Pigeon strains

What is a pure strain of racing pigeon and can we as pigeon racers say
we have true strains.I remember back meny years ago that the
sion,stassert and bastin breed of racers were the main course in racing
pigeons.Now we have all these other strain of racers that over the years
I have come to know.Is one strain better than another or is it the
handler or breeder who brings only the best out of any strain of racing
pigeons.

Horaceoglesbee@web wrote:
> What is a pure strain of racing pigeon and can we as pigeon racers say
> we have true strains.I remember back meny years ago that the
> sion,stassert and bastin breed of racers were the main course in racing
> pigeons.Now we have all these other strain of racers that over the years
> I have come to know.Is one strain better than another or is it the
> handler or breeder who brings only the best out of any strain of racing
> pigeons.
>

Hi Horace,

I think you raise an interesting question. After all, all the various
breeds of domesticated pigeons (fancy, flying and utility) are all
really the same animal. They just have different recessive traits
emphasized in each breed.

My working definition of a strain (which I give mainly so I know we're
on the same page) is a group of pigeons related by close blood
relationships. For instance, if I take a daughter and mate it back to
the sire, the offspring will have 3/4 of the sire's traits whatever they
are. So a strain should basically be a group of pigeons which all have
a large proportion of the genes of one or two forebears. This is why
provable pedigrees are such an important thing.

I'm sure there is probably a geneticists' strict definition of what
constitutes a strain of pigeons. I would be interested to hear what
they say.

I think the most important point is that to some extent, saying that
you've got birds from a particular strain is asking for a lot of trust
from the person you're selling your birds to. After all, pedigrees can
be forged.

Just my $.02

--
Onorio