The name Hitchcock Racing Pigeons formally known as Mr. & Mrs. Hitchcock & Sons is known for the top long distance performances achieved since starting in 1997. The lofts of Hitchcock Racing Pigeons are based in Windsor (South East England). In the short time we have been racing we soon began to establish a team of strong, hard long distance pigeons, which led to the successful results achieved. After the hugely successful season in 2004 winning the 1st BICC National Pau (only bird in UK on day) & 4th National flying club Dax we decided to stop racing for a few years due to having very little time to spend with the birds because of work commitments.
I begun racing again in 2020 with the aim of producing top long distance pigeons to compete at the highest level both Nationally and Internationally at 500 miles plus.
The Stock Loft
The stock loft measures 8ft x 6ft , we currently use the german style up and over breeding boxes which are located on the back wall about 20 inches off the ground, the stock loft floor is wooden with grills which are approx. 5 inch off the ground this ensures that the birds do not have access to any waste product which we believe dramatically reduces the risk of spreading disease.
The health and condition of our pigeons is very important to us and has a direct impact upon the quality of the birds we produce.
Dropping samples and swabs from our stock pigeons are sent off to the Veterinary Clinic every four months to ensure our birds are in top breeding condition and we are not missing anything. These results are stored on our file at the clinic so that we have a full medical health inventory of our stock birds.
Our stock pigeons are vaccinated each season in October against Paramyxovirus to ensure our birds have a good immunity against this deadly virus. As part of the preparation before the breeding season the stock are also treated with Onespot on the back of the neck once a year this will delouse and deworm them for a twelve month period. We use paratyphoid treatment in the water once a year before the breeding season and the stock birds are also cankered at the beginning, halfway through and at the end of the breeding season.
The stock birds are fed on Bamfords Breed & Wean.
Bloodlines
Before considering returning to racing we completed a lot of research in to current racing results, bloodlines & ancestry for many of the current modern day top racers. The strains selected are without doubt the finest long distance racing pigeons in the world today. The strains include Our Old Janssen Van Den Bosch, Padfield Bros & newly introduced Jan Hooyman bloodlines. To make available the superb team of pigeons we have today a huge amount of effort has been put in to acquiring the stock pigeons, for the purpose of establishing a quality stock team which we can work with and continually breed from to ensure the correct type and body build is maintained throughout the family.
We have also introduced some of the world famous Jos Van Limpt De Klak pigeons with the aim to maintain these irreplaceable bloodlines.
Racing Loft
We are able to house up to 16 pairs of old birds, which will be raced on the Widowhood system. The old birds are fed Versal Laga superstar plus corn mixed 50% with Versal Laga black label Gerry Plus.
We breed about 20-30 Young birds each year for the race team and these are flown on the natural system.
The young birds are kept on deep litter and are only cleaned out once after a few weeks of being weaned and are then not cleaned out until the end of the racing season we believe this helps build a natural immunity and keeps the loft dry. We do not train our young birds hard as we use the club races to train our birds which start at 80 miles.
The young birds are fed the same as the old birds.
Supplement’s
“THE HITCHCOCK’S RECORD THE ONLY BIRD IN THE UK ON THE DAY”
Mr & Mrs Hitchcock & Sons won this race with a pigeon called “LADY HELEN”, 1st Open BICC Pau and the only bird home on the day in Great Britain. The brilliant performance was put up by a 2 year old blue hen bred from a cock from Terry Hudson’s De Klaks (Borgman Bros) and a hen from Geoff Gilbert which is a pure Geoff Cooper. This hen bred Geoff the “NARROW COCK” which was 1st open L&SECC Pau, 10th Open NFC Pau, 2nd BICC Dax. Geoff kindly loaned us this hen and has bred some really good pigeons. One of our ambitions was to time a good pigeon on the day from pau and it has now come true.
Lady Becky
4th Open National flying club Dax 516 birds
2nd Entente Belge Internat Hens Dax 2,644 birds
23rd Entente Belge Internat Dax 17,526 birds
Bred & Raced by Mr & Mrs Hitchcock & Sons.
Lady Helen
1st National Pau
33rd Colombe Joyeus Internat Hens Pau 1,544 birds
629th Colmbe Joyeus Internat Pau 7,270 birds
Bred & Raced by Mr & Mrs Hitchcock & Sons