After the fast flight from Roosendaal with a fine result, the pigeons were soon separated. We usually leave them together until the next day, but with an early release and a short distance, we separated them in the afternoon so they could eat well and go into the blackout. We darken the widowhood pigeons (about half of the entire team) from 6 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. to continue playing until Aug. 10.
The other half are for the shorter flights and are not darkened. This half is played on “the door,” as you do with youngsters. We are now two flights in and we have to wait and see until it gets warmer, but for old pigeons this system does not seem to be very suitable. The yearling cocks are not very bucket-proof, resulting in them running in badly in the morning after training, and a number of hens have become lesbians resulting in litters (they are not confined). The latter is not yet the problem, because on nest they do it too. In fact, our2nd pigeon that was observed at the same time as the 1st is such a hen. But the cocks (except one) don’t seem very motivated.
1st pigeon: NL23-8354628 – Bakerop x Mei Xiu
2nd pigeon: NL23-9308080 – Black Ace (Göbel-van der Sluis) x dtr. Super Harry 268
It was a cold week, but despite that, the cocks went off at 7:15 each morning. Except when it rains. The hens after. And the boy after that. Those are allowed to fly around all day until May 1.
On Friday at basketing the pigeons were rather light, but convex and otherwise looked fine. So we did expect a nice time pigeon, especially with the expected tough conditions.
The pigeons went out nicely on time. Cold it was, but that wouldn’t get much better the rest of the day anyway. The pigeons were expected to get there between 2 hours and 5 minutes and 2 hours and 15 minutes over 157 km. would do. Initially compu live was down, but through the app we got some times through. For a bang early we should turn around 11.07-11.08, but that didn’t happen and then it’s a long wait. At 11:10 we saw the first two pigeons appear very high out of the clouds. At first it looked like they would fly on, but they turned and came down. The decoy did its job and the two came straight to the flap. In the end this resulted in 21st and 22nd place against 3,624 pigeons in the circle. Not bad by any means, but we expected a little more from it. Maybe against your better judgment, because of course you are playing against the real vitality specialists, and we certainly are not. But they came through fine and not an ounce of weight lost. Finally, one more is on the way from the 92. And unfortunately our favorite cock for the one-day race had flown into something (at the start?). His entire chest was black/blue and swollen. It looks like he will be out of action for a few weeks.
Two wonderful references this week:
Richard Faber, Westzaan plays the1st of 3,237 pigeons in Kring 3 with the ‘240’ (hen). The father comes from us and is a son of TGV. Last year this hen already flew a5th NPO from Issoudun.
Dick and Stephan Göbel flew in Rayon Midden of Afd. 5 the 8th against 9,250 pigeons. It was the hen ‘937’ that took care of this. The mother of this hen (701) comes from us and is a sister to our Red Harry,1st NPO La Souterraine.
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