Bilco - RP Column 24/07/09

The articles displayed within the Bilco's Bulletin area off the forum have been retyped by one of our pigeonnetwork.com editorial team in the interests of promoting the sport of pigeon racing in Ireland with the prior approval of late Bill Cowell, for the enjoyment of our many loyal members around the world who don't have access to the Racing Pigeon Weekly.
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willie reynolds
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Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2008 4:44 pm

Bilco - RP Column 24/07/09

Post by willie reynolds »

RPRA HQ...

I rang to report a stray on Friday at exactly 0900 hrs and listened to four and a half minutes of absolute boredom and confusion as first DB, then an unidentified female voice, followed by Pater Bryant, then another female voice, at which juncture I raised an operator by pressing #1 on my phone pad. I had done so before but it didn't ackle as we used to say at school all those years ago. Anyway, my problems were soon solved by the ever efficient ladies at the RPRA HQ. The system is inefficient, it needs revising. Every time I hit #1 ( except the last one) I was dumped out of the system after a voice said there was nobody available to answer my call. The RPRA is a 1 Million + business, not a tin shack in the outback.

Mother Nature...

Is one smart cookie, as we have all recognised sooner or later, and in her wisdom she does alot of forward planning that never ceases to amaze us when we stumble across it. Raising babies is the lot of all creatures except the Cuckoo (smarty pants!) and if you take the trouble to look into the matter, Dame nature is right on the ball with graded degrees of feed available to suit all sorts. I thought a few years ago that I would be clever and tried to feed Colostrum to my baby pigeons, but my plans came to naught because the stuff wasn't available at the drop of a hat. Nevertheless the idea remained, and when GEM started producing their Procol 12 a year or so ago, I was in there with a big spoon. Brian Wall sent me a tub of the stuff and I noted that he had mixed in some DMG with it, yet another manufacturer that took advantage of athlectic advances of recent years. The drawback of Procol (if there is one) is that the pack is smallish, but if this conserves freshness then I see their point. Then the man behind the Osmonds, at Whitchurch in Shropshire came on the scene, firstly by snapping up the Old Hand trademark and formulas, then by pointing out to me that they too dealt with Colostrum, in larger quantities. The grapevine told me that Chris Williams of Trowbridge was in cattle, and was in fact using fountain fresh Colstrum straight from the cow, so I started sniffing at his heels to learn a bit more, and his YBs were coming out of the nest at 21 days and looking like old birds! Chris welcomed me like a brother and kept nothing back, dose rates, origins, all the why's and wherefore's, and gave me one or two bottles of fluid stuff to make my own feeds up. On one occasion I forgot that he had given me a large frozen lump in a carrier bag, with the caution that I should get it into my deep freeze ASAP. Guess who forgot it was in the car, until the following morning? That's right, and the puddle behind my seat and soaking into the deep pile Rover carpets began to sing. It was that summer heatwave time in June, remember? I did my best to mop it up, but most of it was now caked under the carpet, and a week later began to move. Eventually it moved out the windows in a swarm, buzzing. The car still smells like a nursery, with that sweet baby milk fills my lungs when I inhale.

However, back to the tale. Osmonds told me they also did capsules, for athletes, so I asked them for some to give my nestlings. They provided me with 500 in four packs and I started in using them from the two-week old stage when the babies in butter first to make it easier, and they were ease personified. Two apiece, morning and evening, and they grew, and grew, and grew! As a control I left four nests untouched, and the difference was notable. Now I knew Chris Williams secret, of rearing large, fat and well clad YBs in 21 days. I've seen nice YBs come out of the nest in many a loft, but these that Chris rears make you wonder whether he is telling the truth, until you look at his nest charts which have the date eggs laid, then you know for certain. There are no doubts about it, a new natural method of bringing up YBs fast has arrived, and they don't outgrow their strength. I thought that they might be too forward for their brain, and watched them like hawks when letting them out to fly, but they behaved exactly like sensible Ybs do, and took their time before belting off into the blue. Chris had his out training at the end of April, and running for hour even then. I ate at the odd capsule myself, then began to take three a day because I like the way they made me feel, waking up with interest in the new day. If anyone is interested, bovine colostrum is not species specific, it can be taking by anything living. It provides all the essential nutrients, growth promoting compounds, immunoglobins those proteins that fight disease minerals and amino acids, and is stuffed full of energy enhancing compounds to boot. I can see a variety of uses for it, in mixtures, formulas and so on, and the price of it is far cheaper than promoting health and well being than that of antibiotics trying to recover sick birds from illnesses cause by a poor immune system. I know which I prefer. Im over 80-yo-o now, and though this commodity was produced by Mother Nature to help new starters get out of the best and nursery, I have no hesitation in adding it into my diet I can tell you. If anyone is interested I am still active and not just a little bit lively, so something is working well!!

Hawk Watch

I applauded HQ's Hawk Watch reporting system, though having seen many such initiatives start with a bang and then flounder for lack of input once the season is over, I fear it may - like the rest - come to naught. However, all is not lost for more and more fanciers are taking Baroness Young's (Ex CEO RSPB) suggestion to heart. The lady suggested that we paint our birds with noxious tasting substance hoping that it would BOP off their food, and from reports circulating on all sides it appears that this is the beginning to work. I understand that in some areas, where predation had been literally every time a loft door was opened, that the attacks have now ceased completely. This is very good news indeed. I am making enquiries and when I have full details of the substances in use I shall let the fancy know.

Barcelona

This year was an undoubted success. Both the BBC and BICC joined forces and sent some 700 birds to join the International convoy, and well over 150 of these were in the clock. John Halstead's 5-y-o blue w/f cock Untouchable treated the near 700 miles like Nantes race and skated home at 982 ypm, picking up close on 1,000 pounds for his trouble as John had him pooled all the way. When a man has that degree of confidence in his pigeons at that distance, you see a man who knows a bit more about pigeons than your average Joe Soap. Of all the many, many good fanciers I have known over the past 75 years, and the thousands of very good pigeons I have handled as a scribe, I have never come across one more modest and self deprecating than John Halstead. He talks about his success as if he were talking about a training toss, a serious, deadpan, give nothing away manner, yet he is not secretive and answers any question fully, hiding nothing. As a lad barely out of his teens he sat at my feet one winter's evening in the late 70's in front of a blazing log fire in Edward Froggatt's lovely farmhouse, and kept asking me details of the Darkness system, because I had seen it in operation at length in Belgium where I lived in those days. He jotted it all down, fine points and all, and later produced a videotape and a book on the subject, illustrating that he had been asking others too for he was very well versed in it. He does the same thing with his feeding, every little smidgeon of it is carried out to the letter, and his birds eat the best corn treated in the best fashion to present them with a ration that is packed with power. Add to that the fact that he uses the best bloodstock he can lay his hands on and you are well on the way to understanding what makes him tick. As I have said before, he is a serious man about pigeon racing, leaves nothing to chance, and knows what he is doing. I will not be in the least surprised to see him do it again at Barcelona next year. His two tries so far have netted a 2nd then a 1st Open. What does he do for an encore?
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