Well the last month or so has seen a lot of activity and some trauma.

Firstly let me comment on the quality of pigeons which you've all sent to the lofts. First Class! All shapes and sizes and colours but unmistakable quality throughout. If someone was to pick any 6 of the pigeons to take home to my own lofts then I wouldn't care which ones were picked.

Most importantly the aviaries have been taken down and the pigeons given their liberty. Firstly we let the Nominated pigeons out and after a near empty loft on the first night (major panic) all but 4 of the nominated pigeons had returned with three days. One returned with its address ring missing, much to Tom's annoyance, and I have to agree with him when questioning the mentality of the fancier who did this after all they could simply have rung the number on the address ring? 

Unfortunately, a neighbour found one of the Nominated pigeons dead in their garden so we knew the fate of that poor pigeon and advised the competitor concerned immediately. We are still three others missing. Of course the Reserves sent will now be activated AT NO EXTRA COST to cover these early losses.

Next it was the turn of the Reserve pigeons to be given their liberty. To assist them, Tom let the Nominated pigeons out at the same time and this seems to have worked perfectly as we have lost NONE of the Reserve pigeons off the loft.

Make no mistake ... losing 4 pigeons off the loft is regrettable ... however Tom and I both knew that settling pigeons not native to the race lofts wasn't going to be easy and we really feared for worse losses than those suffered. Personally I think that the portable aviaries did a great job settling the pigeons and if anyone suffers large losses each year off the loft then this is a measure well worth considering.

When I last saw them the pigeons are beginning to group well, and it won't be long before we start planning the training regime (anticipated from mid-July).

The Unikon system is proving a bit of a headache! To cut a very long story short (!) the ring sensor is not functioning properly so we cannot assign the electronic rings. We're desperate to get the rings on the pigeons so that we can accurately keep track of what's in the loft at all times ... and of course the Unikon system will be a fantastic aid to us once we start training. Thanks once again to Tim Booth at Deister UK for the loan of this equipment.

All the pigeons have been vaccinated against Paramyxovirus. Some were delivered to us pre-vaccinated but these were jabbed again all the same. Our sincere thanks to Peter Carrington (a fellow Five Heads RPC member) for giving up a morning to do this for us.

From looking at results published in the BHW I can see that some of you have got your home pigeons flying really well right now and I wish you all success throughout the rest of the OB season and then the YB season. 

As I write this note on a dreary and wet Saturday morning, with the Pau Grand National pigeons being held for a second day, all thoughts of our Big Race on September 11th from Lamballe are far removed from my mind. Of course it will be upon us sooner than we would imagine and Tom in particular will I'm sure have countless sleepless nights ahead as preparations build.

Finally, apologies to you all for not updating this part of our web site over the last few weeks. I hate making excuses but as you know once the pigeon racing starts you hardly have a moment to yourself.