We have been asked by several of you over the last few months whether or not we pull flights, the answer is ABSOLUTELY!
We accept birds March through May. By mid June we will have all of the birds settled and by 1st of July they will really be flying well and routing. On or about 1 July we will do a chip/health check and pull the 9th and 10th flights, the birds will be allowed to exercise but we will not force them until the 9th and 10th flights are completely in. We will start road training in August and the activation race will be held after Labor Day weekend. Opening dove season starts that weekend so we will not road train that weekend for obvious reasons.
Our weather has been absolutely georgeous here in central Washington, more like spring than winter. Lets all cross our fingers that it stays like this so that we can continue getting the loft ready for new arrivals next month and working on our loft expansion project.
Hope you all are having a great breeding season!
Rick & Olga
As many requested, we added a PayPal option for paying your perch fees for 2020. Please fill out the form completely so we know who is who sending perch fees via PayPal.
Remember not to send us any birds until March. The earliest you can put your birds in the mail would be Monday March 2nd. Please only mail on a Monday or Tuesday. We have a rural post office and they are not open on Saturday. By mailing your birds past Tuesday you are taking a unnecessary risk of your birds having to be without feed and water until the following Monday if we do not get them in the mail by Friday.
Again, PLEASE vaccinate your birds before sending. It protects not only your birds, but our personal birds, your fellow breeder's birds entererd in the Apple Cup, simply everyone involved. I have asked a lot of questions of those who win in our race and those who place high almost always vaccinate before sending. Vaccinate them at 21 days old in the nest, then when they arrive we will vaccinate them again which acts as a booster. We can not trust that everyone vaccinates so we boost your birds about 3 weeks after arrival. They are also treated for bacterial diseases, canker, internal and external parasites. All birds are separated by the week they arrive, after they receive their booster shots 3 weeks later they are merged with the rest of the birds in the loft and we continue this procedure until the last group is settled.
Currently we have 300 breeders signed up and just shy of 1,500 perches reserved. We are still expecting 2,000 pigeons total and loft expansion has begun. When we get the expansion completed we will post pictures.
Thanks everyone,
We are not accepting birds until the first Monday in March. The weather is like spring right now, but this spring like weather can change at a moment's notice in to snow and ice. Our experience has been that it is ten times easier to keep your birds healthy and happy if it is sunny and dry, opposed to wet, cold, and overcast. So please be patient for just a few more weeks and if you do have birds ready it will not hurt to keep them for another two weeks. We are in a wide open area and have a pretty easy time of settling birds and have settled birds several months old and some even trained before arriving out to 100 miles at their home lofts.
We are busy outside getting the loft cleaned from top to bottom, spraying it down with Virkon S and planning for our loft addition. Last Sunday we moved our personal race loft that some of you may of noticed at the left end of the loft as facing it, this is the west end. We plan on adding on another 84' to the west end so the total length will be 168' and width is 12' with 4' deep aviaries. The loft faces south for maximum sun exposure which the birds really like.
Currently we are over 1,400 reserved perches and nearly 300 breeders. We expect around 2,000 birds by the end of our acceptance period. As we have mentioned previously, there is a guaranteed 1st place prize on the final race of $100,000 and any bird over 1,000 activated will have it's prize money added directly to first prize. For every 100 birds over 1,000, $27,000 gets added to first place. Our goal is start training with around 2,000 birds and get at least 75% to the first race. This will make 1st prize around $235,000 with 1,500 birds entered in the first race. Of course the more birds we bring in and can get activated, the larger 1st prize gets! If everything goes as planned, this could possibly be the largest 1st prize in North America for 2020!
Please vaccinate your birds in the nest at about 21 days old for a minimum PMV. When your birds arrive we will vaccinate them again for PMV which will act as their booster, then again about 3-4 weeks later they will get another booster. So whether or not you vaccinate before sending, we are going to vaccinate when they arrive and give boosters 3-4 weeks later. However, by you vaccinating before sending to any One Loft Race, you are helping to protect not only your birds but everyone's birds involved. In other words, be responsible and vaccinate before sending, it helps cover everyone not just you.
Thanks everyone for your support and happy early Valentine's Day to everyone!
First prize this year is $100,000. The rest of the prizes are based upon 1,000 birds activated, any birds over 1,000 activated will be added directly to first prize.
Currently we have over 1,300 perches reserved and are predicting 2,000 pigeons total. If we get just 75% to the first race then first prize will be $235,000! We will keep adding on to the loft to accomodate and to eliminate overcrowding. When we start to add on to the west end of the loft we will post pictures. The extension will look exactly like the current loft and there are pictures under the PHOTOS tab of the inside and exterior of the loft.
Thanks everyone for your continued support and a big thank you to all of our new breeders signing up daily. We already have about 260 breeders registered and no real sign of any slowing down.
Get in on one of the largest One Loft Races in North America for 2020 everyone, do not miss out!
We were going to have a loft limit of 1,500 this year but due to continued interest and no sign of breeder's slowing down signing up we have decided to expand the loft. When the weather clears up a bit we will start expanding the loft so there is no overcrowding this year. We currently have 240 breeders signed up and 1,200 perches reserved.
Do not miss out on one of the largest races in North America for 2020.
Remember, any birds activated over 1,000 will have their prize money added directly to first prize. First prize could get huge, just depends on how many birds we get in and how many we can get through activation.
Thanks everyone, and thanks for your continued interest and support.
Olga and I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and that you are having a wonderful New Year's day.
We are going in to our 5th year hosting the Apple Cup and we appreciate your continued support, previous breeders and new alike. For 2020 we are guaranteeing a $100,000 first prize and as a result, we are experiencing a lot of interest in our race. We currently have nearly 1,000 perches reserved and there is no real sign of breeders slowing down in signing up. We have a loft capacity limit of 1,500 and if it looks like we are going to far exceed that, we will make plans to expand the loft to accomodate more birds but still eliminate overcrowding.
As we have mentioned several times lately, any birds over 1,000 activated will have their entry fees added directly to 1st prize. This means if we for example bring in 2,000 birds and get just 75% through activation, first prize will be about $250,000. The size of first prize is totally up to you the breeders based upon how many birds get entered.
If you plan on signing up for 2020 and have not already done so, please do so immediately so we can get a gague on how many birds we need to try to accomodate this year and so we can also start making construction plans for expansion.
Thanks everyone for your continued support!
Please take a few minutes to go over our 2020 rules and payout chart as they were just updated tonight.
Remember, we are guaranteeing a $100,000 first prize on the final race for 2020. Final race will be first drop, then clocking order. If we get over 1,000 birds activated then any extra entry fees will be added directly to first prize on the final race. For every 100 birds over 1,000 $27,000 will be added to first prize!
At the current time we have 700 perches reserved with a 1,500 loft limit next year. Only way to guarantee entry will be to pre-pay for your perches starting 1 Jan, 2020 via our PayPal link or by sending payment through the mail.
All of the birds have been mailed with the exception of two pigeons which will get shipped next Monday. Most of the checks have been sent with the exception of a few who still owe us W-9 forms.
We are thankful that the 2019 race series is nearly over for us which gives us some time now to do some administrative work, also to take a bit of a break before starting all over again next March. I have been associated with pigeons for well over 40 years now and I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty, if you want a challenge start a one loft race......I dare ya!
Hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving and that you will have a very merry Christmas and a a prosperous New Year in 2020!
Just a quick update to let all of you know that most of the birds have been returned and most of the checks sent, just waiting on a few W-9s to arrive before we can send out the last few checks.
Thanks to all of you for your patience while we fought through the part we dislike the most in running a One Loft Race, sending the birds back! Next week we will send out the last few birds we have left, clean the loft from top to bottom, then do the same next spring before birds start arriving again.
We are right at 300 perch reservations and have another 300 from a large syndicate which will be posted most likely early Dec. We will be taking in 1,500 birds next year and starting 1 Jan, 2020 we will start accepting pre-paid perch reservations. So pay attention next year when we start accepting pre-paid perches, once we reach 1,500 we will no longer take any more reservations.
Please join us for our 5 year anniversary and a $100,000 GUARANTEED first prize! Same price as usual, $100 perch fee per bird, $300 entry fee after the activation race.
Happy Thanksgiving everone!
Most of the birds who you the breeders want back have been returned, with the exception of a few who are being mailed later due to vacations or upcomming holidays. This is the last chance, if you want your birds returned please let us know immediately before we start giving them away.
Checks have been sent to everyone that is due a entry fee refund, or won $500 on the 250 mile race.
If you won $600 or more and have not sent a W-9 yet, then please do so ASAP. If you have sent a W-9, or if we already have one on file, please be patient as sending out prize money checks is the last thing Olya does after most of the birds have been returned. Prize money checks will go out shortly, please be patient.
PLEASE make sure that your address that you registered on Wincompanion is 100% correct, as well as email and phone number. Unless we get specific instructions otherwise, this is the contact information we will use to ship your birds back.
If you do not plan on having your birds returned just send us a email so we can scratch your birds off the return list.
We have over 200 perches reserved for next year and we are working with a large US based Chineese syndicate who are sending 300+ birds for 2020. So at this point we have 500 perches reserved for 2020 and a ton of you breeders who have already said you are going to fly with us next year. We have a loft limit of 1,500 birds and will start accepting pre-paid perches starting 1 Jan, 2020 with a PayPal option to pay for perches under PAYMENTS on our site. First 1,500 pre-paid perches get in, so please pay attention at the beginning of the year when breeders start guaranteeing their perches by pre-paying.
If you do not already know, next year will be our 5th straight year of hosting the Apple Cup and we have a guaranteed 1st prize of $100,000. The rest of our prizes posted on our site are based upon 1,000 birds, if we get more than that activated then that prize money will be added to 1st place. So in other words, 1st prize could be in the hundreds of thousands, just depends upon how many birds you guys and gals send.
The dust has not settled yet, but it looks like for the 2nd straight year we will log the most traning miles of any One Loft Race in the US. Most of you send birds to us year after year because we train harder than anyone else. Other comments we receive are we post updates often especially during training and during the races, post videos of every race, and we have a very challenging course.
Join us in 2020 for our 5 year anniversary and a guaranteed $100,000 1st prize, don't be left out!
At the Apple Cup, we are not afraid to train!
