This weeks discussion of the week is…
What do you think the current state of pigeon racing is?
For example do you think pigeon racing is growing or dying and why, express your views and share with others your opinions on the current state of pigeon racing by placing your vote in the poll below then posting a comment in the comment section below this post.
Loading ...Click here to post your thoughts on the current state of pigeon racing.
I don’t believe increased costs is the real reason pigeon racing is dying, one of the reasons are that the youth of today have so many other things going for them other than pigeon racing..For us in NZ it is often the new housing subdivisions that will not allow you to keep pigeons also leads to people opting out of the sport.We in recent times have had people opt out due to the Christchurch earthquakes as they have had to move to new subdivisions as their houses were demolished,sorry no pigeons allowed.
It is a to basic question it is like the economy and growth in the far east it is growing in the west dying in the west the sport is being marginalised by those who wish to have super leagues and charge fortunes for pigeons on no merit basis.We need to change but the folks in charge at club level will never contemplate that for personnel reasons there for it will die or be in the ownwrership of the [email protected]
Pigeon racing is an ageing sport, there needs to be encouragement of the youth, this is difficult with all the other distractions, but the sport is bigger than the individual, so it will survive.
we have all seen the decline in our sport over the past years members dying and no one taking there place,The main reason we are not getting youngsters joining is computers and games l fill realy saddened when you have clubs scraping to get by with 4 or 5 members,when l started racing pigeons 40 odd years ago you had to wait for an opening as most of the clubs were 40 to 50 strong now if you get 20 members that,s classed as a big club unless we can encourage youngsters to get interested in our sport we will be lucky if the sport last another 20 years
yours in sport j baker
1. The laws have changed in towns and cities all over the U.S. where in the past one could raise and keep pigeons. Now, it’s not that easy.
2. Very expensive hobby if one wants to be competitive.
3. Most the people I know are in their late 50’s and 60’s. Not a lot of young people joining the sport,
probably because of things I mentioned above.
4. Commitment ! Not a lot of people willing to become engaged with the raising and taking care of
our dear feathered friend.
5. Hawks. They are so over populated because of protection laws it makes it pretty tuff to watch
your young bird team get picked off day after day.
Hi Chris
just got back from malaysia today and was nice to read a couple of mails. Regarding piegon racing i think it is growing day by day, whereas i am concerned i really love this hobby and i think it to be my first love and interested in learning more and more.
In my opinion pigeon racing is on a decline. i have been in the sport since 1994, however i came put them in the year 2000 after another successful year. I have to my name over 50 1st federation prizes and a number of minior prizes in the fed. when i joined in 1994 i won 3 1st feds including 1st fed sartilly 440 miles. /No one could believe this as she was a yearling. she did itin 11 hours while the rain and thunder belted down everyone said to us that no birds will be timed in that night so we didnt bother with staying out the back garden looking but at 6.30 my brother shouted theres a pigeon on the landing board it was her. this had been my greatest acheivment in life i was on cloud 9. thids was my rookie year. that hen su93kd2950 i probably the best yearling hen in the history of the old kyle and district federation. she was a freak she had already topped the fed tht year from 47 miles and 3rd fed from 130 miles then 6th 245 miles.she was trully a pigeon of a lifetime. i wanted to put her to stock but i kept on getting egg’ed on to keep her on the road so i did. the next year again from 47 miles she topped the fed by 15 minutes which was in my eyes unbelievable. she then held the record for quickest pigeon from over 400 miles and the quickest pigeon ever from 47 miles. this is a record that has never been beaten. this record has stood for over 20 years and has never looked as if it will be beating. that year after tooping the fed in the 1st race she was my 2nd pigeon in the second rac3eand she took 5th club. this pigeon honestly throughout her 2 year carreer was never out of the top 10 ahe was always in the clock she was an absolute freak. then on the 5th race from appleton 190 miles the birds were liberated and i timed my 1st pigeon in on the 4 hour mark to win the club and 10th fed. then 30 minutes later i got my 2nd and 15 mins after that i got my third but my wee champion hen was nowhere to be seen i was worried. to this day i still haven’t got her she was gone for good but that wee hen must be dead. anyway after coming out them in 2000. i started them back up in 2002 on my own my mum and dad had divorced soi started them back up to take my mind of things i was in them for a season in a have and i had great racing and great returns but no one else did. in that year and a half i was never out of the top 10 and i also timed out the young bird national which is extremely hard to do into this area. i dont think i lost anymore thn 5 pigeons in this period itm was great everyone else was suffering loads of losses but not me. after that i gave up again as i had a fall out with several members for keeping my pigeons out 2 laze about n have a bath n things which i love doing after the race but these members who knew i had beat them and beat them easily couldnt take it anymore and they threatened me with violence id=f i didnt stop doingt
this so i said enoughs enough if i cant do anyhing i want with my pigeons then i wasnt continuing.
then my freind talked me into starting back up and going partnership with him so i did. we sent 4 to the 1st race from 72 miles we got our timer 1hour 15mins on the wing and had them all home for the 2 hour mark. we had only 5 races with these 4 pigeons but at this race we lost all them and i’ll tell you this pigeon racing wasnt any where near as hard as it is now as it was when i was in them before. i could not believe how hard. then my dad fell ill and askeed me to take over his lofts so i left my friends partnership and went in with my dad which i still am. the 1st race we were 10th club. the 2nd race we were 9th club then our young birds fell down with young bird sickness this is the 1st time ive experienced this and couldnt believe how sore it was anyway we raced 2 weeks later and we won the race by 1 hour in the fed but they said that no way could that pigeon do that distance in that time it was from 130 miles and we timed her in on the 1hour 50 minute mark what a pigeon but the fed said that we were disqualified. anyway we lost over 25 pigeons last young bird season and i’ll tell you this pigeon racing is nowhere near as hard when i was in them at 1st hardly a loss and the racing was great. the 2nd time i was in them i thought the racing was just as good but others may beg to differ but i hardly lost a pigeon. however now i cannot believe how hard it is. its taking over an hour and a half to race 40 miles. if this state carrys on there will be alot of fanciers quitting. not me im a battler. i may not be repeating the same results as i did in the past but to be honestpigeon racing wasnt so bad then. i have had to order double rings about 80 when i’d usually would get 40 but to try and get decent numbers after the young bird season we need to race big. im going to breed 60 for racing and 20 latebreds for back up incase we get wiped out again. i can sa without a doubt pigeon racing is a duing sport and if we keep getting the losses we’ve been getting then there will be alot giving up. in the last year that ive been in them i have been handed a wake up call about how haerd it is and if i knew it was this hard i would never have come back into them.
well to be honest I think its not getting any better due to high costs and the number of losses we are experiencing at the moment. when I joined my club in with my mum and dad in 1994 there was at least 50 members however I was the youngest by far. in 2000 I resigned from the sport and there was at least 30 members. then I come back into them in 2002 and theres was 22 members and it stayed like that until I resigned in 2004. then when I come back into them 2 years ago there was 16 members and now theres 15 but theres only me my son and ma best friend stewart that are up and coming the rest of the members are way older than us I think the youngest is 38 and the oldest in his 90’s. I’ve tried bringing in fresh faces but the youth of today just are not interested. i’ll never turn my back on any young person that wants to take a look around my loft. i’ll try anything to get them interested. however the future looks bleak and I can’t see there being a sport in the next 20 years or so. I can’t blame members from resigning from the sport due to the rise in costs and the rise in losses every season its enough to put most off. although i’m in it for life as i’m in love with the sport and always will be. I will also try and bring in new faces where I can. if next season is kind to us and its not been put up in costs at the AGM’s then I can see that the fanciers that were due to resign will hopefully stay in the sport. our club has went all out this year to try and attract new blood with special noms and bests and tournaments and they have also raised prize money and I do think this is the way forward we must make it worthwhile for fanciers young and old to come into or start the sport. the prize money side o it and the betting and pools side of it is the way forward in my eyes as right now we are just racing to win at club and fed level so if we introduce small wagers and mini tornaments where you don’t have to win the race to get your hands on then yes it will appeal to the novices young and old to hopfully come in and frac e in the sport.
Hi Keith,
I like your view very much. I was looking at the video on youtube called something like ‘Can GPS Trackers Save the Pigeon Sport’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldx4bFa_QHo
What are your thoughts if pigeon racing becomes something similar to horses or dogs or sports where ‘outsiders’ can place bets on the pigeons? Do you feel this will increase the number of people in the sport ?
Hey Richard, We actually posted that video to the site. You can read the reviews from others and post your own in the comments section below the video. Here is the link:
=> https://www.pigeonracingpigeon.com/discussion-of-the-week/video-can-gps-trackers-save-pigeon-racing/
Thanks
-Chris
hi my view on the decline of our great sport hobby is due to a number of factors i will try to list what i think is causing the decline .1 very few young peaple entering the sport 2 the average age in most clubs is between 65 to 70 years of age 3. pigeons are from an era more suited to the sixties .4 most old hobbys are dying out leek clubs darts whippet racing flower shows . i give most clubs between 5 to 10 years fact pigeon racing falls in this bracket .i dont think the price of corn has caused any decline or ets clocks. the clubs where i live are all in decline due to age tindale club in the eighties 42 members now 15 evenwood 32 members now 5 cockfield 40 members now 9 .95% of these members left are pensioners age is the main factor. these members are 65 to 70 plus that is the reason our great sport is on the brink of dying out as regards mjf
I live in the small island of Trinidad, West indies, just off the north east tip of Venezuela. i have been racing pigeons since the early nineties. In my country all the longer races are to our neighboring islands upto St. Vincent in the north to the mainland countries of Guyana down south and Venezuela. So the cost of transport is an issue, as well as gaining authorization to enter the countries. Our problems are similar to other places, such as general lack of interest among the youth, high cost of feed, medication and other supplies can also discourage the small fancier, which make the majority of our clubs, which now stands at about 6 with numbers between 25 and 50. So our Clubs are relatively small and the cash prizes are also small. but we race for the love of the sport and of course bragging rights. In general the sport is not growing as it should, however the current clubs are very vibrant and the fanciers passionate about their birds.
It is really a pity, but it´s the truth that definitely the pigeon Sport is declining, at least in my country Venezuela for sure. After moving from Curacao N.A. to Venezuela for my marriage, where I have been active also with the Pigeon Sport, this country Venezuela had about 06 pigeon clubs all over the country. In our state Carabobo we counted with 22 members active participating in the races. But presently only in the capital Caracas, there is a small group still competing in the races. In our country the food for the pigeons & gasoline to transport the pigeons to the releasing points are very cheap, but nevertheless due to heavy discussions between members it was very difficult to continue with the sport.We started racing with the pigeons from 100 km/820 km,with very good results. The fanciers in this country mostly are imigrants from Portugal,Spain as the native people are not so interested in the Sport.We are trying to organize “One Loft Race” so we can get together again, and hopefully this will contribute to set up again the game. It is unbelieveble but in my neighborhood, there are about 8 to 10 Pigeon Lofts, and no competition, and most of them breeding young birds yearly for training on their account.
I’m from south africa western cape.I think that racing pigeon has place to grow,some fanciers are iether to secrative on what they know on racing pigeon or they want to keep they formule to themselfs.if we could intruduce the bautyfull sport to schools, there will be many intresting in racing pigeon. lucky for me I have 4 bautyfull sons whom I can introduce and share my racing pigeon experions with.for all the fanciers out there thanks and good luck with your upcoming races god bless you and your fam.sulaiman florus