A recent visitor to my loft noticed the mass nervousness if my pigeons when
a Sparrowhawk came briefly into their fly patch. He had noticed that his own
young Tipplers, even at a very early age, seemed to recognise Kestrels and
Sparrowhawks and show signs of nervousness when one of these birds of prey
flew over the loft. 'It is remarkable,' said he, 'that such young ones show
fear at six weeks old or less, never having had any experience.'
In my time I have owned pigeons that would explode into flight at the least
disturbance. They were of course superbly fit. On the other hand I have
owned pigeons that were remarkable sluggish and I would reckon that even a
burst of machine gun fire over their heads would do not more than cause them
to flutter for about 10 seconds.
Basically, shelves along the back wall of the breeders loft, usually 3 tiers
with not less than 1 foot of space between each shelf. From back to front,
these shelves should be not less than 1 foot.
It is very depressing to enter the loft and find Squeakers chilled to death
by the side of one of the conventional types of nest bowl. At the age of
12-16 days Squeakers get out of these nest bowls but cannot climb back
inside to be incubated by the Hen at night. I discarded these bowls and
bought some 7" diameter plastic trays, which are 2" deep.
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.
The usual way that Pigeons are fed, is to either throw down a measured
amount of grain to the loft floor and let the pigeons scramble for it.
Otherwise, a long trough is used to keep the grain off the unhygienic floor.
I am talking about pigeons that are flown as a flock or a kit just for
pleasure.
Meteorological kites are being produced, that can reach an altitude of six
miles. Mountaineers can now have a small package that contains a very light
plastic object that seems to be a cross between a kite and a balloon. This
device can be released if the person gets lost or into difficulties and will
provide an easy marker for those people who have to search.
I'd reckon that most articles have some educational value. My objection is
that most books and articles don't give the whole story. In fact, the
biggest lie is a story that tells only 1/2 of the whole truth.
With monotonous regularity I have precede a sermon that nobody wants to
hear. A man can buy specimens from a proven flying strain with proven high
flying potential, but without the know-how and the determination, he will
get little or no high flying from them.
In the December issue of "Our News", which is the bulletin of the American
Flying Tippler Society, an article by Michael Beat appeared. Part of it
touched a nostalgic nerve and cast my mind back to the 1930's.
Many a boy started his pigeon career by buying pigeons from the livestock
market.
