Editorial note: Please read this disclaimer first: The Boglin Marsh Archives
This article was originally published between 1999 and 2001. Reproduced here as recovered from the archived Boglin Marsh website. It may contain language and attitudes of its time.
Click here to view the original article. Boglin Marsh: The Novices Social Circle part two
The Novices Social Circle - Part two
THE NOVICES SOCIAL CIRCLE. (part two) a tried and trusted system of racing pigeons for fanciers of limited room or finance. Always read up on the subject > books and then you won't need to ask 'Spinksy'
Now then son, if you have been perfectly honest with yourself and only kept and bred from pigeons that were first to your loft in the previous season; then you should be anything but overcrowded. Before we can even start to prepare the old birds for racing one or two checks need to be made (1) is the loft exposed to excessive light at night time ie.street lights or bright moonlight? If this is the case; then some form of darkening system via curtains or blinds will need to be employed. Without this the pigeons could be active throughout the night or disturbed by cats etc. (2) is the loft after breeding completely free of lice, ticks & mite? Even after the best of husbandry, now that the weather is warming these little beasts will be more active as they come out of the dormant stage, so thoroughly spray the loft at the first opportunity of a sunny day. A good tip is to always have a hand spray filled with a proprietory pigeon insecticide and spray the nestboxes with a fine mist at daily cleaning throughout the summer months. (3) have you got the correct corn mixtures? These should be kept separately in bins that are raised from the concrete floor on bricks to ensure an all round airflow. This seems elementary doesn't it? But it is quite amazing how many fanciers suffer from feed deterioration and subsequent loss of condition in their birds due to neglect of this simple common sense practice! The feed mixtures are standard and may be purchased at any corn dealers and are as follows : equal parts of dog tooth maize, old beans (not new crop as these contain excessive tannin) and maple peas. This is a standard racing mixture! Mixture two is any standard high carbohydrate widowhood mix. Mixture three is prepared by yourself : 7 pounds of Safflower seed, 2 pounds of Hemp seed and 1 pound of Linseed. This is better if kept inside your house if possible away from any condensation to avoid deterioration and this amount is sufficient for the racing season. The next task is to worm the pigeons by the use of garlic which will not reduce the birds condition in any way and is perfectly natural. Take on whole garlic bulb, press and bruise this then boil in one pint of water; continue to boil until the liquid is reduced by half. This will release all of the garlic oil to lubricate the pigeons intestines making it impossible for worms to keep a hold. Once this mixture has been strained and cooled it may be placed in a four pint drinker and topped up with clean water. This is the only use for boiled garlic, it will serve no other medical purpose! At all other times garlic should be used fresh daily, by adding a single crushed clove to the drinker. It is imperative that garlic be renewed daily, being of the onion family it will quickly sour and cause mild but possibly unnoticeable fever. In particular it must never be administered in galvanised containers where acids can cause adverse chemical reaction! These are only simple things but often overlooked; equally do not fill drinkers by the use of a hose pipe which could have harmful bacteria or algae building up inside the core. Simple but common sense! Now you are going to climb Everest, but an ascent of this nature can only be achieved in stages, firstly there must be the base camp; which if you have followed me so far should now be set up and established.
Next we have to reach the first plateau; assuming that your pigeons have been enjoying reasonable free flight during the breeding cycle; it is now time to prepare for the climb. Once again, if you have been perfectly honest with yourself, although having ten nest boxes, you will not have ten pairs of birds, and this is your ultimate aim, prize winners in every box. By this stage of the season, you should have only your best old birds plus a nest of youngsters reaching the weaning stage, hopefully two in each nest, but don't worry if you haven't, quality will beat quantity in the end. At 19 -21 days all hens are removed to the other identical spotless section and placed in the corresponding nest box along with one of her youngsters and a clean nest bowl. The cock will be also given a clean nest bowl and left to finish rearing the other youngster unless of course there was only one in the nest. Should this be the case don't worry! As near as you can determine, place cock young birds with their mothers, leaving hen young birds with their fathers. You might think this strange, but don't argue son, I can't stand partners that argue and all will be revealed in due course. I shouldn't really be telling anybody these things because am going to have to race against them, however I am a kind hearted soul!
O.K. so far you have been unable to master either the widowhood system, the natural system or both. So I am going to teach you how to get pigeons super fit, win prizes and compete from the distance better than you have ever done before. This system will teach you both at one and the same time, you might never want to change from it, because you will be racing both sexes with equal success. Now that you have moved the young birds and hens, vaccinate the youngsters at this time! (now) Don't argue; do it!
Preparing for breeding and pre racing.
Once that you have selected your pairs, they must be quickly settled to their own boxes. The easiest way to do this is by allowing only a couple of pairs their freedom at any single time and all birds must be fed and watered in their own boxes. This serves a two fold purpose, the birds develop a love for the box and they become tame as they line up like soldiers awaiting your attention. The hen soon learns to follow the cock to the correct box without any fighting and this is where they will be fed for the remainder of the season. Once settled all birds may be let out for regular exercise and fly of their own free will until the eggs are laid and are fed on standard racing mixture. The quantity being as much as they require then all excess removed after half an hour. This continues until hatching, at which time you will revert to the feeding system mentioned in part one. Once the eggs are laid around 26 - 28th February the exercise routine and build up must begin. The cock birds can be exercised for 1 hour at first light each morning with the hens being exercised for 1 hour early evening. Once the hens are back upon the nest the cocks may be allowed another fly un- flagged. Early form must not be forced but allowed to arrive naturally, it is possible to have pigeons too fit too soon and they will go off the boil after only a couple of races. All training must be done at this time, taking cocks - hens on alternative days after their evening exercise to a distance of no more than 15 miles. If you can only take them five miles don't worry, the pigeon doesn't know the distance, but take them and single up if time allows. Feed after training and encourage fast trapping, do not use any seeds at this stage because seed produces false form! Once the eggs hatch continue in this manner but be sure to avoid East winds or dull days and on particularly cold days keep the pigeons confined to the loft. You are building them up, not knocking them down and this will still apply during the racing season; don't exercise pigeons in cold East winds. No you are not molly coddling them, you…43449 tokens truncated… as did so many others under this treatment! Now those are ways of getting pigeons to go home under their own steam; it only takes a little patience or understanding. Pigeons aren't stupid, they are just like you and me, sometimes they become a little disorientated! I'm glad that I am eccentric, "a little mad"and that I talk to animals; because sometimes they make more sense than people! Read the article Ethology and give your brain some sensible food!
I hope you all enjoyed this little effort as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I also hope that some of you might view both your pigeons or "Mountaineer Spinksy" in quite a different light and understand that the greatest motivating force upon earth is "Survival" with only the fittest going through to contest another day! I have given you an insight into both man and beast, my only hope is that you all can comprehend it, because life and pigeons are like that or my name isn't Alice! Spinksy
