Secrets of Long-Distance Pigeon Racing

By "Squills"

Originally published in the early 1930s. The author Lt. Col. A. H. Osman was a recognised expert on all aspects of pigeon racing and breeding. This book was originally written in answer to the many questions he received relating to getting birds fit and their training and preparation for long distance racing. The illustrated contents include: Importance of Strain - Young Birds - Yearlings - Third Season Pigeons - Old Birds - Late Birds - Feeding - Exercise etc.
Many of the earliest books on pigeons, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 24, 2011
• ISBN: 9781446548158

Book preview

RACING

CHAPTER I

IMPORTANCE OF STRAIN

I have headed this little handbook The Secrets of Long-distance Pigeon Racing because I have had so many letters in the course of my career asking me to send fanciers special information relative to getting birds fit for long-distance racing.

The general trend of the letters has been that the writer could succeed in winning races of 200 miles, but as soon as the long-distance 400-mile events were reached, met with complete failure.

My experience on investigating many of the causes of failure has been the fundamental one of physique. More than half the birds kept, reared, trained and raced by fanciers have not the physique or backbone to fly long journeys or to keep going under fairly hard conditions to return home from distances of 400 and 500 miles.

In the majority of cases poor physique is due to physical defects on the part of the parents.

To succeed in long-distance races you must have birds of a long-distance strain, and the young you breed from such birds must have no check at any stage of their careers until maturity.

Do not for a moment suppose when I speak of maturity I simply mean from the hatching of the egg until the young squab is from 3½ to 4 weeks old.

Pigeons do not mature in a few weeks, and this raises the question of how long they take to arrive at a mature, or fully-grown, age.

To answer this question with any degree of assurance it is necessary to know the strain of the pigeons.

The old Antwerp strains of birds in their purity are known to mature more quickly than the Brussels or Liege and Verviers strains, and, I think, are fully grown at twelve months old.

The old Antwerp fanciers made a practice of racing their young birds 400 miles, and as yearlings sent them 500 and 600-mile races, but these pigeons, raced so severely as young birds and yearlings, seldom stood racing trials so long and to such an age as the Brussels, Liége and Verviers strains. The Antwerp pigeons were of a larger type, strong, and in their wattles showed a good deal of the old English Carrier or Dragon crosses used by the Antwerp school many years before.

The old Liége pigeons that I saw and knew fifty odd years ago were of a different type—short in the leg, full in the chest, thicker in the head, with a well set beak of medium length. The great Hansenne family were all of this type, and it is from this family that Lucien Bastin, Gurnay, and the Verviers school produced their fine families of racers.

The Brussels family consisted chiefly of cross-breds, Antwerp with Liége, Antwerp with Verviers, Antwerp Liége crossed with Antwerp x Verviers.

These birds are somewhat more lengthy in type than the Liége, but a robust, hardy strain of birds due, no doubt, to their crossing.

Having decided the type and strain of pigeon you possess, they must be trained accordingly.

Nearly all our best English long-distance strains are of the Liége, Verviers and Brussels families, for although M. Gits was a great Antwerp fancier, he did not breed or race the Antwerp type of pigeon. His Queen and Donkeren, the two great pigeons upon which his strain was founded, were pigeons of medium size, more favouring the Brussels type than Antwerp.

I have mentioned these matters because it is necessary for a fancier to appreciate the fine distinction that exists between type and strain, and how success or failure may be due to their cultivation.

It is noticeable how often the fanciers who race in all or