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SAHPA 2016 Year Book Page 14
The loft is 22 ft. long comprising 4 compartments with 3 for racing and one for trapping over
the electronic plate.
Work around the loft is
about an hour plus short
tosses. Training is done
with the idea to avoid the
falcons, vary the time he
lets them out at home.
Tosses are short tosses
starting at Angle Vale and
Lochiel would be the
longest. They get tossed
twice a week on average.
No preference on wind
direction but tossing is
done on the line of flight.
Single tossing has been
done with no special
results. Racing is from the
first to the last race
depending on the family. Basket training is done for training and feeding purposes.
They breed from about 20 pair but not just from the stock birds. Pairing is done at the end of
October. Birds do not go into the stock loft untried. Inbreeding and line breeding are used.
New birds are used but Peter is careful where he gets them from – prefers to swap birds. The
main bloodline is Thamm (Gurnays). Cock birds need to be bossy types and have
performance and conformation. Around 150 are bred each year. There is no special reference
bird because he has a family of pigeons and uses his own stock sense when pairing up.
Peter says any win is a good win – fast or slow. He uses a short toss to motivate them. There
is no preference on distance. As far as the actual bird is concerned he likes a heavy
shouldered bird, wedge shape, tail going down to two feathers and a closed wing. Size
medium to larger.
SA15 4229 is a Flor Engles / Gabby bred and gifted to Richard by Richard’s good friend
Gary Lillingston. She was part of a team from Gary that performed very well. Richard would
like to take this opportunity to thank Gary again for the birds.