Introduction to Paul Walsh Loft  30 years of WINNING

In the earlier days, the need was clear to me, I needed produce my own family, using the quality birds from gifted champion fanciers only, and  to introduce occasional birds to strengthen the strain without losing the original bloodlines.

30 years ago when I started racing Pigeons, I put  the emphasis on strains/families of racing pigeons in the USA, I was to develop pigeons that raced well in the 500 & 600 mile  old bird races and the 400 mile young bird futurities. I under stood then same as I understand now  If you want to become a champion, buy from CHAMPION BLOODSTOCK it is the only way! There is no other way 

My family of birds originated from  champion flyer's and breeder's from Bristol Pa, the Philadelphia area.  One of these great fanciers  then moved to Scranton Pa., Patsy DePietro.  I trained with DePietro for a number of years and was his student for all of them. Many a winner I had, was a result of DePietro's blood. Patsy introduced me to Fats Schofield where I acquired from him some breeders I was also introduced to New-year loft at that time who was the premiere long distance and futurity King of all time in the Philadelphia area. His loft won every Futurity offered to him to fly. Fats and DePietro also had New-year loft birds. Today New-year blood runs strong in many of my present day champions   Around  the same time period ,Frank Gable who was a champion long distance champion  in the Scranton Pennsylvania area and was getting out of birds. Frank gave me his top two foundation birds . who were responsible for many long distance wins for him, This is the basis for my family and they will win from 100 to 600 to this day and score in the futurity races across the USA.  These birds I have developed into my own strain that is as good as anyone's best and I have the wins and the Race records to prove it.

Patsy DePietro's family of pigeons many of which were direct from Fats Schofield  excelled at races from 100-600

The Schofields excelled in the 500 & 600 mile old bird races, but were even more successful at the 300 and 400 mile Young Bird futurities. Fats believed that young bird futurity races were crucial in his evaluation of his breeding program. Fats also had more of a European mindset in keeping his family competitive.  If good birds were available to improve performance, they were added without regard to "strain". Fats produced a family of pigeons that was unique in that it was competitive in a large geographical area of the United States and performed well with many different handlers. The fact that Fat’s family of pigeons was able to adapt to the different handlers and conditions in the young bird futurity races in different areas of the country and Win is a strong testament to there Quality.  

The blending of these families of birds is the basis of the Walsh family of birds. The present day Walsh Pigeons  mature fast enough to compete  and win as young birds and are still dominate at all distances in old birds. It does not matter if its a slow race with a head wind  or a fast race with tail wind my birds will be with in striking  range for the win of the race.  In 2008 my #417 wins the 500 for Walsh. These birds love to fly and will fly at will for hours at a time in the heat of the day.

I have continued to select my family of pigeons based on the principals taught to me by Patsy and Fats. While It has been tempting to vary the family in order to pander to fads and fancies of the times I have stayed the course and continued to apply the same selection pressure on the family to develop a family of honest hard working no nonsense competitors that are able win and reproduce themselves in the stock loft. To day they are all Walsh pigeons, an interwoven and specialist family of birds winning for Walsh and across the USA.

Most fanciers go wrong when they get caught up in the mass marketing hype of the time and throw away years of work for an unknown. They see in the pigeon publications, auction sites a new fad or marketing scheme developing, which talks of winning, and decide that they must have these birds.  

I will bring in a bird in the same way as Fat’s did. Two that I brought in recently are Torin  & Molly . Their blood has been added to the family but only after they were proven competitors, and through breeding and testing of there children it was determined that they were an asset to the family. My experience is that, most of the time when you bring in a bird it does not work out.  It is only with attention to detail and hard work that you can breed better family of birds.  I am proof that if a fellow goes to the top flyers and pays attention to his advice and gets some of his very best birds he will get to the top of the race sheet.

"I have a rule here at Walsh Loft. Breeders are for breeding and flyers are for flying. I do not ask my flyers to become my breeders, even the race winners," I to inbreed for stock and outcross for flying. As a rule, I do not put just any bird in the breeding loft. It must be a champion or a daughter or a son of a champion and much thought must go into the process of placing a bird into the breeding loft. A one or two times combine winner does not make my breeding loft. I have always maintained of keeping together successful pairs at the end of the year I will take the time to and try a new mate . In the flying loft I will let two birds mate the way they like and may or may not take a pair of youngsters off them.  Many times I get calls for birds of a certain strain, when these guys call I think to my self they are lost in this sport,  and I will recite a story about Ad Schaerlaeckens, the famed Dutch flyer and author. "When asked 'What strain do you have?' Schaerlaeckens says the champions in Holland and Belgium do not understand. What does this man want, a strain or a good bird? This is because the majority of the super birds in Europe are products of crossing." I am a small team flyer, I do not have large race teams, every week this team was competing against odds of members with many more birds on there old bird team then myself, I  believed in sending quality  birds to a race instead of quantity.  . The simple principle of genetics.  HEREDITY IS HANDED DOWN FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT.  LIKES BREED LIKES. and you see this in Walsh Birds. So there is no need for you to be left behind , you become a Wanna Be or spend the nest ten years saying I  . COULD OF, SHOULD OF, WOULD OF But:

Make Today The Very First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life in this Pigeon Sport

You should start off with pigeons that can and will put you on top of the race sheet and at Walsh loft we have them!