Talented (09-05-23)
In pigeon sport you sometimes hear 'you either have it or you don't'. They mean that dealing with pigeons and making them perform is innate. Something you can't learn.
There's a lot of truth in it, but it's not quite right. There is indeed a lot to learn. The most difficult and, in my opinion, the most important thing is selection.
Many will never achieve anything because, for various reasons, they cannot part with certain pigeons.
D D, one of the best vitesse players in Belgium, let me know that he had removed some pigeons after only two races.
Those were two flights with clear weather and a headwind on which some pigeons were always late and then as a sprint player you are right if you clear them.
A good one that is healthy does not miss two flights in a row in good weather.
Get rid of it, no matter how beautiful the pigeon is. Or, how good the lineage. Fanciers who race HaFo (middle distance) or certainly (small) long distance, may have a little more patience.
FLOWERS
“Did you tell a lot of people that you were in the hospital,” my wife asked. I didn't understand well and asked 'why?'
Because hardly anyone knew.
“Look down the hallway,” she said.
There was the second largest flower arrangement I've ever had. The largest was from a veterinarian who had run into trouble with the law a long time ago.
Two newspapers wanted to know more about it and had asked for information. They were looking for sensation, of course, and preferably negative.
However, I had been positive about him and that was how it came across in both newspapers.
But this flower arrangement, which also included a bottle of wine, came from an unexpected source, as evidenced by an accompanying card. “The wine is for the good pigeons, the flowers for the good advice. 2023 is three flights old and I performed three times enormously ', I read.
LUCK
What you especially need when you buy pigeons is luck, although you naturally have more chances with pigeons from a champion.
The man of the flowers had once bought pigeons here.Because I could spare them and he had patience, he got a couple of the best.But unfortunately, they disappointed. After four years still nothing usable, waiting any longer is a scenario that rarely pays off, so: Get rid of such.That was my advice and he followed it.
Was it good advice?Almost certainly, though… miracles do happen.The first pigeon I ever bought was in my teens from an uncle.
The whole village knew that pigeon because it won one first after the other. But 'the whole village' also knew that he only produced junk.
I always resented him a bit that he wanted money from a teenager for such a pigeon, but I never regretted the purchase itself. That old rascal gave several really good ones in my loft, but again, such are exceptions.
VALUATION
Despite those 2 pigeons that turned out to be a bad buy, years later he was back on the doorstep for pigeons. Now he took six with him, he succeeded with that, but that took some doing.In the accompaniment he (D) did wrong whatever he could do wrong.Doesn't have to be a disaster if you see it for yourself. And he did.
He never stopped asking questions and was a good student, it turned out.
BREEDING
Nowadays, most fanciers have a separate loft for breeders. Hence must come what ambitious fanciers dream of, but it is also the source of much mischief that one does not dream of.The mess comes from there and, even worse, also the pigeons that lack natural health.The latter is often through own fault.
The moment of weaning is especially critical.Pigeons that you wean should not have the slightest defect.
Performing well is hard enough with healthy youngsters.Our friend D, however, was unable to clear. That explains why among the breeders there were pigeons of three years and older that never produced a good youngster.
Fortunately, he listened to good advice. The Old timers were cleared and also spuds that were not 100%.
When selecting birds it is important to know beauty and quality are not the same.
YOUNG PIGEONS
Another mistake was that he kept breeding and adding young. That had everything to do with the fact that he couldn't resist buying.
Now putting a single youngster is less bad, but weaning 12 youngsters in May as he sometimes did meant that the older youngsters who were already training in an exemplary manner stopped doing so.
He also waited too long before tossing. When I once asked him (it was mid-May and beautiful weather) how many times he had taken the babies away, he replied 'still plenty of time'. Then I knew enough.
Because all fanciers who excel with youngsters will know you say: 'You have to train them if you can and not if you have to'.
Feeding was another thing. He kept adding, even if there was still food from the previous feeding. Consequence not only spilling, but pigeons started eating what they liked.
HOWEVER
He clearly didn't have it. No feeling.
And yet it turned out well and that was because of his many questions and his confidence in sportsmen with experience.Because a lot can be learned in pigeon sport, as long as you are not stubborn and susceptible to reason.
The turning point came in the umpteenth year when he complained in April/May that eight of his youngsters did not fly a meter. Every year he took it to the vet, every year the ornithose powder he received helped, but that was only temporary every year.In that 'umpteenth' year, I advised those eight be culled, regardless of where they came from.
Because of his love for animals, that was gritty, but they were indeed removed. That brought about the big turnaround, he said later.
TOP
Those 8 sloths that were always the last to leave the loft and the first to return from training, if they were training at all, had left well and good or the rest stepped up training.
He no longer fed when there was still food left and he no longer ran to the vet as before. And then?He started playing better every year.
Because you can certainly learn in pigeon sport. If you're open to that.