Billy Harris & Son - 1st Open Valentia 8th May 2010

I have been in or around pigeons all my life as my father is a life long fancier. When I moved into my own house in 1993 an old shed in the garden was quickly converted into a loft with many many changes made over the years. The first club I joined was the Malahide & Dist and I was lucky enough to win the ECF Open from Oakhampton in 1997. I have been a member of the Dublin North East for 12 years now and hold the position of Secretary which I enjoy.  The first good pigeons i had were given to me by my near neighbours the Daniel brothers. They allowed me take my pick from their 1994 young bird team. The 3 I picked bred me pigeons to score from every race point right out to the Kings Cup. A lovely blue hen turned out to be one of the best pigeons I ever owned; she was the dam, g dam & g g dam to many good birds over the years, the best being my fathers Miller Gold Cup winner only pigeon into Ireland on the day from France. She really was some hen with an eye to match.

Roundabout Cocks

My loft is an L shaped structure; one side is 20ft x 8ft with 3 sections and the other side is 18ft x 6ft also with 3 sections. I have 10 boxes in the stock loft and two sections with 12 boxes in each for the old birds, one small hens section and I can keep about 80 young birds in the other two sections. The roof is a bit unusual as it is 100% perspex, letting in plenty of light.

My racing methods for old birds is Roundabout. The cocks are out at 7am and again at 5pm six days a week. The hens only get out once a day usually around 7pm. No two Fridays are the same! One week I will show the hens, the next I wont. Sometimes I will turn the bowl and sometimes I will let a spare hen into the cocks just before i basket them.

I use 2 different widowhood mixtures mixed together and the birds are not broken down at all this year. One thing I did different this year was I gave the birds 10 private tosses approx 25 miles before racing started. Each time i let the hens up first so they would be there for the cocks arrival, then just separate the pairs when I got home.

I have tried the young birds on darkness in the past and must say I liked it, but for the last few years I keep them natural.

I think in this day and age your birds must be in tip top health without abusing them. All birds were treated for Canker, worms and respiratory in that order before training started. After that I would treat them every few week for one or two days. I am a big fan of Ironxcell a horse iron tonic and I am also using the Osmonds products for a few years now especially for young birds.

VerHerck Cock, 1st club 37th fed, 5th club 52nd fed

All my stock birds were paired up on the 1st of Jan 2010 and they were let sit their own young. All stock & young birds are feed a no bean mix. The racers were paired around mid Feb and the hens were removed when the young birds were around 14 days old. At present I have 10 pairs of stock birds with seven of these pairs being of the Willy Van Herck family of pigeon, all comming from the lofts of P & J Boal of Dromore Co. Down. I also have one very good Frank Sheader Soonten cock and two Willy Jacob cocks coming from Ernie Goodyear.

"Wee man" 1st club 1st Open I.S.R.F. Valentia
 

I first came into contact with the Van Hercks by accident when a club mate pointed them out on a small stand at the Dublin show, he had noticed how well the P & J Boal partnership had been flying over the last few years, they were in fact flying so well that they lost very few birds in 2006 so sent 20 hens down to Dublin as they were far to good to cull. I had no intention of buying any pigeons that day but because of the quality and class of the birds I bought two, both were bred and raced by the brothers and had good open positions within the NIPA. Both these bred me a winner with one being the dam of my open winner. I was so impressed with theses hens that I made contact with Philip Boal to see if we could do a loft visit, thankfully he agreed and we went up in early 2007. Its fair to say we were very impressed with the birds but most importantly I was impressed with the man behind the birds.


At the moment the best bird i have is a Willy Jacob hen bred by Ernie Goodyear she is dam to 3 x 1st & 4 x 2nd clubs etc, with 12 fed card to her credit. One son from this hen has 5 club and 5 fed cards winning an ISRF meritorious award in 2007, another son has 5 club and 4 fed cards. This year the Van Herks have really stepped up to the plate with 7 races down they have won me 18 club cards and 14 fed cards. Without a doubt my best performance is winning the 2010 Valentia Open with a yearling Willy Van Herk cock flying just under 5 hours for the 200 mile trip.

The sire was bought direct from Willy Van Herck by Philip and kindly given to me as a gift in 2008 the dam was bred and raced by Philip and is also a Van Herck. This hen is bred from one of the original Van Herck cocks Philip got in 2002 ( DE 47 ). I noticed this cock popped up on many of Philips winning pigeons so I asked if I could buy him. Philip said no way as he was one of the first Van Herck he had and was still breeding good pigeons. On my way to the 2008 Belfast show I popped in to see Philip, and when i was leaving he handed me a box with De 47 in it as a gift. Testament to the mans character.
 

Inside the young bird loft

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who sent their congratulations on my win with a special mention to the members of the DNE, who are having a great year with many fed prizes each week, not to mention the super performance put up in the Open. Without question a big thank you must go to the wee man from Co. Down, Philip Boal who has not only supplied me with top class pigeons but is always at the end of the phone with advice and encouragement. The amount of winners that have come out of this modest back garden loft not just for him but for others is remarkable. Philip has had a hand in breeding the winner of the INFC, NIPA, East Down Combine, Ulster Fed and can now add the ISRF to his CV.

Yours in Sport,

Billy Harris.