Wayward Thoughts

We are nearing the time when it is a must that we lock-down our kits of rollers, lest be butchered by birds of prey. I can remember the time when locking a kit bird down for a period of months was a non-starter, unless of course they were headed to the stock loft. Potential stock birds were “proven” beyond belief oftentimes for no other reason than the inability to shelve a true acrobatic champion.

I recall a red & white ender fondly named GQ because of his stunning looks. GQ flew for no less than 6 years straight, day in and day out, causing many a fancier to pause when he started rolling. Hilly Flowers and I would marvel at these performances and come up with an assortment of reasons why we should not place him in the stock loft. At first it was because he was not as frequent as let’s say, the number one hen; however, around year-three his frequency quadrupled immediately taking away that excuse. Next, we would reduce his value based on size in comparison to some other bird, again leaving out the most important factor, his ability to burn up the sky.

After six plus years of flying GQ made the decision for us, he flew away and now we will never know if his abilities in the breeders loft would be commensurate to his aerial prowess.

Fast forwarding 10-15 years the aggressive presence of hawks, falcons and other birds of prey have left little opportunity to fly kit birds for extended periods of time. Although we reluctantly lock our birds down during the height of their feeding periods we still lose out on valuable time. In addition, the altering of our flying regimen will inadvertently affect our selection process and ultimately the birds we strive to breed.

We are experiencing Darwinism in its most rudimentary form–in the laws of use and dis-use what will Birmingham roller breeders lose.

–PW

Merry Christmas Ole Ye “Roller Folk”

Merry Christmas all you roller people! As we all know the 2009 breeding season is right around the corner so it is imperative that we start off the season in good cheer.  Also, we never want to start the new year off the way the last one ended, provided that the ending was bad. To prempt the 2009 madness i thought that it would be good to create our collective “what we want for christmas list.”

The exercise is simple, just write your wish in the comment section and hit submit.  Hopefully our collective wishes will create the type of synergy needed to perservere through another year of ups and downs.

Wish List 2009

1. I wish that the BOP’s never return from their migration and take a swim somewhere near the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, or the Dead Sea.
2. I wish that Show rollers are stripped of their Birmingham title once and for all.
3. I wish that speed and quality multipliers are considered as equally important in current kit competition rules.
4. I wish that feather merchants and their minions would stop peddling their pedigrees and pushing the hobby backwards.
5. I wish that roller folks, to quote LARC member Jason Fant, would realize, “this ain’t religion it’s just pigeon!” and keep the petty shit out of the mix.  

Now its your turn–add to the list.

PW

Fly or Die!

Rollers in Iraq

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-birds12-2008oct12,0,4223159.story

Over the weekend the LA Times wrote a piece entitled, “Pigeon breeders now face fewer challenges in Iraq” which focuses on an established pigeon culture in the war torn country. While the writer clearly did not understand the difference between rollers and fantails he did a good job conveying the passion that exists in the global pigeon community.

Over the past couple of months rollers have been the beneficiaries of really good press coverage. It is important for us to finds ways to use this coverage to illustrate the solid foundation of a hobby under assault. It will be helpful in our advocacy to stop the introduction of “birds of prey” in both urban and populated rural environments. It could potentially lead to the filing of legal complaints against the federal government and lawsuits aimed at recovering our losses.

To some this may seem far fetched, however,  there is precedent in the US for these types of actions. Think about it, there are designated hunting days for predators of domestic cattle which allows for the reduction of predators. Why should it be any different for our domestic species of pigeons? It should not be!

The sky is the limit but you need to reach towards the sky to touch it. 

–Pw

Mistakes…. Or Not Mistakes..??

      Oftentimes decisions are made, or have to be made, which can impact the outcome of ones breeding program for years into the future.  I have some examples of this kind of decision which I have thought of for years after having made the decision. 

     First there was a hen, 75 Triangle band #5989, which was three quarters of my foundation hen.  This bird was exceedingly active.  One of the most frequent I have ever bred.  She would roll to the point of utter exhaustion, and barely able to fly, would glide to the wire and sit there weakly..  On one of these occasions, a crow noticed something was wrong with her and dove down trying to peck her head.  She flew to my porch where my cat was sitting.  I ran and grabbed her just as the cat was getting ready to pounce.  The cat lost a couple of its nine lives on that occasion.

5989 with Foundation Hen

     It was my practice at the time to fly my breeders between breeding seasons, and this practice led to the loss of this valuable bird.  She turned up  missing, and I found her body 2 days later on a factory rooftop adjacent to my pottery studio.  She had blood stains on the feathers around her vent. 

   The decision to fly my breeders also led to the loss of a valuable stock cock, 73 CCRC #384, a grandson of Pensom’s 119 cock.  I didn’t think that I was making the amount of progress that I should have been, and I wanted to get a look at what this bird was capable of doing in the air.  I never found out, because I lost him.  Every time a bird is released to fly, we have to remember that it can be lost.

Heart Attack and 384

    Losing 384 was probably the catalyst for the hardest decision I ever made in my years of breeding.  Some thought that Heart Attack, 77 CRS #905, was the best bird in my loft.  However, she was unrelated to my main family of birds and I had come to the realization that I had to focus on a smaller gene pool to make the progress I hoped to make.  I carefully evaluated my breeding records, and I charted the results, making my first “family trees”.  This made it clearer to me that my main family was showing progress, while other birds were less productive.  It was at this point that I decided to let  Heart Attack and the rest of her family go.

    I had ealier mated 384 to his daughter Heart Attack, and I produced a 3/4 son.  This son was bred to an almond daughter of my foundation hen and produced a “white almond” or white ticked cock which was the deepest rolling bird, with brakes. that I have evet bred.   He would always roll deep, and the pattern would always be the same.  First he would roll 50 feet with decent speed for that depth, then he would “switch wings” causing a hitch in the roll, and go another 50 feet visably much slower.  Finally, he would switch wings a second time and would flop, exhausted, another 50 feet.

79 CRS #1240

    I eventually sold this bird because of the fact that it switched wings and the way its style degenerated as it rolled.  True, the bird never had an accident and rolled about 150 feet, but I was seeing the faults rather that the positive qualities.  The person I sold the bird to, a Mr. Alexander, had a lot of success with 1240, and bred many good, deep rollers out of him.  I had never given him a chance in the stock loft.

Rollers in theNews

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rollers12-2008sep12,0,5800489.story

This week there was a great piece in the LA Times about rollers and the character of roller people. While rollers have been around for centuries the hobby is still viewed as an underground entity and mainly scoffed at. We must show mad respect for the newly founded QSDC and the energies of its founders.

Rollers are coming out from the dark and will soon be on par with other competitive domestic breeds. We will have to ensure that the transition is positive and smooth.