THE ONLY WAY IS TO ESSEX
Gareth Watkins visits
MARK BULLED
Along with my mate Ieuan Williams and the "travelling cockney" John Wills I recently paid a return visit to some of the top fanciers in Essex who race with the BICC. So it was that I set out on a cold, crisp but thankfully dry January morning to make my way down to Cardiff to meet up with Ieuan. We were soon off up the M4 motorway and made the journey to John Wills' home in Sunbury on Thames in excellent time. It was good to have a chat with Brian Goodwin who was also visiting the Wills household. After a quick cup of tea and some pastries kindly provided by Jackie, we were soon out in the garden looking at the Wills team of long distance racers before setting off for our next port of call, the home of King's Cup winner and all round good guy Mark Bulled at Harlow.
Mark with his Tarbes National winner
Mark's wife Hana had baked a lovely cake and we settled down for another quick cuppa and some cake before eagerly heading out into the garden to view the Bulled team.
Ieuan and I had handled the Bulled pigeons on a previous visit and to say we were impressed would be an understatement. John Wills was of the same opinion, as we handled winner after winner including chequer pied cock "Rocky" this season's winner of 1st Open BBC Fougeres plus "Legacy" the King's Cup winner from Tarbes.
It was my first time to handle Legacy and he didn't disappoint being just a tad above medium sized with a strong back and what I would call a "tawny" eye set in a bold broad skull.
Rocky was of a similar type but just a little smaller in the hand but what a record he has in classic competition winning 1st section BICC Alencon earlier in the season before going on to win the BBC Fougeres race, not forgetting his earlier success of 2nd Open NFC Messac of a season or two ago. Rocky is bred down from what Mark refers to as his Red Bull family that regularly put up excellent performances in races up to 350 miles. This family is of Soontjen base, crossed with a red Busschaert of Champion Clapper lines with some Staf Van Reets via Mark Sands added to the mix.
All birds handled were in A1 condition being fed on a diet made up I would estimate of 30% beans and 70% barley at the time of our visit in late January. This is what I wrote on the Bulled set up after my initial visit in January 2014 and I feel sure that fanciers won't mind me going over "old ground" when applied to such a highly successful back yard loft:-
As many will know Mark is a King's Cup winner from Tarbes with the NFC in 2012 and prior to that great win had enjoyed great success on the north road through to Thurso and Lerwick with the London North Road Combine. These successes came when flying in partnership with his late Dad, Cecil and latterly alone. In addition to these long distance successes Mark has also enjoyed great success in sprint and middle distance racing albeit with a different family of pigeons to his long established long distance family of racers.
THE BEGINNING
Mark's father Cecil was, without doubt, the most knowledgeable and best fancier he has ever met. Cecil had a very sensible and simple approach to pigeon racing. He treated pigeons hard but fair and expected results. Cecil taught Mark not to mollycoddle the birds and not to worry about the ones that couldn’t make the grade advice that he noted well. Another piece of advice that Mark has heeded came from his Dad Cecil’s good friend, Bill Bailey of Harlow, himself a double LNRC winner “Pigeon racing is the continual process of testing”.
In the last old bird season that they raced together in partnership Mark and Cecil won 9th LNRC Stonehaven, 3rd LNRC Thurso and 1st LNRC Lerwick winning the coveted Tommy Long Trophy for the best average in the three longest LNRC races. In 1996, aged 25, Mark bought his own home and started racing in his own right.
Mark and Dad Cecil
THE LOFTS
Mark still races to the same loft that he started with in 1996 after his move to his present home. It is a basic “Blake’s Lofts” construction, L-shaped to fit into his small garden. No tiled roof, no corridor. There are two five foot sections with 8 boxes, one 10 foot section with 16 boxes and a third 10 foot section for storage and widowhood hens. This loft faces south and East. In addition Mark has a new young bird loft and has recently moved the stock birds into what was the young bird loft. That is the sum total of the Bulled set up.
On his move, Cecil bred Mark a team of babies which were supplemented with youngsters from friends, and the whole lot raced under the methods that Mark and his Dad had put together during their successful partnership era. The Fed YB average was won in the first year, and Mark ended up top flyer in the North London Fed the following season a star was "reborn" so to speak. Not long after moving to his own home Mark also won the LNRC Lerwick and LNRC Berwick.
Mark's modest set-up
MANAGEMENT
The lofts are cleaned daily in the summer and the nest boxes have plastic grills fitted to reduce the work load slightly. During the winter the lofts are cleaned when time allows but always at least once weekly at the weekend. Young birds are kept on deep litter from weaning until July when they too are cleaned daily.
The old bird race team consists of 24 widowhood cocks plus 8 cocks paired to 16 hens. Mark mates 8 younger hens to 8 yearling cocks, leaving his older hens celibate. Once the first round young birds are reared, both the yearling cocks and younger hens are raced widowhood in the early part of the season.
The 8 older hens are raced celibate for the first races but are introduced to the yearling cocks before and after the race. They are then paired to the yearling cocks for their selected long distance race and this gives Mark a maximum of 48 old bird racers.
At present Mark has 14 pairs of stock but this can vary if he decides to make some new introductions to trial. A team of 60-70 young birds are bred annually from the stock birds and the best of the tried and tested old bird race team. The old birds are mated at different times but usually around late January/early February each year. All birds are mated at the same timewith the exception of the hens that Mark has earmarked for the long distance races in June and July.
Mark outside the widowhood loft
RACE PREPARATION
Mark likes his pigeons to maintain a certain level of fitness throughout the year and he is fortunate that he doesn’t have a major hawk problem although he has lost the odd pigeon including his 2nd Open BBC winner off the loft in recent times. The pigeons fly out every weekend during the winter so they can bath and Mark can then give the loft a thorough weekly clean. Once the birds are through the moult a high percentage of farm barley is introduced to the daily feed. All cocks rear a nest, and get as much exercise as possible once young birds are feathered. The young birds are weaned with the hens before they lay again and daily exercise will then commence. Once going with a swing the cocks get at least 6 tosses before the first race.
When at exercise the cocks are locked out for an hour to do as they please. They don’t always fly the hour but they are always on the move. Hens don’t fly well at all so Mark resorts to gentle persuasion by throwing a ball at them if they land too early!
Because of time restrictions the racers only go out once per day with the hens out 6am before work in the morning and the cocks out for an hour (or longer if they are flying well) after Mark returns from work in the evening. The young birds go out after the cocks have finished their exercise stint in the evening.
Once their pre season training has been completed Mark never trains the widowhood cocks after the first race. Hens will not get any routine training but if he is going anywhere he will take them with him in order to keep their minds on the job in hand. This training does not usually extend beyond 20 40 miles but it is usually against the prevailing wind ensuring that the birds have to work hard to get home.
There is no specific preparation for National race candidates as Mark is content to ensure that the birds have had plenty of good food the last few days before and that they are basketed calm and quiet. As far as widowhood cocks are concerned Mark always shows the hen no matter what distance to be flown. He has tried not showing the hen but has found that he always has more success when the hens are introduced to the cocks for a short time before basketing.
Interior of the yb loft
YOUNG BIRDS
The Bulled young bird team is extensively schooled in their year of birth, something that Mark believes to be essential. Before the first race he likes to train them up to 30 miles North, South, East and West. They may get 20 tosses before the first race. Training around the clock like this can prove very difficult with losses, but Mark is convinced that it’s a very important part of their education. They will then go to every race in the program, but not necessarily over the water as young birds. Mark makes a note of everything in his “little black book” so that he has a ready made dossier on every pigeon. Most of his good channel pigeons were well raced as babies but only inland.
The young birds are raced on the natural system and Mark allows them to pair if they wish thus ensuring that they hold better feather. He has also enjoyed a fair degree of success with young birds feeding babies. However, Mark does not attach much significance to young bird racing as he firmly believes that the winners of the young bird races are generally the fanciers who have their young birds on the darkness system and who train the most.
FEEDING
The race team are fed by hand although Mark doesn’t measure the food, but feeds purely by instinct. They are all fed twice daily in their boxes with no corn left overnight. The sprint and distance birds are fed very similarly as Mark makes up three mixtures for his race needs and feeds according to his instincts, as such the feed may vary from day to day during the week.
Young birds are fed in trays generally as much as they can eat on a GEM Cowood mixture with at least 20% barley included. Feeding stops once they leave the barley.
Stock pigeons are hopper fed on a good solid breeding mix. All corn is bought in bulk from Gem Supplements and this usually lasts most of the year. Mark has found through trial and error that this is the best quality and most economical corn on the market. He usually buys the breeding mixture which he uses all year round for general purpose, plus the Cowood mixture for Young bird racing. He also buys a few bags of Versele Laga Super Widowhood and Superstar Plus, maize and peanuts which are also added to the base mix at various times during racing season.
The maize and peanuts are added to the racers’ feed once the race distance goes beyond 200 miles. Good quality farm barley and tic beans are also used in the mix during the winter months.
Die Hard, the father of the loft.
BLOODLINES
Mark has developed two very distinct families for racing.
The origins of his distance family can be traced back to the 1950s and originate mainly from the original Westcotts and Jock Reid’s, Stenhousemuir, famous “Big Hen” lines. The Westcott’s came from Mark’s Dad’s best friend Bill Bailey, who bred Cecil’s first London North Road Combine Thurso winner “The Owl” the only bird on the day from 5700 birds.
The Owl’s four Grandparents were:-
NU58CC 469 Bred by W Westcott
NU60WA934 A granddaughter of Keeble’s King’s Cup winner (Keeble was Westcott’s loft manager I believe?)
SURP62NW1666 A daughter of Jock Reid’s, Stenhousemuir, Big Hen
NU60WA934 As above, granddaughter of Keeble’s King’s Cup winner
The current distance team originate from this line and this family have produced 500 mile winners in every generation. Over the years Mark has experimented with the odd pigeons from top distance pigeons to cross into them and has found that the best cross was the old Busschaerts that his Dad bought in 1980. In more recent years a couple of very good pigeons have come from Roy Fox (Fox and Justice, Harrow) and more recently some good birds have been introduced from Darran Mcfadden, Cranleigh.
However the main bloodline is still predominately The Owl, Westcott/Bruton blood, which Mark refers to as “the old family” or a “Bulled Pigeon”. It was particularly gratifying for Mark, having always wanted to win Pau [now Tarbes], to win the 2012 Grand National from Tarbes with a “Pure Bulled”.
During my visit I handled many representatives of the old "Bulled Family" and it took me back more than 40 years to when my father and I raced the old Wally Grantham Westcotts, as they were absolute "spitting images" of our old family of Westcotts. Medium sized long cast bold headed cocks and small to medium sized shallow keeled hens. Fine boned and buoyant with surprisingly big wings in proportion to their body size. The only difference being the eyesign on the "Bulled family" which was uniformly outstanding. These pigeons certainly don't need a petrol bowser and a new set of tyres to keep them fit.
The second family of sprint pigeons are mainly based on Soontjens which Mark introduced from Frank Sheader in 1992. These immediately won the Fed out of turn and Mark has subsequently introduced top individual pigeons into this Soontjen base and in particular a fantastic Red Busschaert from John Taylor, plus Janssen x Van Loons from Robbie Wilton and a Staf Van Reet hen from Mark Sands. These pigeons of mainly Soontjen bloodlines have won consistently in the sprint/ middle distance races for Mark making him a true “all rounder” in pigeon racing terms. We handled winner after winner from this sprint family, some with 7 x 1sts Fed to their credit as well as good turns in middle distance classic races.
In order to develop his present day all distance families Mark has employed both inbreeding and line breeding with line breeding proving the most successful. If Mark introduces a cross into either of his two breeding lines he immediately goes back to his original line, resulting in 75% Bulled sprint or long distance blood in the progeny.
Day Return
MEDICATION & SUPPLEMENTS
Mark confesses to having a very limited knowledge of medication and as a result tries to keep medication to a minimum as when he has tried the common route of medicating more often, he found that the birds’ performances dipped. He prefers his Dad’s theory of looking to dispose of the worse pigeon in the loft at all times.
Mark takes the pragmatic approach that if you think of how many fit, healthy, well bred pigeons we all have that rarely win - what chance does a poorly young bird have? Very little.
His basic programme would be to vaccinate the whole loft against PMV after the moult, then simply a canker treatment before breeding and a worm treatment before racing. During racing, if he feels that something was wrong or performances were poor he would get the droppings analysed and treat accordingly. He doesn’t treat for Paratyphoid or respiratory ailments.
Readers should not think that Mark is averse to treating if things are wrong, but fails to see the need of routine treatment of pigeons that are in good health. Of course, most fanciers have problems from time to time with their young bird teams and if this arises in the Bulled set up then the worse ones are immediately disposed of. However, Mark does keep a general antibiotic to hand which can be used in emergencies.
He is not convinced on the use of supplements and believes that we as fanciers only use them so that we believe we are doing the best that we can by our birds. He keeps to a very basic program of honey on return from a race, Naturaline on Saturday/Sunday, and Johnsons Tonic/multi vitamin alternatively on a Wednesday.
During the winter or with young birds prior to racing he will give either cider vinegar, garlic or an oregano supplement from time to time, which he believes is probably more for the maker’s benefit rather than the good it does the pigeons. Mark feels that two supplements that cost nothing and would be his number one and two are sunshine and fresh air!
The Owl, 1st Open LNRC Thurso 1975 only bird on the day from more than 5,000 birds for Cecil Bulled.
PERFORMANCES
Some of the highlights of Mark’s career in the sport are listed here:-
1st NFC Tarbes & KING’S CUP
1st LSECC Tarbes
1st and 2nd BBC Fougeres
1st LNRC Lerwick
1st LNRC Berwick Yearling
LNRC Tommy Long Winner
2 x LSECC Flyer of the Year
Awarded London Region Top South Road loft
Mark is unaware of any other fancier who has won London Region Top Loft (overall) on the North and South routes i.e. Lerwick in LNRC and Tarbes LSECC These being the Longest races organised by London organisations on North and South routes plus the Tommy Long/LSECC Flyer of the year the Main Award organised by the London Organisations (North and South). If anyone has then its a terrific feat and deserves full recognition.
Twice London Region Top North Road Loft
Three times North London Flyer of the year
Over 40 Federation sprint winners
A total of 7 x 1sts LNRC plus 1st LSRC Bergerac were won on the north road when racing with his dad and also when racing alone to his present set up. The LSECC has been won on two occasions, once from Thurso when channel racing was suspended, and in 2012, in addition to winning the King’s Cup from Tarbes with the NFC, Mark also won 1st & 2nd Open in the BBC Fougeres Charity Race competing against more than 1,700 pigeons.
However, the performance that has given Mark most pleasure was probably winning the LSECC Tarbes race with “Sargeant Cecil”, his first major classic win on the south road. “Sargeant Cecil” had already been a top pigeon and Mark worked out a program for her to enable her to win Tarbes. This program was carried out with the help of Mark’s wife Hana who was at home on maternity leave after giving birth to a beautiful baby girl Abbie. Hana was able to let the birds out for exercise in the late afternoon so that they were ready to come in when Mark got home from work. It worked perfectly and “Sargeant Cecil” won the race by a very long margin. Nevertheless, Mark feels sure that he will be remembered more for his Tarbes National win in 2012.
TOP PIGEONS
Mark considers a pigeon named “Die Hard” as the best pigeon he has ever owned. As a racer Die Hard won a LNRC Hall of fame award for winning 3rd, 3rd and 45th LNRC Thurso, which included twice first Fed Thurso.
As a breeder he has produced 1st NFC Tarbes and 1st LNRC Berwick. He is also Grandsire to 1st LSECC Tarbes and 1st Scottish National Niort. He is 16 years old now and just recently reared another healthy young bird, highlighting the constitution of the old family.
In sprint racing terms the best one seems to be “The Red” which has also been something special. Not only a winner of 3 times first Fed himself, he is also the Sire/Grandsire of well over 10 Fed winners.
Some of Mark's other top long distance performers are:-
Day Return Dark Cock LNRC Hall of Fame Award winner taking 11th 55th 80th LNRC Thurso. In 7 full years racing he only ever had one night out. He was a great grandson of the Owl, and was Mark's father's favourite pigeon, being sire and grand sire of many top distance performers and breeders.
The Ugly Hen (Blue) LNRC Hall of Fame Award winner taking 4th 43rd 55th 97th LNRC Thurso. She was also Dam of 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 18th, 26th LNRC 5th 7th LSECC.
The above pair are parents of Die Hard another LNRC Hall of Fame Award winner mentioned above who is also Sire of Legacy 1st NFC Tarbes
Legacy Chequer Cock 1st NFC Tarbes winning the KIng's Cup.
Sergeant Cecil Chequer Hen1st LSECC Tarbes, 19th LSECC Bergerac, 48th LSECC Tours, 52nd LSECC Tarbes, 88th LSECC Alencon.
Eastbourne 1st BBC Fougeres
Hana 6th LSECC Tarbes, 8th LSECC Alencon, 48th LSECC Bergerac.
Pied Hen 11th LSECC Tarbes (only bird in section on day). 16th LSECC Tours, 29th LSECC Tarbes.
Some of the current race team handled during our time at Mark's were:-
"Bump" 18th BICC Alencon, 29th BBC Bordeaux, 73rd NFC Cholet, 2nd Open BBC Bordeaux.
"Old Slate" 10th BICC Marseille, 17th LSECC Tarbes, 59th 80th LSECC Bergerac, 86th BICC Pau, Flown Perpignan and is to be set up for a tilt at Barcelona in 2015 if all goes well.
"Houdini" 2nd BBC Fougeres (arrived with winner), 28th BBC Messac, 50th NFC Messac, 81st BICC Le Mans
"Rocky" 2nd NFC Messac, 64th BBC Carentan; 1st Open BBC Fougeres, plus 1st section BICC Alencon beating more than 2,000 pigeons. Both these latter performances in 2014.
Most of these top performers have now been retired to stock in 2015.
The Ugly Hen
LIKES & DISLIKES
Mark doesn’t like big pigeons full stop and there are none in his loft. He believes that racing pigeons should be well balanced and have good feather. His distance pigeons are very lightly framed, carry no weight, and are long cast with good wings and rich hazel eyes. The sprint pigeons on the other hand are apple bodied, small but powerfully built and sit in the hand with perfect balance.
He does like eyesign but has seen many champion pigeons with what would be considered poor eyes and as a result feels that fanciers should tread very carefully when using eyesign for stock selection.
IN CONCLUSION
Mark believes the most important thing to be successful at the distance is to have the right bloodline. His father instilled in him at a very early age to work pigeons hard and not to worry about the ones that fall by the wayside. They just weren’t good enough. Get them in the best condition you can and never be afraid to send your best to the big races.
The stock loft is very important. You must have the right bloodlines in the “bank”.
There you have it then, the story of how a relatively young man steeped in the history and traditions of the sport from a very young age and tutored by an outstanding fancier in the shape of his father Cecil, has achieved long lasting success at the highest level of the sport on both North and South routes."
This second visit only reaffirmed the impression I formed on my initial visit - that Mark Bulled must be one of, if not THE best "small" team, back garden fancier in the UK at the present time. This man continues to win from 60 - 600 miles at club, Fed and National level with monotonous regularity and all these performances achieved racing a modest team to a small back garden set up. I take my hat off to you Mark.
After the enjoyment of handling this feast of top class pigeons, we were soon off to our base for the weekend in Wickford. This journey was not without its funny moments I can tell you. Our navigator for the weekend- Ieuan was sat in the back seat reading out road directions from an AA route finder print out. Well, he was until we reached the outskirts of Wickford, when suddenly, all audible directions ceased. All we could hear was a chomping from the rear seats. When asked for directions at a roundabout a mumbled reply came through accompanied by a spray of rice. Our navigator had only brought a take away vegetable curry and rice with him for his lunch and was busy munching away when he should have been giving directions!
In the next instalment of our Essex odyssey I hope to highlight the lofts of Tony and Pat Mahoney, Dickie and Steve Pearmain and David Hales. Stay tuned if you are interested in long distance pigeon racing.
To be continued
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Elimar - January 2015