STAFFORDSHIRE MOORLANDS & DISTRICT FEDERATION
by Thomas Garvie
No sooner has the old bird season finished and you are under way with the young birds. We are now at our second young bird race from Hullavington which is about 124 miles to our lofts, which is a fair bit longer than some of the south flying clubs but is also a bit shorter than some of the other clubs in the north section so it is a fairly widespread fed in size and distance and covers a large area. Although I am fairly new to flying in this fed, I have seen quite a lot of the towns that fly in Staffordshire Moorlands mainly because of the training with the young birds, though I have to admit that this year Liz has done all the training as there have been other things that I had to be getting on with at home. She does not like the long driving all the time and we both wish there was an easier way of training the youngsters, meaning somebody local who trains, and we would be willing to pay just to cut down on Liz's driving time. She does know that they have to be trained but would prefer it to be much easier. Recently we had somebody come and pick up a stray and he had a large silver crate come box on top of his car. I asked him what it was and he informed me it was a Geraldy training case that could hold four crates with two on either side and it was great for releasing the young birds from the roof of the car and they learned to fly out of them just like they would fly out the transporter. Having seen the Geraldy wagons and crates, I think they are without doubt the best things that could be used for pigeons as the feeding and watering system is second to none but the smaller version that fitted on the car roof would be just the job for traing some young birds within the club. It is a touch expensive for just one person to buy but maybe if some chipped in then it would be less of a financial strain. They are certainly the ideal way of training young birds maybe an investment for the future.
Returning to the race at Hullavington 130 members sent 2772 birds and they were released at 13-30 in a south west wind and taking the honours being first and second were Adams Brs from Meir on 1573 with two cocks. Brindley/Prince/Walker from Alton were third on 1570.4 with a hen. McGraw/Clegg/Preece had three in the top ten on 1570, 1564, 1560.4. M Brindley also from Alton had a hen on 1568, A&J Pike from Berryhill had a pair in the top ten on 1564.4, 1562, D&W Keeling from Alton finish the top ten fliers on 1563. Well done to you all on what turned out to be a testing race, up in this area anyway. The only thing I have against later day liberations for young birds is the fact that it drastically cuts out the amount of daylight left for any youngsters that have gone astray to find their way home but on the other hand a lot of folk feel it is best to have youngsters up on the day after basketing to cut down on the stress. I myself think that way but we have a controller to make those decisions and thankfully we have a very good one at that who does a great job.
The convoy was made up of the west section sending 1512 birds from 67 members and of course was won by Adams Brs from Meir and there were a couple of clubs not sending in this section. The north section had 27 members sending 636 birds and this was won by M Webb from Poynton and the east section had 36 members sending 624 and this section was won by Brindley/Prince/Walker from Alton.
News from a few clubs now starting with Ipstones where nine members sent 174 birds and taking the first two cards were Burton & Jones with two hens and they also took the third spot with a young cock and breaking up the clean sweep was K Champ with a young cock. The velocities of Burton & Jones birds were 1560, 1555, 1512 and K Champ's velocity was 1529.
BlytheBridge now where 4 members sent 86 birds and first was K Pettitt with a young cock on 1548. Ken also took third place on 1495 with a young hen. G Lindop was second on 1497 with a young hen and fourth were M/M A Hargreaves on 1457 with a young hen.
Meir now and 10 members sent 149 birds and the first three places went to Adams Brs on 1573 [two cocks together) and their third bird was a young hen on 1557.4. A Stewart took fourth on 1557.2 with a young cock.
Hayfield now and 6 members sent 112 birds and the red card went to good widowhood flier JL Gibb on 1412. He was very closely followed by house husband Steve Warhurst on 1411 and 1410. Steve had a great race here when he had 9 birds all drop together, which was remarkable as the rest of us struggled a bit to get more than one at a time. This year Steve has bred quite a lot of birds and he is certainly putting a lot of work in to them and he is now starting to reap the rewards so hard work does pay off in the end. There were quite a lot of birds missing from the club in this race and I think Steve only dropped one. We ourselves had them all home but it took a couple of days but we got there in the end but other members were not so fortunate. I will have to give my apologies to Berryhill club who have sent me a couple of results but I have misplaced the result for this race. If they could possibly give me the result again it would be appreciated.
Lastly we have Macclesfield where 8 members sent 219 birds and in only his second ever race the red card went to young Joe Flood on 1522 with a Vandenbeele hen bred for him by Boulton and Perry of Stoke and it was one of ten birds gifted to him to start his racing career off with and what a start. Second was Alan Senior on 1521 with a Herman x Lambrecht hen, third and fourth wre Rick & Simon Geary on 1495 and 1493 with a Soontjen x Rietvink hen and a Vanloon Janssen x with good racer Shy Boy.
Well another week has moved on with the young birds and ours are now starting to fall to bits with feathers everywhere because we do not fly our young birds on darkness, as we see no reason to. I know it helps to win young bird races but we are more interested in letting the birds have a natural moult as Nature intended as, with all other things and not just including birds, when you try to alter Nature it will always have a way of coming back to haunt you, as history has proven time and time again. Along with the other countless ideas put forward over young bird sickness, could forcing birds to do something which is completely unnatural be an conributing cause to young bird sickness. Who knows because nobody knows 100% what is the cause of this. I do know that there has been a lot of youngbird sickness about in our fed this year but thankfully we have stayed clear of it because, for one, we do not overcrowd our lofts and in some sections we only have 7 or 8 pigeons when in fact there is ample room for 15 pairs in each section. Probably keeping stress levels to a minimum can only benefit the birds as well and for young birds ETS is probably the best way ever invented of cutting down on the stress with young birds because you do not need to handle them or touch them at all when they return from a race. I can remember a while back when I lived and raced in Lanarkshire and I used to just let the birds enter through the trap hole, and that was before I used stall traps, and it was a young bird which had returned home in good time and it actually won the race and when I caught it inside the loft to remove the rubber I tripped over the feeder and fell still holding the bird. I quickly got back up, took the rubber off and won that race but after that the black cock, which would very often be my first bird back home, was never going to come in simply because it had got a fright the last time and remembered it. It would just sit on the chimney pot every time it came back and a few times it would have won but from then on it always sat there. Hence I named it Sooty and whenever a black pigeon was in sight I knew it was him and he always did the same thing, just land on the chimney pot and refuse to budge. This carried on for a bit as a yearling just doing the same thing week in week out and I suppose most folk would have got rid of it but as a two year old when he had been paired up and raised youngsters he was a completely different pigeon.
ETS plays a big part in this in reducing stress. I know you will always get folk grumbling about advantages of ETS, well, that is just nonsense because first you need the birds home and to get them in the loft before they register. I have read in the BHW that fanciers have birds so tame that when they return they can catch the bird and remove the rubber before the birds are anywhere near the loft so is that fair? You just have to get on with racing using whatever system you choose and let everybody just use what they are happy with be it electronic or manual, bearing in mind that anybody can use ETS as it can be bought just as cheaply as manual clocks and I certainly would not be bothered listening to anybody who moans about being able to clock in a lot of birds within seconds because your club can limit the number of birds that you can actually time in, which our club does. We have a limit of two in inland races and then you can time as many as you want in races from France, which does suit us fine, but with the inland races it does not give a true reflection of the birds' performance because if the winner has timed in two and you are second and third and somebody else is third and fourth and then another member is fifth and sixth the winner of the race could in fact have 6 birds home but is only timing two. Therefore if you end up behind the winner you could in actual fact only have the seventh bird home or worse but you are deemed as being third. Because of where we live we are very rarely going to take any prizes inland so, as I said, it suits us better flying from France where we are in with a fair chance. This year I think (but I'm not 100% positive) we picked up 13 cards out of the 24 available from the four races from France. Obviously we would have liked them all to be firsts but for our first season racing here from France we are both more than happy with this year's performances and aim to improve next season, all being well.
Back to the third young bird race from Hullavington now and the convoy of 2887 birds sent by 146 members were released at 14-00 in a light west south west wind. At the head of the convoy were Adams Bros from Meir taking first and second on 1671 and 1668. Taking the next three fed places with birds all on 1667 was A Stewart from Berryhill, K Pettitt from BlytheBridge had two on 1663 and 1658.6, Fowler Family from Leek were on 1661, Hand Bros from Meir were on 1658, and then we had D Salt from Alton taking the tenth fed card on1657.
The section results are the west section sending 1689 birds from 61 members and was won by Adams Bros.
North section had 27 members sending 559 birds and was won by M Webb from Poynton.
East section had 38 members sending 639 birds and was won by K Pettitt.
This race also incorporated the young bird Moot race and 33 birds were entered from 51 possible candidates and it was won by Foulkes Bros from Berryhill and they won a total of £611. Runners up were Lomas/Shufflebotham winning £407 and third was P Beck winning £364. A total of £1,835 was paid out in prize money and pool money so it is certainly worth entering as first place won £500 prize money alone. Certainly worth considering for next year.
Some club news now with Ipstones first and the club had 8 members sending 125 birds and taking first and second and third was K Champ on 1652, 1647, 1644. Third was J White on 1645. Blythebridge where 4 members sent 86 birds and taking the first three places was K Pettitt on 1663, 1658, 1652. Fourth was G Lindopp on 1638. Macclesfield now where 9 members sent 202 birds and Rick and Simon Geary took the red card on 1634 with a Soontjen x Vandenbeele cock. Press Officer Kevin Bowers is second on 1626 with a Vandenbeele hen bred off stock from John and Sue Clapcott from Bodmin, third are Jill and Brain Smith on 1625 with a Haulterman hen of stock from Frank and Anne Tasker, fourth was young Joe Flood on 1621 with a Staf van Reet x Wildermeersch cock which was bred off birds from fellow club member George Greenwood. Members would like to thank Brian Littlewood from Hazel Grove for sponsoring the race. Now we have Hayfield where 6 members sent 89 birds and taking the first two places was none other than "Mr Nanny", our resident house husband Steve Warhurst on 1568 and 1520. Well done to Steve who puts a lot of work in with his birds and now seems to be finally reaping the rewards as he has bought in a lot of new/stock birds to try and improve and it is working. He puts a lot of training in so he deserves it. I have included a photo of Steve so everybody can regognise him trundling down the M1 with his lorry load of birds.
Steve Warhurst
Taking the next two places was JL Gibb on 1500 and 1455 and I think that is richly deserved with Steve beating Jim in to second place as a few weeks ago Jim "robbed" Steve of £15 by selling him a very old decrepid show basket that you would need a crane to lift. In fact Steve thought at first with the weight of it Jim had left some birds in the basket but there would have needed to have been birds in it to make it worth £15 so I think we will change Jim's name to Dick Turpin. The only difference being Dick Turpin wore a mask when he robbed folk.
Well that is all for now again and as usual if you have anything please send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or a phone call on 01663 733317.