No one will dispute the fact that Tippler time flying contest rules are easy
to understand. No man is capable of maintaining 100% surveillance on
anything for more than about 2 hours. For this reason sentries in the
British Army did 2 hours on duty and 4 hours off duty.
One of my six-month-old cocks was hit by a partition door, due to a gale.
His left wing had a clean break, just above the central joint. I decided to
try to repair the break. My only other experience was with a hen that had
probably been hit by a missile from a high powered catapult during flight.
Her wing was smashed and she was also injured in her fall.
In my time I have known Tippler men who for one reason or another did not
train their kits to fly into darkness. They placed themselves at a
disadvantage in some cases.
First of all they could not achieve a winning time because they had to start
to make efforts to get their birds down and inside of the loft before the
daylight became too poor.
Traditionally, young pigeons are produced in England early in the year.
Some fanciers just about manage to get bands on the legs of the young ones,
on the day that their issue of new year's bands arrive from the unions,
about the 8th of January. This is a bad time of year. We have only 8 hours
of daylight in the days and nights can be very cold.
In May 1935 during the night, the loft of Mr. John William Matthews was
broken into. Seven Tipplers of Macclesfield strain all of grey mottle or
light print issue were stolen. John was devastated and literally reduced to
tears.
It is written that true happiness is not having what one wants--but rather
wanting what one has. If any man too easily can get everything that he
wants, then this is not a formula for happiness. For truthfully I say unto
you that men are like fowls--much better when they have to scratch for a
living.
Given one ounce (28 grams) of any kind of grain at 5pm plus water and
abrasive material - such as sand and grit, at 8am on the next day there
should be no feed left in the crop. During the 15 hour period everything
should have gone through otherwise there is a malfunction.
There are those among us that greatly admire pigeons that, on occasions, do
fly at great altitudes. Even after long lifetime, it gives me a great
pleasure to see a kit of pigeons up to pin-head size and even less.
We have moved from one extreme to another. In the mid-1800's when Tipplers
were starting to be cultivated in England a war against all kinds of Birds
of Prey had been going on for a long time. Gamekeepers were paid to shoot,
trap or poison anything that would kill the game.
Our Scottish poet, Robbie Burns, wrote "the best laid plans of mice and men
are apt to go astray". All too often we pigeon men make careful plans that
somehow fail. When we start to keep pigeons we also start to keep mice - It
takes expert carpentry and shielding to keep mice out of our lofts. It can
be done and I have done it.
