June 2010 BLOG
Jeff is having a great time with his young birds. It is really incredible to see the amount of knowledge Jeff has absorbed over the years helping take care of the pigeons. He has a very keen eye for detail which frankly surprises and pleases me.
Twice a day, Jeff releases his young birds to train around the loft. when he releases them, they typically disappear for 30 to 60 minutes before returning to the air space around the loft. During their training, Jeff thoroughly scrapes the entire young bird loft: box perches, walls and floor. He cleans the water fountain, changes the grit, and monitors the additives like pickstone. He prepares the daily feed ration by combining several grains and mixtures and coats the mixed grain lightly with Red Cell. By knowing which youngsters occupy the various box perches, he is able to study the droppings and get an excellent picture into the health and inner workings of each young bird. What color are the droppings? What is the consistency of the droppings? What is the volume of the droppings? Where were the droppings deposited in the box perch? These are a few of the major bits of information that Jeff records about each young bird on a daily basis in order to continuously understand the interactive effects of his feeding, training and health regiments on each young bird in the loft.
After preparing the loft for the return of the young birds, if he has time, he relaxes and enjoys watching his young birds train when they they return from routing. Watching the youngsters train in the air can also reveal interesting information about the health and vitality of the young birds as individuals and as a team.
After about an hour of training, Jeff calls the youngsters down to the landing board and inside the loft. He feeds on the well-scraped and well-swept floor. Sometimes he sits on a 5 - gallon bucket and sometimes he sits on the loft floor. He feeds his young birds a measured amount of food each feeding and gently hand feeds his young birds on the floor by dispersing a few grains at a time from his outstretched hand. It generally takes from 15 to 30 minutes to feed his young birds. He requires that they eat the small handful of grain that he gives them before he gives them another small handful. During this slow and meticulous feeding process, the young birds are continuously looking and coming to Jeff for more food. It is during this process that Jeff builds a relationship and develops a bond of trust with each young bird. It is during this process that each young bird becomes a unique and distinctive racer with individual traits and preferences that are slightly different from every other racer. It is during this process that Jeff truly becomes a proficient and competent racing pigeon fancier. A fancier who has a powerful and distinct relationship with each pigeon in his loft. A fancier who has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and information about each and every pigeon on the team.
Sometimes Jeff names his youngsters based upon something he observes. Consequently, their names often reflect a personal characteristic of the pigeon. The Janssen Brothers and other top fanciers like Antoine Jacops also followed this naming and identification procedure. Are you knowledgeable enough about the Janssen pigeons to have heard about the "Bange?" It means "afraid." Have you heard of the "Zitter?" It means "bad trapper." Have you heard of the "under the table pair?" It reflected the nesting area of a pair of breeders. Names can reflect the most intimate details of a pigeon's psyche or personal behavior. Naming pigeons can be fun and accentuates the personal relationship between a pigeon and its fancier.
Jeff has a Red Emile Fourmanoir male on his young bird team that is a very aggressive and rugged pigeon. Jeff calls him the "Mountain Man." He calls a pigeon "Broyles" whose number ends in 85 reflecting the Jersey number of a wide receiver for the University of Oklahoma football team. I have encouraged and challenged Jeff to develop a unique and personal relationship with each young bird even though he will undoubtedly lose some of these wonderful pigeons during the training and racing process.
By repeating the same basic procedure every single day, Jeff teaches his young birds a routine which develops expectations within his young bird team about what is going to happen every day of their lives. It is the development of these psychological expectations within each young bird that will win Jeff pigeon races in the fall young bird series and beyond. We expect each super youngster to perform well if we do our job as quality fanciers. There is absolutely nothing unusual about these expectations. In fact, they are the basis of the Belgian form of racing homing pigeons. The Belgian method of playing the game is reflected in the code that is posted on the index page of my website:
"Competing At The Top Of The Race Sheet Is Simply A
Matter Of Faith . . .
You Can Depend On The Reliability Of
A Small Team of Super
Pigeons, or
You Can Gamble On The Random Luck Of A Mob Of Average Pigeons."
We expect our best pigeons to perform well in the pigeon races to which they are sent and we expect our best pigeons to understand that expectation and perform at their very best. This past weekend we raced from 500 and 600 miles. Our best pigeons for the weekend in each race were our first birds home: The Wittekop and Cool Hand Luke.
More to come later..........................................Thank you................................Dr. John Lamberton