Caesar Lofts

Caesar Loft’s is not racing this year, but we do have some exciting weeks now and again. To start of with, Sunday morning I tried to break ‘Caesar 59′. He showed a strong bond with his hen so I thought I would try to break him. He flew into the nest box twice, with the windows open, but the third time he flew onto the top of the loft. I heard him fly on the top of the roof then he took to the air. At first I thought he was going to stay, but as soon as he headed over the house I knew he was gone. It’s been three days now and I don’t think he’ll be returning. So that’s the sad news, I’m down a cock and I have a spare hen.

The good news is that ‘48 and 66′ have hatched two chicks. They are 5 day’s old now so I’m checking them for the ringing stage, which is 7 days. After examining them I think I have a cock and hen, which is what I was hoping for. My others have all paired up now and are driving to the nest. I should have some eggs around the 17th May. The other good news is that besides budgies, we now keep DUCKS!. Becky fell in love with two ducks at the pet shop and for £10 for a pair, it was not bad.  I managed to take some photo’s of the duck and pigeons so enjoy.

I have recently received some new stock from Chris Maddison. They couldn’t have come at a better time. This morning I went into the loft and checked “Caesar 59 and 23’s” eggs. I was disappointed to see that both were dud. One had started to form into an embryo but for some reason it just stopped. There was a little black speck and some veins, but the yolk had gone watery. The other eggs didn’t even form, so I removed them both and let them go down one last time. If the third round is dud then I guess I’ll never get any whites of them.

The new stock on the other hand has settled in to their new boxes and are beginning to breed. Caesar 55 and 21 are together and Caesar 15 and 65 are almost together. The cock is in the nest bowl trying to charm the yearling hen. Good Luck to them both.

Above are Caesar 55 and 21. Caesar 21 reminds me so much of the ‘53 Cock’ I once had of my grand fathers. He was a Staf Van Reet, but ‘21′ is a Buschaert and good quality too.

Oh Yeah, MORE good news! Caesar 48 and 66 have now two young birds. The first youngsters to be born in our lofts. I’ll get some pictures when they are older and some pictures of the new stock.

One of the most argued theories in the sport. Long life friends have fallen out over it, even my own grandfather and uncle refused to speak to other for 15 Years because of their views about it, but what is it?

I am no eye sign expert nor even a novice. I have viewed my own pigeons eyes and tried my best to find out about them. I refer you to S.W.E. Bishops book “The Secret of the Eyesign”. Although the book is designed to find the eye sign in long distance racing pigeons I believe that if you work with it you should be able to identify you best pigeons whether they be Sprint, Middle or Distance.

Above is a reworked version of S.W.E.Bishops Formula of Recognition. Recently I have been following Jack Barkel’s Eye sign Theory on Pigeon Basics and if you want answers then he’s probably the best to go to. After approaching his ratings he began showing pictures of eyes and labeling them up as “The Best Eye” “The Worst Eye” and so on. After close examination Jack’s eyes were the same as the above, but renamed his way. Jack believes that calling them the best eye and the worst eye and so on is better than the numbered system from the 1940’s, yet I would rather refer to the eye sign in Bishops sense of numbering that way people who don’t really understand it much will know that 10 is better than 1 and if you say “you have a rating of 6 in that one” they will know it’s better than half.

Another thing I have picked up on the eye sign is the iris. Most of today’s experts say that “if the iris has high ridges and canyons” the bird is best as a breeder and “if there are no ridges or canyons” it’s best as a racer. The best birds to have are dual-purpose birds. I am going to test this iris business myself and see the results. My Red Hen has deep ridges and she has an eye of 7 so technically she is a good pigeon. I’ve paired her to my orange eye number 6 cock. According to Bishop they should produce a better eye, we shall see.

Some of Jack’s advice I will take to heart, especially his area on eye colour.

• Never pair two pearl eyes together. Speed and vitality are increased at the expense of the homing ability.
• Pairing two yellows will create slow plodders because the stamina and homing ability are increased at the expense of vitality
• Pairing a yellow with a pearl can result in much speed, stamina, homing ability and vitality
• Pairing 100% pearl racing sign with a 100% yellow racing sign will result in pure racers not suitable for stock
• Better than breeding pure racers in breeding dual purpose birds who can be retire to the stock loft once their racing career is over. To achieve this one needs to pair birds together the of whose racing signs do not exceed 100%

To find the best from your pigeons only you can decide which is the best bird from you own results.

The weather forecast for today is 20 Degrees, great! First thing this morning I let the pigeons out for a bath in the aviary, but we had some bad news last night. Becky’s son’s guinea pig died so we had to bury her this morning. She lived to a ripe old age of 4, which is the average for a guinea pig.

The weather is supposed to be miserable for the rest of the week. Rain until Tuesday according to the met office, but today is what matters for all those guys racing. With a South-West wind they will be pushed East slightly, but the tail wind will bring them home faster. Good Luck everyone.

Those of you who visit this blog will have read about the trouble I’ve had with my two yearling cocks, especially ‘59′. Saturday morning I binned the eggs of ‘23 and 59′ because they were unfertilized. Holding them up to the light I saw the air bubble at the top and beneath it was runny yolk. It was clear that no chicks had formed so removing them was for the best. Sunday morning ‘59′ began driving his hen to the nest again.

I’ve also removed the sand after a month. With the South-East winds over the weekend blowing on the front of the loft sand was being blown everywhere. The bottom nest box was completely covered in sand. The only disadvantage so far is that the birds have more muck on their feet. The beauty of the sand was if they trod in droppings then went on the floor the sand would dry their feet quickly. I said to Becky “At least I’ll have something to do other than rake now. I’ll give the bare floor a try for a month and see how it affects the pigeons condition” Some say the sand or ‘deep litter’ method helps the birds health, other say scraping is better. I can see now whether the birds have got any dropping problems with the bare floor and it’s safe to say I couldn’t see much wrong with them this morning.

On a lighter note, I’ve finally had an egg from my chequers. After successfully pairing up on the 12th April, we have been blessed with our third egg and first egg to the chequers. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on it being a Red Cock.

Well done you two!

My whites have also gone down again. This is a previous picture because the original came out blurry. (Still working on the camera)

Good Luck on round two. If the second round is unfertile then I have the meaningful task of find out who is barren or sterile. Since the hen is the oldest there is a strong possibility that it is her, but only time will tell.

I’m a bit upset today. It’s been about 11 days for the eggs so I thought I hold them up to the light to see if any chicks were inside. Sad news is there isn’t. I’ll let them sit there 18 days and check again. If the eggs are still clear I’ll bin them and let ‘Caesar 23 and 59′ go down again for a second round. If the second round is unfertilized I will have to give my dove release idea a miss until I can make sure who the unfertile bird is. There is the possibility that they didn’t actually mate, which I’m hoping because I don’t really want unfertile birds. Everything is now riding on their second round.

Today I was pleased with my success. Both my Chequers have paired after a couple of days being locked up in the box. The nest bowl I put in ’48’s side stimulated him and then swapping ‘48 and 66′ around so she was in the bowl stimulated her then. This morning I saw them both in the box with the total signs of pairing. Hopefully I should have some eggs of them around the 22nd April.

To help the birds settle in I put down a bath today in the aviary. From what I could see they enjoyed it very much. Both Chequers were soaking themeselves and soaking up the morning sun. I decided to loose out ‘Caesar 59′ because for the last day or so he’s been confined to his box for attacking the Chequers. At first he looked at the bath but took an interest in the Chequers, again, but both Chequers moved to allow him some space in the bath. He pecked at them but then began to bathe. I think he’ll still be attacking them when they are done though and if he does he’ll be returned to his box.

I was very pleased this morning when I went into the loft. ‘Caesar 23′ has been sitting in her bowl for the last couple of days preparing for laying. Today she had her first egg under her, and boy is she cranky. Trying to get a peek was difficult, she just kept winging me. I didn’t realise how much I missed that wing bash.

Unfortunately I was hoping that the arrival of the first egg would calm ‘Caesar 59′ down from attacking the other two but it hasn’t. When I went in this afternoon to clean the box he began attacking ‘Caesar 66′ and chased her into the aviary. He continued his assault. I managed to coax him back into the loft where I smacked his nose and locked him up. I think I may have a problem when he sits the eggs because he will be either chasing after his hen or chasing after the other two, this is his first year breeding so he won’t know the full extent of the experience. I think he’ll settle down in a few days though.

Another good thing to happen today was ‘Caesar 48′. He began driving ‘Caesar 66′ in the aviary and she didn’t peck at him. He is slowly maturing so hopefully I will be able to pair them up Friday. I’ll keep an eye on them during the week and if he shows signs of maturity I’ll put them in a box to pair.

‘Caesar 23′ has always been a mystery since I bought her. Becky, even though she’s never had or been around racing pigeons, looked at her on Easter Sunday and said “She’s looks a good one”. Mr Freeman told me he bought them in an auction in Wales and said she was a stock hen. When you hold her you can feel the quality in her, even her tail points downwards showing she a class hen.

Jack always told me “If the tail sticks up, neck it. If it sticks down keep it. A tail that sticks down when you hold it is a good pigeon, one that sticks up is of no use to us”

Unfortunately I have three with tails down and one with a tail up, which is ‘Caesar 59′. Because they are my first birds in eleven years I’m going to let him off, but I will be watching his youngsters very carefully. The moment they mess up or their tails stick up I will never breed from him again.

Anyway back to the jigsaw puzzle. Mr Freeman emailed me his base strain pedigrees, so last night I was working them out and made a pedigree for her. Unfortunately it’s probably not accurate because I do not know who here parents were or who her grand parents were. The pedigrees I do have show that the imports of ‘De Witte Kadet’ and ‘De Witte Eddy’ bred countless GB rung birds. Here are two of the rings: -

• GB 95 D 52126
• GB 95 D 52115

Both of those were Direct children to ‘Kadet’ and ‘Eddy’. I think they were bred by a Mr B.Dudley or possibly purchased by him. When transferring my WHU rings I found out that their previous owner was Fred Cross, as Mr Freeman said, and I know he passed on in 2007. I would like to know if anyone bought any of his birds at the auction. If you have a copy of the auction paper that would be helpful, but if you managed to get any pedigrees that would be excellent. If you have any information please leave a comment or drop me a PM on Pigeon Basics or Pigeon Chat. My username on Basics is Castleview and on Chat it’s Adam Westwood.