Gamefowl vs. Homing pigeons.

Just a video about the comparison on the game fowl and the pigeons breeding system.

[@kyleclayton2360]

Very true, I raise Moore Albany, Morgan white hackles, Griffon Clarets, and what I call Barba Blks.. love them

[@keithmecca13]

So true. I hope people are listening.

[@kerbyjackson88]

You're making a lot of good points that people should take to heart. My gr. gr. Grandfather was a cocker, as was my mentor in exhibition poultry. I love the old Eslin Red Quills and would keep them if I had more space. (I always want to breed them right, not just look at them, so no Game Fowl for me right now). I hope you get the opportunity to have some again. There are some similarities between racing pigeons and breeding Game Fowl, but I think one of the problems with racing is that nobody knows what really happened to the birds they lose. Is it bad management, ho hum pigeons, predators or is it something else? Some people invest a lot of money in winning stock, but they still lose a lot of pigeons. I think a big factor is that in this day and age, it's pretty easy to go out and procure good racing pigeons off proven stock from ANYWHERE if you're inclined and willing to invest in your breeding program. You can get them from anywhere in the country and even importing them is pretty easy compared to how it used to be. In spite of that, the pigeons you buy might win where they originated, but they may do poorly for you because conditions are completely different. As a case in point, yesterday I bought the breeding loft of a long time flier who had done pretty well in the Great Lakes region and he'd kept the same pigeons for almost 45 years. But after he moved here, he fared pretty poorly and encountered a lot of losses even from 40 miles out. Naturally, he got discouraged and he quit racing and now he's just quit altogether. I wound up with a couple of his last birds and mostly took them just so he could be done with it, no longer have the responsibility of caring for them and move on. I asked a friend who was pretty familiar with them, "well, what's your opinion on them?". His remark was that they'd apparently done pretty well racing over the flat areas in Minnesota, but really struggled in our mountainous and hilly local terrain. It's worth mentioning that I live in a really tough place to race pigeons, to the extent that when outside clubs release here, they often encounter such heavy losses that they immediately pull back on their plans and change their racecourse to avoid dropping here. Now by contrast, when my grandfather raced here when I was a kid, though they sometimes had smash races, they did not routinely lose a lot of pigeons on a regular basis. Back in those days, it was harder to buy pigeons from outside the area. You'd have to send a couple letters back and forth to buy pigeons from some guy on the East Coast and then they'd have to be airline shipped. It was very involved, time consuming and expensive. Needless to say, when most people started out, they'd get pigeons from someone local. It was cheaper and easier. It was that way everywhere. Now as a result, those pigeons were well adjusted to that particular area. They'd been adapted to local race conditions and race courses for a long time. And once again, I don't think the level of losses was there. That leads me to think that maybe one of the problems is that it's just become too easy to get pigeons from all over and they may not be well suited for their new home. I think what's more, the constant easy buying of birds discourages the development of true bloodlines. So as a result of getting all these pigeons from all over, the results are pretty unpredictable because unlike the old timers, people aren't developing fixed bloodlines. With that in mind, for people starting out, I think maybe the real key is to simply not just buy good birds, but buy good birds that have been raced in the same sort of conditions that you're going to race them. If you live in hill country, buy birds that are bred in similar hill country opposed to birds that have been raced in Nebraska. If you're in a hot climate, don't buy some from Alaska and expect them to do well when it's 105 degrees or vice verse. In fact, a person may be better off going to the oldest local guy and saying " I want the stuff you've had the longest!". What's more, I think the real key is to then stick to them instead of mixing a bunch of other pigeons in. We kind of live in a culture now that expects instant gratification and wants the latest new fad and what's more, we tend to want it right now. I think maybe people need to just slow down and really think it out more and have some patience. Provided the birds you start with can actually race, if people are persistent, some success is bound to come their way.

[@lucasmincey9017]

Its good to see you terry. Good video.

[@hiddenhollowloft5678]

Hey bud.. how you been?

[@mandydorpinghaus252]

I completely understand…been there😊

[@jasonjordan9101]

Good points. I had pigeons as a kid. They came home, come hail or high water. Got pigeons again in 2019 and the first couple years I was racking my brain as to why they wouldn't come home, getting lost off the loft. I got rid of those and continue to get rid of ones whose parents don't produce top 10% racers. I've had an excellent year racing because of it. It's all about whether you're breeding for pets or breeding working animals. If they don't do the job they can go to someone else's house and be pets.

[@mrram5040]

Good video man🙌🏽