By Michael Feeney
This is obviously the second article within the series I am doing and this was finished in December 13. This part is an introduction to the birds at stock and 1 in particular. There have been more since added to the stock team and they will be mentioned in other articles. Read on and enjoy. Also please feel free to contact me at the address seen at the bottom.I will start this piece by rectifying an error in my last piece. Jim Emerton, I mentioned I thought he was the record holder from Barcelona with the BICC but I wasn’t sure. I can now correct myself and say he is actually still the record holder for the longest flying member of the BICC from Barcelona. Now that out of the way I will start this piece giving names to my co-conspirators here in Dublin
International Racing Pigeon
involved in this heinous of plots. Firstly a long standing friend of mine Martin Dunphy. Not known as a successful flyer due to the fact he has always been a silent partner with another fancier. Now setting out on his own, his loft will be stocked with those beautiful specimens from The House of Aarden and also with the Emertons. Setting out with a job in hand and filling the loft with the right bloodlines. The second of these individuals is Alan Knowles. He himself a successful fancier in recent years sprinting here in Ireland but also clocking birds to fly into Ireland from both the U.K. and France. So this is the team here that is slowly growing to include others and as the team grows so will the enthusiasm I hope for clocking into Ireland from that race point of race points.
So birds are in the loft, only recently I might add, so in actual fact although I mentioned breeding a few youngsters this year next year will be the first team that will be produced. How to go about this is not really a mystery cock to hen and hope for the best in the offspring?? I do not believe this. Although I don’t think that it is by any means easy to produce a bird that will have the potential to fly from Barcelona to Dublin Ireland. I do think however we can help our own chances. The genes of the birds that have completed the task already are in the loft so there in itself is a good start. Now the question is how to we compound and add those genes together to produce that most elusive champion. My theory’s are linked to simple genetics although this is anything but simple. To line breed my birds to have the main pigeon in the pedigree of each youngster as many times as possible. In this case I will use the example of Padfield’s Invincible. This fantastic cock will be the stud sire of one line of birds. All young from each and every year must be no further than being a grandchild of this super cock. Again the question how can someone be sure of this.Firstly as long as there are a number of direct children in the stock loft this is in itself relatively easy. Firstly after producing grandchildren, these grandchildren must be mated with their aunts and uncle. grandchildren, these grandchildren must be mated with their aunts and uncles therefore insuring that Padfield’s is no more than a grandfather to a all young produced every year from that line
MY BARCELONA DREAM - PART 2