So, there are pigeons that can and DO fly during the night. Not many of them do that, however, and I don’t know if this quality can be passed from parents to youngsters. I guess it also depends on weather, but still, any kind of night is still very dark for a bird that is not a cat after all. :)

• It’s about Ron Sampford’s loft, considered the smallest loft in Europe (8 foot by 5 foot). That is the only loft! All the stock birds, racing birds and youngsters live there.
• Total birds: 7 couples of old birds and 6 young birds
• He rarely loses a bird and has incredible results
• He has really tough inbred birds. One year he only bred ONE young bird! That bird completed the whole racing program.
• He only feeds beans – WELL, please use the comment feature below this article, I really don’t understand how can those pigeons race(and race well) just on beans.
• What does he put in the water? …. just water. :))
• No medicines or vitamins are used. He just vaccinates for paramyxovirus.

Enjoy the full article. It is really relaxing to read such stuff. I really think that when I’ll start racing again, I will use this method.

One of the easiest and quickest methods of motivating the males before a race is to bring a new mobile V perch in the loft, and place it somewhere where all the males can claim it (not very close to any of their nest boxes). They will always keep an eye on the V perch and one of them will always be on it. In a loft with no V perches, this is a real candy :). Have fun!

Oh, don’t forget to remove the V-perch after the race, because in the long run, one male will get to own it and… no more fun!

A very important aspect, if you ask me, and often forgotten, is the health of the birds and the management of the loft. If you aren’t the man with the pharmacy in the loft and you get birds from a fancier that “feeds them antibiotics” on a regular basis, the bird will not adapt to your loft and the youngsters it produces might not perform as you expect (that is if they manage to stay alive!).

Which are the best sources of quality birds?
- The best thing you can get is a young bird (be it late bred) from a loft with great results. The fancier didn’t have the chance to see what the young bird can and can’t do, so you might put your hands on a really good pigeon, with a good price.
- The second best thing you can get is the parent of a super racing pigeon, because its value in the breeding loft is proven.
- As a beginner, if you want something really cheap but with the chance of getting super quality, go for some eggs and put them under your pigeons. There are many widowhood lofts that throw away lots of eggs which you can use.
- Another good source of quality pigeons are whole team sales, from somebody leaving the hobby.
- Some pigeon auctions can also work, but I can’t touch this topic because I always liked to get birds from local fanciers that race better than me.

1. View and visit as many lofts as possible before building yours – preferably visit lofts of constant successful fanciers. There are many chances to build it wrong and changing it after that is very hard. You’ll notice many common aspects in ALL the lofts and they are there for a reason (the sputnik, the compartments, the nest boxes, the V perches, and so on). Even if you are stubborn like me and want to build the loft without advice, you’ll soon understand that you were wrong and you have to change it.

2. Get very good pigeon stock right from the beginning. You can’t say that you will start with modest pigeons and as you learn, you will get better birds. It’s a waste of time. Good pigeons have a different behavior and all that you think you’ll learn with modest no-name pigeons you’ll soon have to forget and start from scratch when you get better birds.

• A poor origin bird doesn’t like to fly at home, and you’ll have to force it exercise; it might land on taller buildings around and drive you crazy! A good origin bird loves to fly(if it is healthy), and fills you with joy.
• A poor origin bird will make your enthusiasm fall to the ground right from the beginning of your racing life, when your club mates have all the birds at home after a race and you have only 6 from 20 and those tired like hell.
• A poor origin bird isn’t hardy, it catches diseases very easy because it’s ancestors are also poor birds that never completed a racing season successfully. A poor origin bird has poor muscles, poor homing abilities and poor motivation in races. The problem here is that most of the poor origin birds look exactly the same as the birds with high qualities, in the eyes of a beginner. This is why it is wise to get birds from honest fanciers that win races on a regular basis each year. Very important: get pigeons from fanciers that still race, a loft that didn’t race for the last few years is in decline even if the birds in there have good blood and the loft was extremely successful in the past. Each year without selection in races makes the birds worse.
• Forget about beautiful pigeons, rare colors, big heads, and so on…the most beautiful racing pigeons are those that are home by the end of the racing season, with excellent results ready for their pedigree. You have to decide right from the beginning: do you want beautiful birds that you can enjoy at home or you want pure performance in races. If you just want beauty you could get other pigeon breeds. Very often, the “ugly duckling” of the flock might have the best results by the end of the racing season, and you’ll love it the most.

3. Don’t keep strays and don’t even think about breeding from them. They are weak low quality pigeons most of the time and they only set you back. It’s a waste of time. The good pigeons always get home.

4. Don’t hurry to the medicines shelf. You have to remove the cause, not the effect, most of the time. Good quality racing pigeons remain healthy if they have:

• dry loft with a lot of fresh air
• clean high quality food, with different procents of seeds in different periods of the season
• fresh clean water changed at least once a day, better twice
• supplements like grit mixtures
• enough space for the pigeons; overcrowding them produces stress which is the main trigger for diseases. It drives me crazy when I see 80-100 pigeons in a tiny loft, so overcrowded that you can’t see the floor when they are all down feeding.

Overall, the entire flock must be resistant to the usual diseases like canker, coccidiosis, and so on. Treat only per individual or better don’t treat at all. If just a bird is weak, and the others are OK, get rid of it. You don’t want such birds to slow you down.

5. Don’t forget that defects are easily passed from parents to the next generations. Don’t keep a pigeon just because it has a great pedigree. Pedigrees don’t fly. Each pigeon must work for its position in your loft either by racing wonderful or by producing great racers in the stock loft. Doing a very serious selection might leave you with a few pigeons, but this is not a problem – they will breed and if their babies are are as good as them you are on the good track. Unfortunately a lot of lofts are filled with birds that are there just to fill space.