Racing pigeons started out as entertainment, then it became a sport, and if you get more serious it becomes a science. Recently, I have begun to reorganize the things I have written in the past. In the process of reorganizing, I feel more and more that writing articles related to racing pigeons is different from writing novels.
"No matter how bloody the plot is," as long as the author likes it, he can arrange it. Gradually, I have respect for the only relatively large books in the circle, because writing a large book requires a lot of reading and collecting. A large amount of information requires long-term accumulation and persistence. If it weren't for love and a little writing talent, I really wouldn't be able to write it.
When it comes to raising pigeons, the first big pigeon book I came into contact with was "Janssen's Principles of Breeding". The last genuine green-covered and silver-lettered book has been with me for more than ten years. I have read it several times, especially after the season and before the breeding season. I read it more frequently over time, and naturally drew a lot of red lines. Finally, by chance, I passed it on to a friend who had to find the original version. Instead, what I left behind was a brand new pirated copy with red leather and gold letters. But as far as I know, even pirated copies are hard to find now.
As the reader gets older, the feeling of reading the same book ten years ago and ten years later will definitely be different. Rather than letting the book in hand lie and gather dust, it is better to prepare a pen ruler and read it again. As in the past, I will still excerpt and compile the highlights found during my reading, and may also attach personal comments to certain passages. Because
is an excerpt, it is inevitable that there will be "quotes out of context". Interested fanciers are still recommended to find old books for systematic reading. Because it is a personal annotation, it is inevitably limited by personal experience, so it is recommended that all collectors trust and be skeptical. .
A book of 200,000 words. If I read at a pace of 4,000 words per day, it will conservatively be estimated to take more than two months to complete. I really hope that I can fulfill my promise as always, and of course I hope it will be useful to everyone.
Chapter 1 (1) The birth of a new variety
The black characters below are excerpts from the original text, and the blue characters in are personal comments.
1. The pioneers of the Dutch Janssen series, Van Limput ( Clark) and Hartucci will tell you: "Maintaining the characteristics of a system (pure breeding) is more important than winning several championships!"
First of all, you You must know the definition of purebred: "After several generations of continuous breeding, if the offspring of the same breed have exactly the same characteristics as their ancestors, they can be identified as purebred." However, the establishment of any new pigeon line still comes from Crossbreeding, the method of crossbreeding and improving into purebreds, follows the only rule: "Grow a lot, kill a lot!" However, this method is quite uneconomical in terms of time and money.
cross-breeding also has its advantages: (1) The ratio of good ones is higher. (2) Hybrid varieties are stronger. (3) The vitality of the original bloodline can be improved by adding alien blood, such as speed, endurance and ability to withstand bad weather.
Comment: Almost all the pigeons in Clark's loft come from the original Janssen loft. Clark and the Janssen family maintain friendship and mutual trust. Even if the price of buying the Janssen's pigeons is high, every breeding pigeon bought by Clark will Find a way to let it start a home. Whether it can successfully start a home will on the one hand mean the acceptance of the newly introduced breeding pigeons to the new home. (This is more difficult to detect among the breeding pigeons raised in confinement.) Subtly, when the breeding pigeons inherit their genes, The coordinates of the new home will also be passed on to future generations, which is related to whether the next generation can perform earlier. Breeding pigeons that successfully start a home will have greater activity and a longer breeding life.
Hartuch's pigeons come from Clark's loft. "Maintaining the characteristics of a system (pure breeding) is more important than winning a few championships!" It can be understood as: the pursuit of pure bloodlines through relatively close relatives, regardless of inherited appearance characteristics. , the pigeon breed’s character is similar to the characteristics of flying racing (such as the characteristic of having the courage to leave the group and return). Inbred pigeon breeds have slightly less vitality than hybrid pigeons. Hybrid pigeons have relatively better vitality and can maintain their performance for a longer period of time. It is relatively easy to achieve more results at the peak of physical fitness, but if it is further used for breeding, it has the disadvantage of genetic instability, and the opposite is true for "purebred" pigeons.
2. The practice of European and American masters is to keep only two series of pigeons:
(1) Racing pigeons are usually made by crossing the two lines. After the competition, the breeding will only be kept unless the record is outstanding.
(2) Pigeons retained for breeding are mainly bred from pure close relatives. Unless the
hybrid pigeons have good records and while retaining the characteristics of the original system, they are allowed to be kept for breeding . There are many successful examples of using the Janssen line to mate with the Meulemans line, and it is also the most avant-garde method. It can fly longer distances, especially the champion pigeons produced by the first generation of crosses, and then go back to mate with this line to keep the bloodline at four points. Third of the purity, after three or four generations of breeding, recrossing can be considered.
The other school's approach is to ignore bloodlines and only look at results. Only those who can win in the competition will be kept, and the rest will be eliminated. Those who do this are all racers. The rate of good pigeons is roughly the same as the previous method. The disadvantage is that the pigeons They are not uniform, and the genetic factor they carry is very mixed, making it difficult to identify which one is the main inheritance.
Comment: Nowadays, some pigeon fanciers have made it clear that they “can’t understand” pigeons, so they prefer to directly buy performance pigeons. This is a way of thinking where dragons and dragons are born, but if the breeding of racing pigeons is so simple, it will be There is no such thing as ordinary pigeon fanciers. Nowadays, many champion pigeons are the product of hybrids or even cross-crosses. If there is no inbreeding and purification, but directly matched with other unrelated cross-bred achievement pigeons, what will happen? It's hard to predict.
If I can use cooking as an analogy, adding sweet and sour pork ribs can make sweet and sour pork ribs , adding green onions sea cucumbers can make sea cucumbers roasted with green onions, both are good dishes, but if you go further, add sweet and sour pork ribs with green onions. Burning sea cucumbers is out of character.
maintains the purity of the pigeon bloodline and characteristics in order to achieve predictable quality and consistency in the quality of the offspring during cross-breeding. Some friends say that I never breed pigeons, but I always use crossbreeding and the results are just as good. You might as well observe whether the frequency of breeding in this kind of loft is also very high.
The level of self-blood production of a pigeon loft can best reflect the level of breeding.
3. Most famous horses are sired by Hummers
According to my observation, in the series of "Steele", "Schop (Thick Breast)", Giroge (Old Yellow Eye) and "Shuman (Chimney)", the male pigeons They have a slender body, poor appearance, a pointed keel, not thick waist but very powerful. Many of them have red eyes or yellow eyes. They all belong to this type in appearance. When mating, choose "Max" or "Richie" (light raindrop). series, beautiful white-eyed hens with thick waists and short bodies. This is the breeding method of Janssen’s loft. Janski also emphasized repeatedly: “Most of the famous horses are born from Hummers. Racing pigeons are not a judging competition. Pigeons that are too beautiful are paired with There is no point in being together, it is doubtful whether outstanding varieties can be created, and breeding is not as easy as imagined! "
comment: Respecting the unique matching rules of each pigeon family is more efficient than the "I think" method. In the breeding of racing pigeons, what kind of results can be obtained by matching pigeons with certain conditions has always been the most talked about by pigeon fanciers.
Generally, we always like to pair the so-called "zero-defect" pigeons together, but it often does not go as expected. Even after the Japanese Iwata brothers completed the pairing in their minds, the two ugliest pigeons were left behind unintentionally. I formed a golden pair by myself, and it was because of this that the Japanese Iwata series came into being.
In fact, there are not many general patterns for pairing racing pigeons. One pigeon has one situation, and one person has limited time and energy to match it. The knowledge of all good pigeons is simply inexhaustible. It is better to study the existing pigeon family in a down-to-earth manner, be brave enough to make different attempts, and be diligent in comparison and summary. From unexpected surprises to being under full control, it is better to study the existing pigeon family down-to-earth. Enjoy the real pleasure that racing pigeons bring you.
END
Text | Comment by Gao Wuping: Lin Xuguo
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