Interview with Mr. Stoicescu Gheorghe, from Azuga, FCPR Prahova - Highlights
17:01, Joi, 13.05.2010
Interview with Mr. Stoicescu Gheorghe, from Azuga, FCPR Prahova
- Highlights -
RRP: Is it true tha you are really passionate about one loft races?
G. Stoicescu: Noticing that I’m loosing a large number of pigeons around the house due to hawk attack, I considered trying something else and put my birds in different conditions. The results I achieved in one loft races gave me the opportunity to check the quality of my pigeons, thus identifying those birds that worthwhile still breeding from. 2001 was my first year to enter pigeons to “Balkanic Fair Play” One Loft Race in Targoviste, owned by Liviu and Bibi Stefanescu. Starting with 2010, my intention is to send pigeons to South Africa One Loft Race, then to a competitive One Loft Race in Hungary, and maybe to all One Loft Races across Romania. Given the harsh mountain conditions in my area, out of 100 youngsters, about 10 birds make it through the end of the racing season. Most of them are cut to pieces by the hawks, while some of them get lost during races. Tha raptors kill yearly about 75% of my pigeons, especially youngsters. 2009 was a good year for me, but it was partially by chance. Why am I saying that? Well, in February 2009, the ferret killed me 80 YB’s. At the end of two nights of attacks, I was left only with 4 babies: one of them was sitting in a corner inside the racers’ loft, while the other three were in the breders’ section. I shipped these 4 youngsters to Mr. Liviu Stefanescu’s One Loft Race. They were so small they couldn’t even eat by themselves. One of them started to pick small grains and I told Bibi Stefanescu “That baby is going to be a champion”, which indeed happened. At that moment I was thinking that I had to win given the great losses.
RRP: What’s the size of the pigeons you like?
G. Stoicescu: I’d rather go for a medium size. Otherwise the pigeons can’t make it here, around this mountain region that I live in. If the pigeons aren’t fast enough, they won’t live too much. They can’t compare with the pigeons living in flat areas of land. In my case, when the youngsters take off, I’m able to see them only when they get back or being chased by hawks, that is more than 1-2 hours on the wing. Around here, the pigeons don’t circle the loft because my house is all surrounded by mountains. Let me give you one more example: back when I was having my old loft, I used to wait for the pigeons coming back from a race with a stick in my hand. You might be wondering why. Well, that’s because my pigeons were homing with the hawk on their tail. The pigeon was trapping straight in, while I was chasing the hawk away with that stick. So you can imagine the harsh conditions I have to face here. More than once I was holding a sacrifice pigeon ready to be released whenever one of my racing birds was ready to land. The reason was to distract the raptor’s attention. I often kicked the hawk with the stick in order to cast it away from the landing board and save my pigeon. However, I lost some of my best pigeons on their returning home, caught by the hawk right in front of my eyes.
RRP: What piece of advice would you pass to a young man who is just getting started with pigeons?
G. Stoicescu: Whoever wants to become competitive should buy eggs from serious and top fanciers, who won’t lie you through their teeth. Mr. Nicu Bizdrigheanu once told me that “the moment you start scoring good results with your pigeons, you become the greatest enemy of your competitors”. Let me state here and now that I, Stoicescu Gheorghe, lost some of my friends because of the results I achieved with my pigeons. And this is happening all across Romania. There’s a whole lot of money spent on pigeons brought from overseas and people want good results by all means. But things aren’t always as they seem.
Translated by Andrei – Silviu Oprea
