L J Parkinson
I find it strange that after a season trying to get old birds settled and a full season racing young birds, there have been no late turn ups after the season has finished. I say that because as I remember there always used to be the odd pigeon or two turn up in the closed season, that has not happened to me this year. Every time I go out of the house, I look towards the loft to see if there are any waiting to go into the loft. Not that I need more pigeons, the boxes are all accounted for, but as we all know we have lost the odd pigeon that we wished we hadn’t.
The lofts.
Well, we are where we wanted to be 2yrs ago, but things didn’t go as planned with delay after delay. The loft has been extended once again with another 12ft added so that all the birds can be housed in the same loft. The stock birds have been kept separate down the side of the house since we moved here in the early 90’s because of the limited space in the garden. The loft is now slightly over 13mtrs and has 3 sections for the cocks and a section for the hens which will be raced on the roundabout. I have always liked racing the hens, over the years they have achieved some good performances for us, especially in the longer races. I do get more satisfaction from channel racing with the National FC being my main aim. The first year with old birds in 2024 will be totally with yearlings so I am not expecting a lot from across the channel, but they should shape up in the land races. I will be racing in the club on a weekly basis because that is where I have missed out in the past, the local banter on the marking and race nights. Before I took a break from racing all my efforts were put into the channel races and having had time to reflect on that period, I now realise that I have missed out on the weekly races and get together down at the club. I have started preparation for the 2024 season and the pigeons are now all in the sections where they need to be. What I am still looking at are the cocks and hens, although I believe I have sexed them right. I am still watching two of them because they cannot make up their mind what they want to be. I say that because one of them goes quiet when in with the cocks but crows when it is with the hens, what you might call a private pigeon. I have had a few fanciers at the loft who say it’s a hen and looking at her you wouldn’t argue. Now there are 12 cocks to the three sections where the racers are being housed. I would have preferred there to be only 9 but with them all being new to me I am only just sorting out which I have the most confidence in going forward. Many fanciers have had winners that they were not sure of when they sorted them out after a season’s racing. The one in the loft you look at and think to yourself, is it going to make it, go on I’ have a spare box I will keep it. Going into the next season’s racing you are still looking at this pigeon, then you notice a change and it is looking better as time goes by. Although we wouldn’t like to admit it, I think this is where we all see changes that were not there at the end of the previous season. Most fanciers can be in a bit of a hurry and part with pigeons too quickly before they have given them a proper chance, it’s that “Must have the latest fashion in pigeon’s syndrome”. I am so pleased with the pigeons as a team, 36 cocks and a few less hens, but that won’t matter. Over the next couple of years, I am hoping to get a settled team and reduce the numbers to 27 boxes, you know those famous last words, I’ll block the bottom row off. Elizabeth keeps saying with extending the loft I am making more work for myself and that is probably as I am going into 75yrs as next season’s racing commences. Then I think to myself, look at Joe Glover he is 90yrs and still going strong, still the fancier to beat. I must admit I enjoy going in and cleaning out, I do the lot twice a day and any other time I go into the loft I have a long scraper pushing the few droppings to one side as a go through the 8 sections. As anyone who has been following these notes will know, the young birds are nearly all brought in because I didn’t have the time to breed enough for racing. I did breed 16 later ones that I just managed to get into the races when they came back to the shorter race points so that was handy. It has been suggested that I sort them out and get rid of a few to reduce numbers, don’t think so at this moment in time, but as we know times change. How can I do that when they have gone through such a tough training and racing season because they weren’t wrapped in cotton wool, the decision was made they made and they had to go. I remember years ago when I would not send them because I was thinking that I would need them for the future. At my age I no longer have time to molly coddle them, I must work and so must they. Decisions are going to have to be made about vaccinations, any testing, and when and what are going to be paired for breeding and feeding purposes, they won’t all be bred from, some will be used as feeders. You know what happens then, we start racing and one or two pairs that we thought were not good enough to breed off turn out to be good winners. Most fanciers only have so much room for pigeon lofts in their gardens, yes some more than others but we cannot extend as much as we would like to. That is if we want to compete from beginning to end in both club and National races. Well Andy and his team at Ecco lofts have done me a good job this year and I now have the loft I need for the races I want to compete in.
Les J Parkinson's loft now complete
Les Parkinson. 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0NJ.
Tel: +44 (0)1606 836036. Mob: +44 (0)7871 701585.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web site: http://www.elimarpigeons.com