The content (content being images, text, sound and video files, programmes and scripts) of this website is copyright of The British Barcelona Club. All rights expressly reserved.
Back To School with
Kingsfield Lofts
Kingsmead Technology College
Hednesford, Staffordshire
Hi everyone and welcome to the 2nd addition of Back To School with Kingsfield Lofts in this issue we will be looking back on the season and how the birds did and also how we have been promoting Pigeon Racing within the school. Unfortunately I have
to start on a sad note and that is that we have had the loft broken into over the October half term, the pigeons are fine and nothing was stolen but we did have some damage to the loft which we have now been able to fix for the time being but will need to replace the window panels in the near future. On a more positive note as you can see from the picture that there have been lots of improvements to the loft since I last spoke to you. We have erected a fence around the loft and we have also started to build the new aviary on the side of the loft which will house next year’s young birds so there has been lots happening over the past few months.
So let’s turn back the clock to our first races at Kingsfield Lofts, we were lucky enough to have very few losses in the build-up to our first race with us only losing 6 pigeons from nest to the first race. We started to train the young birds in August looking to catch the last few races of the season.
We started with our first training liberation from the other side of the school field, at first the pigeons was a little reluctant to come out of the basket but once they was out they was flying straight off. We kept the birds hungry so that they would go straight through the trap and after 15 min flying they did and all 16 of them hit the landing board and was in like a flash. The next few training liberations took the birds 2 miles, 5 miles, 8 miles and 10 miles to a place called West Bromwich and we liberated them from West Bromwich Albion Football ground this was proven to be a hard liberation and it took the birds all day to come home but they did all return.
The next day we just loosed them out around home in the morning but then we had a nightmare situation a HAWK ATTACK! The pigeons scattered and vanished out of sight by night fall we only had 5 out of 16 in the loft. To say the pupils was gutted is an understatement but I reassured them that they would come home but it took 5 days for all 16 birds to return so the decision was made to stop training for a week to build up the confidence again. We eventually got all 16 birds to Cheltenham 45 miles away before their first weekend’s race to Swainswick 88 miles. We sent the birds to Lea Hall Flying Club in Rugeley who fly in the Wolverhampton Federation, we took the birds down to the club and we were able to use our Unikon Electronic Timing System for the first time. I was shocked how quick it was as we was one of only a few members to have the system and within 2 min the birds was in the race baskets ready for the race. We stopped and talked to the members for a few more minutes and then we headed back to school to drop off the pocket clock for the race the next day.
Next day we had a call from the club “birds are up and we estimate that they will be 1 hour 30 min, about a mile a minute” I headed down to the loft and set up everything ready for the birds to return. After 10 minutes we had everything ready, trap open landing board up and ETS on all we needed now was a pigeon.
Next day we had a call from the club “birds are up and we estimate that they will be 1 hour 30 min, about a mile a minute” I headed down to the loft and set up everything ready for the birds to return. After 10 minutes we had everything ready, trap open landing board up and ETS on all we needed now was a pigeon.
1 hour 30 minutes came and went and we still had nothing then we saw one! I heard a call “here is one” and true to the word it was it came dead on line and was pitching all the way to the loft, but instead of hitting the landing board she hit the roof! After about 10 seconds she came down and went through the trap and we heard the beep of the clock that was it we had clocked our first ever pigeon in from a race!
Her ring number was NWHU 11 N5248 a Dark Cheq Hen bred by A Bamfords of Bamfords Top Flight Corn. Within a minute of her arriving we had our second pigeon and after 10 minutes all pigeons was back home, what a great race for our first attempt. We fed and watered all of the pigeons and left them to rest. That evening we to the clock to the club to have the time read off, every member was asking how the birds had come and we soon found out that we had the best returns home and most people was one or two pigeons missing from the race, on the other hand however we did come last in the club but I was really happy that all the birds had come home and was healthy. We now started to get the birds ready for their next race which was on Wednesday where we would send spare birds to Pelsall District Homing Society and like the Saturday it was from 88 miles, again we had 100% returns and all home within a few minutes and again I was very happy that they had all returned.
This year the school raced in a total of 7 races in 4 weeks sending both Saturday and Wednesday after their second race we stopped training them and just flew them in the club and around home and we did not lose a single pigeon through the racing season which was excellent and a good start to building a team up. Our biggest success came on the last two weeks where we took a minor prize card coming 8th and also the single bird nomination on the last week winning the school a bag of corn donated by an old member of the club. I would like to thank Lea Hall Flying Club Rugeley and Pelsall District Homing Society for letting us join their clubs so late in the season.
This year the school raced in a total of 7 races in 4 weeks sending both Saturday and Wednesday after their second race we stopped training them and just flew them in the club and around home and we did not lose a single pigeon through the racing season which was excellent and a good start to building a team up. Our biggest success came on the last two weeks where we took a minor prize card coming 8th and also the single bird nomination on the last week winning the school a bag of corn donated by an old member of the club. I would like to thank Lea Hall Flying Club Rugeley and Pelsall District Homing Society for letting us join their clubs so late in the season.
Now its closed season and the nights are drawing in closer each day but we still have many activity’s going on around the loft. Planning is just about to start on what we are going to breed off next year, the students are looking if you cross different coloured pigeons what might the baby’s colour be and we also are looking to take a few students in January to the “Show of the Year” in Blackpool. The biggest project undergoing at the moment is the construction of the new aviary for next year’s young birds. As you can see by the picture we have already started work on building and should be completed in the next few weeks as we do a little more on it each night. Again as I have said so many times on this project we have had lots of help from people sponsoring products and a big thank you again to Jonathan Hamplett of Ranton Building Suppliers for donating all the wood for the Aviary.
YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A SHARE OF £1000
Finally I would like to inform the fancy about a new idea that the school has come up with to help fund the project. We are running a sponsorship scheme for next season at school which will enable people / companies / clubs to sponsor a Young bird for £100 this will help cover all the costs of the loft and also put some money aside to help other projects such as ours get set up.
Finally I would like to inform the fancy about a new idea that the school has come up with to help fund the project. We are running a sponsorship scheme for next season at school which will enable people / companies / clubs to sponsor a Young bird for £100 this will help cover all the costs of the loft and also put some money aside to help other projects such as ours get set up.
Also there is an opportunity for you as a sponsor to win a share of £1000 in a race for all the sponsored pigeons left at the end of the year. There will be 20 pigeons available to be sponsored and all remaining birds on the day of the Championship Race will race from 300 miles to the loft for a chance of winning a share of that £1000 prize (dependent on all 20 birds being accounted for). We need 20 birds to be sponsored so if you know of anyone who might want to help or if you, your or your club would like to take part then please contact me on the details below. Remember not only will you be supporting the project you will have a chance to win a cash prize for you or your chosen charity.
I would like to thank again the following people for their sponsorship as without this help and support it would not have been possible to get as far as we have done so far so thank you to The RPRA, Ranton Building Suppliers, Barnsley Lofts, Ray Knight & Unikon, Planet Brothers, Red Star Lofts, Bamfords Top Flight, Orego - Stim, Pigeon Chat, A Bamford & Bamfords Top Flight, Pickstock & Gillespie Runcorn, Formula 1 Lofts, Adam from Kettering, Mr & Mrs Brown - Carl Rose - Chambers Family Cannock, Albert Cousins Belfast, B Williams & Son Swansea, Mark Gilbert Winkfield, The Midlands Continental Classic Flying Club, Midlands National Flying Club, National Flying Club and the British Barcelona Flying Club for their free membership for 2012 and all the people who have helped us with support.
Well that’s it for another issue next time I speak to you we will have had Christmas and the new year will be in also hopefully some new arrivals at Kingsfield Lofts.
If you would like any more information or would like to help out with the project please contact me on the details below, good luck all and happy flying.
Richard Chambers
Kingsmead Technology College
Kings Avenue
Hednesford
Staffordshire
England
WS12 1DH
01543 512455
kingsmeadpigeons@hotmail.co.uk
I would like to thank again the following people for their sponsorship as without this help and support it would not have been possible to get as far as we have done so far so thank you to The RPRA, Ranton Building Suppliers, Barnsley Lofts, Ray Knight & Unikon, Planet Brothers, Red Star Lofts, Bamfords Top Flight, Orego - Stim, Pigeon Chat, A Bamford & Bamfords Top Flight, Pickstock & Gillespie Runcorn, Formula 1 Lofts, Adam from Kettering, Mr & Mrs Brown - Carl Rose - Chambers Family Cannock, Albert Cousins Belfast, B Williams & Son Swansea, Mark Gilbert Winkfield, The Midlands Continental Classic Flying Club, Midlands National Flying Club, National Flying Club and the British Barcelona Flying Club for their free membership for 2012 and all the people who have helped us with support.
Well that’s it for another issue next time I speak to you we will have had Christmas and the new year will be in also hopefully some new arrivals at Kingsfield Lofts.
If you would like any more information or would like to help out with the project please contact me on the details below, good luck all and happy flying.
Richard Chambers
Kingsmead Technology College
Kings Avenue
Hednesford
Staffordshire
England
WS12 1DH
01543 512455
kingsmeadpigeons@hotmail.co.uk