Article Posted 27 November 2006

How to breed winners

Ever since pigeon racing started many years ago, the emphasis has been, is and should always be, on winning. Particularly in countries such as South Africa, to fly second or third is commendable and has to happen as there are many more fanciers than races, but to win, to be the first, to be the champion – that is the ultimate goal. Even in countries such as Belgium and Holland where up to one prize is awarded for every four birds entered, the overall WINNER receives the trophy and adulation. Such winning birds are highly prized and enormous sums are paid for them, particularly when they are exported to the Far East. But everything that has been said up till now, is really old news - known to everyone who follows pigeon races and race results. Most fanciers also know that if winners are in demand, the breeders of these winners are even more so. Once a breeding pigeon has shown that it can, consistently, produce winners it becomes almost priceless. Small wonder then that hours of study are devoted to carefully examining each and every aspect of a pigeon that does well, in order to learn what it may possibly have been that enabled that particular bird to beat the opposition. This search is carried through into the stock loft. What feature does a particular breeder possess that enables it to produce youngsters capable of beating the other contestants in the race for home?

Most stock birds previously were exceptional racers who are moved to the stock loft where their owners depend on them for passing the winning genes along to their offspring. However some young birds, because they have the pedigree and appear to have the attributes of successful breeders, are never raced and are set directly to breeding more of their type. And there-in lies the rub! ‘Breeding their type’. It is generally believed that ‘like begets like’ – and, mostly it is so. Whether it is in the eye, wing, muscle, balance, conformation or general appearance, the objective is to reproduce what was found in the winner.

But, there are almost as many attributes that should be perfect as there are races in the year and different fanciers believe that different characteristics are important. This belief stems either from previous experiences with pigeons that exhibited those characteristics or from knowledge gained from reading or speaking to other fanciers and various so-called experts. A mental picture is formed of the perfect pigeon and is strictly adhered to. So strong are these beliefs that these fanciers become known as eye-men, wing-men, muscle-men etc. And they will all have their turn at winning.

Mental vs Physical
It would be tedious to expound on the relative merit of each physical attribute as they are well-known and many books and articles have been written about them. But the very fact that so many theories, ideas or beliefs abound, indicates that there is NOT ONE SINGLE CHARACTERISTIC THAT WILL ENSURE RACING SUCCESS. All the physical attributes must be perfect for a pigeon to be a champion, but success is still not guaranteed and why not? Because the MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PHYSICAL. What happens in the brain, ‘between the eyes’ is what counts!

Because we cannot see, feel or measure the mental attributes, a pedigree becomes very significant. Not only must the ring numbers of parents, grandparents or other family be on the pedigree, but more importantly, the racing or breeding achievements of the predecessors! The ring numbers and descriptions serve only as identification and attest to the actual birds in that pedigree, but what they achieved is what counts. And do not be fooled into believing that a certain bird must be good because it has a pedigree a mile long. Every living animal, even a mongrel on the street corner, has predecessors and when those predecessors are written onto a piece of paper, it becomes a pedigree. Which in itself is a useless piece of paper and only becomes worthwhile when it contains the records of breeding or racing successes.

In humans - and in this instance there is no problem with comparison to pigeons as the rules of genetics apply equally to all biological species - it has recently been found that the smallest mental habits and idiosyncrasies have a genetic basis. Studies in Canada on 336 sets of adult twins have revealed that in more than 80% of cases, the attitudes adopted by the twins were influenced by the genetic make-up. As opposed to the effect of the environmental influences. Attitudes tested included racial prejudice, the death penalty, abortion, euthanasia, open-door immigration etc. Our pigeons will not be different and there often are observable idiosyncratic behaviour patterns to be seen in certain families. Behaviour under racing circumstances would fall hereunder and underlines the importance of acquiring stock from a successful racing family – and whether the predecessors were successful, can be portrayed only by the pedigree.

Short distances vs Long distances

There is, however a major distinction between the mental characteristics required for short- and long-distance racing. The pigeon shipped to short distance races must have an acute and burning desire to reach home as soon as possible. It must head straight for the loft. It must be willing to break the group instinct, which is natural to all pigeons and to break away from its companions as soon as it becomes expedient. Pigeons that do not have this desire so strongly, stay with the pack and even if they make a break five minutes later, top honours will not be gained. The mental capacity to endure, that is to persist flying for many hours, is not needed by these pigeons. In contrast the marathon pigeon must have the determination and spirit to keep going, hour after hour. It must have an acute homing urge but on the longer races this becomes less important relative to the hours ticking by. In general, the pigeons that can keep flying strongly, (and as a result lead the pack) for the longest time are usually the victors.

There is an important aspect of homing and racing that must never be forgotten. It mimics the old saying that ‘a healthy body houses a healthy mind’. The healthier and fitter the pigeons and the stronger the homing urge, the more accurate is the homing instinct. This impacts on both the physical and mental states, as described in the previous paragraph. It can be observed in a training toss; be assured that you will have a disappointing race on Saturday if your birds fail to toss well during the week. The phenomenon refers specifically to their direction-finding ability – should the pigeons circle for longer than normal after liberation at that training site – they are very unlikely to perform well in their next race. This is, of course, provided there are no obvious physical reasons that hinder their homing ability, like a marauding hawk, severe rain and cloud, heavy snowfalls etc. Once the birds have found their direction, the pace at which they return to the loft is much the same as on any other occasion. Long-distance and marathon birds are even more effected by less-than-perfect health in three ways. Firstly they struggle with their direction-finding, followed by the inability of their bodies to cope with the physical effort and lastly, they lose the will to persevere.

Physical Signs

Breeding successful racing pigeons is difficult, because, over many generations, NO POSITIVE CORRELLATIONS HAVE EVER BEEN SHOWN BETWEEN VISIBLE CHARACTERISTICS AND RACING OR BREEDING SUCCESS. There have been occasions where winning birds from certain families showed certain characteristics but these links were short-lived and could not be applied to pigeons in general. In spite of this, the search for some connection between appearance and ability continues and it is especially in the eye that the secret code is continually sought. There have been cases where, for example, only the hens were known to have raced with the cocks behaving purely as homers not racers. There could be a host of reasons for this; for example, the races might have suited a smaller type bird (hen), the fancier is not feeding enough, cocks would have done better on a different system, widowhood perhaps and so on.

The fancier buying a strange bird with no record at all, i.e. purely on the strength of its physical appearance, might be lucky, if his choice turns out to be good and in which case his reputation based on the ‘ability to pick a breeder’ skyrockets but the fancier might also end with a complete dud in the breeding loft. Usually it is somewhere in between.

On the other hand the man who looks to buy a set of birds proven for their breeding capabilities and rejects them because they do not conform to his mental picture of how a good racer should look, is really doing himself a disservice. There are exceptions to this generalization. Should the buyer, for example, be a long-distance flyer, he might well reject the bigger heavier birds because they are usually not so successful at the distance. Or should the buyer come from an area where the races are usually flown with headwind, he would sensibly reject any families that emanate from an area where the racing is mostly with tailwind. And so we can go on. In most countries or areas there is a fair degree of specialization, which must be borne in mind when acquiring new stock. We must be very clear therefore about the tasks that will be required from the new acquisitions, before we pay good money for them.

Handling or Not?

So if the above is true, the reader may ask, why then the emphasis on physically examining all prospective new birds in such detail? We’ve agreed that the mental abilities are more important for racing than the physical, and as only the pedigree can supply the knowledge about the mental, whether it be in writing, in adverts or recounted by the seller, it becomes a crucial statement. When pigeons are physically examined, we ASSUME that the mental ability of all the birds is strong and equal (which of course it is not) and we look for those physical traits so that we can compare them with those of the perfect pigeon - in our mind’s eye.

When selecting, we should concentrate on as few characteristics as possible because the fewer the traits for which we have to select, the quicker will the breeding progress be. In most cases, like will beget like and when we examine the birds it really is to exclude the exceptions – the individuals that do not possess the physical qualities of the parents which are essential for their development into good racers. But herein lies a trap for the unwary - there are individual breeders that cannot be judged on their OWN physical appearance. These pigeons may be lacking physically because of being severely inbred, badly raised, suffering defects from a previous non-infectious disease, had a disfiguring accident etc. but their genetic make-up is not affected and they can produce completely normal, vigorous offspring. In this instance one must be very wary of condemning the breeders until you have seen the quality of the offspring. Naturally this is advisable in all cases although it is not always possible.

The physical examination becomes particularly important when we are dealing with long-distance prospects. The shorter races may be won by pigeons of all shapes and sizes but the longer events require birds that have the physical attributes that will allow them to persevere for many hours on end.

Having said that it must be recognized that pigeons that do not possess a perfect physical build do, at times, win big long-distance events. How can this be? There are at least two scenario’s when this can happen. In the first, our non-perfect pigeons can win because the weather on the day suited their specific physical shape. It is best explained by using examples. Flying against a headwind is particularly suited for the smaller heavier birds with relatively smaller wings. The opposite is true for tailwind races. In these a relatively light, large-winged pigeon can excel. These birds are often larger than the average. In the second instance the non-perfect pigeon can win because of the tremendous influence of its psychic (mental) drive. On a hard race this pigeon will not give up and will fly till the very last minute of daylight – at times even continuing into the night.

When we succeed in combining the physical characteristics, such as the perfect build, eye, wing and muscle with a do-or-die mental attitude and an indomitable ‘will-to-win’, we will have bred a champion. And a champion is a champion because he can and will repeat his winning performances. Which is what we must aim for. Pigeons that demonstrate the perfect combination of brain and physique.

Dr. Wim Peters