Racing Birds - Wheezing and Sneezing Pigeons Treatment

The use of Eucalyptus in our racing birds diet

For the last two weeks we have witnessed freezing temperatures and it seems that weather is not gonna improve much with another week of rain on the way. I am drinking my coffee on a remote quiet pub in London while i am writing these lines and the only thing that reminds me of the good warm sunny days are the electric heaters installed above my table.

It is not cold outside but very wet as it has been raining throughout the night . Every time it rains and i am enjoying my weekends in England it reminds me of an very good friend that used to race his birds not so long ago in a London based club with about forty club members. His racing team was formed of twelve cocks raced on the widowhood system.

All the races took part on the inland and as loft positioning he had the furthest distance from the release point in all races. Week in week out he would compete with his racing team achieving very good results : countless 2nd,3rd,4th,5th prizes on his club where most of the fanciers would race their pigeons on the widowhood system. After a while a sort of dissapointment and frustration feeling settled in the heart of my good friend as he could not win the first prize no matter

how hard he would try. We used to sit down together waiting for his birds to return from the races in the hope that one day one of his birds will win the first prize. He would phone me each time after he would get the results and his birds would always be there but never on the first place.

Everytime i would visit my friend and have a cup of coffee together studying his birds i could hear a constant sound,

his birds were sneezing, no matter the weather outside. Although i have previously suggested that this will be an obstacle

in winning the first prize and the air ventilation within the loft might be the cause, he would always reply that the loft

has been Standard made and he has treated his birds against respiratory diseases. The second week his birds scored 3rd ,4th and 9th on a 200 mile race, and then i reminded him once more:

-Your birds are good but you have to improve the loft, and this time he agreed.

I have previously said it that humidity is an enemy to our birds health and as we can all see and feel in England we have

lots of it. With a very little investment and a little bit of work my friend improved his loft as follows .

- the lower ventilation window was kept to only 1 inch opened ( almost shut)

His top widowhood boxes situated on the opposite side of the front openings were having a gap of 4 inch between them and the ceiling ,this gap was filled on the back with net wire to stop the rodents for coming inside the loft .

So the air circulation inside the loft was present BUT wrongly done.

Now the air came inside the loft through the low and high level openings from the front wall and continued its way out

through the openings situated on top of the nest boxes on the back wall, and here was the problem which i have explained it to him .The air circulation was present but on the way out MUST NOT HIT THE BIRDS IN THEIR NOSES. The solution was a very simple one, all he had to do was to install a 1 meter wide continuous thin plywood attached to the top of the nest boxes towards the middle of the loft and the length of it was for the entire back wall. The distance between the plywood installed and the ceiling was kept at 10 cm .

Now the air came inside the loft and continued his way out at the high level but 1 meter away from the birds noses, between the plywood installed and the loft`s ceiling. The next thing i suggested my friend to do was to lift the entire loft at 50 cm from the ground level so the air that circulates inside his loft will not be loaded with so much moisture.

With these modifications made to the loft i have advised my friend not to race his birds the following week but only the

week after, and he did followed my advice. After two weeks he send his birds on a 250 miles race and later that day he

phoned me to let me know about his result. All i can say is that the conversation was not a dialog but rather a monolog and it was a very happy one.

I can see myself picking up the phone and listen to my friend " I have won", "I am first", and this kept for quite a while.

I was really happy for my friend ,he eventually managed to win the first prize although he had the longest distance from the release point on each race. What we can easily deduct from here is that the air circulation MUST be present in the loft but not through the birds noses. The balance and the calm in the loft came to its place and there was no more sneezing in my friend`s loft.

It is good to know that respiratory diseases in pigeons does not necessary means watery droppings ,other signs or

manifestation may also include; breathing with the open beak ,wheezing ,sneezing ,less desire to exercise .

lack in performances in the racing season, mucus in the throat, etc. An excellent natural product that we can use to prevent and treat respiratory diseases are Eucalyptus leaves, green or dried ones.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a tree that originates from Australia. It can reach up to 60 meters in hight and we can find it today in

other countries as well like:

New Zeeland, Alger, Russia, Spain, Portugal and southern regions of France.

In our pigeons diet we can use the leaves of this tree for tea preparation.

The benefits of using this plant are :

Excellent support for respiratory system.

Kills bacterias.

Kills fungies.

Eliminates worms.

Used with great success in treating catarrh.

Dosage:

1-2 times per week ,1 sachet per 1 litre of water. When preparing the tea always we can add a tablespoon of honey bee at every 1 litre of tea and serve it to our pigeons. We can find eucalyptus tea in supermarkets and natural remedies

specialized shops. Where this tea has never been offered to our birds half of the dosage is recommended for the first

two weeks and than we can gradually increase it to the recommended quantity .When making a tea for our birds the green leaves are always to be prefered as these have the most active nourishing substances .Because now we are in full winter we can use the dried version of these leaves. When we buy these teas from supermarkets they will come in a prepackaged version or sachets, while if we preffer to harvest these plants ourselves, the right dosage would be the quantity comprised between three fingers or 1 tablespoon per 1 litre of water.

Everybody can make a tea right? I mean, how hard can it be? ... we put the plants in the water ,we let the water to boil for

15-20 minutes and it is done right? ...WRONG. When we prepare a tea we must always follow a very simple straight forward formula which will ensure that all the nutrients released from the plant will have the effect we would expect on our birds. The way we must always prepare a tea is by bringing the water at the boiling point ( a kettle should work just fine) ,

empty the water in a recipient and then we will need to add the plants. When we prepare a tea from green plants we will

need to let the plants in the water for 1 minute, while if we are to prepare a tea from dried plants the maximum period of

time the plants may be left in the water is two minutes. After these little periods of time we can strain the content ,let it

cool and then offer it to our birds.

To ensure that we have prepared the right tea for our birds we must always look at the color of the tea we are making after it has been strained . This color should always and always be light in color: light green ,light yellow, light grey.

An extended boiling period of time (15-20 minutes) will eliminate almost all the beneficial effect of the plants and as a

consequence, what we will be left with will be just boiled stuff with an insignificant beneficial effect for our birds,

nothing else. After we have ensured that every bird has been drinking our prepared tea we must always empty the drinkers as these teas will turn dark in color which means that they have lost their properties. Tea preparation and drinking has been taken to the level of art in some countries.

We do not need to do that for our birds but we need to make sure that we follow the right preparation formula if we are to

experience the best results for our birds. So this is in a nutshell is the right way to prepare a tea for our pigeons from

green and dried plants .

I am gonna wrap up here ,i hope you enjoyed reading these lines and find them useful ,till next time i wish you

" All the best."

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