[Hunger]
(Internet Published) Aug 2000
Today is 1st of June. A showery day 60 deg F and the grass is going crazy,
also the weeds. A letter this morning from our excellent friend Richard
Kehrer, who so often gives food for thought. He remarks that there is a lot
of difference between "being hungry" and suffering from malnutrition. We
both agree that control is a major factor and anyone knows that Pigeons that
are not hungry at all are likely to reject all attempts to them down and
safely inside.
It is very important for their own well being that we must get them inside
the loft. Any man who does not know about the dangers of leaving his pigeons
out all night or leaving them in attended for very long, may have to learn
the lesson in a most painful way.
The character differential in all good flying strains of tipplers is so
great that it's hard to believe that they are basically of the same issue.
Some individuals are so highly strung that even intense hunger cannot
overcome their nervousness. Others, are extremely greedy and will respond to
a few scattered grain at any time. I can only give opinion from my own
experience and do not thing that these overly tame "feed gobblers" are any
use at all. It is my opinion that Tipplers that are likely to do really long
times are most likely to be very nervous and too afraid to drop without a
lot of enticement. It's a case of exploiting their nervousness. In every
strain one will produce specimens that lack the essential character that is
so vital, if one really wants to go for the long times.
This here "long time" caper with Tipplers requires a lot of expertise and a
lot of dedication and absolute dedication. All of the genuine tippler men
who ever recorded great times certainly had dedication and determination. It
is known that a very determined man, will over-come a more intelligent man
by his persistent battling.
Two Sheffield men lost 60 young Tipplers each in one year due to being
unable to control them. Another man in the West Midlands lost 70. All 3 men
eventually succeeded and did some fantastic times. I have actually not much
admiration for men who lose a lot of Tipplers. I believe that many such men
have a fixed idea that extreme hunger is the answer to training and settling
young pigeons. Well! I do not agree and the 3 men that I mention were not
clever. When any pigeon is extremely hungry its brain doesn't work.
When young Tipplers are undergoing their very early initial loft training
they will learn nothing if they are too hungry. All that they see or want to
see is FEED. It's just BLIND HUNGER and our 3 men who are typical of such
men ought to have to endure this kind of hunger and see how they like it.
You know, on this kind of treatment one doesn't train anything, one "brakes
it" and any pigeon and any man can be broken by intense starvation. A broken
man or a broken pigeon will want to escape for what has the pigeon to lose
and what has the man got to lose?
Now, you all, must not get the idea that I'm an old softie. I don't
encourage poor workers, shoddy work, idleness and I don't keep pets.
Training Pigeons is rather like a game of chess or checkers or even poker.
You think, you move, you counter, you plan ahead, you bluff and you employ
strategy. It takes brains and you will have to eat "occasionally" OK?
I well recall Ben Stamp of Carbrook, Sheffield, the Father of the
"Tippler--local sport". About 1938 he had occasion to criticize two young
men who were employing such ridiculous tactics. Said he, "you two idiots
have not the brains to organize an escape from a paper bag." Please, do not
think, that all Sheffield men or indeed all British Tipplermen were experts
on genetics. Mostly their breeding techniques were "by guess and by gosh.'
Determined men? YES, so they were and that was all, mostly. One sees so few
of these today with the exception of those who are determined "not to work"
and apathy seems to be a virtue.