Competitions
If you want to participate in competitions the Tipplers have to wear approved and closed foot bracelets.
Four days before the competition I let my Tipplers (the older ones) fly for ten hours if possible. The following three days they are resting. The build-up of the older Tipplers starts five days before the competition. Because I only fly with females I have to watch closely that they don´t lay any eggs, for a female that has laid eggs doesn´t want to fly anymore. With young pigeons I start the build-up seven days before the competition.
My competition feed consists of oil-containing seeds as wells as cat cubes and grated cheese.
One hour before starting I put on the light in the pigeonry to wake up the pigeons. Then the referee reads the foot bracelets. If the weather plays along I start at the given time. But because according to the Flying rules you can start until one hour after starting time I very often start 15-20 minutes later and can then only hope on a “good flight”.
The referee is a big problem. Who will nowadays offer himself to watch pigeons fly from sunrise to sunset? If you have the huge luck of having a pigeon friend living in your neighbourhood you can claim yourself fortunate. There is also the possibility to fly without a referee, but such flights are of course not taken into the official evaluation, but rather show the breeder how efficient his Tipplers are.
