The Vital Traces
Like any well made machine, everything depends on everything else functioning smoothly. If one part fails then it all fails, because every single part depends on another. The pundits claim that nobody - or nothing - is indispensable. Until they try putting their claims to the test, then they discover the truth. You can buy the finest blood stock, train it to the nth degree, then watch it fail to race because one simple thing has been forgotten or neglected. 

All the conditioning and training in the world will fail if the muscles cannot function properly, and their proper function depends - just like any machine on lubrication. No, not oil lubrication, but lubrication of the nerves that control the muscles, the nerves that make the muscles contract and relax, that make them flex into instant action at the lighting fast pulse from the brain. That pulse depends on "lubrication" or - to put it into a layman's language - the smoothing of the pathways between the brain and muscle nerve endings. 

And what sort of lubrication is that you ask ? Magnesium. A trace element found in the soil, absorbed into food and extracted from the food as a nutrient by the digestive system. If there is a shortage of it then the muscles fail to respond. They tremble instead of twitching into action, and they fold up like rubber dolls instead of becoming the powerful operating constituents of the body as intended. 

The old stock pigeon that cannot stand on his legs, but flops around the floor on his wing butts, as if he were afflicted by some dread malady, merely lacks a little magnesium in his system. Administer two or three of the white tablets of Elementals down his throat and within an hour he is back on his perch roaring his authority again. The hen, paralyzed as she tries to lay an egg, or even after she has done so, and cannot stand, suffers the same deficiency. Give her three Elementals and watch her recover, fast. That fast growing youngster that is too weak on his legs to hold his weight erect, same again. 

Then there is the other nerve failure, the hormone producer that ensures that everything else does its job, and it too is fuelled by a trace element, Iodine. Without a tiny smear of it, hardly big enough for you to see, you would be a driveling idiot, yet it is there in your Thyroid gland if you are functioning properly. The brown tablet in Elementals contains 1800 mcg of Iodine which enables the translation of nerve impulses to be interpreted within the body's systems. Both these trace elements are absolutely vital to the correct function of the body. Any body, man, animal, bird or mammal. The demand for both in a racing animal or bird is heavy, more so than in those leading stress free lives. Be sure your birds don't lack for them when they are called for. 

For Advancing Growth
No other pigeon diet powers the 'Big Moult' as efficiently as Golden Boost. It enables the birds to take the moult in their stride and grow better plumage texture. Nestlings fed on 'Boost' will usually outstrip in general growth and robustness those fed on grain alone by as much as days, they will also develop super-robustness. Be ready to ring nestlings earlier than the normal seven days if fed on it. The famous Golden Boost can be made by using "Fortified Calcium Concentrate".

All a fancier need do when he has obtained the "Fortified Calcium Concentrate" is to add it to coarse oatmeal, with a sugar/CLO syrup, and thoroughly mix it. This produces the exact equal of the fully-prepared and ready-to-feed Golden Boost as the "F.C.C." contains all the powerful ingredients of the 'Boost' diet, perfectly balanced with the full range of Vitamins and 19 different minerals and trace elements, a super-diet for racing pigeons. Alternatively, corn can be moistened by the administration of sugar/CLO syrup, or by using Ground Nut Oil, and then by adding the "F.C.C.". The surest way to perfect health is a perfect and scientifically balanced diet, as anyone trying this feed for a fortnight will discover. In bygone days fanciers used grain only, but in these enlightened times the advantages of using an engineered feeding supplement so far outweigh the dietary qualities of basic grain alone as to constitute an almost unfair lead over those who do not trouble to use modern methods. 

The Race Vitamin   
This is a powerful and speedy creator of 'racing form' in the shape of a special green tablet. Many a fancier, not convinced that his birds were running into true form, has expedited their development by putting them on a course of The Race Vitamin. A leaflet is supplied with this specific which gives full directions on how to apply The Race Vitamin for the best results. Many of the Fancy's top fliers use this world famous specific. It is also incorporated into the formula for Golden Boost. 

Multi-vitamins and Minerals
These multivitamins and minerals are a highly concentrated mixture especially formulated for animals and birds undergoing heavy demands on their physical and nervous systems, as experienced by racehorses, greyhounds and racing pigeons. They are also much favoured for breeding and young stock, and animals/birds undergoing convalescence. The formula is unique in it's combination, and is expressly designed to fulfill all the needs of a demanding existence, allowing the animal or bird to meet and surmount these demands without difficulty or strain. A very large number of race horse trainers and Stud owners in Europe, the USA and the Middle East use this same formula (under another name) to keep their charges in perfect health, and they too regard it as indispensable in helping to maintain a trouble free existence in their stock. Manna-Plus may be fed ad lib or may be dusted on feed previously coated with a thin film of Ground Nut Oil, a method highly recommended by Old Hand.

To fight the summer nightmare
Every fancier's summer nightmare is the sudden onset of the One Eye Cold. For something like 150 years they have argued about what actually causes this complaint, which is erroneously known as One Eye Cold - since it is not so much a cold as an infection of one of the pigeon's eyes, causing the surrounding tissues to fill with water. Even now fresh theories are being put forward, and as soon as one is aired, so it is 'shot down' and another 'cause' is discovered. The ailment is easily diagnosed, the 'bagginess' of the water filled tissue of the Cere and eyelids, and the multitude of tiny little air bubbles that are seen floating in the water gathering below the eye itself. If there are no bubbles then the ailment is not One Eye Cold! A number of fanciers - and I regret to say - of firms selling pigeon specifics, have claimed that it is caused by either a draught of cold air playing on the eye, or that it is a variety of respiratory trouble. 

So far my researches have shown that One Eye Cold is in fact caused by a deficiency in the bird's diet and, sometimes, in a bird's total inability to overcome a constitutional weakness which leads to the same thing. Believe it or not, one can have a situation in which only one bird in the loft appears to be suffering from an inadequate diet, when in its case the fault lies in a faulty digestive system. Keen investigators will discover that One Eye Cold as it is erroneously called, mainly prevails in the 'Big Moult' season, or towards its end. New Starters who experience cases of One Eye Cold should look immediately to the diet and try to discover which particular Vitamins and/or minerals are inadequately supplied. Our One Eye Cold specific is positive, especially if taken alongside Polyvene which is especially kind to the moult.

Load before firing!
The first thing you need to ensure is that the OBs you wish to train have completely recovered from the great strain of feeding YBs. Parent birds who have brought up a nest pair of YBs have expended as much energy as they would use in flying a 500 mile race. No matter how good the constitution of the parents, the drain of feeding YBs taxes them considerably. It is for this reason that all YBs are single reared, only one egg being allowed to hatch in each nest. If you are not completely satisfied that all the birds have recovered from feeding, put them on a course of Polyvene (two tablets, night & morning). Maintain this treatment until all are making huge quantities of bloom. Never try to train or race birds whose plumage is not loaded with bloom. You can't fire a gun that hasn't been loaded! 

When a finely tuned racing machine meets the stresses of action, it suffers setbacks. This occurs as much to an animal or bird as to a mechanical construction, and of course those setbacks always occur just at the time when such occurrences are least desirable, i.e. during the racing season, when one desires most of all to preserve a finely tuned edge. To meet this situation, fanciers clamoured for a safe and speedy restorative, something to meet and satisfy the good health and flagging energy needs of a tired, or 'off form' racer. 

"Old Hand" worked hard and long on this problem and finally came up with a restorative that gets to the seat of the cause of lost form, or flagging energy - Vitaminic deficiency - and he found that the most effect to be achieved was with Vitamins of the 'B' Complex which utilise the nutrients in diet, the fire fuel of the body, yet - oddly enough - the very Vitamins that couldn't be synthesised in the body. He named his formula Polvene. 

Polyvene contains a large store of Vitamin B2. It ousts the danger of polyneuritis, revives the system and restores the sharpness of nervous action quickly. If you have never tried it you are in for a pleasant surprise, both for it's speed of action and it's obvious benefits to a jaded racer. Belgian fanciers use a similar formula in 'Brewer's Yeast' but the handicap of this form of administration lies in the fact that a bird would have to eat two or three crops-full of food to ingest the amount contained in one tablet. However, it is of no use at all unless it is where you can lay hands on it quickly, when it is needed, so be prepared and have it standing by, in your medicine cupboard. It is the perfect pre-race booster and the ideal after-race restorer. 

Never exercise YBs with OBs. The latter will tend to slow the youngsters down, and drop them on to the loft too soon. YBs should fly for at least two hours and, when there is no East in the wind, they should range, or run out of sight, learning their country and its landmarks. Any new starter who tries to train his YBs before they have learned how to range must expect to suffer considerable losses. Start training YBs at 5 mls, then 10 mls, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40 mls. Toss them daily along the line-of-flight weather permitting, and feed them in on return. Lock them in then for the day, for rest is as important as exercise, in its proper place. 

Once the birds are undergoing daily training the home exercise period for that day should be discontinued. If it becomes necessary to abandon training YB for any reason for longer than 2/3 weeks, start the cycle over again, at 5mls on resumption. Make no effort to continue the programme from where you left off. Carry out the daily training schedule right through the race programme, for a single mid-week toss is useless, birds must work every day - and don't be too fussy about weather conditions, for birds can and will fly inmost of it. Only stop if there is really heavy rain of the torrential variety. OBs, on the contrary, need not be trained in the same fashion, for they learned their trade as youngsters and resent being torn off their nests every day for basketting. They need only two to three tosses per week, starting at 10 mls, 20, 40, 60, and up to 80 mls. After this start to the season, they should only need a toss at 100, 150 or 250 mls each week, weather permitting, up to the point 14 days before a 500/600 mile event. However, every one of these tosses must be single-up, never in batches. Locate liberators along the line of flight and employ them to toss the birds for you.

For treating 'Going Light'
Some fanciers mate up as early as late December, or early January, but the clever new starter will not consider pairing his birds for Spring breeding before February 14th, preferably not before March 14th. Remember, early mating means an early start to moulting, to the detriment of the wing just when the long races are coming along. What should be the new starter's best procedure at this time of the year is as follows:

All candidates for matings should be handled to ensure they are fit. There should be an abundance of 'bloom' on the feathers, clear and clean mouths, pink tongues, throats and slots (the slot in the roof of the mouth, which should be open, with no inflammation of the edges, and no mucous present). The wattles should be very white, with no stains or 'greasy' appearance. There must be no fret-marks on the feathering, large or small, and only birds that pass this 'medical examination' should be used for breeding purposes. The birds should be de-wormed - there are many wormers on the market - but I prefer the horse wormer "Eqvalan". Mix thoroughly one level teaspoon of the paste in a cupful of warm water, and add this to a 3-1/2 pint drinker, leaving it before the birds until it is all consumed. Don't allow the birds access to any other source of water, nor let them fly out whilst worming is in operation. 

After worming is over, give all the birds one White Sesqui tablet, thus ensuring the destruction of all Cocciocytes within their systems, and this will ensure freedom of the dreaded Going Light disease for the time being, at least. Clearing the Cocciocytes out of the OBs ensures that none is passed to their progeny during feeding. White Sesqui destroys all Cocci in the body within 15 minutes, Veterinary remedies like Amprol, Sulphadimidine, etc take up to five days to achieve the same degree of cleanliness. 

When this treatment has been effected it is time for another. Canker, and the remedy, usually Dimetridazole (though there are others, more expensive) should be used. Racing Pigeons, generally speaking only come into form once in a season, and that form usually lasts for a period of 2-3 weeks. It is therefore necessary for the new starter to stagger his matings, so that the birds do not tend to arrive in form all at the same time. Birds for longer distance racing should be delayed in going to nest, so that their form arrives when most needed, late in the season. Birds required for short distance racing, i.e. the early races, should be the first to be mated

Combat bad pecking habits!
It is a fact that no fancier has yet succeeded in teaching racing pigeons not to drink out of dirty house gutters, or from puddles. Racing pigeons also pick up poisonous and unclean items when pecking over ground, especially at that time when they are feeding YBs. Many of the items they peck up and swallow are pumped into the crops of their offspring, and it is not uncommon to hear from readers that their birds have eaten the green shoots of Hydrangia, Deadly Nightshade, Virginia Creeper, Ivy, Laburnum and any of a hundred more plants which can and do poison them and their nestlings. My practice is to shut my birds in the loft while they are breeding, apart from controlled exercise, until the YBs have been properly weaned, and not to allow any loafing about the garden at this crucial stage. It's the best way I know of avoiding trouble with breeders, better safe than sorry. 

Because racing pigeons can't resist pecking up harmful items, they can very quickly develop a sour crop which invariably proves to their detriment and that of their youngsters. Sour crop can be caused by a number of things, including the above, and Candida Albicans (A fungal ailment) is as big an offender as any. This condition can be diagnosed by looking into the opened beak, as traces of a white film can be seen lying alongside the slot in the upper mandible, and on the lower beak on either side of the tongue, similar in appearance to the film that one finds on one's teeth if they are not cleaned regularly. Although the indicated treatment for this complaint is the administration of one drop of "Nystan" daily for a week, we have found the charcoal in Sour Crop tablets to be highly beneficial in breaking the filmy deposits up and sloughing them off the crop wall. 

Breeding birds are regular sufferers from Sour Crop when - for any reason - they retain their crop milk and it goes sour. Other causes include bacterial infections, food retention, enteritis, poisoning, internal injury, scratching etc. As can be imagined, sour crop causes trouble in both directions, for the mouth and throat become inflamed, giving rise to the sort of condition that encourages the easy infection by secondary causes such as Canker, Pox, Cocci, Mycoplasmosis. Obviously, the digestion and extraction of nutrients from food is disastrously upset too. Diagnosis of Sour Crop is easy, for one only has to open the birds beak and sniff and the musty bad odour is unmistakable. Treatment is equally easy, by the administration of a Sour Crop tablet, three times a day (morning, noon and night) for two days, which soon sweetens the crop after cancelling the sourness. It should be noted that the use of yeasts and sugars can also be instrumental in creating the condition that cause sour crop, by permitting the basic layer of sticky surface necessary to hold foodstuffs and or foreign bodies in the crop, that actually cause the malady in the first instance. 

For Endurance
This famous herb Viola Tricolor has been known by the Ancients for hundreds of years. It is widely reputed to develop and ensupple the arteries and tissues of the heart, enabling them to function more efficiently and with greater strength and limitations. Followers of Old Hand will know the importance he attaches to this herb. Supplied in chopped leaf form with instructions to use on an average sized team of racing pigeons for some months. To be administered in the drinking water. It may also be taken by the fancier as an aperitif, laced into a glass of Sherry as an appetising tonic on a one-to-one (equal measure) basis. Good health!