July news letter

July, 2000

E-mail answers
E-mail addressed the issue of the Swifts ability to rear it's young's? and could they coexist harmoniously with other breeds of pigeons?
As you select for show quality you tend to do away with many wild qualities that are essential for survival. The true show Swifts (which are not present in the USA) must have foster parents, since they are frail with very miniature beaks. Strong flying birds and longer beaks are capable of rearing their young's. Nonetheless I have to boost some of the bolks because of the lack of interest to feed specially while the male is driving the hen. This could be taken care of by locking the pair with the youngsters during that period. All true Safis must have foster parents from day one. If a Safi feeds at all, it is of less quality Safi and that is proportionate to the length of time he is capable of feeding.
This well lead us to the second part of keeping other birds along with the Swifts. Many in Egypt Keep Rollers and Homers. I keep Homers to gauge the speed of my birds while flying. Either one is great foster parents
Spelling Mistakes
The word skinny is misspelled as skiney. I have used it in several occasions to describe how thin the beak really is. It will be corrected as soon as I run into it..
Racing The Swifts
I haven't received any response from any party showing some interest of joining the Swifts race. Does that mean that no one is flying these birds in North America but me!. If you happen to know of any body who think his birds could make it back from at least 15 miles, please make him aware of this unofficial contest.
The idea is to build a nucleus of class birds with flying ability to lessen the number of imported birds and to make them available for those who interested in the two qualities for of course less money. Who knows we might start exporting back to Egypt!
My trip to Egypt
Will cover that next time