One can easily tell that the summer is nearing its back-end just by looking into the loft and observing how tatty many of the birds are now looking. The combination of very warm, extremely humid weather, a little too much TLC, being separated and particularly at this time of year of currently having too many birds is now daily producing masses of fallen feathers that can, if left unchecked, quickly accumulate in the loft corners. A good trouble-free moult now is of course going to give the birds a head start come the real shows.
Equally however, the moult can all too frequently become a time of severe stress, during which more than a few birds will succumb, not to the moult but to infections brought to the surface by the birds having lower than usual levels of tolerance. It is now a well-established fact that most pigeons, irrespective of how well they are managed, permanently carry a wide range of potentially disastrous disease organisms yet with just a little help from us their internal systems manage to keep the bugs in check and they remain very healthy. It is very often stress originating from within the loft environment that can be the trigger that results in these dormant bugs exploding into activity and becoming real life threatening problems. It is, without fear of contradiction, up to the fancier to ensure a good, relaxed and homely environment for his birds. It is therefore incumbent upon the breeder to supply his birds with only clean, good quality food, minerals and grit and aim to provide the calm, stress-free loft that allows them to enjoy their R and R. Outside of the loft environment birds that are over shown or over raced are also placed under an enormous degree of completely avoidable stress. One should always ask the question, 'Is competing for the extra piece of card worth it?'
Writing of 'good quality' corn does not by any stretch of the imagination necessitate going to the local corn merchant and paying the earth for a bag of a Mighty Magyars super premium XXX all singing all dancing corn mix. Providing the quality is good birds can live, breed and thrive quite happily on the mere basic of mixes. I know of excellent fanciers with super fit show and race winning pigeons who will quite openly admit to feeding cleaned wheat as the bulk ingredient of the daily rations with a few peas, beans and maybe a bit of maize added. With just a little training the birds can and will eventually eat almost anything - even breadcrumbs. I well remember going up to visit the loft of my very dear friend the late and sadly missed Alec Forder. To my amazement he took a whole loaf of bread, cut it in half and threw it in to his show winning black self Long Faced Tumblers. I was in the loft for over an hour and not once in that time did his birds stop enthusiastically attacking that loaf of bread, eventually reducing it to just a hollowed out crust
I have small studs of a varied mixture of breed types ranging from Lucernes, Archangels, Suabians and various other colour breeds as well as Wests, Rollers, Show Racers and Working Racers but I have never used, nor felt the need to use expensive mixes, preferring instead a good, clean general racing mix with extra wheat added at a ratio of two to one (ie two bags of mix to one of wheat). The base mix contains everything from tares through to tic beans plus the wheat and believe me they all eat everything. This mix is fed for twelve months of the year. The only time that I adjust this is when at certain times of the year I will add something extra, such as a higher percentage of barley during the autumn and early part of the year or additional maize during the coldest winter months etc. I tend to watch which grains they are eating first then add a few handfuls of that particular grain to the mix.
