Brian Brady - A Loft Full Of Winners

 

By Keith Stafford (Nov 2008)

After a busy year, I finally got the opportunity to make a loft visit to the home of Brian Brady of the Greenhills & District Club on the south side of Dublin, which fellow club mate Brian Killeen helped to arrange. We were greeted with a warm welcome, and an opening confession that we wouldn’t find any “Nice Fancy Lofts” here. Well, not to worry, as it wasn’t the design of the lofts for which we came to see, but instead the occupants of the loft who over the last few years under Brian’s management, have pulled out some remarkable performances, which have now placed him as one of the top fanciers the Irish South Road Federation has to offer.

 

The Loft Setup Of Brian Brady

 Brian started racing from his own setup in 1999 after spending many years racing with his father Val, who still currently races in the Greenhills & District Club. For the first few seasons Brian flew in the Dublin South West Club, where over a 7 year period he was top flyer in the club on several occasions. Brian then joined the Greenhills & District club, who has many top flyers among the approximate 35 members. Within a short period of time he made his mark, being the Overall Club Champion for the 2007 & 2008 Season. On average Brian would notch up about 8 Club wins each season, whilst racking up some top performances at Federation level, including numerous Fed Wins, and of course an Open Win from Barleycove in 2008. The other amazing thing to note is that these pigeons also win across the water. They are genuinely an all round family, who can sprint from 70 miles, and keep steady from almost 400 miles. More on the winner’s later, but now let’s concentrate on the base for all this success…  

The Base Of The Success - The Goldmine Old Janseen Hen

The base pigeon in Brian’s loft is an old Janseen hen which he purchased for a modest sum of £30 from a Jeff Van Winkle sale, which has now turned out to be a goldmine dam, producing generations of winners for Brian. Unfortunately she is no longer breeding, but her blood is present amongst the crop of winners currently housed in this setup. In fact, Brian ensures that at least 50% of all pairings in the stock loft are down from this hen. Just some of the offspring are shown here, but it was amazing to see that the majority of Brian’s pigeons are built identically. We had the pleasure of holding most of the winners, and we were greeted with well balanced pigeons with plenty of vigour and vitality, a testament to the health and the management that these pigeons receive on a daily basis.

Check Hen 6 times x 1sts – A Direct Daughter Of The Old Hen

Now At Stock And Producing Winners Including 1 Hen To Take 3 x 1sts in 2008

Armed with the goods in the stock loft, Brian need only apply his management skills in order to get the results. For Old Bird Racing he practices the Roundabout system with 20 pairs, and in this way he gets to use the hens that would otherwise go to waste with a male widowhood team. In fact Brian informed us that he currently houses more winners in his hens section, and predicts that in 2009 the hens will perform better than the cocks again. Furthermore I was surprised to hear that if Brian were to be forced to race a one sex team, he would opt for racing hens rather than cocks! 

The 20 racing pairs along with the 12 pairs of stock are paired up in the middle of December, and they are allowed rear 1 young bird each before all the pigeons are separated. The Cocks are left behind with hens and young birds moving to their respective sections. Brian feels that this can be carried out when the young birds are about 21 days old, and has seen the benefits of separating the young birds from their parents at this age.

I asked Brian was there any one thing which he felt was so beneficial to the birds, that would cause issues if it were removed from his system? After a lengthy pause, of which I’m sure he mentally searched through his many years of experience, he announced that approximately 2/3 weeks before the 1st race, he would fast the old birds for a period of 48 hours. By doing this it helps accelerates the fall of the down, which is essential to getting the birds in form for the start of the season. He felt that if this was not done, it would have a negative impact on his season.

Throughout the season, the hens and the cocks are trained separately each day. When he can, Brian will train the birds himself, and if time restricts then they will be trained communally with a local trainer. Each team will fly home to their own section, which cuts back on the time involved in practising the roundabout system. However, come race day both the hens and cocks know the drill, and they both race back to the cocks section where they have raised their youngsters early on in the year.

In 2008, Brian kept the birds separated for the first few races and left them together when they came home from the first Barleycove race. He feels this is beneficial for the birds, as they may get bored of the system if they are forced to race the whole year separated. He then separated them again for the last 3 Old Bird races, and the team didn’t disappoint, winning the last 3 Old Bird Inland Races. Included in these 3 Wins was the Open Win from Barleycove on the 22nd June, when his yearling Blue Cock beat off 283 Members & 2423 Birds to take the red card. 

Brian Holding 1st Club, 1st Open Barleycove 2423 Birds (2008)

This is the 1st win for this Blue Cock, but he also has a 12th Fed & 7th Fed to his name, the latter being when he dropped with a batch of 3 of his loft mates, one of which topped the fed for Brian on that day. This Blue Cock is a Great Grandson of the old Janseen Hen and was bred from a race cock, which has now been moved to the stock loft. The Grand Dam of the Open Winner has 6 x 1st to her name, so I think it’s clear to see that these pigeons are steeped with champion’s right through the generations. 

A Close Up Of The Open Winner

After all the analysis of Brian’s Old Bird performances, we got around to talking about the Young Birds. Brian breeds around 60 Young Birds each season, and as mentioned previously they would be weaned off around the 21 days old mark. Brian feels it very important that the young birds are vaccinated when they are weaned off, as this gives them a good start in life. The young birds are raced on the Darkness System and the lofts would be darkened from March until Mid June to fit around his work schedule. The birds are trained once a day, as this is all he has time for, and they will be trained by themselves until Brian feels that they are coming straight home to the loft. He would also switch from communal training to training by himself during the season if he felt the birds were not breaking properly.  If possible Brian likes to get his young birds to the longer races, and preferably would like to get a Barleycove into all the young ones that he has plans for as Old Birds.

The young birds are provided with a heavy mix of food for the first few days following the race, and would then be offered a lighter mix of food near the end of the week as race days comes closer. He has tried both systems, with breaking down the pigeons early on and then building them up, but through practice has found that feeding the lighter food near the end of the week keeps his birds in better condition. 

As with all winning lofts, the birds have to be kept healthy, and Brian has identified Canker & Respiratory as the two main illnesses which have to be kept under control. To combat these two things he practices a 3 week cycle on Sunday & Monday of each week. The birds would be treated for Canker the 1st week, followed by a treatment for Respiratory the 2nd week. The 3rd week would be left clear, and then the system returns back to the start for another Canker treatment. Brian is a firm believer that with this system, coupled with vaccinating the birds on a yearly basis, you should keep your birds out of trouble with illness. 

Before finishing up we had a chat about the sport; past, present and the future. Brian feels that pigeon racing is very expensive these days, which would put off new people joining the sport. However, if he were to provide advice to such people, he would encourage them to buy a health book for pigeons as soon as possible. It is imperative that the birds remain healthy, and this is the 1st lesson which must be learned. He would also encourage the new starters to look local for their birds, as he is sure that many fanciers would help out new people, just as he has himself in the past. Once you get involved with the sport, make sure you enjoy the pigeons. 

Brian would like to thank his father Val, for all the help he has provided over the many years, and in his own words he would have been lost without him. 

I would like to thank Brian for his hospitality and for taking the time out of his busy schedule to spend a few hours with us, and giving us an insight into how this setup works so well. I wish him all the best for the future.

Keith Stafford