Showing a bit from the first pigeon race of 2021. Soundtrack "Alex Productions - Cyberpunk" is under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 3.0) license Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: bit.ly/bkc-cyberpunk
I think the lady laughing on the soundtrack laughs at my arrivals. Those pigeons staying perplexed on the loft instead of entering are the result of very few training tosses. On my way probably out of the sport or at least trying to build low maintenance pigeons, I stopped training tosses years ago. This year I went to the extreme - for most of the pigeons this race was the second flight of the year: first time this year they went directly at 100 Km with the club and then directly at this first race of 200 Km. However, they didn't look as tired as I was expecting, which is encouraging especially for people that don't have the time or resources to train a lot. I also stopped racing widowhood and stopped using products. Of course, this is not professional pigeon racing and you probably can't expect great racing results but at least you can still enjoy arrivals.
I admire your steps of taking away from products. But I still not understand why you stopped widowhood. Can you more explain because widowhood still the ultimate manner that is used to stimulate the pigeon's instinct and motivation? and many champions use it like ad schaerlaekens, wouters, leo hermanes...
@@mohamedmeriouchi1437 Schaerlaeckens doesn't race marathon races. For short and middle distance, yes, I think one can't compete without widowhood but for the long distance races it works. But for me it is not about prizes, it is about the pleasure of being around them. When I did widowhood the atmosphere in the loft was all sad and full of frustration, I didn't even feel like going to the loft. Now on the natural I can't wait to go to the loft after work and relax watching them for 1-2 hours, since I like pigeons first and then races. The loft is like a bee hive, all the pigeons going in and out doing their thing depending on the nest position. What I do try is to flag train them sometimes because I think it is necessary, although I don't like it. Basically I try to eliminate everything else that I don't like, to enjoy them as much as possible. It was the same with all kinds of powder sh*t on the food, they didn't really enjoy eating, they consume clean food much much better with a great appetite. Same with water. I also felt ridiculous giving healthy pigeons antibiotics just to follow the regular "recipe". Regarding motivation, the natural cycle has several moments when the pigeons are really motivated. Besides the fact that I like natural more, many of the pigeons changed completely when switching from widowhood to natural and raced much better. The performance I admire the most in birds is scoring high at extremely hard races, those "smash races" - I had 2-3 such unforgettable events over the years and all of them were on natural. Probably my best ever was a 2 hours advance arrival before the next pigeon in the race in our area, on a killer hard route over the mountains - that male was on eggs.
@@Pigeonmaniacom Thank you for such an answer. I totally agree with you in all that you said. the climate is changing and becoming too hard. We need today like never before a pure strain and strong pigeons. Pigeons who are not vulnerable, weak, and dependant on the owner. I admire again your step of taking away from products "magic recipe" the sh*** people still sell it and market the idea that will never do something without it. I add also that the fancier must reduce movement in the loft because of the stress and the loss of pigeon's energy, the thing we need in training and races. Thank you, we learn a lot of things from your videos Cheers
I raced back in the ‘80’s. I flew primarily Jannssen and HVR which I never crossed . I only had 22 young birds each year to work with from 5 breeding pairs. I never did any training tosses until 2 weeks before first race. First training toss was at 50 miles. Did that 4 times before first race. Never lost a bird off the loft or on those training tosses. I never sent more than 3 birds per race. I always had a bird in one of the top 3 places. The second season I only took one bird to the race. I figured it only takes one bird to win. I always took a place in the top four. I followed a lot of techniques from Joe Rotondo’s book. After 5 seasons I had to give up pigeons all together because I became allergic. I love your videos. Your birds are great looking! I wish you great success this young bird season.
@@fastme1on105 I did have a cock that cost me $500. The other nine in the breeding loft were in the $75 -200 range. I raised only 22-24 young birds. Every bird had to earn its' place in my loft. The HVR never earned their keep. I did pay attention to their eyesign, configuration and how to bring a pigeon into 'form' for racing. I must confess, that it was an obsession with me.
With no training tosses I can't avoid this but they already trapped better in the second race. As the distance increases, trapping won't be a problem anymore.
@@Pigeonmaniacom ... You are luck as your trap is quite low so that you can push the birds to go in. Hope they all returned. I am amazed at the distance for the first race. When I used to fly, in the UK, the first race was always between 80-100 miles.
@@alanjpoole7274 Just a few fanciers here still want to race short distance, most of them would only train the pigeons and would push the first official race at over 350 miles.
Thank you. When I was flying we had a mixed programme of races throughout the summer, from short (80 miles) to the longest (nearly 500 miles) going 'North Road'.
Hi mate been looking forward to your racing season to start amazing seeing birds released and the anticipation of the birds arriving is fantastic they really come in from some height got fingers crossed you'll do well good job I'm not one of your neighbours I would be round every race day sitting in one your chairs with you keep up the good work👍
Thank you, Simon. These short distance races are nice to watch if you have many pigeons but the marathons with a few pigeons are pretty boring with 1 pigeon arrival per hour, etc.
@@Pigeonmaniacom I prefer the longer races shows the true talent of long distance birds stamina and determination to get home not many birds can do 500 to 600 miles in a day👍
@@simonbealey3080 Oh yes, the determination of these birds is amazing, to keep flying over 500 miles they must be very stubborn. All these finalists totally deserve the best care after the season - even the ones without great prizes.
Hi Andrei i really enjoyed this. It reminded me a lot like myself just earlier today with swearing alot. Today was our first race and with untrained pigeons i didnt expect a lot. My first pigeon which was late in the club came home missed the loft and sat on the wires for 3 minutes so there was a lot of swearing done by me also. Im missing 3 out of the 17 i sent but with 2 that were never raced as young birds i cant complain. The only thing is there is a 9 year old missing but he might show up tomorrow. This 9 year old has flown france twice. I probably shouldnt have sent him but as they are my dads pigeons i have to give them a chance as i dont think he will be around next year. Oh our first race was only 100 miles. Please keep your videos of your racing as often as you can. There are many people who enjoy your content. Stay safe and keep flying. Like me as i say there is always next week.
Hmm, 9 years old... that's very rare in the racing pigeons career. Good bird. He should appear tomorrow. We had the second race today, they did a bit better and entering the loft was much better too. Less swearing, lol. So you should expect better things next week. Enjoy!
Lots of people had racing pigeons. On sundays the men where standing together watching the sky. 'that's yours! Run!' They recognised each others pigeons from miles away.
I'm always impressed when I see your pigeons coming home from those journeys, even if it's a race of 200 km. No doubt pigeons are amazing birds...Btw, what do you do when a stray pigeon like that beautiful red one shows up? Is there any way to help the bird?
Hi Christian. That stray looked really good and powerful so it was able to continue on its way home. When a very tired and weak racer gets into my loft I separate it, feed it for 1-2 days and then I release it eventually with my phone number to learn where it was from. I had such a stray youngster in 2017, it was newly weaned and came from very far away by the way it looked (young birds sometimes join racers from a race and go after them too far away)... it never left my loft after it got better. It did all the 900 and 1000 Km races these years. He is at 4:10 in this video.
Great! I'm glad to learn about the pigeon you mentioned at 4:10 ... it's wonderful when good things happen to these birds! I have to tell you that lately I've been feeding some feral pigeons every morning...actually, there are some beautiful ones in the wild. I don't know if I've told you, but I live in Santos, state of Sao Paulo, in the Southeast of Brazil. We have the largest port in Latin America here, with lots of ships coming and going all the time. Every now and then, stray pigeons land on ships crossing the Atlantic ocean and end up reaching the city. I guess last year we had a report in the newspaper about one particular case of a pigeon coming from somewhere in Portugal. It must have been racing when it got lost due to bad weather conditions, and was lucky enough to find shelter (and maybe food?) on a ship heading towards the port of Santos...
@@christianareslapo2517 I also used to feed ferals a lot. It's interesting to observe them and you get to know the individuals of a specific flock coming in the area. It will also be interesting to observe the youngsters that will join their parents at feeding time when they start to fly.
Very nice, however, the birds are returning from way too high up in the sky.. Losing a lot of precious time coming down from 1,700 ft.. Should be much lower when coming in and should be coming straight in to the landing board, not circling around and around to get down..
Wow thats amazing... considering almost nill tosses and then direct at 200km they seemed pretty normal... no tiredness etc ... they were quite enjoying... btw u said u dont use any products can u tell what products u are talking about
@@haroonhidayat I mean brewer's yeast, all the pigeon product companies sell it to mix on the food. It is said it has vitamins, proteins and other beneficial stuff but I didn't notice a difference after I stopped using it - oh wait, I did: the pigeons ate the clean food much better with a better appetite.
No, they are just regular sensors for the race clocking system. I would love to try some GPS stuff too, but I will wait hoping they get less expensive and especially smaller in size.
They get scared of invisible things at the loft, I never understood what's in their little heads but whatever, I try to get used to this annoying behaviour they have sometimes.
We have a lost racing pigeon over here in my area I believe and shes a really odd color. Shes almost yellowish. We think she came from Canada but arent too sure. We tried to look up the number on her leg but we were unsuccessful. Got some food we know they like to eat (small seeds) and hopefully she will be okay. She seems to be now. I was told if the trainer brings her back, she might be euthanized because she wasnt a good racer. I hope that's not true!
Can anybody help me I’ve got somebody’s pigeon coming to my house it’s a Dutch beauty what I’ve looked up such a lovely bird should be with it’s owner I’m feeding it but can’t get hold of it thanks 🙏
