National Bulletin
14th November, 2001 Bulletin
Received a good piece of info from Duncan Harvey and always unless absolutely
necessary I do not alter the info so here goes with the news on a good season from Duncan.
"My father started with a few young birds in 1961 and joined the Penzance RPC.
The only way he could train his birds then was to send them on the train at Penzance
Station to Truro or Plymouth. He didn’t have a car for the first few years and took a
few birds to the club on the bus that was a trip of 9mls. I joined the club in 1972 and we
flew in partnership as V & D. Harvey. The strain of birds we had then were the Percy
Thomas Gits and the Selborne Combellack Newslad family, twice British Section Barcelona
for John Taylor of Walsall. At this time we were flying with the WECA from the race points
Antwerp, Luxembourg, and Hanau in Germany and our longest young bird race was Margate
320mls. in 1977 Percy Thomas won the NFC Nantes race with his Jubilee Queen and this gave
us the inspiration to join the NFC for the 1978 season. At this time the late Clive
Pollard NFC Life Vice-President transported our birds to the Reading marking station. In
out first young bird National we won 1st 12th 13th
section D 29th Open Guernsey from 4 entries also winning the P.J. Thomas trophy
for the first bird into Cornwall. Over the next few years we also had the first bird into
Cornwall from Pau 1979, Avranches 1980, Lamballe 1981 and Sartilly 1984. By this time we
were also racing some Van Hees and Gilbert Vandeweghes from Stile lofts, a good hen from
Edward Waters of Pendeen and a few Leopold Coudous from LPW. But then in July 1986 a mink
got into the loft and killed nearly all of the stock and old birds including a Coudou hen
that won 1st Cornish Combine Antwerp 1984. It was then that Albert Padfield
kindly sent us some late breds that were mainly Clerbauts. One Clerbaut hen from his
"Midas" cock was responsible for breeding 1st Combine Salisbury, 1st
Fed Nantes etc. In 1988 my father died and I cut back on the birds for a while but joined
the British Barcelona Club and flew some mid week races organised by Clive Pollard and
have continued to fly as V & D. Harvey. Some results with the BBC in recent years have
been, 1st section 4th Open also 7th 8th 19th
20th open all from Nantes. Then in the early 1990’s introduced some
Verheys from F. Peruzzi including a daughter of "Een Witpen" from LPW plus some
from Mr & Mrs O’Brian. In 1993 I didn’t have many old birds to race so bred
a large team of 70 youngsters and these won many prizes in the Penzance and cape Cornwall
clubs, also Fed young bird points in the sprint category of the Versele-Laga World
Championship. Also in the from St Malo race with the NFC I was 1st 2nd
section 2nd 3rd open. Later I added to the Verheys a son of the
"De Jonge Sturen" and daughters of "Tonto" "Black Jack"
"Sam Speed" and "Trump Trick" from LPW. These Verheys have won the
Combine up to Saintes 378mls. In recent years I have introduced some Jan Aarden pigeons
hoping to send to the longer Classic races again. This year 2001 I won 1st
section D 40th Open San Sebastian with my 2yo hen "Sebastiana". She
was sent sitting 9 days and bred from a Kuyper Bros cock bred by LPW and a Wim Muller Jan
Aarden hen from the Padfield Family, a sister to the Padfield hen won many Classic
positions including 33rd Pau NFC 594mls. this year from Guernsey NFC I also won
8th 9th 22nd section D again winning the P.J. Thomas
Trophy for the first bird into Cornwall. My first hen was again a Jan Aarden from a pair
of stock birds from the Padfield family with my second bird being a Verheye. The stock
birds are treated for Coccidiosis, Canker and worms just once each year during November
and early December and most years are paired around Christmas. This year I had about 28
pairs of racers but many only had three or four races due to no channel racing. I race my
birds mainly to eggs but some are raced separated for two or three weeks and then paired
for a specific race, the advantage of racing both cocks and hens is in the future
pairings. I like to match performance channel cocks to performance channel hens. This year
I bred 52 young birds and also had a few gift birds but I prefer to have around 30 early
bred young birds for racing and breed some more in April and May. These can have some
light work at the end of the season, my San Sebastian hen was one of these. I don’t
darken my young birds, I’m not able to be at the lofts at the same time everyday and
also if it is a fine spring evening my young birds must go out for exercise. I rear my
young birds with a breeding mix and Hormoform, this year I used Bamfords breed and wean. I
train to 30mls and use the Combine races to prepare them for the National, most weeks I
send only a third to half of my team sending the birds in the best feather. Most young
birds have at least three races and fly at least 160mls. the race birds are given multi
vitamins once a week also Johnson’s Tonic and Garlic Plus from Stock Nutrition. The
old birds were raced on Bamfords racing mixes and young birds on the Bamfords and
Versele-Laga mixes."
Thanks for that Duncan an informative article for readers to get their teeth into.
At the moment things are quiet on the news front because we are in at a time of the
year when we are waiting for things to happen. But remember as always these cols are open
to the views and performances of the National members so you can send at any time..
Les.J.Parkinson. Elimar, 11 Rushton Drive, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10
ONJ. Tel/Fax: 01606 836036. ljohnp@elimarpigeons.fsnet.co.uk
web-site www.elimarpigeons.fsnet.co.uk
