Mentors and beginners (19-10-25)

Beginners and mentors

Would there be sports in which beginners are left out in the cold as in pigeon sport? They are warmly welcomed as new members and then have to figure it out.

I have often reported that we have all failed to show them the way. The least one could do is to give beginners a kind of manual containing the basic principles of pigeon sport. So that they no longer have to wonder what canker means, for example, or ‘total widowhood’, or just the word 'show partner'. Beginners need mentors, I wrote repeatedly.

Examples

Example 1.
A very famous player had a question that was accompanied by a photo. I didn't have to think about it for a second. Diphteria. I was surprised that the champion player didn't recognize that himself, but he had never had anything to do with it, as it turned out. So it was a bit understandable.

Example 2.
Another beginner had bought eggs from a good player but... had not taken into account that they had to be about the same age as those from the nurse pigeons. Nobody had told him and he hadn't read anywhere. Too obvious it seems.
Example 3.
In one case, the breeding did not work and that was not surprising in retrospect. He didn't know that it is better to separate the pigeons in the autumn.
Example 5.

Then there are the numerous examples of so called ‘ indispensable supplements' that confuse beginners. ‘Do birds need all of them?’

Example 6.

I have often found that starters do not know why they darken.

Answer

The more experienced fancier also has questions but not with such. And vets don't have an answer to everything either. So I got a photo like the one below with the question what that meant. I thought of pecking myself or a disturbance in the metabolism of the pigeon. I put it to three vets and got three different answers.

Dr. Schroeder was polite enough to answer even from his vacation address. He thought it was quite insignificant and also thought of the latter. According to him, pigeons do not fly a prize less.