Well spent (23-09-24)
I made my living as a teacher in high school. Mostly with pleasure and only once did I really let myself go. When teenagers were throwing coins at ducks. I myself bend over for a 50 cent piece and the knowledge that the parents of those brats did the same explains my anger. I hate throwing money away, but literally doing that was too much for me.
Below are some examples of what I didn't think was or don't think is a waste of money.
HEATING PLATES
These are not used for warming up in winter, but to achieve a drier loft climate in humid weather. In the winter they are useful with newly weaned youngsters. There will be some straw on it and you must have seen how they are doing.
Because we know how it goes with squeakers that have just been weaned. They huddle against each other and spread a lot of moisture. If the weather is also humid, it becomes a dirty, smelly mess. Or you have to, to prevent them from collapsing put them on a shelf every night.
With heating plates, you can save yourself that trouble.
FANS
My youngsters' lofts were always bursting with squeakers. After all, you have to breed a lot of them and the last thing I wanted was to have more lofts.
In theory, the lofts were far too full. 'In theory' because the youngsters performed so well that it caused major problems. I haven't been able to play with youngsters for ten years. The club just asked me or there would be no club any more.
So 'overpopulation' is very elastic.
Fans were used. They cost about 15 euros and especially in oppressive weather they were switched on. The problem was their rather short lifespan. I discovered the cause when one was opened. It was so full of dust that it was caked on. But it worked. And less dust and more oxygen? What more could a person want. One thing I had to watch out for.
Turn it off in the evening or the nights will be too cold and lower the form.
CLIP RINGS
Clip rings are also something you can hardly do without. They're cheap, but oh so convenient. Especially because of the different colors. This allows you to 'mark' pigeons.
- From different lofts.
- From different rounds.
- Cocks and hens.
- Inoculated or not.
- Pigeons to keep an eye on. To keep in mind for example which had been ill, had been lost and picked up, had returned from a smash.
Gaston v d Wouwer 'marks' his breeders with it. Each couple has a different color.
STAMP
Losing youngsters has been a hot topic in recent years. A stamp with phone number can be useful to get them back. It is a one-time expense that will last you for years, so it is cheap. After all, it is easier for people to reach for the phone than for the pen to report a pigeon. By the way, I do have the idea that the owners of lost pigeons are increasingly being searched for and reported ONLINE.
THE VERY BEST
The best thing that has ever happened to pigeon racing seems to me to be electronic clocking. Many were initially opposed. Feared an even bigger gap between 'the mob fliers, the big shots' and 'the little fanciers’', which would cause even more to drop out.
Some screamed at the top of their lungs that they would stop if it ever came.
But it came 'once', but who quit the sport because of it? Perhaps the opposite is true. Have people NOT quit because it made the sport so much more convnenient.
Klak was one of them. He would have had to stop clocking manually years earlier because of an ailing health. In Belgium, the initial resistance seemed greater than in the Netherlands. The investment apparently seemed less of a problem for the northern neighbors. Or were they not as stingy as supposed? Shortly after the turn of the century, I wrote in a magazine: 'Once upon a time, most Belgians will also clock electronically. Because you may want to stop progress, but you can't stop it.' Now, in 2024 everybody clocks electronically.
It is no longer a point of discussion even among the most conservative and traditional Belgians. And you never heard of anyone regretting his rather hefty investment.
PIGEON NEWSPAPER
Almost all top racers receive a pigeon newspaper every week. For most it is de Duif.
Once upon a time (just after the 2nd World War) there would have been more than 40 pigeon newspapers in Belgium. The vast majority of them were regional, of course.
As an ambitious fancier, you can't do without pigeon newspaper.
CAP
On the advice of a medical specialist, I started wearing a cap at the time.
Pigeons spread a lot of dust (read above 'fans'), you may think you are insensitive to that, but is that really the case? And what about your housemates?
Dust in a pigeon loft creeps up and into everything. Especially in the hair, the pulmonologist said. Every time you come out of the coop I don't see many people washing their hair, so your dusty hair can endanger the health of housemates.
That’s to all women who read this:
'Kick that cat off the couch, forget about that vacuum cleaner and go buy a cap for your husband. And tell him not to dare going into the pigeon loft not wearing his cap'.
VITAMINS
Many of my views are based on empiricism. In other words, I do tests and then compare. One of them was vitamins. Some of the pigeons got them, others didn't, but I never noticed any difference. So they are not (anymore) spent on my pigeons.
Also because scientists have never noticed a vitamin deficiency in well-cared for pigeons. Vitamins in drinking water seem completely pointless, especially in hot weather.
Because you can read everywhere in professional literature how quickly they lose their effectiveness. Some people take vitamins. They dissolve a tablet in water, then don't let it there for hours but drink it immediately.
And what about pigeons when strenuous efforts are required? The young Sil van Vliet has already amazed a hole country in the extreme long distance.
He even won national Barcelona this year. No supplements whatsoever has been given to his pigeons. Out of fear that pigeons will eat less.
Are you playing well and do you believe in vitamins? Just keep going.