Wrong
Do they not read pigeon magazines?
Do they not listen?
Or do they simply not think at all?
These questions I sometimes ask myself about fanciers who STILL do not know it is wrong to cure through the drinker in cold weather. Yet, it is so simple.
SIMPLE YET
With any cure a certain amount of the drug is required. The manufacturer knows how much, he prescribes the dose, that is based on normal drinking behavior.
But "normal drinking behaviour" is out of the question in hot weather and also
in very cold weather.
In warm weather, birds drink more than normal so that they get too much of the drug.
In very cold weather they hardly drink at all so they do not get enough of the drug.
I do not know what is most disastrous: Perhaps too little of the drug?
Then there are some who do not ask themselves or do not ask their veterinarian if the drug dissolves properly. Take Flagyl, for arguments sake. This does not dissolve at all. Some believe they have a solution. They put the drug in lukewarm water or place the drinker that contains the medicine in the sun. Again wrong.
SAFE
Also, drugs are often stored incorrectly. On a shelf in a humid portal of the loft for example. Wrong! Drugs in powder form you have to keep dry and dark.
Take the well known vitamineral powder. When you put that in the loft you can throw it away only after a few humid days. When it is not dry the pigeons do not eat it anymore. Better put the powder on the heater if you have one.
I keep such stuff inside the house and definitely not in the loft.
And what about medicines in a liquid form? If you see so-called clouds in it, it has become unusable. Furthermore it needs to be shaken, which is very important. Every liquid you need to shake before use, certainly the little bottle containing the vaccine against PMV before you injecting.
FELLOW SPORTSMAN
The man I visited was curing his pigeons against canker. It was cold, "so" through the feed he said. I raised my eyebrows and had my reasons.
Why blindly medicate against canker in winter?
In ancient times, yes I also did, because we were told to do so.
To-day I do not cure just because the calendar says it is "curing time".
But I do have the medicine at hand so that I can intervene immediately when I hear squeaking babies, or smell the manure, or if birds are "sharp" or, when I find those thin threads in the throat.
"With a cure there is nothing to lose," some say.
WRONG. There is much to lose. Natural resistance for example. Furthermore the less you cure the greater the effect will be when you need to.
WRONG AGAIN
The man had a bucket that was half-filled with feed, he put some kind of pigeon oil in it and began to shake. Then he added the drug and began to stir.
Poor man, he meant well but made several mistakes.
- When you mix feed with medicine it may not be more than a kilo of food. If more you will never get the medicine well spread.
- A bucket is not recommended. It is better to use something that is flatter, a bowl or something, so you can spread the feed and thus distribute the drug better.
- Oil is not sticky. The fact that a vet had advised him to use oil says something about the inability or rather ignorance of that man. Since oil is not sticky the result will be that much of the drug will stick onto the inner side of your bucket or jar.
The result will be that after the cure little by little very little amounts of the powder will still cling onto the food so that you actually medicate too long with too little of the drug. A better method to induce resistance is hardly imaginable.
Believe me, many will never have strong healthy birds because they do not medicate properly. Or should I say they over medicate.
When I once had a lecture about pigeons a fancier asked my opinion about pigeon tea. I wish fanciers would give their birds tea daily, I said. As long as they put tea in the water they will not put medicine in it.
COMPLAINTS
Then there are the fanciers that always complain they have so much bad luck when breeding. Why is it always them that have bad luck they moan.
The answer is simple. They keep on making the same mistakes.
One mistake is to put two breeding pairs in one loft. By doing so you ask for trouble.
Cocks that are real males will not leave the others alone, definitely not when they are mating. For some mysterious reason they cannot stand that loft mates "make love". One couple in a loft is okay. Three or more also, two is wrong.
BROKEN EGGS
Then there is the eternal complaint about broken eggs.
Fanciers fool themselves those are always off their best and wonder why it is them who are always so unlucky.
Bad Luck? That is possible indeed.
But it is more likely that they themselves are to blame. What I do when I mate pigeons is get all the perches off the loft.
So the place of the birds is on the floor or in the nest box.
But as soon as the eggs have been laid I hang back the perches.
I will explain why:
It is in the nature of all animals not to foul their own nests and pigeons are no different. It happens indeed that a pigeon defecates over the edge of the nest bowl, but very rarely. They often keep up their stye and even want to keep the nest box clean. What they do is go and sit somewhere else to shit and that is on the floor. Then they will go to their place again and if there are no perches that will be their nest box, or A nest box.
I want them to rest on a perch. As long as they rest there they do not fly into a nest box and when they do not fly into a nestbox they will not break the eggs that are in that box. It is so simple as that.
LIGHT AND DARK
Finally many mistakes are made by lighting and darkening that may finish a whole season. I will get back on that.