On July 1, at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, 100,000 pigeons collected by the Beijing Carrier Pigeon Association spread their wings and flew, circled slightly, and then ran towards their homes.
When it comes to pigeons in Beijing, many people think of ornamental pigeons with bright feathers. However, in major festivals, most of the pigeons collected by the pigeon association from members are the carrier pigeons. They return to the nest faster and more accurately than ornamental pigeons.
In Beijing, there are not a few people who train carrier pigeons as "racing pigeons". The staff of the Dongcheng Pigeon Association said that more than 90% of the members of the association have participated in pigeon racing; in Fengtai, this proportion accounts for 70%.
"Raising pigeons is not a day, it's every day." Bai Sheng, who has nearly 20 years of pigeon breeding experience, said. In their world, the price of a pigeon can cost half a year's wage; in the morning, you must endure sleepiness, send the pigeons to dozens of kilometers away for training and then go to work; in the summer, after four or five hours in the loft, your clothes can be wrung out of the water.
When the love and obsession with pigeons grew stronger and the "pigeons" were aroused, these pigeon breeders found that they had stepped into a race with no suspension and no finish.
Li Meng's carrier pigeon. Photo by intern Lindi Xu
Touch the "gold ring"
More than 30 years ago, Fan Xuan was still living in the Qianmen Courtyard. There was a "whoosh-" pigeon whistle in the air, and he knew that the pigeon of the neighbor's uncle had returned, and the "love of family" character of the pigeon touched him. The sense of accomplishment in raising pigeons came quickly, and his pigeons flew back from Gu'an and won the admiration of many small ones.
Zhou Hai's pigeon breeding experience also has several decades. Both the uncle and his father loved pigeons, and he also fell in love with pigeon breeding. He saw that the pictorial newspaper said that the pigeons ate honey, so he took out his pocket money to buy the royal jelly and brushed it on the pigeon food, a thin layer. Pigeon's books and albums have been turned over, and chinese and mathematical books are still new. The teacher disciplined him after class: "Looking at you are listening to the lesson, I am actually thinking about how the little pigeon comes out of the shell, right?" ”
Fan Xuan's goal in raising carrier pigeons is to compete and compete in the championship. Many pigeon breeders have similar ideas to him. According to Yu Yue, a staff member of the Dongcheng Pigeon Association, more than 90% of the members of the association will participate in the race, and the rest of the fanciers are either "retired" or just starting fanciers. Some people also tie pigeons to pigeon whistles, just to listen to the melodious whistle when the carrier pigeons fly, "but only a small part".
Modern pigeon racing originated in Belgium and was introduced to China in the 1930s. At the end of the last century, the introduction of pigeon racing of European ancestry and international racing system promoted the transformation of racing from "far away" to "flying fast". In the early "speed race", the organizers sent the pigeons to the designated distance to be released, and after the pigeons arrived home, the owner scraped open the corresponding area and called for a "dark code", and the organizer calculated the speed according to the time of return home to get the results.
From the stuffy thinking to "playing the game", there is still a threshold. Fan Xuan, who was in his early twenties, began to gather around the "big guy" to "listen to the lesson": "A good pigeon is like a 'gold ring', first touch the gold ring, others can't cover you with a thimble." In order to increase his knowledge, he ran all over the auctions, not for the sake of bidding, but just wanted to get close and touch the pigeons and keep the "feel of the champion" in his mind.
When the "golden ring" was found from a group of Belgian breeding pigeons from a friend's family, Fan Xuan's monthly salary was 1800 yuan, and the breeding pigeon was 15000 yuan. He gritted his teeth, packed all his savings and embarked on his first pigeon racing journey.
On the day of the game, he stood in the courtyard waiting. A small black dot "brushed—" pierced over," without exaggeration, the legs and stomach a little hesitant. When Fan Xuan ran into the house, he dialed his friends one by one, and the expectation of the results spread over the excitement of the pigeons' homecoming - the pigeons of others had not yet returned.
When he rushed to the door of the organizer to report, there were five or six people lined up in front of him, and his confidence slowly climbed with the brigade lined up behind him, "It should be reliable, seventy or eighty people should be able to mix it." ”
The results were announced the next day, and Fan Xuan's pigeon won the 21st place. Fan Xuan, who was middle-aged, couldn't think of how to describe the "particularly good joy" of that day.
After the age of stunned youth, this joy has become more and more precious. "After the age of 30, few people praise you. But all of a sudden, you're holding the trophy, standing on the podium, and someone is applauding you at the bottom. Fan Xuan recalled, "I felt worthwhile." ”
Some of the trophies won by The Lee Meng pigeons. Photo by intern Lindi Xu
"More attentive than raising children"
"If you look at the pigeons, can they only divide the white gray?" In my eyes, pigeons are like people, and the decastals are different. Zhou Hai said that he picked up the little pigeon and looked at it carefully, groping for a while, and he could recognize his parents from a hundred pigeons, "eight or nine are not far from ten."
In the eyes of pigeon breeders, recognizing pigeons like recognizing people is not a superb technology. Li Meng walked into a pigeon shed in a small courtyard in Daxing and pointed to a few pigeons to open the conversation box. "It has won a championship in the race, next to its uncles and brothers, and in the lower left corner is its grandson..." The information of hundreds of pigeons has been entered into the information software by him, but Li Meng believes that his eyes and brain are more reliable than computer searches.
Knowing the pigeon's family tree is to grasp its pedigree. Pigeons with good pedigree have a greater chance of flying good results.
Pigeon breeding is not engaged in scientific research, there is no way to control variables in the laboratory, breeding pigeon pairing, pedigree continuation all rely on pigeon breeders year after year. A large body, a small body, how come out is not a medium size? It flies 300 kilometers the fastest, it is good at 600 kilometers, and the children who come out 500 kilometers fly well?
Whenever Zhou Hai stepped into the loft, these questions would flood into his mind. On three days, he moved a stool and sat in an unair-conditioned pigeon loft, facing a house of carrier pigeons, and conceived of breeding pigeon pairings, which were a few hours at a time's notice. The voice of his wife shouting for dinner was getting louder and louder, and he was responding with his mouth, and his heart was still calculating the appearance of the young pigeons. Zhou Hai said frankly: "If I use the heart of raising pigeons to raise my daughter, she will definitely be able to go to a good university." ”
The laws of the work are dead, the pigeons are alive, and uncertainty is precisely its charm. There are no arithmetic formulas and iron laws in breeding, parents are champions, and children's grades are not necessarily good; a pigeon of 10 million yuan may not necessarily win the championship. "If you throw more money at it, you must win, then what else is played?" Fan Xuan said.
The experience of rearing cannot be replicated either. The "top secret" pigeon food recipe and feeding schedule are not a winning trick. Whether it is downwind or headwind, flying 300 km or 500 km, the amount of pigeon food is different; the speed of the pigeons is fast and slow, this plus a handful of material, that minus a handful of barley, all rely on self-judgment.
"Pigeon breeders just enjoy the feeling of being a trader." More than ten years ago, Bai Sheng founded a media company specializing in the field of pigeon racing, witnessing the professionalization and industrialization of pigeon sports.
In his opinion, pigeon breeders are testing their ideas every day, advancing a large-scale experiment that has taken many years. "He looked at the pigeons, thinking back to a certain year and a certain month, Whether I did it right or wrong, I could not move for several hours."
"The pigeon breeding ratio is a 365-day race"
Near the competition, the training must be scientific and standardized. The fanciers have to take the carrier pigeons to Hebei to release when the sky is dark, get up from 3:30 to 4:00 in the morning, carry the pigeons on the highway at 5:00, and then return to the city to work on time. At the end of the peak period of the competition, it takes a month or two to adjust the schedule back to normal.
This is the tip of the iceberg of pigeon life. When Li Meng first started raising pigeons, he also felt unexpected: "At that time, when I saw the highlights of others, I didn't know that I had to pay so much behind my back. ”
Winning requires day after day of study and hardship, but falling on the heel requires only one oversight. "Pigeons are living creatures, rectums, and if you slack off, the consequences will be immediately apparent." The big meal could not stop Bai Sheng from feeding the carrier pigeons for dinner, and a dinner was dragged into a supper, and the loss was irreparable. "It may be almost the night, lose, all the investment is gone."
One year, when Fan Xuan was breeding breeding pigeons, he had the idea of "greedy". The density of the pigeons was too great, beyond his ability to bear, and small mistakes kept coming. Forgot to take care of the breeding pigeon moulting, plus there was a little slack in management, and a litter of "sick seedlings" was raised.
In 2019, on a rainy day that was most unsuitable for training, Li Meng released a group of pigeons that were about to embark on the race 300 kilometers away. At 11 a.m., more than a hundred pigeons should have arrived home. By 12 o'clock the sky was still clean, with no signs of pigeons passing by.
This batch of pigeons, from the breeding pairing, to the round and small pigeon eggs in the palm of the hand, to the growth into a carrier pigeon about to go to the race, was bred by Li Meng. "It's like because of you, your child has an accident."
Li Meng stood on the roof and waited for his pigeons. At 1 and 2 o'clock, Li Meng cried out in a video call with his brothers: "I have not paid so much to my children, to my parents, and to the business. ”
At 3 p.m., two pigeons crossed the gloomy canopy and plunged into the loft. Li Meng was surprised and delighted, "Confidence came up at once." ”
Until nightfall, more than ten hours have passed since the training time, and the carrier pigeons are still returning. In the end, he released 127 pigeons and arrived home with 116 pigeons. "This is the most memorable discipline in my life."
Fan Xuan said: "The pigeon breeding competition is 365 days. "The process of making achievements is long and difficult, and it must be tenacious and persistent enough; the achievements and honors "turn over" come quickly, and the "pigeon racing jianghu" does not have time to chew on victory.
Li Meng was a former athlete who had long learned how to face victory. He said that his "loft training" is a pair, two riddles, each playing the same daily necessities: "Oolong on the wall, covered with ten thousand points of Venus; white snake across the river, a red sun overhead." ”
The riddle of the upper link is the scale rod, which means that after the game, you must immediately reflect on it, and weigh yourself at any time; the bottom of the puzzle of the lower link is the oil lamp - Li Meng opened the live broadcast software, and many anchors on the platform followed his feeding tips of "grain is compared to throttle, beans are compared to brakes", Li Meng is not annoyed, and only hopes to use the experience in the game to "illuminate others".
Loft on the outskirts. Photo by intern Lindi Xu
Fly towards bungalows and suburbs
As the effort he put into pigeon breeding increased, Fan Xuan's pigeon breeding scale continued to expand, and later he simply moved the loft to the suburbs. At the beginning, Li Meng raised pigeons in the bungalows of Daxingpi Village, from the front yard to the roof full of pigeon sheds, and could also enjoy the scenery of pigeons flying around the small courtyard.
Pigeon breeder Li Fan's loft is still in the city, and the number of pigeons must be controlled, and the loft must be cleaned and disinfected twice in the morning and evening. On the one hand, for the sake of the health and good grades of the pigeons, on the other hand, it is also necessary to consider the opinions of the surrounding residents.
Zhang Hui, president of the Carrier Pigeon Association of Haidian District, Beijing, has been raising pigeons since 1984. In his memory, in the 1980s, there were mostly bungalows in Haidian District, and there was a phenomenon of raising pigeons in buildings, but "the neighbors are all one unit, just say it", and there is very little friction caused by pigeons.
With the development of the city, raising carrier pigeons in buildings is becoming more and more "difficult to get". To enter the pigeon association, pigeon breeders must hold an application form for membership, go to the neighborhood committee and property to stamp it, and obtain a community permit.
The "threshold" for joining the pigeon association is just the beginning. Article 55 of the Beijing Municipal Regulations on Urban Appearance and Environmental Sanitation stipulates that it is forbidden to build pigeon lofts on the tops, balconies and windows of residential buildings. Pigeon breeding should take effective measures to prevent the impact on the city's appearance and environmental hygiene. Where the appearance of the city is affected by the environmental hygiene, it shall be ordered to make corrections within a time limit and shall be fined between 50 yuan and 500 yuan; if the environmental sanitation of the city appearance and the normal life of the surrounding residents are seriously affected, the pigeon loft may be ordered to be demolished.
In daily life, pigeons "call" before dawn to disturb the people, every autumn pigeon feathers fluttering, on weekdays on the windows splashed with excrement stains, may become the source of contradictions, by neighbors complained, "looking for urban management, there are also people who go to court."
A large number of pigeon farmers have moved to the suburbs, and the number of pigeon farmers in Haidian District has shrunk from nearly 3,000 at the peak to 700 or 800 today, of which more than 80 are located in the clear space area and can only be kept in captivity. Demolition and transformation of the suburbs is also underway, and after moving into the commodity building, "there are fewer pigeons".
At the beginning of 2020, Zhou Haiyin, who lives in Daxing District, moved into a building due to demolition. Knowing that he no longer had the conditions to keep pigeons, he made up his mind to "clear the house for auction" and bid farewell to decades of pigeon breeding life. The money from the sale of pigeons is in hand, but it is not enough to fill the time spent sitting in the loft. Zhou Hai ran to the pigeon fancier's house and stared at the pigeons, thinking that it was always someone else's child, "can't get my hands on it". At the end of the year, he couldn't resist pulling out a sum of money and buying a new loft in a bungalow near his home.
"If you want to give up this thing, you can't give it up." Zhou Hai said.
(Bai Sheng, Fan Xuan, and Zhou Hai are pseudonyms)
Beijing News reporter Jiang Huizi intern Xu Lindi
Edited by Bai Shuang Proofreader Wu Xingfa