One of the largest racing pigeon clubs in the North of Ireland is the Foyle Racing Pigeon Society which races within Section A West of the NIPA and along with the Maiden City, The Rock FC and Londonderry RPS they compete in the very competitive City of Derry Fed that any week can send up to 1,000 pigeons, their Council built  Club House overlooks the picturesque river Foyle which essentially split’s the City of Derry in two, with the Waterside known as one part, and the City Side the other. The City of Derry itself is now the second largest City in the North of Ireland, behind Belfast and over-all would be the fourth largest city in all Ireland behind Dublin, Belfast and Cork. With a population exceeding the 100,000 mark Derry City has witnessed a transformation over the last few years and is now regarded as an upbeat cosmopolitan city with a huge number of that 100,000 population falling into the 20-30 year old bracket.

The Creggan Estate which sits high above the banks of the River Foyle over looking the Foyle Racing Pigeon Society Club house was my port of call last week, with a City which carries a large membership of pigeon fanciers across the board. Time I thought to visit a man who just doesn’t make the results regular, but more often than not making it look easy.

Anthony McCrudden has only been racing pigeons since 2004 after joining the strong Foyle RPS, now if you are a new man starting into pigeons in this day and age would you really if its prizes your looking, join the strongest club in the area your competing, wasn’t a question that even came into the equation for Anthony he started racing youngsters in 2004 against a membership of 50 in the Foyle Club, what a year he had by any means for a fancier just into the game, he won 2 x NIPA Section A West Diploma’s, even though he has now won over 20 1st City of Derry Federations and been Top Prize Winner in the mighty Foyle RPS for the last three seasons (2005, 2006 and 2007) he has never won a Section Diploma since, just to show you what sort of magnitude his first year in pigeons was.

Racing to lofts at his mothers home in Lislane Drive, Anthony has set the City of Derry alight over the last few seasons, to come into the pigeon game and to have such an impact in such a short space of time is something else, pigeons all the same like many of the up and coming stars in the sport have been about the McCrudden household for a long time, over 40 years to be precise, Anthony’s father Tony raced in partnership with his brother Paddy in the mighty Foyle, under the name of McCrudden Brothers with varied levels of success across the years.

As with everything now to do with pigeons, technology, methods and the quality of both the fancier and pigeon have come along way since the days of racing in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The McCrudden loft alone is proof of this, of wooden structured loft is insulated and completely covered in PVC cladding, lowered ceilings internally with louvers fitted along the front of the loft at the bottom with solid screens and wire mesh fitted along all the ceilings inside which allows for control of the air low at all times. Anthony just works with one loft of considerable length and depth. The O/Bird team which never exceeds the 2 x dozen mark are raced on a Roundabout System for the first three races, and then are re-mated after this and raced on the Natural System, cocks and hens week about, from two different sections with 8 boxes fitted in each the total size of the combined O/bird loft measures about 10ft x 8ft, plenty of room with extra boxes available at all times.

Prior to racing the O/Bird team will rear one round well in time before the strenuous training and exercise regime is put in place. Prior to the introduction of ETS the O/Birds were always raced to the open door, but now they trap through a stall trap on race days. They are expected to fly an hour morning and night around the loft, with the assistance of a flag if required. Training is intense prior to racing with all the pigeons starting at the 25 mile mark, this Anthony feels sorts the good ones from the bad ones, the distance will increase daily up to 75 miles when they will ultimately be brought back to the 50 mile point, one that they will continue to stay at for most of the O/B season, prior to the start of the season the O/Birds would get as many tosses and the weather would permit, last season it numbered 23. When the season is underway they are then tossed twice per week on a Tuesday and a Thursday.

Feeding of the O/Bird team is a mixture of Gerry Plus and Irish Mix, on a break down of 75% to 25% Irish Mix, the Feeding is Hopper fed but measured with the team only receiving Gerry Plus in the morning and getting the combined mixture in the evening. The Irish Mixture’s percentage would be increased as the distance increases or possible hard day is envisaged. Grit, Black Minerals and Pink Minerals are available at all time, with broken up pick stones added once per week. Very few supplements are added, Brewers Yeast on the corn when the extreme distance events occur which is applied onto the corn with the assistance of Garlic Oil, the general run of the mill would be on a Sunday after a race they would get ’Life Aid’ in the water, with Aviform Multi-Vitamins added either on a Monday or Tuesday, Wednesday will see Breath Easy added to the water as a preventative for respiratory. Scrapping is kept on top of and is greatly assisted with floor grills both on the main floor and also floors of all nest boxes. Water is changed twice per day, always the tap until supplements or medicines are administered, then still water would be used. Canker is treated for once a month with Spartrix tablets the preferred choice, religiously they will be treated for canker prior to breeding and straight after, also should the team experience a hold over they would be treated as a precaution with half a tablet on their return.

A team of 60 Y/Birds are normally reared for racing with almost all but a few placed on the Darkness System, the hours of darkness are fixed around Anthony’s working schedule but ultimately they would get a round 10 hours of brightness per day, this is implemented upon being weaned from the nest up until and not before the 6th of June. Just a few points on the Y/Birds when they youngsters are weaned their heads are never dipped in the drinker, if you have to do this with any youngster it is regarded by Anthony as a bad sign, with a stranger in the loft yes, because it hasn’t been reared in that location, also the youngsters are vaccinated upon leaving the nest, 2 weeks after this they will get an eight day treatment of Parastop in the water, then every six weeks they will be treated with Adenosan. Having had Y/B sickness twice, this is now the established way in preventing it, Y/Bird sickness is something he would never wish on anybody, it is a disaster of a problem and had Anthony been unlucky enough to have had it three in times in a row he would very easily have called it a day.

Once again when the birds are flying well around the loft they will be expected to fly one hour morning and night, again tossing starts at 25 miles with the extreme tossing distance of 75 miles they will be brought back as with the old birds to 50 miles, with the lead up to the first race they will when possible be tossed as much as possible and once racing has commenced they will see the basket and Ballygawley Roundabout 4 x times per week with the preference being Mon, Tues, Wed and Thursday. Unlike previous years Anthony plans to separate the cocks this year from the hens, of the 60 reared he would expect to be racing around 55 of these spread across three sections, 20 to a section the feeding is tight to say the least in all per day 19oz’s per 20 bird section. The feeding being Natural Y/Bird mixture again as I have found with many fanciers the price of the corn is a concern and he prefers to be getting 25kg to the 20kg of the more superior mixes. The Y/Birds will get 3oz’s in the morning if and when possible Anthony would prefer the morning feed to be Barley (not always available) if not it would be the Natural Y/B mixture as I said previously 3oz’s each section and then after the tea time fly around the house it would be 16oz’s in each section.

The supplements are similar to the O/Birds as is the layout of the loft with grills on all floors and pull out trays in all rows of the box perches. Another product used is Flight Path this would be administered to both Old and Young Birds the 1st Wednesday of every month, its knocks them for six for the first day but condition and form you will find hard to beat in the days that follow.

Stock birds would number around the thirty mark and have been sourced from a number of fanciers/strains, collectively Alan Hall of Omagh has been responsible for supplying a large hall of the current day inmates namely Busschaerts and the Wily Thas pigeons and more recently the introduction of the Cattrysse lines through Les Davenport, these pigeons have been doing very well for Alan from France and ultimately that is every fanciers goal to score right through to France. Probably one of the best pigeons ever owned was a Louella Jan Aarden hen purchased from Pat McLaughlin, a wilder pigeon you will search a long time for, even your presence in the loft was enough for her to vacate her box eggs/squeakers or not, but boy she could breed prize winners in all she is responsible for 11 x 1st Federation winners, three of these from Talbenny, which is no easy task into Derry City. Cooremans have also been added through another Omagh fancier by the name of Davy Booth, these also have raced exceptionally well.

Since starting to race Anthony has had many prize winner and multiple prize winners, one wily Thas Grizzle hen as a yearling won the Federation from Rosscarbery, then the following week did the same again this time from Mullingar and to complete the hat-trick 1st Federation from Talbenny all in the space of three weeks. The good Jan Aarden hen responsible for 11 x 1st Feds had never produced a hen all cocks, all but a few have been successful, one that comes to mind is a winner of 9th Open NIPA Roscrea this same pigeon was twice 2nd from Talbenny in consecutive weeks beaten by loft mates.

But nothing will knock you back quicker than pigeons, and fortune not always favours the brave, for Anthony was to send seven pigeons last year to Talbenny of the seven sent five were 1st Prize Winners and the other two were late breds sent as a tester, none made it home. Anthony concedes that you only need two or three of those to put you out of pigeons, what he has learnt from that experience plus many others and a lot of this education is down to keeping daily records, these records have taught him that in future he will never have a pigeon in Talbenny nor Rosscarbery unless it is doing something, lifting them of the perch to compete in any of the two ultimate tests mentioned above have resulted in a very bad ratio of success.

On a happier note one of his biggest delights to this day is clocking two pigeons on the day from a very hard Sennen Cove with rain beating down his two entries finished 1st and 2nd Club, 2nd and 3rd Federation and finished 7th and 8th Section A West of the NIPA flying ten and half hours on the wing, for the 346 mile journey. The second pigeon timed won the Club from Bude the week previous.

Anthony puts a lot of his success down to luck but admits that good pigeons most certainly play their part but a lot of the current day success around the country is down to hard work carried out by very good pigeon men with winning systems.

I would like to pen of this part of my weekly column by wishing Anthony McCrudden all the best for the remainder of the 2008 season and no doubt he will be pushing to complete the quadruple as far as topping the Prize Winners list in the very competitive Foyle Racing Pigeon Society.

Adie McCormick
Ireland's Own Pigeon Auctions
www.pigeonnetwork.com

Tel 028 92 604778