The best system for the care of our pigeons is one that requires the least amount of work while still giving us top results or perhaps even improving the results you have been previously getting that required more work.

For those of you that read my writings, it should be clear that I have some severe health problems so to compensate I am constantly looking for some methods to improve the daily workload with my birds. Naturally my wife will tell you that she has become that new improvement as although the pigeons are my sport, she comes to the loft each day upon completing her full time job and helps me with the birds. Actually, she is doing a big share of the daily feeding and watering and this is a great help. She is a real blessing to me!

Each year as we move our babies into their section it is a real project to observe all of them to spot any that have sleepy eyes from dehydrating so being a former engineer this put my mind to spinning for some solutions. Having an active mind can sometimes be a curse as many of my good friends have told me that if I stopped thinking about new twists and just followed all the time tested methods, it is their opinion that I would be on top more often. So what does this have to do with this article??

While observing the babies I had some of my breathing equipment in the loft so when I have a respiratory attack I can treat myself without trying to stumble up to my home to get started with a treatment. Then the thought hit me that why don't I use the air pump that is there to make the water bubble? It sounded good to me and then I tried it and all the little guys soon found their way to the water fountain so this portion was a great success. AND THEN I BEGAN THINKING DEEPER:

It didn't take too long to realize that streams that are moving do not build algae but dormant streams will soon build green slime and I would also think a higher bacteria count. I also began thinking about the streams back in Wisconsin where I would go to hunt deer and again realized that fast moving streams did not freeze in the winter time so my thoughts went towards the question if aerated water would make it easier to keep water from freezing in the winter time. Fortunately, the freezing part is over for my wife and I as we moved to Florida several years in the past so evaporation is a bigger problem for us but for those that are still fighting the elements, perhaps aerating your water can make your life a little easier and no heaters may be the trade-off and this could perhaps save someone from having their loft catch fire.

So now the big question as how to do this! This is a simple matter and I soon realized I was not the first to have thoughts about aerating water as any pet supply business should have aquarium pumps and the hose and such to make it all function so off to a large discount store I went to buy what I needed. The cost was very cheap as the air pump was about $6 US and the hose was about $1.50 and the little stones that help keep the airline in place was about another dollar or so for two of them. Only the price limits what you want to purchase as there are very powerful pumps but they will cost more money.

My initial aeration machine was more powerful but it created more bubbling noise so that was good. The problem came in as sometimes it would create so many air bubbles that the floor would get dampened so there is always things that must be considered but it is my belief that this will be a valuable tool and that soon many lofts will begin aerating their water.

In conclusion, I always ask that if I try something, will it hurt the performance of the birds. If I think it may, then I don't try that experiment but have no fear, I am always thinking so there will always be plenty of experiments for me to try. If it won't hurt anything, then why not try it as any slight improvement should move us closer to the top of the race results. The better we get, the more difficult it becomes to make big improvements but for those that are always near the bottom, a big improvement is easier for them to achieve.

Back to the conclusion: It is my belief that the water will not contaminate any faster than it did by being in a dormant stage and I suspect it will remain better for a much longer time. Only time will prove this one way or the other. It also helps the baby birds to find the water easily and the final thing that I feel will really help is to keep medications in suspense when we are administering them. If you have ever medicated, certainly you have witnessed where some of the medication settles to the bottom of the water fountain. Since I have been doing this, the bottom of my water fountains stay cleaner without the usual sediment collecting at the bottom. This alone may improve the ability of the medicine to fight any problems. Only time will tell for sure but for the few dollars that it takes to set up a section, I can see no way that it will not be a constant part of my watering system.

If you're still not certain that this is a sound practice, then go by the town square where they have a fountain or fish pond and you will see they have been doing this for EVER. I don't think they are doing this because they want to spend money on something that does not improve the quality of the water.

Bob Rowland
SpringHill, Florida 34610 USA