The last two days we processed 71 new birds for the race and invariably, a few misrouted boxes will probably show up tomorrow. We are right under 600 birds and if we have similar numbers the last two weeks we are accepting birds then we will be well over 700 pigeons entered for this year, may even hit 750.
The birds got spooked several times today and we are down a few pigeons, hopefully they come in tomorrow morning. A few birds have been removed from the loft due to sickness which could not be cleared up and there are 6 in sick bay, another injured. If they do not show signs of improvement within 5 days of treatment then we can only assume that the birds have a viral issue and they are removed. We are running a pigeon race, not a pigeon hospital. If your bird has to be medicated then chances are it will not perform well once the races start anyway, so better to replace the pigeon anyway.
Put the word out, we are accepting new birds and replacements through May, we will not accept birds in June.
Plan is to get all these birds settled and flying well, then around the 2nd or 3rd week in June we will pull flights and do a chip check. Training will start early August with the first race about 30 days later, sometime after Labor Day.
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day, and that you have a great weekend!
Rick & Olga
Please check the last inventory to see if you have any birds missing. If you do you have until the end of the month to send replacements, as well as new birds.
Hello breeders, just a quick update.
We boosted 230 birds yesterday and let them out for the first time today. Tried to run a inventory but the clock was showing no sensors. Tried everything and finally had to start troubshooting. It turned out to be the sensor mechanism that connects to the computer and the cord which receives signal from the antennas which the birds walk across in the trap. Finally got it figured out late this evening so will start running loft flying inventories again next week which will include all birds in the loft.
Remember, we are accepting birds and replacements through May so do not get left out. We have a lot of pre-paid perches and breeders we know of who are definitely sending so expect 800+ birds this year.
Knock on wood, health is absolutely outstanding this year! While giving the birds boosters yesterday for PMV and Paratyphoid each bird had a throat inspection. I am happy and honestly, quite proud to report that none had canker or anything going on in the throat or upper respiratory tract. There were two birds who showed a bit of a watery eye but I believe it looked like a scratch which they sometimes can get while at the food trough and it looked recent. Nonetheless, these two birds were separated and I will keep a eye on them just to make sure they do not have a issue before they get put back in the loft. The number of birds who have had to be permanetely removed due to illness is less than 2%, I will take that any day, any year! As far as I can tell, only a handful have been lost during settling. Please look at the next two inventories and if you have a bird show up missing twice, please send a replacement bird ASAP and write REPLACEMENT on a note taped to the inside of the box.
Thanks everyone for your support, Olga and I have a very good feeling that we are going to have a great race this year!
Accepting birds and replacements through May. If you have already sent, please keep a eye on inventories to see if your birds are all still here.
All birds being inventoried today except the birds that arrived this week.
We are trap training all birds today. The birds who have been out of the loft several times trapped very quickly today, those who have not been trap trained are coming in very slowly. The birds are not out of the loft, extremely windy today and we make sure that the birds are trap trained at least 5 times and coming in on command before we let them out for the first time.
Health is excellent this year! We have removed 6 birds this year and two are in sick bay, if they do not recover quickly then they will be removed as well. The owners of the 6 birds removed were emailed today to send replacements. If sending a replacement, please put a note in the box that it is a replacement so we do not get confused.
First off, thank you for sending birds on Monday and Tuesday at the latest as we have requested several times. As we have stated in the past, this is so the birds primarily arrive on Wednesday and Thursday of each week which makes processing easier on us, and allows us to start the week's new arrivals on meds at the exact same time. When the birds arrive we vaccinate them for PMV and Paratyphoid, then run then on meds for canker and anything they have going on bacterial with amoxicillin which is a great wide spectrum antibiotic and is easy on their systems for 7 days. KNOCK ON WOOD, we have nearly 500 birds in the loft and have lost less than a handful due to illness this year. Lets all pray, wish, cross your fingers, what ever you have to do, that it continues this way.
We have been settling birds very slowly but carefully this year. As far as we can tell, we have lost just a few pigeons off the loft this year which is probably caused by the birds panicking the first few times they have been out of the loft when any type of bird happens to fly by. We have had some fairly old birds sent to us this year and no matter your location, these are always a bit of a challenge to settle. We are in a wide open area with very few trees and the birds can see for miles, so settling birds is not much of a issue for us.
Several inventories have been posted and these are of birds who have actually been settled, which means outside the loft and have the system down. We understand that many of you are still sending birds or have already sent birds and want to know if your birds still are here. We are going to start posting inventories of all of the birds in the loft, that means those who have been settled and flying and those who are still trap training, so you can identify if you are missing a bird and need to send a replacement. We are accepting birds and replacements through May, so please keep a watchful eye on inventories we post to see if you need to send a replacement.
If you have read everything above then you will know that we are accepting birds and replacements only through May. We hope to have all of the birds settled by mid June, then sometime around mid June we will pull the last two flights and start road training around 1 August with the activation race after Labor Day in September.
We have several pre-paid entries at the moment with 473 actual birds in the loft. Even though we are going to take a hit in numbers like all One Loft Races are due to the quarentine in parts of CA where many of our registered breeders are from and will not be sending this year, we still expect over 800 pigeons.
Do not miss out on one of the largest One Loft Races in the US for 2019! In 2018 we logged more mileage in training than any other One Loft Race in North America and many of our breeders have stated that this is why they continue to support us year after year. We have a saying, "At the Apple Cup, we are not afraid to train!"
Yesterday we gave booster shots for PMV and Paratyphoid to the next birds in line to be settled. We like the birds to look out the loft for at least 3 weeks before we let them out and going through the traps for at least a 5-7 days before we feel comfortable letting them out for the first time. This allows us to boost the birds at 21 days after receiving their first vaccinations the day they arrive and to get them out flying at 26-30 days after they have been here. We have found that by taking it slow, we have much fewer birds getting lost right off the loft during the settling process.
Like many One Loft Races, we are going to take a hit this year due to the quarentine in CA and breeders not being able to send birds out. CA has the highest concentration of pigeon racers and a high percentage of birds entered in One Loft Races around the country. Having said that, we are about half way through our acceptance period and have about 350 birds in the loft and a ton coming this week, should be over 400 by the end of this week. We are estimating over 800 pigeons entered, so do not miss out!
Yesterday we trap trained the birds we mentioned earlier that we gave booster shots to, 80 more pigeons to be exact. These were added to the birds already settled and trap trained, basically big brothers and sisters showing their younger siblings the ropes. Most of the birds trapped within a reasonable amount of time, some were reluctant to go through the trap. As soon as this update is finished we will let the birds enter the loft, should go much quicker than yesterday. After a few days of this, usually no less than 5 continuous days, we will let the birds out for the first time of course weather depending.
Thanks everyone and keep those healthy birds coming!
The birds who arrived the first two weeks have already been settled and outside the loft 3 times. We then merged the 3rd and fourth week birds with the first and second birds and it is these who are trap training together. We have posted inventories the last three days of the birds simply trap training. If the weather is good this weekend then we will let the birds out to fly.
