Desy Mccullough

I have been keeping tipplers since I was a young boy. Up until I was married.Then I went out of pigeons for some years. I went back into Tipplers in 2005 and started flying in competition in 2007. By this time most of the tipplers had changed so much in type that I decided to start my own family of tipplers and as I liked the old type of tippler the best I decided to start with the lovatt strain so I got some tipplers from Ashley Cresswell and Paul green and mixed them together as they both originated from lovatt strain of tipplers as I like something nice to look at in the pen I was breeding them for looks as well as flying. Later I tried some crosses with other strains but I didn't like the nature of those birds as they were very nervous and I personally don't think they were as intelligent as my lovatts so I got rid of them and just concentrated on my lovatts.

I think it is very important for people to remember that if you want to enjoy your tipplers that its about doing your own thing and keeping what you like. So many flyers are just obsessed about flying good times and don't care what the bird looks like but for me I enjoy breeding a bird that's nice to look at and that can fly a decent time as well even if it takes me a bit longer to get there for me its just part of the enjoyment of keeping tipplers.

For me I think anyone starting to keep tipplers should think about what it is that they want to achieve and have a idea in there head as to how they are going to achieve it and don't be in a rush just take there time and enjoy doing it. I think a lot of the time you just need to use a bit of common sense. A lot of people tend to cull there birds when something goes wrong but I find sometimes its the birds that have done something wrong but it's the flyers themselves. Most strains of tipplers are capable of flying decent times its just up to the flyer to find the best way to bring it out of them. Even in my own experience I have found that even birds that weren't good flyers they have produced some birds that have flown great times.

For example I have had one or two cock birds that just wouldn't fly any more than an hour but they were bred of good stock so I kept them for there blood lines and they both produced hens that flew 20hrs for me. So what I'm saying is if I had got rid of them I wouldn't have flown that time therefore I believe some tipplers are better producers than they are flyers I have also had birds that flew great time's and never produced anything that flew great time's but they in turn produced great flyers. I think whatever strain you decide to keep you need to study them and learn from them.

My best official time with old birds is 20hrs and young birds is 16hrs plus. I don't like to push young birds to hard so I don't worry about breaking records with them but if the weather is right and the youngsters are happy enough then I'l let them fly on.
When settling youngsters I don't like to break them down to soon after weaning them off. So when I take them away from there parents I place them in a section of of my loft with a hen dropper I also leave breed and wean and fresh water with them for a couple of days then once I'm happy that they are eating OK I place them in a cage on top of the loft were they will stay for a couple of weeks the first week in the cage I feed them just once a day on breed an wean then after the first week in the cage I change them on to malt barley for a week.

But every day just as I am about to feed them I release the droppers and start working them so as the youngsters associate the droppers with food At the end of the week they should have started to feel really Hungary.

So I will open the cage door and let them walk out then I start throwing a little barley about the loft roof to get the youngsters to chase it. I will do this for another week then I will start to feed them up a bit once I'm happy that they have been up flying around with the droppers a few times then I will release them one at a time with an old cock and let him take the young one around for about an hour once they have all done this then I put them all out together. If I settle them they will stay on the malt barley all through there training until I put them on a buildup. Once the youngsters are well settled I will then put them back into there compartment in the loft and start all over again with the next batch of youngsters.

D.Mccullough