Miodrag Krivokapic of Greenfield Club,Lanarkshire Federation ,Scotland

Top footballer and Pigeon Fancier.

Mio Krivokapic

 

Miodrag Krivokapic , is a Montenegrin former footballer who played in defence. He played for Red Star Belgrade and represented Yugoslavia before moving to Scotland in 1988, where he went on to play for a number of clubs, including Dundee United and Motherwell.

Krivokapic joined Dundee United in 1989 from Red Star, where he had previously won four international caps. He stayed with United until 1993, picking up a Scottish Cup runners-up medal in 1991, before spending three years at Motherwell. Krivokapic had spells with Raith Rovers and Hamilton Academical before retiring. He was also reserve team coach at Hamilton winning the Scottish Reserve League in 199798. He had a four-game spell as caretaker manager of Motherwell in 2001 .In June 2008, Krivokapic returned to Scotland when he was appointed by Celtic to work on youth development.

Mio now lives in the lovely village of Bothwell  a conservation village in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. It lies on the north bank of the River Clyde, adjacent to Uddingston and Hamilton, 9 miles (14 km) east-south-east of Glasgow city centre.

 

We were joined by Mios good friend John Leggate, also of Greenfield club.John is a well respected member of the pigeon fraternity and himself and others like Ken Buchanan have helped Mio settle into his beloved sport in Scotland.

Mio with good friend John Leggate

Mio gets his passion of pigeons from his father in Montenegro and his family race their at present.Initially it was the high flyers that was kept but he tells me the racing side is growing well among the 650,000 countries population,clubs increasing throughout the land.

 

He has been in pigeons a relatively short time but has quickly risen to the top,how is this ,well its because his affinity to his feathered friends.His bond with his pigeons is remarkable.They simple love him and the feeling is mutual.

Mio speaks with kindness and bond that has a remarkable reward,This reward firstly for Mio is an inner feeling of well being and a genuine desire for his feathered friends to enjoy their loft.

Mios small loft set up

His loft is clean,well i would say spotless,when Mio entered the loft he took his slippers off.The birds have a  tameness that can only be managed through trust for each other.These birds just sit on the perches and allow Mio to handle them,not one pigeon jumped out his way.He walked among them ,showing them his trust in them.In the loft he has a small pocket radio which was tuned into classic FM,well what else for these chilled out pigeons.

 

View of perches and upper ventilation

They are all raced every week up to the ninth race,only a couple of old favourites that have been injured are not racers.

A small loft ,made from two 8 x 4 overlap sheds, modified into one of Lanarkshires best lofts 2017.The loft is small beautifully looked after and immaculate.

The total loft consists of around 26 racers with around 15 youngsters bred each season.One round paired around start of February and that it,with the odd pigeon from friends added.

He only races around 9 old bird races per year as he has to take his family holiday ,His youngsters are only raced lightly due him starting the training after the racing starts.He never suffers the dreaded young bird syndrome and says his birds droppings are observed.

 

The old birds and youngsters stay together throughout the season and the nest boxes are closed(off season) but sexes never separated. They also pick their own mates each season.

Unique Nestboxes (Open) in Mio's Loft

They are allowed exercise early morning till around 1pm and then fed,simple isn't it,No widowhood,roundabout just good old natural flying.During the season they receive three training flights per week,two from the Campsie hills(20 miles) and one from the south around Abington area(20 miles).

Any pigeon that hasn't raced the week before will be trained over the weekend.

During the non racing season he has to watch the exercise closely as he has been victim to the dreaded raptors.Throughout the year he has great help from his wife, who will organise exercise and trapping.His son will also help out if required.  

Trapping system for ETS system

 

His birds originate from Dave Pierre of Aberdeen,McCormick & Hughes(Uddingston),Jim Hannah (Blantyre),Ken Buchanan(Hamilton) and a stray red cock from Mr Burton of Wigan . These have all been blended to provide him with great sport each week.

 

Mio spends lots of his time bonding with the pigeons ,studying their behaviour daily and looking for the change in form.He handles every bird frequently ,noting such things as weight and balance.

 

He feeds the birds only the best of four mixes Vesela Laga ,Gerry plus.,Marimans Varimax,VL Breed and Ween ,VL Best All Round ,Diet 200.Birds are never kept short and he traps using a mixture of seeds and peanuts.

He uses a build up feed system Light to Strong by end of week with last feed of seed mix at 2pm on Friday to get the to drink.

All birds feeding

 

ETS system (Unikon) was supplied by his club and Mio thinks its great,as he cant always be there.  

 

In the water he uses Aviform products each day throughout the season ,de lice one drop and also 3 in 1 tablet once every 3 or 4 weeks during the season.He also adds Yazoo milk to the water,full 500ml bottle to 2 litre drinker on a Saturday,or maybe it will be Honey or maybe or Sedechol.He laughed that his son shakes his head at what goes in the water. Mio said he is always looking for something he thinks would be good for the pigeons.Everything .and anything that he feels keeps them in good health.

It is working for Mio with seven firsts clubs and fourteen federation tickets,which includes 1st Open Lanarkshire federation .

Mio keeps excellent records of his pigeons each week,recording when every one returns.

He has been fortunate that he hasn't lost lots of pigeons but this year lost his best racer 8999, a hen bird that had performed extremely well.He has a new star in the loft a blue cock which recorded three firsts,racing to the perch,as he didn't have a hen.

Loft sign 

 

Mio is a very modest man and wasn't forward at telling of his wins,but take it from myself, he has been racing great for a number of years in the Lanarkshire.

 

Old birds races 2017

Longtown ,15th April -1st Sect ,1st Open Federation ,2,630 birds vel 1145 .Blue Cock Su 16 L 4961 also 8th sect

Longtown ,22nd April -1st sect,4th Open Federation ,4,977 birds vel 1263 Red cock Su 16 4978

Appleby ,29th April-2nd Sect ,3rd Open 5,835 birds vel 1866 Su 16 L 4977 Blue hen ,also 14th Sect

Ingleton ,6th May -2nd Sect ,2nd Open,5,137 birds vel 1280 Blue cock Su 16 L 4961 ,also 5th Sect

CH/Richards 13th May -15th Sect ,1586 birds Blue Cock Su 15 L 6685 vel 1470

Stafford -20th May -5th Sect ,1304 birds Blue Cock Su 16 L 5183 vel 1397

Leicester 28th May 6th sect,28th Open,816 birds Blue Cock Su 16 L 4961  Vel 1066

Bedhampton 17th June  17th Sect,61 st Open,982 birds Check Cock Su 12 AB 3446  vel 1020

Appleby 24th June -10th Sect ,1077 birds Su 15 L 6692  Blue cock vel 1163

 

 

Mio has no ambitions in the sport,just to enjoy the competition in Greenfield and the Lanarkshire federation..  

 

I would like to thank Mio and his wife for a lovely lunch and the chance to talk about his methods and results.Also to John Leggate for his help in arranging the loft report.  

 

Tom Corrie jnr

Lanarkshire Press Officer

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