by Zeljko Fajdetic
1. How long have you had pigeons and in particular Tipplers? Why Tipplers?
I breed pigeons since the age of 11 and Tipplers from 1978. Tippler fascinated me as a teenager with its long and endurance flight, so when in one brochure was written that they fly between 14-17 hrs and good fanciers can train them for over 19 hrs, that was amazing-almost impossible to believe.
2. How did you acquire your Tipplers and from whom?
First Tipplers I bought in 1978 in Zemun(from Marjan Ugarkovic,Bode Arsenovic and Sava Maksimovic)they had at that time Tipplers from John Cullen from Bristol, UK, later I had Tipplers from Vlado Bunoza and Petar Kolak who had originals such as famous 1013/63 NTU and 1030/63 NTU that flew in 1964 18:42 and in 1965 18:37.(Both Lovatts-copy of their original diplomas included-MY REMARK) Later in 1981 I got some from Alfred Limen- Dorsren, three pairs of Tipplers, who had at that time result of 18:49 and later 19:31.
I was at Harry Shannon in 2000 in the Northern Ireland- Lisburn, and bought from his breeding stock 4 Tipplers, blue badge 255/92,Grizzle 10406/94,Blue 220/96 and Silver 2390/00,from Bowden I bough one hen and from Eric Anslow one pair of Tipplers.
In 2003 I was in Birmingham and bought from Paul Bowden one cock, three Tipplers from McDonalds and two Tipplers from Camplin.
3. How big is your loft and how many pairs do you breed from? What is the method by which you breed? Best to best, line bred, family bred etc.
In my breeding stock I have 16 pairs, I put together/mating in principle proven fliers(best to best-MY REMARK) and from originals NTU Tipplers I do line-crossings with two back crosses(grandparents/parents with their grandchildren)
4. How do you settle your youngsters and method of training once they are settled?
That is my hardest lesson, how to loose as minimum as possible of young birds during their adaptation period, I put them glue-band 6 feathers during that period on one wing only for about 7-10 days, when they get adjusted to work with droppers on the aviary/exit I release them to fly but one after the other and very hungry.
5. Do you fly in competition or do you fly for personal pleasure? Explain reason for either answer.
I fly mostly for the competitions, I can be proud to say that in the last three yrs there was no single attack from predators to my flying kits, therefore I checked all possible combinations, I train separately Boden’s line and separately Shannon’s line, with whom both I’m very satisfied, they fly fantastically into the night for a few hours without splitting (when they are well trained-I’m referring to Old Birds) young birds know to fly over night without landing and therefore I decided not to compete with Young birds. Old birds I train in the separate boxes each third day for about 4-5 hrs of flight with diet food and for total of 15-17 flights they are ready for a COMPETITION (aprox.45-55 days)
6. What grains do you use in training and in feed up. What determines your selection?
I use mostly Belgian food for fliers from company Versele-Laga (diet, super-diet, ogmw, king pearls and liege special) of which I modify a little bit in accordance with the weather and phase of training.
7. Do you feel the clubs and members do enough to encourage beginners to the sport? Any suggestions?
Clubs can and must be better involved but it depends of the individual, I myself did a lot of effort to get new Tipplermen into sport but seems that people love animals much less.
8. Any comments or suggestions to improve the sport in general?
When there are competitions and training flights to invite as many people as possible to get their attention and interest, although if they don’t have heart and desire it is hard from such man to make a good fancier, you have to be born for it, something have to lead to toward such love to pigeon sport!
9. Any other information on Tipplers that you would like to provide?
I am quite active on the Internet since 1998 and did a lot of articles in order to promote and spread interests of Tipplermen around the Globe, therefore I got a lot of mails with greetings and regards! See my page> www.golubovi.hr
10. Top three tips from your experience with Tipplers.
Tipplers must be hungry most of the time rather than fully fed, second advice is that with training and droppers you have to be very rigorous as mistake are in the fancier and the third advice is that tipplers should never be landed without droppers!
11. Can you tell us more about your club HTS?
My Club STK (Sport Tippler Club-MY REMARK) “Crikvenica” is on the Adriatic Coast Croatia-Mediterranean and it has 14 members. It is a club-member of HTS (Croatian Tippler Society-MY REMARK) with its 7 clubs or about 60 members, while Tipplering in this area goes far back to year 1933!
Translation from Croatian to English:
David Strossmayer-TLV,Israel on Jan 31st,2005.
All underlined text is David’s remarks for the whole purpose of better understanding of the original.