# Using old AU bands



## Ambrose (Nov 8, 2003)

Is it taboo to use old AU bands as extras. I decided to join a racing club this this year although I have had homers off and on through out the years I have never raced. A friend gave me some good birds . I have 4 pairs to start with . I bought 20 bands to start with, but I have about 20 "92" bands that a fella gave me years ago. Maybe I'm cheap but I hate to throw them away


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## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

If you use the old bands you won't be able to fly those birds as young birds because the birds have to have bands from the current year to be flown as a YB.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Ambrose said:


> Is it taboo to use old AU bands as extras. I decided to join a racing club this this year although I have had homers off and on through out the years I have never raced. A friend gave me some good birds . I have 4 pairs to start with . I bought 20 bands to start with, but I have about 20 "92" bands that a fella gave me years ago. Maybe I'm cheap but I hate to throw them away


Throw them away or at least DON'T put them on your birds. If you put one of these bands on your birds and it gets lost, no one will ever be able to trace that band back to you. Band your birds correctly with the correct year band.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Annnnd since they are sort of old, maybe a band collector will be interested in buying or trading those bands for current ones? You never know


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

Hi Ambrose, Well I have use old bands but the ones that I use are only a year or two old and can be traced back to me. I only use them on late hatches that I feel will be to young to go to the young bird races. I do know of a well known flyer that used bands from 1945 thru 1960 I know that he use them so any lost birds could not be traced back to him. His name in the local combine was LE CHEAPO.  .GEORGE


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## Ambrose (Nov 8, 2003)

Thanks for all your imput. I do have an ebay account I've never used it maybe nows the time to try it out.If that doesn't work I Guess just toss them.Hey does anybody want to buy some 92 bands!

Thanks Bruce


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Ambrose said:


> Thanks for all your imput. I do have an ebay account I've never used it maybe nows the time to try it out.If that doesn't work I Guess just toss them.Hey does anybody want to buy some 92 bands!
> 
> Thanks Bruce


Bruce,

There is a nice group of fellows from all over the world who collect pigeon rings (bands). I'll bet some of them would be interested in these bands for their collection. They are a Yahoogroups group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pigeonringcollectors/

It's a very small group and not terribly active, so you might just want to join them for a little while and see if anyone is interested.

Terry


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

We have a young man on our site that collects old bands i will look up his name and let you know. birdboy12 is his handle try sending him a PM .GEORGE


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## Ambrose (Nov 8, 2003)

Thanks Terry I Quickly checked out the site. I can,t believe there is a chat room for pigeon bands! I did see an add for a pigeon band display case on ebay. I might just start collecting them for the heck of it. I haven't decided. I haven't had a lot of time to really spend time on the computer but will try to soon. sorry for my delay of getting back to your reply. 
Bruce


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## Ambrose (Nov 8, 2003)

Thanks george for the birdboy2 contact .

Bruce


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## KO Loft (Jul 1, 2007)

*question for racers*

Not on topic but was curious if this still happens but several years ago certain lofts were accused of racing birds that were improperly banded. Guy used to always ask for our unused bands even after season and other lofts swear his birds were older than others young birds.


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## ohiogsp (Feb 24, 2006)

I know it can be done. I don't know how but I know a guy who rebanded a YB that the band had broke on. I don't know if there would be a advantage to banding a yearling as a yb. It seems to me ob races are usually slower than yb races. I could be wrong? I like pigeon racing too much to ever try something like this besides being a low down piece of scum it could get you banned from the AU and that means no more pigeon racing.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

*From The 911 Pigeon Alert Point Of View ..*

Yes, you are unethical at best to be banding newborns with old bands. You send us (911 Pigeon Alert) on a totally wild goose chase when your "babies" are found wearing bands that are a year or more old .. not to mention that we really can't trace these bands. If you are so cheap and/or hard up to buy the proper bands for your birds, then perhaps you shouldn't be in the "sport" to begin with .. JMO ..

Terry


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

TAWhatley said:


> Yes, you are unethical at best to be banding newborns with old bands. You send us (911 Pigeon Alert) on a totally wild goose chase when your "babies" are found wearing bands that are a year or more old .. not to mention that we really can't trace these bands. If you are so cheap and/or hard up to buy the proper bands for your birds, then perhaps you shouldn't be in the "sport" to begin with .. JMO ..
> 
> Terry


Easy Terry...Easy! 

I know where you're coming from, believe me, but I think this was purely a question out of ignorance rather than trying to beat the system or anything.

The bottom line is that pigeon bands are really very cheap, especially if you only have a few. The problem comes from knowing where to get them. You can get bands through most of the major pigeon supply companies or through the AU, IF or Canadian Racing Pigeon Union. If you need more info just drop us a message and I am sure several of us could help.

Dan


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

ohiogsp said:


> I know it can be done. I don't know how but I know a guy who rebanded a YB that the band had broke on. I don't know if there would be a advantage to banding a yearling as a yb. It seems to me ob races are usually slower than yb races. I could be wrong? I like pigeon racing too much to ever try something like this besides being a low down piece of scum it could get you banned from the AU and that means no more pigeon racing.


You can not reband a mature bird with a seamlees band. Yes you can split the band and band the bird. BUT the club should catch that.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

re lee said:


> You can not reband a mature bird with a seamlees band. Yes you can split the band and band the bird. BUT the club should catch that.


RE LEE.........that's what I thought!! It would seem impossible to do this without injuring the bird's leg and toes.
I think someone was pulling OHIO's leg........ 
Now the "splitting the band" I can see that happening and it really depends on how much attention the people basketing the birds are paying to what they are doing. 
We regularly call out a wrong band number every once in a while when we are banding, just to make sure the person reading the clock is doing their job.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

learning said:


> Easy Terry...Easy!
> 
> I know where you're coming from, believe me, but I think this was purely a question out of ignorance rather than trying to beat the system or anything.
> 
> Dan


 Sorry .. got a bit carried away there, didn't I? 

Terry


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## ohiogsp (Feb 24, 2006)

re lee said:


> You can not reband a mature bird with a seamlees band. Yes you can split the band and band the bird. BUT the club should catch that.


Just because you don't think it can be done don't mean it can't. Not really something I want to go into detail about here. PM me if you want.


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## KO Loft (Jul 1, 2007)

*re improper banding*

LOL i want to stress our loft never did that as we never wanted to damage our loft's reputation as it took a long time to earn. What i was asking though was not that they would splice bands but rather that they would ask us if we had extra bands from AU, even if they were from previous years. They always said they were collectors but what made us wonder were older bands were "already in their collection". With lost birds we kept track of bands so If we got call for lost bird and it was for band we gave away we gave them the last known new contact number. We always wondered though if they were banding lets say 08 birds with 07 or 06 bands to race those new birds in old bird races in a couple of years. One club member made comment the older birds were looking younger from some lofts. 

Asking more for curiousity as never will race without the K part of KO loft.


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## Ambrose (Nov 8, 2003)

*AU Bands*

Boy I Guess I really struck a nerve. Please let me assure you all I do not intend to use those bands. maybe this question needed to be raised. Maybe it was out of ignorance I ask it. Yes cheating in any way is unethical I totally agree

Bruce


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

TAWhatley said:


> Yes, you are unethical at best to be banding newborns with old bands. You send us (911 Pigeon Alert) on a totally wild goose chase when your "babies" are found wearing bands that are a year or more old .. not to mention that we really can't trace these bands. If you are so cheap and/or hard up to buy the proper bands for your birds, then perhaps you shouldn't be in the "sport" to begin with .. JMO ..
> 
> Terry


Hey....now I don't care what anyone says...this is funny !  

So, Ambrose....you now know that such activity will not win you a bunch of accolades for your being "thrifty". So invest a few dollars and purchase bands that will be assigned to you, so if a bird becomes lost, it can be traced back to you !! Part of your responsibility to the rest of the pigeon community, is to insure that a lost bird can be traced back to you. Terry is correct, in that a lot of people's time would be wasted trying to locate the owner of a lost bird, when an old out of date band is used. Walk in their shoes for a day or two making all kinds of calls, only to trace a 2008 hatched bird, back to a 1992 owner, who has been dead for ten years !! That is no laughing matter !! 

So, be responsible, and do the right thing. And use your "gift" for thrift, somewhere else ! Now Git R Done.....


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## Ambrose (Nov 8, 2003)

*Au bands*



SmithFamilyLoft said:


> Hey....now I don't care what anyone says...this is funny !
> 
> So, Ambrose....you now know that such activity will not win you a bunch of accolades for your being "thrifty". So invest a few dollars and purchase bands that will be assigned to you, so if a bird becomes lost, it can be traced back to you !! Part of your responsibility to the rest of the pigeon community, is to insure that a lost bird can be traced back to you. Terry is correct, in that a lot of people's time would be wasted trying to locate the owner of a lost bird, when an old out of date band is used. Walk in their shoes for a day or two making all kinds of calls, only to trace a 2008 hatched bird, back to a 1992 owner, who has been dead for ten years !! That is no laughing matter !!
> 
> So, be responsible, and do the right thing. And use your "gift" for thrift, somewhere else ! Now Git R Done.....


 Thanks Warren well said, Bruce


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## SmithFamilyLoft (Nov 22, 2004)

Well....having said all that, perhaps I should clarify. I sometimes do use old bands myself...but, they are my own "vanity" bands which I haved used only on some of my own home grown highfliers, which are of course never taken away from the loft and released. If one should still become lost, the bands can be traced back to me.


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