Colin Bidwell

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THE FEDERATION WESTERLY PROFILE

Fancier – Colin Bidwell

This month I travel the shortest distance from home to meet up with one of the fairly new pigeon keepers to the show scene. Although Colin (commonly known to all his friends in Bristol as ‘The Old aged pensioner’) has been around pigeons all of his life it is only fairly recent that he has shown an interest in showing and this because he cannot fly his birds without the fear of the hawk taking them. Colin will be 70 next year and was born in Bristol, he got married to Marlene in 1980 and between them they have 13 children, 4 boys and 9 girls aged between 30 and 44 – They also have 26 grandchildren aged between 5 and 23) and 4 great grandchildren. None of them have shown a real interest in pigeons although George one of his grandchildren does enjoy shooting and rabbiting and talks about the birds when he visits Colin. Before retiring Colin was a long distance Lorry Distance Truck Driver and travelled all over Europe and he has more than a tale or two about his days as a Truck Driver but he realised it was a young mans game and aged 50 he went to work for the local council driving a 32 tonne roll on/roll off lorry. Colin has three brothers and a sister who he unfortunately lost to the dreaded ‘C’ when she was 60. Although his brothers have no interest in pigeons his youngest brother Roger does keep Canaries. Colin has two dogs Buck an 8 year old Alsatian and Shady a 10-year-old Border Collie. Colin and Marlene do enjoy their holidays having eight weeks away last year and thankfully he does have his son in law Stan to look after the birds and the dogs when they are away. When I asked Colin does he have any other hobbies why was I not surprised when he mentioned his beloved car a Mercedes E300 Turbo Diesel – This car is Colin’s Pride and Joy and as most of their holidays involve driving and as Marlene is a semi invalid we just wouldn’t be without it, it is something we both enjoy. Besides his car he does enjoy reading and as he put it to me he has very little time left with such a big family for anything else.

A. I was born and raised in Bristol in fact the only time I can remember not living in Bristol was when I was evacuated during the war and that was only up the road to Bath. Talking of the war Colin mentioned his father who was a POW having been injured at Dunkirk and was imprisoned in Stalag 17 – His Father died three years after the end of the war from stomach cancer due to lack of food in the POW camp. Colin wouldn’t mind going to live in the Isle of White but because of the family ties he said this would be impractible.

A. I have had pigeons since I was a boy aged about eight they were only strret pigeons, which I kept in an old tea chest. I can remember feeding them Pearl Barley because of the corn shortage and we used to go down the mill where we were allowed to sweep up the spillage. The war years then intervened and it was when I left school that I purchased some High Flying Tipplers I can remember paying 2/- (that’s two shillings or 10p in new money) for each bird. I stayed with Tipplers till I was in my late twenties early thirties when I started keeping the beautiful West of England Flying Tumbler basically for flying I can remember having about 90 black balds flying around and that was a real sight to behold. It wasn’t until I bumped into Trevor Dryden, who I knew from many years ago that he mentioned why didn’t I go into showing this made a lot of sense as I was loosing a lot of birds to the hawk, but I must say my first love is flying the birds which I still do today but not on the same scale and definitely not from what I call my stock loft which is where I keep what I consider my best birds.

A. At present I have 64 birds the lowest number of birds I have kept for a very long time and once the youngsters have finished moulting I will be cutting them down even further. I have nearly all the colours but my favourite still remains the black bald I think there is something striking about the black and white together. I have had the best breeding season for quality that I have ever had and a lot of this is down to advise I have received from Trevor Dryden, John Keepin and yourself Dave.

A. I have two lofts – the first one I call my stock loft which is split into two sections and the one I use for breeding in it is 22 foot by 6 foot with two small outside flights which the birds seem to love. One is a recent addition made up for me by my son in law Stan. The other is where I keep my odds and sods and is 16 foot x 5 foot with a walk through aviary the same size, it does need some repair work done as it is now over 20 years old.

Q. What do you look for in a good West?

A. I am new to the show scene and although I like a bird to look and handle correctly size is not as important to me as a lot of other fanciers. The one thing I do like and again it’s visual and not important for showing I do like to see a clean headed bird and as perfectly marked as possible. – I have birds that are 10-12 years old and I am still able to breed from them but I think you can all guess by now I am still very much a flying man and although I very much enjoy going to the shows to see the birds winning is not paramount to me. I also enjoy the great company.

Q. Tips for novices?

A. Once again being new I can only pass on the tips given to me by Trevor, John and Dave and that is once you have established your food mix then stick with it. If you introduce new birds into the loft then make sure you quarantine it before letting it loose with your own birds and medicate once you suspect something is wrong with the bird and if it shows no sign of responding within 3-4 days then destroy. There are of course the obvious like clean food and water every day and purchase birds from a reputable breeder.

Q. What are your future aims?

A. Sorry to say this Dave but my main future aim is to beat you but in general to carry on enjoying my birds as I have done for the last 50/60 years. I do enjoy just looking at the West and visiting other people’s lofts, I think that’s why I enjoy the shows so much is seeing the birds and meeting the people. I have had the best breeding season so far for quality so maybe my attitude will change with a few wins under my belt

A. As a fancier that enjoys flying his birds I am very sad to see the demise of the flying Tippler I can remember days in Bristol when you could look up in the sky’s and see 15/20 kits of birds flying around and today absolutely none. I think we all know that we need some new blood into the showing scene but where it comes from I am afraid I just do not know. I think the West is still very well supported and the specialist flying breed clubs work hard to keep the numbers at the shows up. Well done to all those associated with these clubs.

Q. Are there any people you would like to thank?

A. I would like to thank all those that have been helpful in establishing my stud and the very useful advice received especially those that I have mentioned above. I have known Trevor for 25/30 years and along with John Keepin and Yourself Dave you have all been very forthcoming with help and advice.

I enjoyed going around to see Colin and putting together his profile I hope you have all enjoyed it as much. Colin I am sure could talk for England and win a prize he is such a character full of stories. Everything is in full swing to get the show up and running at Pucklechurch and all club members can expect to receive their show schedule in due course. Anyone else wanting to know more about the Federation then please do not hesitate to contact me.