We are absolutely overwhelmed by the support y'all have given us this year, from the bottom of our hearts here at the Apple Cup a big THANK YOU to all of you who decided to join in on the fun for 2023!
There are currently 3690 birds that were sent this year from over 600 breeders. We know that some birds have been lost during settling and a few due to sickness, we will not know the exact number of birds in the loft until we hit a Lost Report on Wincompanion, we figure we are sitting around 3600. We can not hit the Lost Report until all birds are settled, if we do so before all birds are settled then the birds that are still being trap trained and not actually clocking on inventories will be marked Missing, then Lost if they miss two clockings in a row. To alleviate any confusion and about 100 phone calls, we will wait a few weeks until we have all of the birds settled and outside flying.
Game plan is to have all of the birds settled in the next 2 weeks, then pull flights, chip and health check at the beginning of June. Usually we do this over 4th of July weekend, however since we stopped intake a month earlier this year we should be able to start training a month earlier this year just as long as the smoke is not a problem which it has been the last few summers due to NW forest fires.
Goal all along was to start training with around 3500 birds and to get 3000 activated, from the way the health looks in the loft we very well may meet that goal. Health last year was great, this year it is absolutely outstanding! Usually the more birds you get the harder it is to keep them healthy, this is obviously a fact. I believe that after 8 years of hosting this race we may of just found a formula for keeping large numbers of birds healthy, we will find out if our due diligence is going to pay off once we start training.
I want to personally appologize to everyone who I may of been a bit short with last week during our last week of intake. I was operating on very little sleep working well in to the AM hours the next day. We have workers who help with loft maintenance, however when it comes to the "birds" I want to put my hands on each and every one of them myself. Every bird is recorded and vaccinated by yours truly before they are moved in to the quarantine section where they are put in cages on wire floors for about a week and started on medicated water and all the feed they can handle. This is where the birds put weight back on after their journey from you to us.
Many of you have texted me lately wanting minor changes made to your birds, usually a mistake I made while inputting birds data in to Wincompanion. Most of you I responded to asking you to be patient as we were swamped last week and finally now are all caught up, just need to chip these last arrivals. If the corrections have not been made yet please send me the info just ONE MORE TIME, promise to get everything rectified and up to date. PLEASE, no not call Terry Gilmore asking him to make changes to your birds for you, the only time I refer someone to Terry is if you are having problems with your Wincom account and I know it is something that only Terry can fix. When it comes to editing your birds, then that is the OLR managers job not Terry's.
GAME PLAN MOVING FORWARD
Get last 2 weeks arrivals settled
Pull flights, health and chip check around 1 June
Start training in July, possibly August just depends upon smoke and heat
Activation race around 1 September hopefully
Final race mid October
2-3 weeks later optional 400, just as long as we stil have time to ship birds back before Christmas
Take Jan and Feb to recouperate!
What a wonderful sport!
Rick & Olga
This is the very last reminder, we are no longer accepting birds this year.
DO NOT MAIL BIRDS THIS COMING WEEK, THEY WILL BE TURNED AROUND AT THE POST OFFICE NO EXCEPTIONS.
If you mailed birds last week and they are still hung up in the postal service then that is nothoing you or I have control of, they will of course be accepted.
Should be done entering the rest of the birds today that arrived this week. Those that arrived on Wednesday are all entered, working on Thursday arrivals right now.
The birds that arrived this week and last week will be settled together, should have a complete inventory in about 2 weeks of all birds in the loft.
There are several breeders who sent birds this week who did not register first. Some of you I have been able to figure out who you are, some of you did not include a phone number on the box or I can not read your phone number, name, or loft name. These birds are being entered under **Unassigned Breeder**. If you do not see your birds entered, check here first before contacting us.
Everyone have a great Sunday and good luck if you are racing this weekend in your clubs and in other One Loft Races you may be entered in!
If you are following our updates you know we got swamped with birds this week, counting birds that are being delivered today around 900 for the week. We simply did not have time to enter all birds in to Wincompanion, goes pretty smoothly until we run in to a breeder who did not register and we have to do a search for them on Wincompanion and if they have never entered a OLR and do not have a Wincom acct it really boggs things down.
All birds that arrived Wednesday this week have been entered, believe there were slightly over 350. We will be home from picking up our daughter's stuff from college this afternoon and I will get back at it entering birds, hopefully be done by this evening or at least tomorrow.
Thanks for your patience.
We should be up to around 3,700 birds.
Until next time.....
The last few days we have really been burning the midnight oil processing the number of birds we have received this week. Wednesday we received 105 boxes and over 350 pigeons, yesterday about the same number of boxes but several drop offs from WA and OR breeders, today over 50 birds and one drop off. Add them all up and we took in over 800 pigeons this week!
Last night yours truly got out of the loft at 2 AM, woke up at 6 AM and was told by Olga this morning that we needed to drive across the state to WA State University to help our daughter pack up her stuff because they have to be out of the dorms next weekend. I have something going on next weekend and we have something going on Sunday, only time to head over to WSU is today. Game plan is to leave here shortly, drive 3 hrs to WSU and check in to the motel. Olga and Angelina can go do mother/daughter stuff, that means spend $$$, while yours truly sits in the motel playing catch up on entering all of the birds that arrived this week in to Wincompanion so the breeders who sent birds this week can see that they have been added.
Please be patient, I will have the birds entered tonight and if not all tonight at least by this weekend.
If you want to know if your birds arrived go to USPS.COM and click on tracking. If it shows they arrived in Moxee, WA then that means they are already vaccinated and are eating and drinking while looking out the front of the loft at their new temporary home before we ship them back to you the breeders this fall.
When we are processing birds we do not normally answer the phone as it rings about every 10 minutes, if I pick up every time it rings we just never make any progress. Everyone wants to know if their birds arrived, hey I get it, but please check your tracking first and you will get a faster response if you text instead of calling. Our number one priority is getting those birds out of the boxes, vaccinated and then drinking and eating and this is why the phone sits on the charger on processing days.
ANY BIRDS THAT ARRIVE NEXT WEEK WILL BE RETURNED AT THE POST OFFICE, NO EXCEPTIONS!
I will now text everyone who has texted me the last 2 days and direct them to this update. If you are in our race, or following our race, this is the best source of information on all things relating to the Apple Cup.
Yesterday Wednesday 27th we received 105 boxes and 356 birds. Just finished up a few minutes ago with removing all birds from their boxes, vaccinating and giving them an anti parasite drop on the back of the neck. It will take at least 3 hours to get these birds added in to Wincompanion so we are going to get a little shut eye and add the birds later on today after we process new birds that arrive today which is Thursday.
If you want to know if your birds arrived go to USPS.COM and click on Tracking, input your tracking number and if it says picked up at the Moxee PO then that means we have them.
Please be patient, we will have all of the birds that arrived on Wednesday and today Thursday entered in to Wincompanion by tomorrow evening.
We are officially over 3,000 pigeons now, we will probably get at least another 200 tomorrow and a few on Friday.
We ran a loft flying inventory today which was all birds except the last 2 weeks arrivals, 3 weeks if you count the birds that arrived today. Our loft assistant opened one of the traps before we started the clock so we missed a few, we will let the birds out of the loft again this morning and pick up the birds that were missed. Sorry about that.
Time to get a quick shower and a few hours of sleep before starting it all over again!
We have received no less than 15 calls this morning requesting birds being shipped next Monday. We absolutely are not going to bend our own rules with shipments this year. Health has been very, very good and at some point we need to shut our doors so that we can maintain a evenness insofar as health goes within the loft, impossible when you are continually adding birds on a weekly basis.
We also want to get a earlier start training this year so we can start racing earlier and if we have time, offer a optional 400 mile race. We will only offer the 400 mile optional race if we will have time to get all of the birds shipped back before Christmas.
The aforementioned are only some of the reasons we need to shut our doors this week. We posted in our advertisement what the ship dates were and have reiterated those dates several times here in these updates.
IF YOU SHIP NEXT WEEK, YOUR BIRDS WILL BE RETURNED AT THE POST OFFICE!
Please share this with your friends, today is the last day to ship birds to the Apple Cup.
We have a bird that we can not identify the breeder, if you are the breeder please let us know.
IF FSC 1238
This is the very last week to ship birds, any birds that arrive at our post office next week will be immediately returned from the post office.
Please follow these simple steps when shipping.
Register first
Put Loft Name on the shipping label
Ship ONLY today or tomorrow the 25th of April, too late after tomorrow.
Mail to:
Apple Cup
PO Box 313
Moxee, WA 98936
254-247-9504
There is no need to contact us letting us know you are shipping birds.
There is no money due when you ship the birds, only after the activation race.
Next Monday and Tuesday are the very last days to send birds for our race for 2023. The post office has instructions to return any birds that arrive in May.
We received 240 birds today that came out of 75 boxes. The birds are all entered in Wincompanion, click on your Loft Name under the Breeder List to see your birds.
Everyone have a nice evening.
We ran a inventory yesterday, a pair of Red Tail Hawks worked the pigeons over pretty hard and from the birds clocking in this morning it is obvious that some stayed out. We will keep the clock running all day so we can pick up any birds that were too spooked to come in before dark.
There is only 2 more weeks to ship birds to us, if you plan to ship please follow the instructions below.
Register before sending.
Put loft name on the shipping label, not inside the box, not on the side of the box, on the shipping label.
Mail on Monday or Tuesday only.
No need to call or text us letting us know you are shipping.
We do not need a list of birds when you ship. The only time we need a note is if you are sending for another breeeder. If you are sending for another breeder make sure they register before sending.
Mail birds to:
All birds have been settled except last 3 weeks, the birds that arrived 3 weeks ago will go outside for the first time tomorrow and were part of the ongoing inventory as they did go through the traps.
Everyone have a great weekend!
Having problems with our internet today, will connect as a mobile hotspot when I get back from the post office picking up a late box of pigeons today.
(Second Update at 5 PM)
Still having internet issues, got home from picking up the late box I mentioned earlier and came out here to the loft to use the cell phone as a mobile hotspot and updated the inventory. Our helper has been here this afternoon looking after the pigeons while we were away taking care of business and said the hawks have been terrible after we left. We will keep the inventory running through at least tomorrow so we can pick up any birds that may of stayed out and not clocked.
Rick
