Stan Ogozalek / 23 Oct 2004 18:49

I must admit that the 'Books' were helpful to me in the beginning. You must
remember that I had no pigeon keeping knowledge back then in the early 70's
and have just a little bit more at present. The articles that my good
friend, the late Jack Prescott, wrote and had published in the old American
Pigeon Journal were of help to me also. I'd wait and hope that each monthly
issue had one of his writings in it with more tippler knowledge. There were
but a few fanciers that would pass the knowledge along to newcomers back
then in this area.

I grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, the 'downtown' section where there
were many 'pigeon coops' on the rooftops or in the backyards. Walking down
either Grove street or Henderson street in the afternoons or on the
week-ends, you could count the stocks of pigeons flying in the neighborhood.
Not anymore.

At that time, the fanciers flew 'mixed stocks' of pigeons. 'Mixed stocks'
are just any type of flying pigeon that appealed to the fancier and flew as
a 'stock', we didn't refer to them as kits back then. The fanciers usually
bought those birds from the two pigeon stores in Hoboken, NJ, Frank's or
Neal's for either fifty cents or a buck. The rooftop 'coops' were about the
size of large type packing crates and some of them were just that. Those box
type coops housed too many pigeons for their size and weren't ventilated
very well. They smelled like you know what and were dusty, etc. You were
lucky if the landlord allowed you to put a 'coop' up on the rooftop, many
didn't. In the Metro New York area, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut,
there were but a few genuine Flying Tippler fanciers. A few of them were in
Jersey City and flew the 'Canadians' as they were referred to then. Of
course, 'Canadians' were the tipplers that came from your area, Toronto,
many years ago. The fanciers didn't know the strain names and didn't care
either. They just flew their 'stocks' of 'Canadians', mostly prints and
grizzles, and were happy if they got a few hours from them. There was always
someone claiming that their stocks flew all night, etc. But when asked as to
when they released them, the answer was "sometime in the afternoon, but they
flew all night"! They fed them regular mixed feed, the cheapest that could
be had.........malted barley? "What the hell is Malted Barley"? Of course,
they didn't know and never used it!

because none of the stores had it. Like I said, there were very few

That's how it was.............

Friday 10/22/2004 8:01 PM

In response to what Gaz had to say about books on tippler training, etc.

Yeah, we read those books and they are good for beginners that have no one
to turn to for advice. Years ago, that was the case. One bought tipplers
from a fancier and once the money changed hands, you were out the door! Very
little in the way of advice came with the birds. Oh yeah, you just give the
birds some of this and some of that and you'll do fine! Nobody would tell
you more than that because they either didn't know more than that or that
they wanted to keep the info' all for themselves. There are some of us that
started with tipplers that didn't know which end of the bird picked up the
corn! Yes, that was me. I didn't know how or what to do with feeding,
housing and training the tipplers back then. And there are some that will
say that I still don't know.....maybe they're correct! In any case, books
are there for the newcomers to the sport to provide some kind of 'info'
where the fancier at least has an idea as to what to do. Unlike some areas
in the UK, where there are flyers within walking distance of each other's
loft, we here in the states are for the most part spread apart from each
other and rely on telephone calls and BOOKS, etc. So, we rely on books, etc.
But, nowadays, there are many good fanciers that will help the newcomer with
good sound advice, etc. The books (Flying Tippler Special Issues and other
old books) will be there for those that need and or want them.

Maybe our good friend....GAZ....will part with some of his vast knowledge on
training the tipplers????

Submitted by Stan Ogozalek on Saturday 10/23/2004 6:49 PM