Young Bird Losses, are the Answers in the transporters?

Over the last few years the number of losses with young birds is rapidly reaching crisis point with many of our numbers considering whether to continue. Lets be honest it is thoroughly depressing to breed a nice team of babies only to have the team decimated once racing begins.

Who has the answers? Personally though I am fully aware of the hawk problem as I too have had many birds showing ‘battle scars’ especially from cross channel races I find it hard to believe that this only makes up a small percentage of the losses many fanciers are currently experiencing. Others talk of ‘clashing’ being a major factor to which I ask how then did the birds 20-30 and 40 years ago manage when there were many more birds in air in those heady days when the sport was in its halcyon period. Everyone has heard the older members talk of how any missing birds in those days were normally sitting waiting the next morning when their owner went down to the loft. Perhaps the reason that this doesn’t happen today is due to what I call A to B feeding. By that I mean that providing the birds get home in good time this light feed which is so popular today actually improves the velocities but when they are forced to spend extra hours on the wing or even night out that they simply ‘run out of gas’. In the old days most birds had a high proportion of peas and beans in their diet and so they could cope better if they made a mistake. Much ‘Food for thought’ here I feel if you pardon my pun.

I still believe though that the main problem lies within the transporters and in support of this claim, I  well remember reading an article in one of the pigeon papers perhaps 20 years ago written by Steven van Breemen. In this very informative piece he said that he was convinced that many of the losses were caused by conditions in the transporters. Since this time I was also convinced that he was correct in his opinion and is the reason why I along with a few others were adamant that the Midlands National Flying Club could not settle for anything less than the very best in transportation and that is why we went to the World’s number one pigeon transporter builders Geraldy. At the time there were a few moans about crates like ‘biscuit tins’ and the cost but the reality is that the conditions of the returning birds amply proves that we made the right choice.

Anyway back to the Van Bremeen article he claimed that in warm weather the temperatures in many transporters can reach well over 35 degrees Celsius. If the problem is compounded by a lack of good clean water being available all night and right up until liberation time the birds in these transporters will be dehydrated to a very dangerous level. Steven who is a very educated man describes that in young birds in particular as their brain is not yet fully developed that dehydration (lack of water) causes orientation problems and if a bird’s orientation is compromised then heavy losses are a certainty.

Well now armed with this information isn’t it about time that we do ‘our bit’ by ensuring that the convoyers are well aware that failure to supply the birds with plenty of water will simply not be tolerated and heads will roll if this simple operation fails to be carried out. Convoyers in return must let their organisation know if there is a problem with the watering system which prevents the opportunity for the pigeons to get to the water supply due to either bad design or poor maintenance etc. I have got to admit that I have been absolutely horrified to hear it said that the pigeons don’t need a drink unless there is a holdover! Comments like these would be funny if they weren’t so serious. As proof I point to the club which I often use to educate my pigeons who as soon as the birds are marked the water troughs go on and it is amazing how many of the birds including my own immediately get their beaks into the water. I must say that this club ‘The Bell’ in Tonge are a credit to our sport as at least I know that my birds have gone onto the transporter with adequate water in them. ‘The Bell’s’ actions also teaches any birds that haven’t already been basket trained properly how to get a good drink of water which after all is the most vital thing to all forms of life.

I have heard the argument that the water trough is the most likely way to pass on diseases such as ‘Young bird sickness’ (adenovirus). Yes this is true but there is a very simple and inexpensive way to avoid this problem. The other day whilst ordering a few products off our ‘One Loft race’ sponsors Schroeder + Tollisan I got into conversation with Andy one of the team in regard to the heavy losses that we are currently experiencing. Andy agreed that a lot of the problems are caused within the transporters. He told me that there is an inexpensive solution to the problem. On hearing his comments I was very interested to hear more. He continued by telling me that their company sells a product called DF3000 and last year a large Federation located near to Amsterdam was cajoled by one of it’s committee to try the product as they like so many other organisations had also been suffering huge losses in the past. After the DF3000 was added to the water on their transporters the losses were greatly reduced and Andy continued with a laugh ‘’The Federation didn’t need any persuading to order a further supply for this year’’. I then inquired if the product was expensive and his reply was a real eye opener when he continued ‘’ It cost that federation’s members 1.20 euro per season’’.  To my mind if your birds aren’t worth £1 a year then you can’t afford or don’t deserve to race pigeons.

Now I’m not saying that this is the only product on the market but I do wonder if there is a reliable substitute that is equally inexpensive. One thing is for sure I will be pushing for the MNFC to start using the product.

Another thing which I feel members of a domestic club should allow members to do is send their birds in their own basket if they are prepared to pay the full cost of the crate. This will help minimise even further the threat of healthy pigeons picking up a problem off other birds. To highlight this fact I will tell you of a chat I had with a friend of mine who told me that in his first young bird race of the season he had a super race but stated that in 4 or 5 days he fully expected to have a problem with ‘young bird sickness’ and guess what a few days later he confirmed that many his birds were vomiting and also the telltale dark slimy dropping were evident with the birds looking a picture of misery.

Surely if the two precautions which I have mentioned were to be taken our pigeons would surely benefit and the end result would be less empty perches because I’m convinced that a good percentage of these casualties are decent birds.

Mike Lakin