The heading says it all, and what an achievement by a loft flying within Section C of the mighty NIPA to just not take the first three positions in the Eastway HPS to which they are members, but then to discover that you had the best three pigeons recorded in the Section with 5,466 pigeons competing, that in itself is a once in a life time achievement, but better was to come, and history made by an East Antrim competing loft taking the top three positions in the NIPA Open - all on the same yard (1415ypm) with 26,870 pigeons sent by 1,164 competing fanciers.
After the dust had settled and upon reflection over breakfast with my father “Homer” (NIPA Press Officer), recently, I ask him to set about organising a visit for myself to complete this loft profile on what was truly a remarkable and historic achievement, achieved by an extremely enthusiastic husband and wife team flying into a very historic area of Whiteabbey which sits just on the outskirts of Carrickfergus in County Antrim.
The Memorial which sits facing the Pearson house in Ypres Park, Whiteabbey. In memory of the Service men from that area who lost their lives during both World Wars and subsequent conflicts including of course the Battle of Ypres.
Forty five year old Timber Sales Rep Michael assisted with hard working wife Ann and daughters Amy (10) and Hannah (8) race to a combination of three lofts set deeply into a very impressive garden over flowing with fabulous greenery, a real paradise for the wild birds, butterflies etc, such is the design and lay out of this expansive garden I have a real feeling that more time is spent here rather than in the house. The house itself is situated in Ypres Park, just around the corner from the Whiteabbey train halt. The row of terraced houses that are Ypres Park have a very historic history and many of the more mature fanciers reading this column and of course the younger ones that had an interest in history during their schooling will know all about the battle of Ypres which took place during the First World War. The row of the houses in question including the one that the Pearson family now own were built for the soldiers and sailors returning to Ulster from World War 1 and especially in relation to the Battle of Ypres which ended the lives of thousands of Ulster troops during the muddy war that lasted many weeks. It is reported that up to 500 hundred thousand Allied Troops lost their lives during the bloody war. A memorial to the fallen soldiers of Ypres Park is situated to the front of Pearson family home.
Michael and Ann purchased the in need of repair property some years ago, with Michael openly admitting he bought the property solely for the back garden, and on further investigation the deeds of the property include the keeping of any livestock, which falls into the history of these remarkable houses, as the allotments to the rear of the properties were used during the War Years to keep livestock on, including horses, donkeys, chickens, goats etc.
Thelma & Louise the Pearsons two chickens have the free run of the whole garden.
In all we have four lofts absorbed by this massive garden, upon entering the garden you would struggle to find the lofts, first thing that normally meets you is a pair of chickens which walk the garden with a full licence, then as you progress up the garden you have the chance to take a seat either in the ‘Pidge Inn’ which is fully kitted out with a Bar (too early in the morning for me), Karaoke Machine with an expansive CD collection, BBQ to the front of the ‘Inn’ and many more features that more times than not see the Pearson family spend Fridays nights there rather than anywhere else, the ‘Pidge Inn’ has also played host to most if not all of the Pearsons fellow clubmates in the Eastway HPS for their Annual BBQ, of course all the Eastway clubmates getting along is nothing new, Ann was telling me that Michael arrives home most nights from the Club with a sore jaw not from fighting but laughter, with the Club members numbering around the 16 mark having a few beer together and more nights than not a Chinese, just the way a Club should be.
The very spacious Stock loft which houses many elite pairs of stock including an Ace Pair of Flor Engles sourced from P & J Boal of Dromore.
The lofts are all of wooden structure known to many at the “Matchbox” Lofts. The Stock loft measures 10’ x 8’ with a fitted aviary which measures close to 13’ x 10’ more than enough room for the 14 pair of stock pigeons, these are made up of a mixture of Flor Engles, Huybregts, Willy Van Herck’s via P & J Boal of Dromore and more recently some Gaby Vandenbeeles from Roy Fenton which will be tried this year for the first by Michael and Ann the stock carrying the best of the “Shadow”, “Benson”, “Jazz”, “Devon” and “Amber Louise” bloodlines.
A Snap of the Widowhood loft that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Open NIPA Clonmel where timed to.
The O/Bird Racing loft measures 12’ x 6’ and is fitted with widowhood box’s running the full length of the loft, a deep litter is used on the floor to allow for some added warmth, the boxes are scrapped once per week and the rough took off the floor again once per week. The Y/Bird’s are raced to a couple of lofts firstly we have a 8’ x 6’ which carries the later team of Y/Birds that aren’t put on the Darkness System, this and the previous couple of lofts mentioned have wooden roofs running from front to back in a 18” slope. The second Y/Bird loft is the main darkness loft measuring 10’ x 6’ this one has a tiled roof and what a difference Michael finds with the ventilation aspect in comparison to the other three lofts, revealing that there is more of a freshness when entering the loft with the tiled roof, something that you will struggle to get moving especially in hot sunny winner with little wind in the air in the other lofts with a sloped roof.
The M & A Pearson team have raced pigeons since 1997, prior to this Michael raced in partnership with his father and brother George Jnr as George Pearson & Sons in the Alexandra Club which is affiliated to the Ulster Federation, Geordie having been in pigeons a lift time, flying the Busschaert pigeons including some of Ronnie Williamson’s of Bondhill. Prior to this, one of the first fanciers to set George and sons Michael and George Jnr up in racing pigeons was Ken Thompsett who also supplied the Pearsons with Busschaerts those being the famous Jeff Horne. Michael recalls one of the very first Nationals they sent to with the INFC was the Skibbereen Y/Bird National in 2006 when the loft finished 5th Open winning £750 and this was achieved with these pigeons gifted to his father Geordie.
The Pearsons garden is full of surprises and here we have a small aviary containing a number of different small birds.
Michael and Ann have enjoyed a fair level of success in the Eastway HPS since then, a Club which they consider very competitive and one that boasts some of the top names currently racing within Section C of the Mighty NIPA currently, many times the best in East Antrim. Michael a few years ago was diagnosed with Pigeon Lung, and was regarded at that time as one of the worst cases ever seen, even being invited to seminars in Scotland. Such was his problems with fevers etc, he got shot of the birds in 2006 and set fire to the lofts as they sat in the garden, to prevent him starting up again, he is often referred to now in the local area as “Burn The Lofts”. With the birds away and the lofts turned to ashes, Michael struggled to do without the pigeons and the banter and friendships he had built up over the years with his fellow pigeon fanciers, weekends were proving nearly impossible to get in, even when Ann bought him a new tool kit to maybe start some building in his work shop, nothing was going to replace the passion and craic he had with the pigeons and fellow fanciers, so within only a few weeks after he burnt his lofts he went and told wife Ann that he was going to start the birds up again, that was in 2006 and the rest is history.
A Nice snap of the winning Pearson family from (L) Hannah, Michael, Ann and Amy winners of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Open NIPA Clonmel.
Since then they have enjoyed many Club success’s including over the last couple of seasons results such as 4th and 7th Open O/Bird Inland National Skibbereen, 9th Open INFC Yearling National and 1st Section, 3rd Open Yearling Cocks National, just to mention a few. This latest one will prove very hard to better, on the 10th of May 2009 13 members of the Eastway Club sent 366 to Clonmel with the NIPA, Michael and Ann timed three pigeons together all coming from the direction of Harland & Wolff which indicated an early arrival, all three pigeons seemed to be racing each other, low and behold all three lit straight on the landing board with next to no breaks on and went straight through the trap followed by a beep, beep and beep, Michael and Ann looked at themselves thinking just the same thought “did you just see that” never before have they seen such a sight, three pigeons visible from the distance battling with each other, coming straight over the trees, no laps of honour as you would get with two pigeons together never mind three, nope straight to the landing board and straight into the loft, less than 10 seconds you would have missed it, the three pigeons finished 1st, 2nd & 3rd Club, during the course of the evening and viewing the results as they appeared on our Website http://www.pigeonnetwork.com it became apparent that they had also won 1st, 2nd & 3rd Section C NIPA with 260 members sending 5,466 pigeons, rumour was already hitting fever pitch that they could very well have the best pigeon in the NIPA Open Result and of course after timing at 12.38 and 35 seconds with the first one and 12.38 and 35 seconds with the second and the third one coming out at 12.38 and 37 seconds, flying 175 miles and all three recording a velocity of 1415ypm, surely then the other two would be knocking on the door also. During late Saturday and the early part of Sunday it became more and more likely that the loft was in fact going to finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd Open NIPA with all three pigeons on the same yard and that’s exactly how it panned out, an unbelievable performance by three pigeons in terrific form battling each other to the loft.
A Pair of Love Birds pictured in another small Aviary further up the Pearson’s wonderful garden.
Now here we have three pigeons all on the same yard finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd Open NIPA some would say they all were there to win 1st Open but when using the ETS it automatically sorts it out and the first pigeon on the printout was a yearling Blue cock of Janssen breeding he is coming down from a cock sourced from Johnny Smyth a brother of Dickie Smyth’s of the Shankill who won the Ulster Federation Skibbereen Classic just a few weeks ago. This pigeon contains all the top lines of the ‘019’ and was originally sourced from Herman Beverdam. Now the Dam of the Blue cock a Van Den Bosche was sourced from Paddy McManus of the Young McManus & Sons partnership of Ahoghill, in County Antrim. I have lost count of the top quality pigeons that I have wrote about that Paddy has supplied to fanciers, with the vast majority going on to breed the goods, and I myself are no exception Paddy supplying me with a hen when I first started racing in 1991, this hen supplied us with a number of good pigeons including one to win the New North Open from Talbenny. This Open winner for Michael and Ann only received one race as a youngster as did the following two we are going to mention, the Blue cock previously scoring last year in the Rosscarbery Yearling Cocks National finishing 14th Section C & 33rd Open NIPA.
2nd Open finishing on the same velocity right back to the third decimal point as the Blue cock was a Dark Cheq yearling cock Flor Engles breeding containing the best lines of the famous “Den 231” in this one, this pigeon previously finished 9th Section C & 9th Open NIPA this time last year for Michael and Ann competing against 6,468 pigeons. His nest-mate also a Dark Cheq is also a good racer having already finished in 2007 2nd Club, 3rd Section C & 3rd Open NIPA Tullamore with 11,273 pigeons competing, then in 2008 1st Club, 1st Section & 3rd Open Rosscarbery Yearling National followed up this year with a 26th Section C NIPA with 5,614 pigeons competing. More is to come for the 3rd Open winner also on the same yard remember is also a Dark Cheq and you have guessed it right, is yet again a full brother to the 2nd Open winner and its nest mate, now how is that for a performance family?
Michael was telling me that he has had five sons of this Ace Breeding pair and all the Dark Cheq’s are prolific racers, if you get a Light Cheq, they have yet to prove anywhere near as good as the Darkie’s. Also to be taken into consideration as I pointed out before hand all these three pigeons were on the Darkness System as youngsters only getting one race of just over 100 miles and then rested.
The Darkness Babies just after a fly and a bath soak up a few rays of sunshine.
Now where did he get such a prolific pair of breeders from, a pair we all dream of owning the answer, Philip Boal of the formidable P & J Boal team from Dromore in County Down. I could give you a run down of the awesome racing and breeding that this loft is responsible for, but best you visit their website by going to http://www.pigeonnetwork.com and clicking on their moving banner along the top of the home page. Awesome pigeons managed and raced by an incredible fancier.
Now back to the task on hand, they have the pigeons, I have explained the loft including the scrapping once per week, and the deep litter, the O/Birds are raced on the Widowhood system, well semi as Michael calls it, as it has been developed to allow for his work commitments and to make the sport of pigeon racing an enjoyable hobby rather than a hateful task. Now take note the drinkers are never washed, and up until this year they were never treated for anything other than the yearly vaccination as per requirements, Michael feels that this is where a lot of today’s problems associated with the pigeons have come from, the fanciers themselves being too clean. The modern pigeons of today have very little to no immune system, you go to any of the drinkers in any of the Pearson lofts you will see for yourself they might be emptied out every day but, that’s as far as it goes, unless as I am sure fellow club mate Billy Whiteside will vouch for he cleans them once per year when left in charge when the Pearsons head to Blackpool for the Annual Show. So now we have scrapped once per week, on deep litter and drinker never cleaned, you will not find any minerals or grit either, the pigeons can pick about the ground when they have their freedom. They exercise remarkably hard daily both morning and night often disappearing for up to 40 minutes at a time. So they often are allowed to enter the greenery around the spacious gardens and pick about.
The Pearsons used to race the hens also but have found it to be too demanding and have conceded for the foreseeable future that this will remain the case. The Number of widowhood cocks the loft started with this season was 26 up until race eight they had lost three, and of the 23 remaining ones nine had been prize winners for the Pearson family so an all round loft performance. They cocks are fed on the floor of the loft via a hopper, this entails Gerry Plus on return from racing up till Wednesday morning, they then go onto a Super Widowhood mixture mixed with a normal Widowhood corn with Verse Laga the favoured choice. In the water you will find Aviform Ultimate which the loft wouldn’t be without, this is given on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Gervit Multi Vitamins given on a Thursday. On return from racing they will get Electrolytes in the water and will one week during Saturday and Sunday have Garlic Oil and Brewers Yeast added to corn with Lemon Juice added then the following week, this will continue to cycle during the course of the season.
As mentioned previously they have never treated before up until this year, when Michael came into contact with Gordon Parker of Glenavy, who had called at Michael’s loft reference a bird he had got in, they got talking and Gordy as he is known locally here in Lisburn offered to check Michael’s pigeons after checking he gave Michael some advice and products to treat for Canker, Cocci and Worms. Also as previously mentioned they fly very well when getting their freedom often out for 1 & ½ hours in the morning and an hour in the evening, they will receive a couple of tosses prior to the start of the season from 18 miles and will only receive further basket training should their performance or lack of it around the home merit it. Elaborating a bit further when posed the question in regard to feeding, they are given the feeding by hand into the hopper bit by bit until Michael feels that they have got enough, this can be judged a number of ways Michael keeps a watchful eye for pigeons starting to select what they are eating or more than 2 going to the drinker at the same time, this in Michaels eyes suggests time to lift the food, the feeding process normally lasts for around 15 – 20 mins with Michael remaining in the loft for the complete duration.
The hens are kept in their own section on poles with a grilled floor, Michael has found that they loose some of their edge during the middle of the season and has over the last couple of years including when I visited re-paired the widowhood pigeons, with the majority of the hens having just laid up when I was at the loft during the early part of June.
The stock pigeons are very well looked after and as well as a great amount of space especially with the added aviary they get the best of everything including additives on the corn almost daily, Homoform is also added to the corn during breeding and supplements in the water is as it is for the O/Birds during each week. Red Minerals and Grit is also readily available in a number of locations around the stock loft.
The relatively young Natural Y/Birds looking out for a fly.
Darkness is the preferred option for Y/Bird racing, although a few are reared for the Natural, they are normally brought of the darkness around the middle of June, but due to the excellent Summer conditions Northern Ireland has been basking in for the last couple of weeks and due to the heat within the loft, it was decided to end the Darkness a fortnight early this year. Tossing starts when ever he is very confident that they are performing well around home during there freedom that lasts for one hour morning and night, once again force flying is never required. If Michael feels they are getting a bit lazy then the hamper will be deployed.
The first toss for the youngsters is 18 miles; they will receive a number of these before being put onto the transporter. When the transportation of the pigeons starts with respect to training they will see it as many as four to five times a week, up until racing begins then it will cease unless the results suggest differently. Feeding is Gerry Plus morning and night and once again the feeding is conducted by Michael who is present in the loft during the whole process and their requirements are judged just like the Widowhood cocks, when a number of them go to the drinker, then time to lift the feeder, i.e. If the pecking noise becomes slower and a more searching motion going on with the corn it will be lifted, of all the loft profiles I have put together over the years this is only the second time, that I have been made aware of this system, that’s not saying that their isn’t more using it !!! Martin Russell, was the other loft and the very first person to explain it to me about three years ago, and what a racing record M & F Russell assisted with the ever capable Heather have had over the last number of years. For Michael and Ann Pearson Cider Vinegar is very important with the youngsters and they will get this up to four times a week, with Aviform Ultimate also added to the water during the week, and once again drinkers are never washed, also this is only the second time I have come across this taking place in a loft, and also the other fancier not to far away from me who doesn’t wash his drinkers also has his fair share of success.
Well that’s it for this loft profile following a quite incredible performance by the M & A Pearson team from the Whiteabbey area of Northern Ireland flying with the Mighty NIPA. I hope I have given them the justice they deserve for such a performance and you the reader have enjoyed this lengthy profile, it takes a bit of time, but loft profiles should take time to get the feeling of the fancier and his pigeons before putting pen to paper. The Pearson's are a wonderful family who race incredible pigeons to a magical location surrounded by wonderful greenery and wildlife.
I will close by thanking the Pearson family for their hospitality during my quick visit and wish them continued success for the rest of the season and the many years to follow and until next time hope you enjoyed the article.
Adie McCormick
Irelands Own Pigeon Auctions
http://www.pigeonnetwork.com
E-mail: celestiallofts@aol.com
Tel: (028) 92 604778