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18th May 2015
John Jeffery
Federation Secretary CCF
Dear John,
I am writing to you today regarding a number matters that had been brought to our
attention through the federation committee, delegates and members which I hope
to provide further facts to close out the presumption which have been circulating to
be factual information.
Drinkers are too small
This issue had been raised on many occasions which was investigated by request of
the federation.
As an estimate, between 2 baskets of pigeons, average of 50 pigeons stands 2 litres
of water. At any stage, I have not experienced the pigeons drinking even half of the
water that is in the drinkers.
Speculations say that the pigeons can’t reach down below half of the drinkers so they
won’t be able to drink. This is incorrect as at times, as I am starting fill up the
drinkers they are already drinking from the bottom of the drinkers.
On Friday night basketing, the drinkers are filled up in the morning.
Thursday night basketing, the drinkers are filled up in the morning and topped up
throughout the day. 3 to 4 times to be precise.
On Friday night basketing, I have found <10% of the pigeons drink, as to Thursday
night basketing, 50% drink in the morning then 95 - 99% after feeding which shows
majority of the pigeons will look for water after feed.
Over the years, I had trialled slowly pouring, making a lot of noise when pouring and
even making a pole with holes in them so the pigeons can see a shower of water
coming down into the drinkers however, one thing we cannot do is force the pigeons
to drink.
We could have a swimming pool next to the pigeon and if they do not want to drink,
then we cannot do anything about it.
All we can do is to show the pigeons where the water is to the best of our ability,
then it’s all up to the pigeons to drink for themselves.
Rain curtains should be out all the time
The overhead curtains were installed as part of protection of the pigeons on rainy
conditions.
As the material of the curtains are made to keep water away from the truck and the
birds.
Utilising these overhead curtains as a heat barrier can cause more harm than good to
the pigeons as they MAY hold heat however, they do make the area dark, trap
humidity and deprive them of the all-important fresh air and sun.
Pigeons perform better on cooler conditions. When you let your birds out in the
heat, they do not fly, as to cold, they work the sky down.
Pigeons breed in summer (heat) and may causing the birds to switch off from racing.
At 1st Culburra, I had taken some measurements for your information as requested
from centre of the truck vs outside.
On arrival 1:30am Sides closed
Outside temp
13.1⁰C
Outside Humidity
45.6%
Inside trailer temp
12.9⁰C
Inside Humidity
45.4%
At 5:30am prior fully opening curtains (part opened)
Outside temp
12.2⁰C
Outside Humidity
82.1%
Inside trailer temp
14.5⁰C
Inside Humidity
87.4%
Inside trailer temp
14.6⁰C
Inside Humidity
77.0%
Inside trailer temp
17.7⁰C
Inside Humidity
60.2%
At 7:30am Curtains fully opened
Outside temp
13.0⁰C
Outside Humidity
75.9%
At 10:30am Curtains fully opened
Outside temp
16.7⁰C
Outside Humidity
59.1%
At every race point, due to the area required we are in an open field which are
subjected to stronger wind. The wind varies majority of the times. We take this into
consideration when finally settling on a spot for liberation pointing the truck in such
way to protect the pigeons from the wind.
Should the truck be parked as an example East to West and we have a Westerly wind
blowing, the curtains would make a corridor for the wind to pass through and block
out the all-important sun. I would much prefer not having the curtains down so the
sun is available at all times.
Once the truck is parked and water had been provided for the pigeons, the truck will
not move until after the liberation.
Also, we must take into consideration that at certain race points the truck can only
be parked a certain way to guarantee a safe liberation of the pigeons.
Exhaust is gassing my pigeons
There are number of trucks on the road which has the black exhaust marking on top
corners of the trailers. Majority, if not all of these trucks have a shorter exhaust stack
and pointing to the sides.
The CCF truck’s exhaust stacks are higher and points to the sky. This was done so, so
that the exhaust can be passed over the top of the truck.
I have driven next to the truck on the move and at stand still after concerns raised
which shows that the exhaust does in fact passes over the truck and does not enter
inside the trailer.
Also, there are no visible black exhaust markings on any part of our trailer. We do
avoid washing this area to see if there are markings appearing.
Apart from this, we have taken measurements from the CO metres which showed
the air inside was as clean as the outside. We had also incorporated 2 canaries in the
trailer as requested by the membership.
OH&S
Throughout the off-season, the federation has incorporated a new part into the
OH&S protocol being the safety harness.
We are aware that the OH&S is in place to prevent accidents and also is required by
Workcover to provide a safe working environment.
Whilst preventing accidental falls from working on high place which we are under the
limit, I have found the harness to have further hazards and practically issues:
1. When feeding and watering, we are pushed for time. This will prohibit
mobility to perform task at hand.
2. We need to climb up to attach the harness onto the safety point.
3. When cutting the seals, the cord can get caught onto the face of the basket,
prematurely releasing the pigeons.
4. Would require longer period of time to push out any pigeons that does not
want to leave the basket on liberation if they were in the top 7 rows of the
baskets.
I would like to kindly request that in cases of any further implementation of such,
could we would be consulted so that we can work together on practicality and any
hazardous issues that we may bring forward.
We are not against ideas, however, when decisions are being made without any
knowledge of how we perform our duties, this makes our job at hand much more
difficult.
On closing, I would like to assure the federation and their members that as an
employee of the federation and in charge of the liberation, the driver and myself
have and still do take the job seriously.
7 years ago, I had applied to this role with intensions of improving the care of
pigeons from loading up to liberation.
My intensions have not changed.
We have no reason to falsely provide information to suit as our priority is the pigeons
on board.
Should we notice any issues such as the matters raised above, we would be also
raising our concerns to prevent any implications to the safety of the pigeons.
There are a lot of factors and variables that needs to be taken into consideration in
this role and we hope that the federation and their members trust the team to
perform these duties to the best of our abilities.
Yours in sports
John Oh