John Tainty

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THE FEDERATION TIP TOP FANCIER

Fancier – John Tainty

A longer break than normal but some of this was due to the sad loss of Harry the other to the lack of enthusiasm of the Members part to put pen to paper. I would like to thank John for coming to the rescue or there would have been no profile for this month either.

John lives in the heart of England at Bromsgrove Worcestershire with his wife Joyce where they raised their two boys Paul and Christopher who are now both married and in their forties. Christopher has a daughter aged 4 and Paul has two girls aged 7 and 4 neither of the boys or anyone else in John’s family has any interest in pigeons. John has now retired but was a service engineer in the petroleum industry he was made redundant in 1992. A couple of part time jobs followed but after two years he finally finished work altogether. His spare time now goes into his pigeons and decorating the home and mowing the lawn as he puts it. John always has a tale or two to talk about around the shows so lets see how he does with the questions.

Q. How long have you lived in Bromsgrove?

A. I was actually born in Birmingham and moved to Bromsgrove in 1960 into a newly built house, which we still live in today.

A. I have kept pigeons since I was 14 starting with some tumblers, which I was keeping at the bottom of the garden. This lasted for about 6 years, which is when I started up with canaries but this only lasted a few years. I got very interested in coarse fishing and went to the local rivers and ponds. I continued with my fishing and often took the boys but after too many early mornings and long days with no fish gave that up as a bad idea. My interest in pigeons rekindled in 1981 when I started with a few Birmingham Rollers but in 1985 I changed to the Exhibition Tippler, which I still keep today.

Q. How many birds and in what colours do you keep?

A. I now have 30 birds all Tipplers in Prints, Mottles and Coloured. I am working on and would like to breed a brown print.

A. My breeding season is from February to June and this year I won’t be looking to breed that many youngsters probably something like 10.

A. Over the years I have constructed and altered my lofts and at present I have two lofts with an aviary. The lofts measure 16 ft x 8 ft and 7 ft x 5 ft.

A. One of the things I like in my pigeons is quality and width of feather but the bird must be well balanced and have a good eye and probably most important be the correct size (no to big).

A The most important thing I can say to any novice is take and your time and be sure which breed you want to keep and don’t rush to have a lot of birds, start off in a small way building up slowly that way you will enjoy your birds and they will not become a chore. The flying breeds give great pleasure but also bring troubles especially with hawks and other predators.

A. Pigeons have brought me a lot of pleasure over the years and I would like to continue to enjoy them for as long as I am able. I also enjoy the shows where I can meet and talk to some of the friends I have made over the years

A. Like everyone else I fear there is not enough new (young) people coming into the hobby. I would like to see more fanciers exhibiting at the summer shows to attract more people into the hobby.

A. I would like to mention the late Stan Savage who encouraged me when I started he was well known in the Bristol TTSS club for many years. My thanks also go to John Jones, Nigel Solly and Mike Horner and Tony Risi for his help and friendship.

Thanks again John for taking out the time to answer the dreaded questions. Things are now well under way in organising the summer/autumn show and I would like to thank everyone that has accepted to judge at the show, a full list will be published next month. Coming towards the end of the breeding season and I have had a mixed bag, by that I mean my fertility rate which normally improves after the first round has been very poor this year but I must say I am delighted with the quality of the youngsters that I have breed. I have put my problem down to the birds being too fit so I guess I shouldn’t complain. Birds well 30+ youngsters or birds unwell 80+ youngsters I know which I would prefer.