HC
News and Updates
Aug-17-2023
NO TRAINING TODAY 8/17

There will be no training today due to rain in the area, low clouds and moderate winds. 

The weather tomorrow looks good, and we will be back on the road again tomorrow with the birds. 
Aug-15-2023
RAINY TUESDAY

There is no training today due to overcast and rain.  The skies are supposed to clear up around 11:00 am so we will let the birds out to loft fly as long as they do clear up. 

Our plan is to train tomorrow (Wednesday), and monitor the weather on Thursday.  There is rain in the forecast for Thursday, however we all know that the meteorologist are not always correct.  After Thursday we look to have a week of no rain.  We will have temperatures that will gradually increase throughout the week.  As long as we do not have an issue with fog, our goal is to train most days.  

We have continued to see birds return from Saturday's training toss and we have also retrieved a few birds within the area that have been found.  These birds are all evaluated individually. 
Aug-14-2023
SUNDAY 8/13
Yesterday's training toss was from 30 miles, south Medaryville.  Birds were released in beautiful weather.  We finally had a day with no fog delay.  Upon arrival to the loft, I noticed dark clouds north of the loft and you could hear thunder.  This storm was not in the forecast and caught everyone by surprise.  No doubt this storm played a role in the returns.  More than half of the birds were home before it actually started to rain.

The birds are in excellent health, and they continue to show this in their loft flying.  We have had several birds return with injuries and the owners of those birds have been notified. 

Moving forward for this week, the weather is not good for training tomorrow (Monday) with rain expected mid-morning, and Tuesday is a 50/50 chance of training right now at best with cloudy skies forecasted.  We all know this may change multiple times by Tuesday morning.  If possible, we will loft fly tomorrow (weather permitting) and we will continue to monitor the weather for Tuesday. We are slightly ahead of schedule compared to previous seasons and will train as often as weather permits. 

We were paid a visit by Sam Younan and Dani Cicio today.  They shared some great stories about their 2-week trip to Belgium/Holland.  It was also nice to see Big Andy out and about on the trip with them.  Sam shared many videos & pictures on Facebook throughout their trip.  Dani has been bending my hear for the last 2 years now to fly a West to East course.  I think we will need to settle a team of our own birds to test the waters on this Dani.

Speaking of Big Andy, there is still time to ship birds to his race in Florida.  Free perches until activation!  They will be accepting birds until the end of August. 

Finally, we would like to wish our good friend Andy Skwiat a Happy Birthday!!
Video of 8/12 training release as well as the skies upon arriving back to the loft
Aug-07-2023
We did not train yesterday or today due to rain.  It rained from late yesterday morning until very early this morning with almost 2 inches of rain coming down in 24 hrs.  This morning was a very heavy overcast, and they are calling for more rain tomorrow.  Our plan is to start training again on Tuesday. 

The birds are extremely healthy and continue to show it.  When we loft fly, they range in several different groups for well over an hour.  We did post a video today of a few groups flying during a break in the rain.

There are still For Sale Birds available.  The birds can be viewed by going to the Training Results page and searching the "For Sale-Hoosier."  This list will show you the birds that have clocked.  
We have also had a few concerned fanciers ask what will happen if the birds are not sold (perch & activation fee paid) by the 1st race.  The same rules apply to these birds as they do any other bird.  Any bird not paid for will be removed from the race series the evening of basketing for the first race.  Once a bird is removed it cannot be added back to the series.  

We have been asked several times this week how the For Sale Birds work, so we have provided a brief description below.

As a reminder, if you do purchase a "For Sale" bird to participate, the perch fee of $200 will be required, any bird returning from the activation race will require the activation fee paid of $600.  The bird belongs to the "Buyer" after the race, unless it places in the top 100 and goes to auction or is within the top 10 ace pigeons. Any and all prize/auction money is split between the "Breeder & Buyer."

Have a great week everyone, we will be back on the road on Tuesday. 
Loft Flying during a break in the rain
Aug-03-2023
TRAINING UPDATE

Birds were taken 15 miles today for training.  After waiting for quite some time for the haze to clear out we have decided to bring the birds back.   It is not clearing like we hoped and the longer we wait the hotter it is getting on the birds.  We will release them in the yard and let them get a bath today.  We will be back training tomorrow.
Aug-01-2023
TRAINING TOSS UPDATE

What should have been an easy training toss today turned out to be a very tough one.  Birds arrived to the loft from all directions this morning and acted as if they were afraid of something.  We did not see a hawk, however they were definitely spooked.  Birds have had 8 previous short tosses and we are confident we will continue to see birds come in throughout the evening as well as in the morning.  Any birds arriving this afternoon are trapping into separate sections and will only loft fly tomorrow.  The birds look good, so our plan is to train tomorrow, however we will evaluate the birds again in a few hours.
Jul-31-2023
TRAINING UPDATE & FOR SALE BIRDS
There are still plenty of For Sale Birds left on the For Sale List to participate in the 2023 season with. 
If you would like to view the birds on the list the best way to look at them is to go to the "Training Results" and look at the name "For Sale-Hoosier."   This will give you the most accurate list of birds that have clocked on the day's training or previous days, depending on which training toss you look at.  The breeder of the bird(s), is listed in the "Name" of the pigeon location.
You can build a team of 6 for $1000 by picking and choosing which birds you would like. 

A common question we have been asked in the last few days since we started training is "are all the birds released together?"  The answer to that is right now, NO, all the birds are not released together.  They will be released in groups until we get out training 70-75 miles.  And they will always be released together on races.   The birds have been doing quite well for the most part of being out 5 miles multiple times.  We had very high temperatures on Friday, and Saturday was rain in the early morning so we did not train.  With 2 days off we went back to the 4 mile training spot on Sunday, and today we moved them out to 7 miles.  As long as weather permits we will continue to train and begin to move the birds out further.

Below is a short video of today's training toss.
Training Toss Release 7/31/2023
Jul-24-2023
JULY 24TH

The birds have been released off the trailer for the last 2 weeks from our property.  This past Friday we started the actual road training with the birds being released 2 miles from the loft.  Today was the 3rd trainer at this distance.  We are watching the weather closely as our temperatures will be in mid 90's this week.  Our plan is to keep the birds training from these short distances until the heat lifts.  We are a few weeks ahead of schedule, therefore we feel no need to rush them.  

Health of the birds is very good.  All birds are fed Beyers Feeds, Jovati Grit and the Best of Vita King Products. 

Remember there is $1,200,000 in GUARANTEED PRIZES & there is still time to enter.  Checkout the "For Sale" birds on the Hoosier Classic Website.  There are birds being offered from some of the TOP OLR Fanciers in the country. 

Stay Tuned For All The Extra Categories Offered For The 2023 Season!
Jul-19-2023
CLOCKING UPDATE

Today there seems to be an issue with the antennas and the birds clocking correctly.   We have run the birds through the antennas twice today and figured out what the issue was.  We have spoken to the Benzing Technical Support, however to "Restart" the system and have the birds clock a 3rd time is to much stress on the birds and it is very warm here right now.  

We will reset the clock tomorrow while the birds are out and things should be working correctly. 
Jul-07-2023
WEEKEND UPDATE

We hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July Holiday.  Now that we are into July, we have started the process of flagging the birds to get them to fly.  We do still currently have the birds separated into 2 groups, as the younger birds are a little behind in the molting process.  Our goal is to alternate the birds going out and we have begun the process of flagging them to get them to fly.  We do put a little bit more pressure on the older birds when we do this, making them fly in longer intervals than the younger birds.  We will gradually get them both flying for equal amounts of time.  We have also begun to allow the birds to venture into the crates for the trailer.  We have placed them in the loading areas and allow birds to go in and out of them as they please.  Allowing them to do this will make the loading process less intimidating to the birds when we do start to trailer train them. 
We did have a collision yesterday morning with 2 birds while flagging and those breeders have been notified about their birds. 

The overall health of the birds is very good and we are very happy with the loft.  We will be running them through a canker treatment in the coming week as a preventative.  The weather for the next week looks to be good with mild temperatures between the 70's and low 80's for the next 10 days with 1-2 days of chances of rain.  We did have a 2-3 day stretch of very hot temperatures over the holiday with high humidity.  That has since moved out and things are much more comfortable for the birds. 

Remember there are still birds on the For Sale list that can be purchased to participate in the 2023 season. 

Enjoy your weekend!! 
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