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Fast birds do fly slow! by Alf Del-Brocco
Recently, I have been researching & talking to successful fanciers both overseas & interstate on the question of “speed” in racing pigeons. I shall elaborate further. My research was on why some notable & proven families of birds could fly faster than others. The easy answer is “horses for courses”. However, I had the experience of owning some of the best available & credential “speed machines” money could buy. On paper, nothing came close. On results in other lofts, these birds were a cut above the rest. I came across a couple of well-documented case studies & also, in hindsight, had experienced similar parallel results in the management & keeping of my own birds. My reason for punching away at the keypads on the laptop is for the information of the novice. If you feel your testing & measuring has given you a better or different result, good luck to you. What I am about to impart below has been shared with many notable racing pigeon enthusiasts competing in very large Federations with bird numbers upwards of 12,000+.
It all started with the introduction of the Janssen pigeons to my lofts. Up until this point in time, my main family of birds had been of the local variety & distance bloodlines. These birds are still winning for other fanciers as late as last years Windorah race. It must be noted, however, that the last two races on the racing pigeon schedule seem to be the only two races that this family of birds has the opportunity to shine.
Anyway, I had the need for speed, & slowly introduced Janssens & Janssen related bloodlines. Too my surprise & dismay, they were not that much faster than the old plodders I had obtained from down South & locally. A necessary point to make here is that the lofts contained 75% distance bloodlines & 25% “sprint” blood. I thought to myself, I had purchased the wrong birds, or had mated the birds incorrectly. Anyway, faster birds (families) were sought & thus the introduction of the legendary Tassie Sprinters. Again, advice was given on how to successfully obtain the most from the Tassie Sprinters & in hindsight, I now realize this to be correct. I will get there in a moment. Please be patient.
The Sprinters were no quicker than the Janssens who were no quicker than the distance birds. Please note the lofts at this point in time consisted of 50% distance blood & 50% new “sprint” blood. The question was asked... “What am I doing wrong?” This is where a couple of fanciers tried to point to a map to, understandably, explain my loft position & my current results. Needless to say, I was insulted. But, not one to look at insurmountable odds & “throw in the towel” I continued to research & ask those experienced fanciers in the know. This is where through a friend in the USA, I was pointed to a chapter in a book “The Will to Prepare” written by Robert Kinney. The chapter is titled “Fast Birds Can Fly Slow”. I must have read this chapter, all of 11 paragraphs, about 1,000 times by now! Robert Kinney goes into the chapter explaining how he first flew his “all Janssen” team winning 6 of the 8 races. The following year he raced a team of only 5 Janssen birds with the rest of the team being made up of Janssen crosses & old “proven”, dependable birds. The Janssen birds were clocked, on average, 15minutes ahead of the other team. The third year, the team was made up of “old bloodlines” (75%) with the remaining birds being the proven Janssen birds of the year before. That year, the Janssen birds only marginally flew better than their loft mates did. Sound familiar?
Well, on further investigation & testing & measuring, it was indeed discovered that fast birds can fly slowly, but slow birds can not fly fast. I should elaborate further on this point. If “genetically” slow birds are trained to fly fast & the end selection process is to breed around these “fast” birds, then do not expect these same birds to fly the last two races on the calendar. Look at an Olympic sprinter. Yes, he can run slowly, but can the Olympic marathon runner run as fast as the Olympic sprinter? A no brainer really. Obviously, the training process & diet is totally different for the sprinter & the marathon runner.
The answers that followed were very straightforward. As I only deal with fact & detest b.s. it was learnt that pigeons being a flocking animal for the reasons of safety & survival, a kit of racing pigeons will develop at a very early & imprintable age, a collective pace. Therefore, if a team of racing pigeons consisted of only fast bloodlines, then the collective pace of the kit of birds in training & around the loft would increase. If the kit of birds consisted of slow birds, perhaps marathoners of the sky, then the collective pace of this kit around the loft & in training tosses would be slower than the “faster” kit. Now, if the kit is predominantly faster bird, these birds will dictate the pace. If the predominant birds are “slower” then the flock will dictate the pace & if you happen to have your “fast” bloodlines sprinkled among the predominant distance birds, expect these “fast” birds to learn to slow down.
I have often been told to keep my distance birds separate from my sprint / middle distance birds. Highly respected & influential experts of there respective distance gave this advice on numerous occasions. Even the “Tassie” guys knew this & I was told early on... “house your sprinters away from the other birds” & “train your sprinters independent of your other birds”. Great advice that went in one ear & out the other. Sorry guys! Anyway, the same observations were noted with last years “sprint” cocks who were independently trained from the “sprint” hens & distance birds. The “sprint” cocks hammered home so fast that the native mickey birds used to go off their nut thinking it was a flock of raptors, which in turn made the “sprint” cocks go even faster into the loft & trees! The other team, consisting of predominantly distance cocks & hens & a small team of “sprint” hens were dictated by peer group pressure & the pace was often anywhere up to 30minutes behind the “sprint” cocks.
In a further conversation with my good friend, Ian Daniel, of Rangeview Lofts, Ian told me a story about a kit of 20 Mattheeuws Cocks that were working the sky when a highly respected & prominent Sydney flyer visited. The “Sydney” flyer was amazed at the collective pace of this small team of cocks. Several times it was asked, “do they always fly this fast?” to which the reply was “yes!” Talking to my friend, the “Staf Van Reet” man, Mr Dean Pallatt, the question was asked on several occasions on how to get the best out of this family of birds. The reply was always to have a tried & successful team of birds, all of the same genetics, trained & motivated to lead the pack home. Another good friend in Sydney explained his selection criteria for his team. The purpose was simple. To breed & race fast birds. Only the birds timed & homed within 5 minutes of the clock bird were allocated loft points. At the end of the season, the points were tallied & only the fastest (most points) were kept. Incidentally, this was never more than a handful of birds.
So, if your Janssen or new imported bloodlines have not set your club on fire, take a look at your management & what genetics are contained in your loft. If you are after speed, either house & train these “speed” birds separately from your “distance” birds & visa versa. Incidentally, my good mate Rick Rooke clocked a 5th Fed Windorah last year with birds I had gifted to him. The Windorah (600ml) race was a tough one, with few birds arriving in race time. Rick had an earlier bird trap, less its race rubber (such is pigeon racing) but the 5th Fed placed bird was a Staf Van Reet x Tassie Sprinter! Anyway, Rick flies predominantly distance bloodlines with a sprinkling of these “faster” birds. After scratching our heads, looking for the answer why this “sprint” bird had done such a commendable effort...in my opinion...she had learned to fly slow, being trained & tossed with the distance birds. Obviously she also had a good pair of lungs on her & was motivated to get home. Horses for courses? You got to wonder, don’t you!
So my advice to the novice & to the ‘old hand’ who has been disappointed with his / her whiz bang new introduction of a imported bloodline, make a decision & keep & house only one, maybe two families of similar genetic potential. Train, house & feed them separately. Once you have worked out your key producers & you have a desire to be competitive at both the short, middle & long distance, then introduce one, probably two pair of birds for the other distance’s you would like to be successful at. Again, it is ‘horses for courses’. Take notes; ask sensible questions to successful fanciers outside your club to ensure you are not fed any b.s. & look for those stock birds that are breeding the clock birds at the distance you at first wish to be successful at. Eventually, success will come your way. (any comments: e-mail: roccos@easemail.net ).
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