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The B Family Oddity

As you know, I have been around pigeons virtually all my life and, during that time, I have seen many strange things involving the sport of racing pigeons.  However, I don’t think that I have seen anything quite as odd as the youngsters out of my pigeons from Pete Lorenz family, which I refer to as the B family.  The strange events that I am about to describe must have almost certainly been passed down from Ed Lorenz’s lone daughter of Pete’s Hit Pair as she is the only pigeon that is common throughout my B Family.

It all started, about two years ago when I bought a son from Ed's hen, which is now known as the Emperor.  As he was only a yearling when I brought him home, I decided to place him in an individual section so that he could get used to the surroundings without the older cocks would not beat him up.   However, when I placed him on the shelf in the individual section, he truned around a slapped me with his wing and pecked me! This was after an eight hour drive in a shipping box. Now some readers might think that maybe this was Ed’s pet, but in fact, when I asked Ed, he said that he had only handled the pigeon three or four times in its life.

The Emperor
– Evaluating which finger he is going to eat first!


"92 Hen" - Currently Mate to the Emperor
  (Daughter from the Old ’92 Cock and
the daughter of the Hit Pair).
– As you can see, more trouble on the way!!!

I decided to mate this pigeon to the "92 Hen", which is a half sister to the Emperor. I raised two two youngsters from this pair, and from the beginning they were a little strange in that they did everything together including riding around on the tops of my shoes while I walked through the loft.  After a while this got a bit annoying, so I sent them to my partner thinking that because he doesn’t have as much time to spend with his pigeons, these youngsters might get over this strange behavior. However, the next year I raised three more children out of this same basic bloodline, and with pretty much the same results.

 

The Pharaoh (Right) and
Sheba (mother to the three youngsters sent to Kevin)

 

These three youngsters did everything together.  If one stood on my shoe, they all did.  If one flew out into the aviary, they all did.  If one flew up to the top nest box they all did.  It was actually sort of a pattern, first the shoes, and then as they got older it was the constant trips in and out of the aviary.  As they got still older, they agressively dominated the top nests.  They seem to have no fear of humans.

Obviously, in order to have a B family, these pigeons are pretty important to that end. They have excellent physical attributes and they have been quite successful.  Children and grandchildren from the Hit Pair have dominated Southern California’s San Fernando Valley Club (FVC) for at least the last 12 years.  These pigeons have flown all distances with great success.  One of the base hens in this family was called the 700 mile hen because she was one of eight day birds from the 700 mile station. Although I don't keep track of such things, ther can't be too many of those! As you can see in the pictures, the B family is primairly composed of red and blue check slates and these beautiful pigeons have founded several lofts in the Southern California area.

Recently, I raised six inbred youngsters from these pairs, and there are more on the way.  Now I do not want to complain because these are excellent pigeons, but their behavios is very unusual to say the least! They are into everything. They climb up the back of my shirt and fly up to my shoulder. They are constantly standing on my shoes and pulling my shoelaces lose. I really have to watch where I step because they are always under foot, and what one does, they all do!

I told several fanciers about these strange events, but I am sure they think I am nuts.  It told my wife about it, but she already believes I am nuts, so that got no response either.  Up until today, the only person that believed me was my youngest son Jake.  The reason that Jake believes me is that while I was recently over in California, he fed the pigeons while I was away. During that period he got into several fights with the Emperor while he was putting feed in his feed dish.

The Emperor
– Doesn’t know my son Jake from a piece of corn

Today, I was all excited because it was my first chance to look at the overall development of my latest round of approximately 20 youngsters.  However, while in the process of looking at the youngsters housed in this section, the “Infamous Six” came running over to pick at my shoe laces, climb on top of my shoes, and pull on my pants.  They don’t just sort of do this; instead, it is a frantic about it, and it can only be described as strange.

It was so strange in fact that I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I went into the house to get my camera.  While in the house, I told my oldest son Nick about it, and of course he didn’t believe me either.  When he said that he wanted to see it for himself, I asked him to wait about five minutes before he came outside.  My reasoning in asking him to wait was that I was already concerned that the camera might thwart their strange behavior. Ha!!!  Was I wrong about that!  As you will see in the upcoming pictures, they are budding Hollywood stars, and they fell all over themselves to look as foolish as possible!

 

The Dictator (son of the “92 Hen”)
Currently mated to a daughter of the “92 Hen”
– Father of two of the Reds in this story

Now my sons have never taken any real interest in the pigeons, and as a result, it is a rare event for either one of them to visit the loft, so when my son came out to have a look, I was not sure how they would react, especially since he had a bright red shirt on.  At first, he couldn’t believe it.  Then he suggested that it might have something to do with my shoes.  Since he was wearing sandles, I told him to put his foot on the plywood portion of the floor, which he did.  Although they continued to stand on my shoe, they stopped to evaluate this new development.  Within about 15 seconds, they jumped off my shoes and a couple of them walked over and started pecking his feet.  Within about 40 seconds, they had all run over to peck at his feet.  Now, realize that they have never seen him before!  Also be aware that there are 20 youngsters in the section, but these six are the only ones to even come close to exhibiting this behavior. The rest are standing ove along the walls well out of reach.
 

These feet were made for Pecking and
that’s just what we’ll do…

 

Hey guys, come on up, there is plenty of room!

In the following picture, you will see four red check slates, one blue check slate, and a blue check white flight, which are all from the three pairs mentioned earlier.  Interestingly, blue check white flight is always the slowest of the cousins to respond.  While she will eventually join in, she is more shy than the rest.

 

Pigeon Worship!

When I am talking frantic, I really am talking frantic!!!  Remember there are at least 15 other pigeons in this section, but it is only these cousins that act this way!

 

 

Bold Ruler (Full brother to the Emperor)
Currently mated to Blue Lady (Inbred Daughter of Ed’s champion “The Mealy Cock”).

 

The one with his head through the loop in my
shoelace is playing “King-of-the-Hill” with the one
on the left that he just knocked off my shoe.

Toward the end of young birds last year, I sent three of these pigeons to Kevin Tapply in Colorado.  They were all blue check slates, and they did eveything together. To be honest, they were driving me nuts, so I though it would be fun to see Kevin could settle and fly them. They were pretty old and I though it might be difficult to get them settled, but Kevin was interested in racing them, so we gave it a try. 

I told Kevin what to expect, and like everyone else, I think he thought I was a little nuts.  Or at least he thought that until he received the pigeons!  Right off he called me and said, “Well you are right they do everything together. They don't seem afraid of anything, but the sure like to look around.”  A week later he told me, “You know, they are just smarter than the rest of the pigeons.  I watched one peck at a hook hanging from an eye-screw the other day.  Once he realized that it would swing, he got it going and kept it up for 15 minutes.”  A week or two later, Kevin told me, “You know, if I could only keep three pigeons, I can tell you now it would be those three pigeons, they are just so dammed entertaining! They seem to have a calming effect on the other pigeons." Over time, I have kind of noticed this too. I guess it is hard for other pigeons to be wild when these are riding around on your shoe.

To be honest, at one point I forgot that I has sent the original youngsters to my partner.  A while back, I was telling him, about the Emperor attacking my son over the food dish.  He said, “You know I have a pigeon that does that every time I try to feed him too!  He then said, “You know, I think the pigeon is from you.”  Since he happened to be at the house at the time, he went out and checked on the pigeon’s band number, and sure enough it was one of those two original youngsters that used to ride around on my feet!

If you are wondering what these pigeons are like when they get older, well that is unusual too. They are bigger than the pigeons in my A Family, but they handle like baloons. When they are in shape they weigh nothing. They are down from the original Horemans and two Janssens from Campbell Strange and Virginia Kruft respectively. Unlike the A Family they tend to have the bigger Janssen head. They are certainly one of the prettiest pigeons I have seen.

All I keep thinking about is how these pigeons would react on a widowhood cock system!

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