 3rd C Browne, 4th D Hamilton & son, 5th Lambert & Stewart, 6th Phillips Bros, 7th Plunkett, Pollock & Nelson, 8th J & I Moore.

Reminder

Don’t Forget that Bangor are once again holding an Open Show and a select sale of some 2013 Ybs in the Portavogie Clubrooms on December 29th - something to do after all the Christmas festivities are over.