Les J Parkinson - what’s on my mind this week.
Ionizers
Had a call from a fancier about the ionizers, asking if they were working and were they a good investment, when you have had a bad chest with dust anything that keeps it down is a good investment. I bought them and put one to each 6ft section, at first, I as a bit dubious as to whether they were working or not. I gave them three weeks and yes, they came good. I started to feel a difference each time I went into the loft, the air was clearing. You could see the dust starting to show itself in the corners of the loft and when I scrape it up now it doesn’t blow back into the air, it stays on the scraper and into the bucket. When I first got back into racing the pigeons I started with cold symptoms and kept this away from Elizabeth saying it was just a sniffle. It was more than a sniffle, even with a double mask on, my nose was streaming. Every time I cleaned out, I was using no end of tissues, until I thought enough is enough. I was on the brink of parting with the pigeons but decided to give them a last chance with the ionizers. Whatever they send into the air to kill the dust is working, so I am happy with the pigeons again. At times I go into the loft without thinking about a mask and I am happy, but I do wear a light mask as a precaution. If you are in doubt about the dust of pigeons, fit the ionizers they do make a difference. What I must add is, when I cleaned the nest boxes out at the end of the season there was a loft of dust that had been there since breeding, and they did get into my eyes, and they went red. However, that has now all gone, and the loft is back to normal.
Pairing up??
There will be many fanciers in the process of pairing up and breeding their youngsters for the 2025 season. Never had them that early but I am told the rings are sent out on or around the 6th December, a big change from the second weekend of January when we used to get them. I suppose it’s a case of do we prefer to breed later and use the darkness or do we breed early and let them molt naturally. Ray called the other day and said how well the pigeons look and handle. We discussed the coming breeding season. As I said I am not really interested in the young bird races so Ray said I would be as well breeding naturally and save the extra months of cleaning out and have a cheaper corn bill. There are some good races in late August and early September for the young birds, if that’s what you want. The Gold Ring and breeder/buyer races are always an interest to someone. I did go ahead and paired up before Christmas with the first egg appearing 7 days later. Then the following day 2 more and then they all decided to lay. Oddly as it may seem the last three pairs to lay their eggs were the top row of boxes. In the past I have always found that they were the first to lay, all the rest had laid a couple of days earlier. I do have a problem which I can easily sort out and that is as soon as I go into the stock section some come off their eggs and go into the aviary along the front. Be interesting to see how many hatch out, this only happens in the stock loft. We are on this cold snap so that is what may affect the hatching, plenty of time to breed.
Genetics
You cannot get away with anything in the pigeon world, there are some good experts who study anything and everything to do with pigeons. One such issue is genetics in pigeons, what colour can breed what colour. My main interest when I leave the house and go into the office is entering birds onto the website and from time to time, we do get communications that a particular pigeon on the site cannot be bred off the parents on the pedigree as advertised. We all think we have them right when entering the information and even the best can make mistakes, even though they think they don’t. If Fred down the road told me that such a pigeon could not be bred off the parents as stipulated my first port of call is Chris Knowles who is so up today with genetics in racing pigeons. I would ask Chris for the correct information and then out of courtesy I would pass the message on. Unfortunately, the response is often offhanded so that is not going to happen again. In recent years I have found that it is best to keep such things to yourself and not show courtesy to others in the sport, which is not me but that’s the way it’s going to go, I am getting too old to worry about such things. Always remember, no matter what we do in life there is always someone there who knows a little bit more than you do. With the DNA testing that is now available it is easy to check them out. I have heard on several occasions that fanciers have had pigeons tested and they are not what they thought they had purchased. The problem is if you are not breeding in single pens which most fanciers cannot do then there is no guarantee with breeding. I have mentioned it before, but I will finish this section on, when producing a pedigree, unless they are bred in single pens you need to add on the bottom of the pedigree.
“The breeding is believed to be correct at the time of breeding and entering the information onto the PC but cannot be guaranteed because they are bred in an open loft with other pigeons.”
Why do I say that, sooner or later there is someone going to be so unhappy about a pigeon they have bought they may take legal action.
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