West Sussex, right at the very southern tip of the United Kingdom. It is here that John May's breeding loft gained its reputation as one of the best lofts in the UK.
May Pigeons consists of the family team of John May and his son Darren, together with his wife Sarah and their eldest son Josh. They share one breeding loft with two separate racing lofts at different locations: J May & Son (John) and Mr & Mrs May & Son (Darren, Sarah, and Josh).
For decades, they have been involved in the pigeon sport. John had a very successful partnership with Joe Grant in the early '80s as 'Grant & May' (assisted by Darren), winning up to 40 first prizes per season. After this partnership ended in 1984, John and Darren raced together for many years as father and son, living in Surrey. At that time, they raced with their famous doffer “Cheeky” and won 23 individual 1st prizes. John and Darren achieved successes at the highest level, including 1st National Perpignan, 1st National Bihorel, 2 x 2nd NFC YB National from St Malo (& Auto winner) against 10,897 pigeons and 10,072 pigeons, 1st L&SECC La Ferté Bernard, 1st L&SECC Alençon, 5 x 1st Combine with up to 8,000 competing pigeons and numerous 1st prizes at club and federation level, along with many other top prizes at Club, Fed, Combine, Section, and National level.
At the end of the 2007 season, the decision was made to hold a complete sell-off, and a few years were taken to spend time with the family and recharge their batteries. During their absence from the sport, both John and Darren kept track of developments, watching who won where and with what.
John resumed pigeon racing from the current address in West Sussex in 2015, and Darren, Sarah, and Josh moving to John’s neighborhood allowed them to start racing in 2016.
As previously mentioned, the two racing lofts share a common breeding loft, which produces the young for both lofts to race with. Through their contacts, May Pigeons has the absolute cream of lofts at the top of their game at the distances in which they specialize and only from their very best. These young ones are tested in the racing loft, and the best are then transferred to the breeding loft, or if they are mature, placed in the breeding loft, and their offspring are tested in the racing lofts of both partners and sent to one or two other lofts for “testing,” retaining only those from these lofts that perform well.
Since the first flight of the 2017 season until the end of the 2021 season, the two lofts of May Pigeons have won the 1st Open BICC National 2020, 126 x 1st Club, 55 x 1st Federation (against up to 4,000 pigeons), and 4 x 1st Combine, plus two Olympiad pigeons for “Team GB” at the 2019 Olympiad in Poznan.