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IAN YOUNG, WHITELEAS.
By Davey Barkel.
My second Pigeonland loft visit was to a friend Amanda & myself made through the pigeon webs. When building Amanda’s lofts in the garden at our home, we needed some box perches and Internal ETS Stall traps. Amanda found a local joiner who was also a pigeon man, Ian Young. Ian looked after us with our requirements and even offered to breed Amanda 6 youngsters F.O.C. as she was just starting out! This is not the first time either, Ian is noted for assisting new starters! From this very kind gesture, as often happens in the pigeon game, a new freindship blossomed, with the gesture being returned recently when the “Silksworth Six” Marcel Van Ostaeyen’s made there short way from Taffy’s Lofts to Whiteleas! It was while delivering these six youngsters, that I asked Ian if it would be ok to do a loft report on him, to which I’m pleased to say he agreed!
So, Bank Holiday Monday, a dreary and blustery afternoon, Amanda and myself made the short 4-5 mile journey to the Whiteleas gardens in South Shields to meet up with Ian.
Ian has been involved with pigeons most of his life, though again as with my first article, I was genuinely surprised to hear that he’d actually only started racing pigeons in 2001! I couldn’t help but laugh when he recalled stories of “dolling” off school to spend time at the lofts seeing the birds! He says as a kid he used to swipe onions from the local lads allotments to make onion soup with at the loft while he was skiving off school!
He does not follow “fashionable” breeds, family names do not really bother him. His birds are a mixture of Soontjens, Van Den Bosche, Busschaerts, Germain Imbrechts, and one or two others all crossed in together. Best to best, no matter what the breeds are! No Fads or theories are followed either, he re-iterated again, just best to best! Ian feels the best birds you can get are gifts. He recalled when he reported a stray belonging to a fancier in Liverpool. They made friends, and the Liverpudlian gifted Ian 4 youngsters, of Ron Williamson Busschaert lines. These turned out to be the best pigeons he has ever had!
The self made lofts are spacious and set up well in my opinion. Particularly liked the ventilation extractor units! Ian feels these are an added bonus with the hawks, as since he put them in he has no bother around the loft with them! Ian keeps a race team of 24 widowhood cocks, and 40-50 youngsters on the Darkness system. The birds are kept on a health program. Every four weeks he treats for either cocci, canker, or respiratory.
When asked what he looked for in his birds, he replied the only “selection” process he has is a points system for his young birds. The first 10 birds back to the loft are graded with 10 points for being first back, down to 1 point for being 10th back. At the end of the season the birds with the most points are the ones transferred to the old bird race team.
His advice for novices is not to listen to too many people as you can easily be taken off track, which he feels is what happened to him in the early days! Also, you must learn by your mistakes.
Within the sport, Ian admires John Soderlund, a phenomenal fancier who has not only been winning Feds & Combines since Ian was a lad, he’s been supplying them as well!
The saddest moment in Ian’s racing career so far has been losing his good Blue & White Cock “Steady as Anything!” at a comeback Melton Mowbray. This Ron Williamson Busschaert had a load of prizes to his credit inclusive of winning Le Ferte Bernard 480 miles. He was sent to Melton Mowbray instead of the Bourges race.
His best moment was actually winning Le Ferte Bernard with “Steady As Anything!” Ian says he loves everything to do with pigeons, and loves all the racing. But to get one from the channel racing is a great feeling, a feeling of having achieved something special. The birds have to be “Spot on” to get them, and he feels it’s a better feeling of achievement.
When asked for his hopes and aspirations, he said he wants what everyone up here wants, to top the UNC. He said he would absolutely love to top it!
He feels that one of the more disappointing aspects of racing pigeons is there is too much back stabbing in the sport. There are too many in it just for the money, we should all try to make the game more friendlier.
On a lighter note, he recalls a funny story from a few years back. Ian had been working on a house, and they had been throwing out some old patio furniture. Ian seized the opportunity and brought the stuff up to the gardens. He set it up outside his friends loft, table, chairs, parasol. He put up a blackboard with a menu saying today’s special - onion soup, etc, hung a bunch of onions from the side, had pans and everything, it looked a fast food stall. When his friend came to the garden his face was a picture!
Ian has plenty club & Fed turns to his credit, but I was more taken by his UNC results.
38th UNC Maidstone YB National, 17,762 birds.
69th UNC Lillers 1, 20,591 birds.
57th UNC Folkestone 2 OB National, 17,24 birds.
99th UNC Andrezel, 4,687 birds.
147th & 162nd UNC Clermont, 11,585 birds.
56th UNC Le Ferte Bernard, 5,427 birds.
169th UNC Clermont, 11,444 birds.
A couple of things you don't usually see, that I observed at Ian's fine array of self built lofts, is the look-out tower, (cracking idea!) and a weather vein in the shape of an aeroplane. This weather vein was made by someone that was in a prisoner of war camp. Its showing its age now, but I thought it was great!
Time flew past yet again, and it was great cracking on about the birds! Ian introduced us to his brother Thomas, who has a loft of the most beautiful fancy pigeons that I’ve ever seen, situated just behind Ian’s racing loft. I’ve posted the photo’s of these in the photo section, please have a look!
Thanks for the hospitality Ian, we really enjoyed it. We hope that the “Silksworth Six” do you a bit good! Looking forward to the fancy youngsters coming from Thomas!
All the best………
Davey B..........AKA Dicky Darky
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By Davey Barkel.
My second Pigeonland loft visit was to a friend Amanda & myself made through the pigeon webs. When building Amanda’s lofts in the garden at our home, we needed some box perches and Internal ETS Stall traps. Amanda found a local joiner who was also a pigeon man, Ian Young. Ian looked after us with our requirements and even offered to breed Amanda 6 youngsters F.O.C. as she was just starting out! This is not the first time either, Ian is noted for assisting new starters! From this very kind gesture, as often happens in the pigeon game, a new freindship blossomed, with the gesture being returned recently when the “Silksworth Six” Marcel Van Ostaeyen’s made there short way from Taffy’s Lofts to Whiteleas! It was while delivering these six youngsters, that I asked Ian if it would be ok to do a loft report on him, to which I’m pleased to say he agreed!
So, Bank Holiday Monday, a dreary and blustery afternoon, Amanda and myself made the short 4-5 mile journey to the Whiteleas gardens in South Shields to meet up with Ian.
Ian has been involved with pigeons most of his life, though again as with my first article, I was genuinely surprised to hear that he’d actually only started racing pigeons in 2001! I couldn’t help but laugh when he recalled stories of “dolling” off school to spend time at the lofts seeing the birds! He says as a kid he used to swipe onions from the local lads allotments to make onion soup with at the loft while he was skiving off school!
He does not follow “fashionable” breeds, family names do not really bother him. His birds are a mixture of Soontjens, Van Den Bosche, Busschaerts, Germain Imbrechts, and one or two others all crossed in together. Best to best, no matter what the breeds are! No Fads or theories are followed either, he re-iterated again, just best to best! Ian feels the best birds you can get are gifts. He recalled when he reported a stray belonging to a fancier in Liverpool. They made friends, and the Liverpudlian gifted Ian 4 youngsters, of Ron Williamson Busschaert lines. These turned out to be the best pigeons he has ever had!
The self made lofts are spacious and set up well in my opinion. Particularly liked the ventilation extractor units! Ian feels these are an added bonus with the hawks, as since he put them in he has no bother around the loft with them! Ian keeps a race team of 24 widowhood cocks, and 40-50 youngsters on the Darkness system. The birds are kept on a health program. Every four weeks he treats for either cocci, canker, or respiratory.
When asked what he looked for in his birds, he replied the only “selection” process he has is a points system for his young birds. The first 10 birds back to the loft are graded with 10 points for being first back, down to 1 point for being 10th back. At the end of the season the birds with the most points are the ones transferred to the old bird race team.
His advice for novices is not to listen to too many people as you can easily be taken off track, which he feels is what happened to him in the early days! Also, you must learn by your mistakes.
Within the sport, Ian admires John Soderlund, a phenomenal fancier who has not only been winning Feds & Combines since Ian was a lad, he’s been supplying them as well!
The saddest moment in Ian’s racing career so far has been losing his good Blue & White Cock “Steady as Anything!” at a comeback Melton Mowbray. This Ron Williamson Busschaert had a load of prizes to his credit inclusive of winning Le Ferte Bernard 480 miles. He was sent to Melton Mowbray instead of the Bourges race.
His best moment was actually winning Le Ferte Bernard with “Steady As Anything!” Ian says he loves everything to do with pigeons, and loves all the racing. But to get one from the channel racing is a great feeling, a feeling of having achieved something special. The birds have to be “Spot on” to get them, and he feels it’s a better feeling of achievement.
When asked for his hopes and aspirations, he said he wants what everyone up here wants, to top the UNC. He said he would absolutely love to top it!
He feels that one of the more disappointing aspects of racing pigeons is there is too much back stabbing in the sport. There are too many in it just for the money, we should all try to make the game more friendlier.
On a lighter note, he recalls a funny story from a few years back. Ian had been working on a house, and they had been throwing out some old patio furniture. Ian seized the opportunity and brought the stuff up to the gardens. He set it up outside his friends loft, table, chairs, parasol. He put up a blackboard with a menu saying today’s special - onion soup, etc, hung a bunch of onions from the side, had pans and everything, it looked a fast food stall. When his friend came to the garden his face was a picture!
Ian has plenty club & Fed turns to his credit, but I was more taken by his UNC results.
38th UNC Maidstone YB National, 17,762 birds.
69th UNC Lillers 1, 20,591 birds.
57th UNC Folkestone 2 OB National, 17,24 birds.
99th UNC Andrezel, 4,687 birds.
147th & 162nd UNC Clermont, 11,585 birds.
56th UNC Le Ferte Bernard, 5,427 birds.
169th UNC Clermont, 11,444 birds.
A couple of things you don't usually see, that I observed at Ian's fine array of self built lofts, is the look-out tower, (cracking idea!) and a weather vein in the shape of an aeroplane. This weather vein was made by someone that was in a prisoner of war camp. Its showing its age now, but I thought it was great!
Time flew past yet again, and it was great cracking on about the birds! Ian introduced us to his brother Thomas, who has a loft of the most beautiful fancy pigeons that I’ve ever seen, situated just behind Ian’s racing loft. I’ve posted the photo’s of these in the photo section, please have a look!
Thanks for the hospitality Ian, we really enjoyed it. We hope that the “Silksworth Six” do you a bit good! Looking forward to the fancy youngsters coming from Thomas!
All the best………
Davey B..........AKA Dicky Darky
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