Dale Willis Visits Paul Stokes of Fenton

 

For my first loft visit as the new press officer of the SMDF, I visited the impressive lofts of Paul Stokes. It was a very cold but sunny February morning as I headed to the lofts in Fenton, which is one of the towns making up the City of Stoke on Trent.  Paul greeted me with a hot mug of tea and we chatted about the way I proposed to carry out the visit and interview. I instantly recognised that Paul was a knowledgeable and successful pigeon flyer and was more than happy to talk about his preferred methods and to show me around the lofts. The following scribe provides an overview of Paul's loft set up and methods.

 

Background

Paul’s first interest in pigeons was when he was around 8 years old, having been brought up around his father’s and grandfather’s pigeons. The early loft set up was a 16ft wooden loft with three sections, which he kept until the age of 21.  His interest was reignited again in 2006 and he has therefore been flying for 10 years. He did however have a break between 2010 and 2012 having become somewhat disillusioned with the sport. Paul is a solo flyer but receives a great deal of help from his brother Mo, who Paul considers to be the backbone of the set up and without whose help Paul would find things a real struggle.  Paul is a member of the Berryhill WMFC within the Staffordshire Moorlands Fed, the Red Lion FC within the North Staffs Fed and also the Midlands National Flying Club.

 

Loft Set Up

Paul's lofts are situated on an allotment and he has built up an excellent set up over the years. All of the lofts are of wooden construction with flat pent roofs. There are three 10ft x 6ft cock sections each of which house 16 cocks and three 6ft x 4ft hen sections each of which house 16 hens. The young birds are housed in a 24ft x 6ft loft and the stock pigeons are housed within 3 separate lofts (2 x 10ft by 8ft and 1 x 8ft by 6ft). There is a 12ft x 8ft aviary and a large pre fabricated concrete corn shed. All of the lofts are dark brown inside and out, as Paul believes that this helps the relaxation process.  Ventilation forms an important factor of the lofts with roof vents, wall vents and even floor vents as Paul feels that the importance of ventilation can never be underestimated. On the cleaning front Paul uses a combination of floor grills, scraping, sand and deep litter. There is also a programme of pressure washing to ensure that bacteria are eradicated.

  

Perhaps the most important section of the loft is the kitchen, come lounge, come rest room, come office!  This is the hub of the lofts and is where Paul makes his guests extremely welcome whilst keeping an eye on the pigeons.

 

 

  The impressive loft set up.

 

Families Kept

Predominantly Paul keeps Vandenbeele and Josh Thone pigeons, however he has recently introduced a number of Batesburg’s. He aims to maintain 48 racing cocks, 48 racing hens and 40 pairs of stock pigeons. A couple of fantails can be seen wandering around which Paul likes to use to assist trapping. Paul has no preference when it comes to sprint or distance pigeons and he has had success across a whole spectrum of distances. He puts this down to his pigeons 'love for home' which he believes plays an important factor in this success.

 

Breeding

Paul pairs up his pigeons at Christmas each year and this is to ensure he gets two rounds of youngsters. The first round are either sold, given to friends, given to clubs or donated for charity auction. It is the second round of youngsters that Paul keeps to strengthen his racing team and stock collection. The racing team are allowed to pick their own nest mate, whilst Paul manages the stock pairing to ensure particular bloodlines are maintained and performance is matched to performance.  Around 100 youngsters are raised each year.  Whilst a large number of Paul's pigeons are home-bred, he also buys in a quantity each year from other well performing fanciers around the country. The youngsters are put on to the now well established darkness system from around a week after weaning through to the second week in June.

 

Racing Methods and Exercise

Paul's pigeons are raced on the roundabout system and as mentioned earlier he races and wins at all distances. The Unikon ETS with several pads is used for timing purposes and this is a great help to Paul who suffers from arthritis. The pigeons trap through bob wires at the bottom of the loft door and the faithful fantails are used to assist quick trapping. On the exercise front, the hens are exercised first each morning for around one hour. Once the hens are back in the loft, the cocks are exercised for an hour. The cocks are also allowed half an hour 'play time' when they are allowed to potter around and pick for minerals. The cocks are exercised again in the afternoon for another hour but this time it's all fly and no play!

  

Feeding

The pigeons are hand fed and are given as much food as they can eat to ensure they are never hungry. When asked about feeding during the racing season, Paul advised that from a Saturday race return through to Wednesday morning the pigeons are only fed on barley. Careful consideration is given to the following Saturday's weather forecast and the anticipated wind conditions dictate how much corn the pigeons will be fed during Wednesday and Thursday. The pigeons receive no food on a Friday ahead of a Saturday race to ensure they fly 'light'.  There are no grit or minerals in the lofts, as Paul believes that his pigeons pick up enough minerals whilst picking around the allotment garden. Furthermore, Paul pointed out that minerals only become damp, and damp encourages bacteria, which in turn causes disease.

 

One of the stock lofts with grill floor and home made pipe feeder.

 

Health

Paul made it clear that he considers health to be a very important aspect of loft management and adopts a policy of prevention as well as cure. The pigeons receive treatment for Coxi, Canker and respiratory on a week-by-week basis over a three week period throughout the year.  Pigeon’s feature prominently within the Stokes household, and as a direct result, Paul's Son Andrew has developed an online pigeon pharmacy. Furthermore, Andrew also trained to analyse pigeon droppings and gut swabs and has gone on to provide a dropping testing service as part of his Stokes Pigeon Care.  Unfortunately, even with all of Paul's preventative measures he is still plagued by the dreaded young bird sickness almost every year. In order to treat the pigeons Paul starves the pigeons for 48 hours and gives them Salmo Stop for five days. After the initial 48 hours, he feeds a light corn in small amounts. In 2015 Paul lost 54 of his 75 youngsters, which was heartbreaking. However, with thanks to some very good friends (mentioned later in this report) Paul managed to build his young bird stock back up in time for the young bird races.

 

Paul performing a swab test on one of his pigeons.

 

Training Techniques

Old birds receive 6 training tosses ahead of the race season up to a maximum of 15 miles. Young birds are trained twice a day for as many days as possible up until the first race. Again these youngsters are only trained up to a maximum of 15 miles. Once the young bird races commence, Paul will still throw in a few 15 mile training tosses.

  

Most Memorable Achievement and Outstanding Pigeon

When I asked Paul to think of his most memorable achievement, there was no hesitation. "The day I won three races on the same day" was his reply. In 2014 his pigeons came first in Hanley FC, Berryhill WMFC and the Midlands National West Midlands Section.  When it comes to his most outstanding pigeon, the 2014 grizzle hen called Daisy was the pigeon Paul wanted to show me. Daisy has flown in 21 races out of which she has achieved 6 first positions and 15 prizes. This was a pigeon that Paul had swapped for one of his own pigeons from Prest - Snowden - Prest of Sunderland.  Paul named the pigeon Daisy after Ian Snowden’s Daughter Daisy.

 

Below are just some of the results of Daisy, the 2014 grizzle hen:-

 

• 1st Club Cheltenham, 1st Club Cheltenham, 1st Club Bath, 1st Club Bath, 1st Club Frome & 1st Club Carentan

• 2014 bird of the year in Berryhill WMFC

• 5th Club Yeovil, 5th Club Frome & 6th Club Hullavington

• 2015 bird of the year in Berryhill WMFC

• 2nd Fed 1st Section 3986 birds, 26th Fed 2nd Section 3764 birds & 10th Fed Carentan out of 733 birds

General Points

Paul does not believe in pigeon eye and says that as long as a pigeon has got two working eyes, he is happy. Fortunately, he does not have hawk attacks and puts this down to the two 'mirror balls' he has at either end of his lofts. Paul's aspiration is to win a National Race and I am sure he shares this dream with many other readers. When it comes to 'thanks', Paul mentioned friends and fellow fliers Les Cole, Michael Ward, Alan Dawson and Richard Clarke from Cumbria, Joe Pearman and Noel Quarless from Liverpool, along with John Richardson from Market Drayton. These are the people who came to Paul's rescue in 2015 and replenished his young bird stock following the devastating attack of young bird sickness.

 

 

One of the ‘Mirror Balls’, which do an excellent job in deterring hawks.

Looking Ahead

Paul hopes that fanciers start to work together instead of against each other and try to encourage more young people to get into pigeon racing. His fear is that if this doesn't happen, pigeon racing will be a thing of the past within 20 years.

 

    

A proud Paul with his racing cocks. -  Daisy - The little grizzle hen.

 

                            

 Paul in his kitchen, come lounge, come rest room, come office!                            Paul’s Brother Mo holding Little Mo(Big Mo and Little Mo)                      Paul holding Daisy

 

 

Final Thoughts

All in all, I found my first loft visit to be a most enjoyable and informative experience.  Paul is no doubt a dedicated and professional pigeon racer with tried and tested systems, which evidently bring results.  I would like to thank Paul for his openness and kind hospitality, and to wish him the best of luck for the future.

 

Dale Willis

SMDF Press Officer