Do you force fly your birds during exercise or are they left to do as they please.

o you feed any differently in the build up to National races.
REAPING THE REWARDS.

1st Welsh SRNFC Nort - sur- Erdre.

4th Open BICC Alencon1 [4,797 birds].

5th Open BICC Tours [2,429 birds].

71st Open NFC Carentan 8,319 birds with Old Birds in 2013.

Tony Coombs, the subject of this loft report, has only recently returned to the sport and has gained a good deal of success in a very short time including winning the Welsh South Road National Flying Club race from Norte-sur-Erdre in 2013. This National win followed on from Tony's earlier successes at club level and with the Gwent Greater Distance Club, BICC and NFC.

Although only recently returned to the sport, Tony has a long history of family involvement with the Fancy in South Wales, stretching back to the early years of the 20th Century. The following is Tony's account of his relationship with the sport of pigeon racing.

     1 - When did you start in the sport.
I grew up with pigeons in the family and had my first loft at 6 years of age. I did not race pigeons until I joined partnership with a family member, Harry Woodridge. Due to school, college, career and family commitments, I left the pigeons behind for 34 years and started again 6 years ago. In the meantime I kept canaries, Coloured canaries and Norwich canaries.

1. Who was your first major influence.
   

Obviously, I have great memories of Harry and Billy Woodridge, who incidentally won 1st Open WGNFC Thurso in 1968, along with my grandfather. However, I have to say that at the present time Adrian Ware has been my greatest influence with friendship, advice, pigeons and guidance in abundance. Adrian is a font of knowledge when it comes to racing pigeons and it is a great shame his health prevents him from continuing at the highest level of racing pigeons.

1. Can you give brief details of your first loft, birds, management etc.
   

My first real lofts were when I was in partnership with Harry Woodridge. We built the loft in his back garden from reclaimed timber from houses which was being demolished to make way for the construction of a major road. It was a large loft, set to fly Natural in the late 1960’s and early 70’s

1. How long have you raced to your present location.
   

I have raced to my back garden loft for 6 years and it is my second year at my long distance loft which is set in an allotment some 3 miles from my home. We fly under my son's name at the long distance loft and only compete at club level from that loft at present..

1. Can you give details of your present loft set up i.e. overall dimensions , orientation , number of sections etc.
   

The loft I currently race to is in my back garden. It is 6m x 2m with a 1m aviary/walkway the length of the loft. It is south east facing and has 3 sections, 2 x 1.5m sections with 10 nest boxes in each and 1 x 3m section for the young birds. My hens are kept at one end of the aviary on “V” perches during the racing season and then in the young bird section through the winter. They are exercised daily, but not raced.

Our long distance loft is 9m x 3m and has 20 nest boxes with a hens section and young bird section. The 20 nest boxes will be divided into 5 sections of 4 nest boxes in each for next season. The young birds are raced natural. I also have a 16 foot x 6 foot stock loft with 12 nest boxes.

All lofts are of a wooden construction, warm in the summer cold in the winter, relatively light with plenty of fresh air.

1. Do you use deep litter ,grids or clean daily/regularly.
   

My young birds are kept on dry droppings. This has been in place for 3 seasons and was introduced after a visit to the Boscheind Fliers in Holland. The young birds have their box perches cleaned twice a day and the dry droppings on the floor are raked once a day to remove any large droppings. It is sieved once a month.

The 2 racing sections are scrapped twice a day when the birds are exercising.

1. How many birds do you keep:- stock. racers, young birds.
   

I keep a maximum of 20 widowhood cocks, up to 40 young birds with no stock birds at home. I do now have a small stock loft at my allotment where I keep one retired racer, 2 other sprint/middle distance cocks and a few long distance stock pairs on loan from Gareth Watkins. At my long distance lofts I intend to build up to 16 pairs of Jan Aarden based pigeons with the greater distance races in mind. I race the long distance pigeons along with my son Darren

1. What system do you use to race the birds e.g. widowhood, round about, natural etc.
   

I race widowhood cocks only at home.

My long distance lofts are open hole from March until September at present. I do have to close the hole the day before basketing as I don’t seem to get there early enough to catch them in. However I intend to fly the cocks on widowhood from next year.

1. When do you mate your stock birds, racers.
   

I pair to accommodate any family commitments I may have. I have paired up in December and as late as the middle of February. It depends if we have a holiday planned. I find that young birds bred from late January pairings are best for me.

1. Do you mate the birds you intend for the longer races at a different time to the other racers.
   

I now have a second loft about 3 miles from my house which is being prepared for long distance racing. I have only raced up to 420 miles, Saints, from my garden. Up to this distance I basically prepare them all the same, however, if I am expecting a holdover, I may have some of them carrying a little extra weight.

Although we fly them naturally at the long distance loft at present, once we have a full team they too will be raced as widowhood cocks only.

1. What is the preparation of the racers prior to the first old bird race.
   

I like to see the pigeons looking well at all times. I concentrate on the pigeons being fit for the first race. This involves them exercising in most weather conditions, building up to an hour in the morning and a hour in the afternoon a week or two before the first race. I am reluctant to give medicines without a very strong indication they need it. They will have had both apple cider vinegar and orego stim during this build on a regular basis.
I never force fly any of the birds, old or young.

1. How often do you exercise the race birds.
   

Twice a day building up to 1 hour morning and afternoon for both the widowhood cocks and the young birds.

1. How often do you train the race birds before and during racing.
   

After breeding they are exercised twice a day regardless of the weather. One or two weeks before the first old bird race they are trained three or four times up to 30 miles. No training after the first race. I like channel racing. Between the BICC, NFC, Welsh SRFed and the Welsh SRNFC there is usually a channel race under 420 miles most weekends. Sometimes, even two such races occur on the same weekend. As long as they return within a reasonable time and are in good condition I will send them every week but, I will keep any at home that has not returned in perfect condition. These can have a week’s rest from racing.

1. How far do you usually train .
   

I usually train from 15 miles and 30 miles for the widowhood cocks three or four times before racing and the young birds will go for five or six tosses at 15 - 60 miles before their race season starts.

My first training toss for the young birds is 15 miles up to three times until they learn to come straight home. They rarely come straight home on their first toss but if they come straight home on the second toss they move on to 30 miles etc.

1. Is there any specific preparation for the birds before National races.
   

I find the pigeons come in to form themselves and my difficulty in the past has been recognising this form. However, I am learning. I never send very many entries to a channel race. Choosing the cocks who are putting in the effort at home, when handling and looking well. Each cock will have up to seven channel races in a season where possible if fit and well.

1. How much racing do your young birds receive and how many training tosses do they have in the year of their birth.
   

I am not that keen on young bird racing. However, I like to give them every opportunity to perform well. I have retained young cocks for the widowhood team after one race of the young bird race programme. In fact the pigeon that was 4th BICC Alencon this year was a summer bred young bird and only had one 73 mile race as a young bird. However, I do think it very important that young birds get some transporter training in their year of birth.

1. Do you race your young birds on the Natural system or Darkness/light system
   

If they are early bred from December pairings they are natural and if bred from January or February pairings they go on to the darkness system. Whichever system they are on, it is all together. I prefer to have all my young birds of the same age.

1. How do you feed the racers, stock birds, young birds – hopper /by hand. How do you gauge how much they need at each feed.
   

By hand. I initially weigh each feed, then when I am happy with the amount of feeding they are getting I can judge by volume that they need. At my long distance loft everything is hopper fed.

1. What mixtures do you feed.
   

The pigeons at home, when racing are fed GEM PLUS during the week and GEM SUPER WIDOWHOOD (or similar) prior to basketing. GEM Matrix (or similar) is used daily. When breeding I use maple peas, tic beans and tares, with a high protein mixture from GEM with some maize given separately. When moulting they get GEM Moulting mix or similar. When resting, after the moult and until breeding, they are fed barley. After breeding, back on to barley before having GEM Plus 3 weeks before racing.

My pigeons at the long distance loft are hopper fed peas and beans and maize is hand fed for a few days before marking. After the moult they are hopper fed 100% barley until breeding commences.

1. Do you feed any differently in the build up to National races.
   

Other than the birds having one day’s feed of a strong widowhood mixture for inland racing and two days feed of the same strong widowhood mix for channel racing there is no difference.

1. What are the main bloodlines that you house now and which lines have proved the most successful.
   

At home I have a team of birds which are directly bred from Adrian Ware’s Staf Van Reet’s. It is this family of multi award winning pigeons that perform best for me.
My long distance pigeons are Jan Aarden based and relatively untried at present.

1. Do you line breed, in breed outcross when breeding. Which method has been most successful for you.
   

I line breed and inbreed around the principle pigeons of Adrian Ware’s and this has brought me some success. However, I will line breed and outcross next year.

My pigeons at the allotment are Jan Aarden based and at present, their second year, and are all outcrosses.

1. Is there any fancier who has helped you more than any other.
   

I am very lucky to have sought advice from and received good advice back from many fanciers, yourself to name one but Adrian Ware has been the main influence on me. I cannot measure the help and advice he has given me.

1. Can you give an outline of your many top class performances and those that have given you most pleasure.
   

This year has been my most successful to date. The pigeons performed better than expected. Initially there was a 71st open with the NFC from Carentan with 8,319 pigeons entered in the race. Then came a 3rd WS 4th Open BICC Alencon with 4,797 pigeons entered, followed by 5th WS 5th open BICC Tours where 2,429 pigeons competing. There then followed my 1stOpenWSRNFC Nort Sur Erdre[Nantes] in which my bird also topped the club and Fed results. I fly in a very competitive club where you compete against a number of National winning fanciers. If you can win there you know you have done well.

1. Can you give details of some of the top pigeons that you have raced.
   

The positions above have been won by 4 cocks. All Staf van Reet’s. They are pigeons which I have always had great faith in. They are sons/grandsons of Adrian Ware’s BICC open winner, National winners and top performers in Federations and clubs. They make the saying “that the sweetest apples don’t fall far from the tree” very true to me. It is a pleasure to welcome them home from a race where the wife and grandchildren often also await their return, with the grandchildren knowing their name and calling it out when they see them arrive. It gives me great pleasure.

1. Do you have any views on how the sport can be improved and how we can attract new members into the sport.
   

I believe in the saying that “there is safety in numbers” and as a result I honestly believe that all the Welsh Nationals should carry out their Channel racing together. If the members can’t agree on one National, at least there should be one liberation. As for the future of the sport I believe this lies with attracting more young fanciers to the sport and that to this ends racing should, wherever possible, be confined to the weekends. Mid week racing makes it very hard to attract young people in numbers to our sport. Apart from expecting parents to foot the bill for a loft, equipment, stock and then the corn bill etc you can no longer expect children to have time off school for a planned or short notice change to mid week marking and racing. When the pigeons have a planned weekend liberation which cannot be accomplished because of inclement weather and needs to go ahead mid week, this is a different matter.

I also believe the introduction of a mentor system for young starters would be of benefit. I began racing pigeons in such a way. There have been some very successful young fanciers who have had a mentor here in South Wales.

1. Do you have a specific programme of medication.
   

If I did have a problem that required medication I would be prepared to medicate but nothing specific. However, I do vaccinate for PMV, Pigeon Pox and Salmonella.

1. Do you use any supplements such as vitamins etc.
   

Orego Stim and Apple Cider Vinegar in the water.

1. Do you feed any supplements in the build up to long distance / National races.
   

No. I did try some Omega Oils this year but found no benefit from using it.

1. How does your ideal pigeon look/ handle.
   

I have two standards. For the sprint/middle distance pigeons I have at home I like the medium sized pigeon, long cast and not too deep in the keel. For the long distance I prefer the medium to small size but again long cast as opposed to apple bodied.

I do not know much about eye sign, but I am told that my best pigeons have good eye sign. I like looking in their eyes as a health indicator.

I also like all my pigeons to have feathers that can withstand some wet weather. I have had pigeons which seem to have feathers which hold water while others have feathers from which water simply glides off.

I like my cocks to look like cocks and my hens to look like hens. I still get caught out though. Above all I like my pigeons to remain healthy at all times with little interference from me.

1. If you could only use one product / supplement what would it be.
   

The oregano based water additives.

There you have a fancier with a common sense, no nonsense approach to the sport that has brought him a fair amount of success at all levels in a very short space of time. This approach applied to top quality proven performance pigeons will I'm sure continue to reap great rewards in the years to come. Congratulations Tony on your National win - it might well be the first of many!!


Gareth Watkins