Nearly 800 perches already reserved!
Loft capacity 2,500 birds!
Reserve perches to ensure a spot this year, we are going to be big!
311 breeders entered in 2020, 304 had birds go to the final race! Find another race in the USA with results like that last year!
Olga and I would like to thank those of you who have supported us over the last 5 years and continue to support us going in to our 6th year!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Happy New Year!
Rick & Olga Mee
We just got done sorting birds that will be shipped tomorrow, post office gave the OK since there are only 30 boxes. There are about 25 birds unclaimed, I have emailed, texted, and called all of these breeders to no avail. If you do not get birds next week and know you still have birds here and want them returned then pay for shipping and we will get them out early Jan.
Most of the checks have been mailed, still waiting on a handful of W-9s. Entry fee refunds will be mailed out before Christmas.
Yesterday we updated the site with minor adjustments within the rules and posted the expected payout based upon 1,500 birds activated. We have a loft capacity of 2,500 birds so the only way to reserve yourself some perches is to prepay for perches starting 1 Jan, 2021, not earlier please.
The only major change is we are going back to clocking order only, this is for all races.
Still $100 perch, $300 activation fee.
Please click on our payout tab to see the expected payout for 2021. The payout is based upon 1,500 birds activated with first prize being guaranteed at $100,000. We are hoping to get many more birds activated than 1,500 birds and if we do those bird's entry fees will be evenly divided amongst the top 10 pigeons on the final race. This year we brought in about 1,500 birds and got over 1,200 activated, it worked out to 81%. We started with 311 breeders, 304 made the final race and 275 breeders had birds return on the final race.
Below is our payout based upon 1,500 birds activated:
FINAL RACE
1st $100,000 GUARANTEED
2nd $50,000
3rd $40,000
4th $30,000
5th $20,000
6th $10,000
7th $9,000
8th $8,000
9th $7,000
10th $6,000
11-50th $1,000 ea
1st 20 birds on the 210 mile race $1,000 ea
$65,000 in average speed prizes
1st $11,000
2nd $10,000
3rd $9,000
4th $8,000
5th $7,000
6th $6,000
7th $5,000
8th $4,000
9th $3,000
10th $2,000
If you have any questions please contact us.
Olga and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Rick & Olga
Most of the birds have been mailed back with the remainder going out next week. We have texted, called, and emailed all breeders with unclaimed birds. This is the last chance to pay for your birds shipping via PayPal under our PAYMENTS tab so that they can go out next week. We will sort the birds Saturday and they will go out Monday. Since we are not mailing many boxes out the local postmaster said he would let us ship on Monday, whereas last week he said not to ship on Monday's due to the increased volume due to Christmas.
The first checks went out today, sitting here working on those who will go out tomorrow. We do not have all W-9s, so if you owe us one get it to us as soon as possible.
We will be posting changes that will affect the 2021 Apple Cup so please check back in for updated rules, payouts, etc.
We have collected all checks at the post office and recorded every PayPal transaction today. We have roughly 50 boxes which will be shipped next Tuesday so unless your pay via PayPal and let us know you have paid via PayPal today, your birds will not be mailed next week. Reason being I have to create a list of those birds to be separated tomorrow morning from the 250 that still remain here, if they are not paid for they do not go on my list. We have been contacted by many of you who have stated you do not want your birds returned, we really appreciate that because it just helps us narrow down the group that has to be resorted every Saturday. After this next week's birds get shipped out and all birds not being returned are put in a different section from the remaining unclaimed birds which we still do not know what to do with, we will be down to about 100 birds left. We do not have time to call everyone, so if you want your birds back please pay ASAP. If there are any checks or PayPal payments that come in after today those birds will most likely be mailed out in early January because we are going out of town to visit family for the holidays. We have house sitters to take care of the birds and watch over the place, but they are not able to mail birds.
We do not mail out birds to those who say they sent checks for shipping, however we have not received same yet. Reason being is not that we do not trust our breeders, it just becomes more work trying to remember who said they have sent a check and those who have sent a check, PayPal is obvious because it is instantaneous. We have been stiffed on shipping in the past when breeders say they sent a check, we never got a check, so it is just so much easier to have a check in hand before the breeders loft name goes on the shipping list for the following week.
If you want to get put on the shipping list for the week we need your check or PayPal payment no later than Friday. Saturday we sort birds and put them in sections based upon which days they are shipped the following week. We get requests immediately after someone makes a payment asking that their birds be mailed the next day, this is impossible as it would require us resorting birds nearly every day of the week to find individual breeder's birds.
If you are wondering why we are mailing on Tuesday and not Monday, it is because the post office said no more dumping off birds on Mondays, just too busy this time of the year and they can not handle the extra volume.
Checks will start going out next week. We had to transfer funds from our PayPal acccount in to our bank account for the Apple Cup to cover all of the checks.
As per our rules, birds need to be claimed within 14 days of the conclusion of the final race, the final race was nearly a month ago. We scanned all of the remaining birds yesterday getting them ready for shipment next week and we still have over 250 birds from 113 breeders unclaimed after those birds which have already been paid for via check or PayPal. All of the birds mailed last week were those who won money this year and shipping was deducted, birds being mailed this coming week are those who have been paid for via check or PayPal.
I do not need you to contact us to let us know if you want your birds, but by all means text or email us to let us know if you DO NOT WANT your birds returned and make sure you list our Loft Name. This really helps narrow it down.
We really prefer that you pay for shipping via PayPal. Reason being that when you use our PayPal tab listed under PAYMENTS to the left on our home page it requires that you input your loft name, first and last name, address, and phone number. This keeps us from sending the birds to a old address or listing a old phone number that may still be under your Wincompanion account and it saves us much valuable time by not having to call you to make sure your address is correct even though we have mentioned several times to make sure your account info is updated, some still refuse to do so.
If you pay by check make sure you include the following on a note and put your loft name somewhere on the check.
LOFT NAME
FIRST & LAST NAME
ADDRESS
PHONE NUMBER
Please do not just throw a check in the mail, follow the directions above.
Below are the breeders that did not win money this year, or have not sent us a check or paid for shipping via PayPal. Please help us in getting the word out to these breeders that they have just this coming week to pay for shipping.
Before I forget, shipping is $80 for 1-2 birds, $160 for 3-4, $240 for 5-6, and so on.
One more thing to quickly mention. The below listed breeders's birds are not available, we are merely trying to get the word out that they need to pay if they want their birds returned and they have just this week to do so. It is best to pay via PayPal so those wanting their birds returned can have them mailed not this coming week, but the week after. We do not want to be mailing pigeons during the Christmas rush, this is the worst time of the year to be shipping pigeons because so much can go wrong with the heavy influx of mail. We have plans to visit our family out of state for the holidays and we need to get the rest of those pigeons wanting returned no later than the week after next.
Please help us in getting the word out to the following breeders!
(PLEASE READ AT THE VERY BOTTOM FOR BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT OUR 2021 RACE)
Miami Storm
Bird Love To Fly (sending)
98 MJ Loft
A H C Loft
A-Lin Loft
Acosta Lufrui Loft
Adl / 3-M1t
Andy Owen
B F L
Bay Area Challenge Team
B & N
Bernard Do
Best Loft
Bill E
Bionic Loft
Black Mountain Loft
Bob Bostwick
Bronx Boys
C Flores Loft
Callahan Loft
Carlito El Animal & Dammy Matanzas
Carlton Kroese-Crazy Al
Cherokee Loft
Christensen
Christopher Loft
Chumash
Columba Loft
Cuevas Classic (sending)
D B J Loft
David Hoiby Loft
David Trunnell Lofts
El Vicho
Euro Dead
Fassio Loft
Fiallo Loft
Floridian Loft
Flying Dragon Loft
Flying High Lofts
Gabrial Loft
Genesis Syndicate Loft
Gibara Family Loft
Hale Nunu
Highland Loft
Hilltop Loft 2
Hogan Family Lofts
Holts Loft
Ignacio Loft
Ilaloft@yahoo.com
J & B Loft
J H C Loft
Jerzy D Loft
Jiang Tou Loft
Jimmy Zheng Loft
Joe Krchnavi
John V. Partridge
Jsrl
Juan Ganga
La & Vegas Loft
Laemmle & Johnson
Lazy A C Loft
Liab Family Loft
Liberty Loft
Linqing Ni Loft
Lone Peak
M & C Loft
Mads Loft
Majestic Loft
Mc Callister-Branham
Michael Hibbard
Nesheb Racing Loft
Ojibwe Loft
Orlando Golden Classic
Palomera Loft
Perez Family Loft
Perez Pride Loft
Pineda9 Loft
Pleasant Task Farm
PNWC
Red Dragon Loft
Riverside Loft
Roch1290 Y Walter
Rory Smith
Rotweiler Company Loft
Samuel A Miller
Sarrett Racing Pigeons
Siguaraya Ace Team & The Sky King
Silicon Valley Syndicate
Skyrui Loft
Spring Break Race
Stallion
Stone & Mile High
Sun Loft
Sweeny's Flying Fortress
Tao Loft 2
Tavares/Owen
Tian Loft
Timon & Pumba
Torralba Loft
Tres Coronas Loft
Tyler Loft
Villalobos Loft
Whiskey Hollow Loft
Wildman Loft
Y Mtn Loft
YUendez Loft
Yendry Loft
Yosellaj Loft
Z & R Mandigma Loft
Zhao Chen
Zhengloft
Zsc
Again, no need to contact us if you want your birds returned, only if you do not want them returned.
2021 Race info:
After manly long talks, Olga and I have decided that we are going to host the Apple Cup for the 6th year in 2021. We have not updated the site yet with a few minor changes, but it will be done shortly so please be patient.
Perch fees will still remain $100 each, and entry fees $300.
Biggest change is clocking order on all races. We have spoke to many of our breeders and everyone thus far agrees, clocking order is the easiest and fairest way to go.
As was this year, most of the money will be on the final race and we will guarantee a $100,000 first prize again. Our payout this year was based upon 1,000 birds and as advertised if we got more than 1,000 activated the extra $ would be applied to first place which is what we did. We have a little over 1,200 birds activated so first prize was $155,000 instead of $100,000. Since we are going to clocking order only and we expect many more birds next year than this year, we will take any extra $ and evenly divide it amongst the top 10 positions. This way there will not be a huge disparity between 1st and subsequent prizes, however 1st prize will still be hopefully huge, well over $100,000! Please stay tuned, still need to do the math on it so it makes sense and to whereas most of you will be happy.
We are hiring a full time employee for next year, mainly to scrape, spray the loft down with Virkon S daily, and to disenfect waterers daily, feed, etc.
We are selling our 36 crate trailer and our 12 crate release that sits on the back of a truck. We paid $20,000 for the 36 crate trailer that many of you have seen in our videos on Facebook and about $7,000 for the one that sits on the back of a truck. We will be purchasing a much larger trailer that can hold up to 3,000 + birds. If anyone is interested in either please let us know.
Still accepting birds and replacements March, April, and May.
Please, help us in controling the spread of disease by ONLY using new boxes when you ship to us next spring. All boxes that we receive your birds in will be burned, when we return birds in the fall we will use new boxes as we are currently doing.
We brought in 1,500 birds this year, shooting for 2,500 next. Our loft is more than large enough to handle that many birds. We will start accepting pre paid perches 1 Jan, 2021, once we reach 2,500 we will stop accepting reservations.
Last year we had 311 breeders send us birds, 311 made it through activation and 302 breeders made it to the final race. Just thought I would put that out there!
Much more to follow, stay tuned!
This week we concentrated on getting all of the winning pigeons shipped out to their owners and after tomorrow's shipment we will of accomplished this. Next week we will start mailing out birds to those of you who have sent checks for shipping or paid by PayPal.
Monday we shipped out 45 boxes, total cost was $2820.50, so for 45 boxes it worked out to $63.34 per box. We purchased 300 2 bird boxes and it cost us $5,000, this works out to $16.66 per box. Add these two together and it comes out to $80.00 per box, and this is exactly what we are charging. We will not be responsible for disease spread using used boxes and we hope that if you enter our race next year that you use a new box as well for the same reason.
Next week we will start mailing birds back to those of you who have already sent us checks or paid via PayPal for return shipping. Hopefully over the next two weeks we will have all of the birds mailed back to their owners.
After all birds are mailed back we will start mailing checks to those of you who won money, please be patient. If you you won $600 or more you must send a legible W-9 before a check is issued.
We do plan on hosting the race again next year, here are a few areas that most likely will change or be adjusted.
Clocking order on all races to include the final race. This absolutely is set in stone.
Payout will be more progressive with $50,000 for the first bird being guaranteed, this is based upon 1,500 birds activated and $405,000 in prizes, this year we had $325,000 in prizes based upon slightly over 1,200 activated. Based upon 1,500 birds activated, second will be 45K, third 40K, and so on. If we get less than 1,500 activated prizes after the guaranteed $50,000 will be adjusted down, however if we get over 1,500 activated prizes will naturally go up. Not exactly sure how that will work out, but it could be huge based upon us shooting for 2,500 birds and by all indications that is not unrealistic for 2021.
As I just mentioned, we are shooting for 2,500 birds next year and that is just about our loft capacity. We will not accept over 2,500 birds as we refuse to overcrowd your birds. We will start accepting perch reservations starting 1 Jan, 2020, only way to make sure you get in is to pre pay next year.
We are entertaining the thought of races being 100,200,300, and 400. If the 400 mile final scares off too many breeders then we will stick to the same stations we used this year. They worked and even though we jumped from 210 to 350, we still had very good returns on the day considering the shortening winter days and a 80% return rate on the final race. Again, still trying to decide what is best for you the breeder as well as for the longevity of our race.
We are going to have a full time employee for next year, mainly to clean and disenfect the loft daily which our teenage daughter and her cousins did since they were not allowed to attend school. We have always kept the loft clean, but after having had them keep it spotless since after all, they had nothing better to do (not their words mine), we know now more than ever how important and useful it is to have full time workers.
Anyway, that is just a little of what we are thinking for next year. Nothing is set in stone yet, other than the fact we are going to clocking order only and that will not change.
If you have suggestions please wait until after Christmas to give us a call, super busy until things slow down a bit around here.
Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone today!
As mentioned previously, our new boxes were delayed and we did not get them until this past Monday. This coming Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we plan on shipping all of the pigeons belonging to those who won money on the final race, 210 mile race from La Pine, and the 5 AVG speed winnners. This will be roughly 150 boxes split up between three days, our post office says 50 per day is about all they can handle. The following week we will start shipping to those who are due refunds and to those who have already sent in their shipping fees.
We are using new boxes, we will not use old boxes. Our goal is to help stop the spread of diseases which are becoming more of a problem each year so it seems. It is our belief that if every person who ships birds to races next year uses a new box, these are destroyed after birds arrive, then new boxes are used to return birds to their owners, this will put a big dent in the spread of diseases.
The PayPal link is up and running and you can locate it under our PAYMENTS tab on our home page.
If you do not want to pay via PayPal, you can pay by check, money order, etc.
1-2 birds 80.00
3-4 birds 160.00
5-6 birds 240.00
7-8 birds 320.00
9-10 birds 400.00
Birds will be shipped with dividers to stop birds from fighting and to lessen stress while shipping. The birds are in excellent condition and we would like them to be that way when you open the box on your end.
We are utilizing your address and phone number on Wincompanion, if it is not correct fix it immediately. We are filling out shipping labels tonight as I type this and using the information on Wincompanion. If it is incorrect and you know it is incorrect, text me your address and phone number, your first and last name, and your loft name. 254-247-9504.
If you won over $600 send a W-9. Make sure it is legible, your first, middle, and last name is perfectly readable, it must have your SSN# on it or your EIN# and your current address. I can not stress enough, it must be READABLE.
If you won money and will not be home next week then we need to hear from you via text to my phone, not Instant Messanger, email, phone call, just please text.
Olga and I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving today! We are especially thankful that on our 5 year anniversary of hosting the Apple Cup that we had our best year ever! We have plans to host this race for a 6th year, details and slight changes will be announced after we get most of these pigeons and checks mailed out and can take a deep breath.
The new boxes just arrived a few minutes ago. We will start mailing birds starting next Monday, ONLY those who had birds IN THE MONEY on the FINAL RACE will have their birds mailed out next week.
As mentioned previously, our post office is only allowing us to mail 50 boxes per day. After Monday and Tuesday we will find out if 50 is too much for them to handle, or if they can handle a few more, but for now it is only 50 per day. We have over 600 birds to return folks, this is going to take some time so please be patient. We will mail as many back as we can before Christmas, if there are any not mailed back before Christmas then we will mail those out after the New Year.
Olga just said she is going to have the PayPal link up today for return shipping so please stay tuned.
We are using new boxes to return your birds this year. We hope that in the future that all One Loft Race participants would use new boxes to ship birds to races, these boxes would be burned, then the One Loft Race managers would use new boxes to return birds after the series is completed. We strongly feel that if everyone did this it would greatly help in cutting down the spread of diseases at least in the US and CAN.
Please read previous updates, there are more details there that you should be aware of.
We were supposed to get our new boxes in earlier this week but they never arrived. Called the freight company and was just informed that due to bad weather in the Pacific NW the boxes will not be here until Monday. This means that we will not be mailing any birds out this coming Monday the 23rd but instead will start mailing birds Monday the 30th of November and December 1st. Winning breeders on the final race will have their birds mailed first, breeders who had birds in the first 20 on the 220 mile race, then refunds. As mentioned in the previous update just prior to this one, we can only mail a maximum of 50 boxes per day. We figured it up and to mail out just the first 24 breeders on the final race is 50 boxes, there were 51 placements so hopefully all of the breeders who had pigeons in the money on the final race will have their birds mailed back not this Monday and Tuesday but the following Monday and Tuesday which again is Nov 30th and Dec 1st.
There is no need to let us know you want your pigeons, but by all means let us know if you DO NOT want your pigeons.
Olga will have a PayPal link up in the next few days so those of you who did not win any money and do not want to send a check can pay via PayPal.
Sorry for the delay, our hands are tied this time.
We met with the post office yesterday and brought a box with us that we will be using for return shipping. To mail 1-2 birds it will cost on average, $64.50 per box. We purchased 300 new boxes and with shipping to us they cost $16.66 per box, so with shipping and a new box combined comes up to $81.16 per box. We are rounding down to $80.00 per box because we understand some will cost more than $81.16, some will cost less. Please do not ask for a refund if your shipping is a little less than $80.00, we are doing the best we can and what we feel is the most fair to everyone.
Below is what it will cost to ship your birds back. If you did not win any money you can send us a check, address on our site under CONTACT US tab. Hopefully Olga will have the PayPal link up today or tomorrow. There is time for those of you who did not win money to send in your return shipping checks/PayPal because as mentioned in yesterday's updates, we will be mailing back money winner's birds first, then those who are due refunds. We will only be shipping 50 boxes per day on Mondays and Tuesdays, this is going to take several weeks.
1-2 birds $80.00
3-4 birds $160.00
5-6 birds $240.00
7-8 birds $320.00
9-10 birds $400.00
PLEASE READ YOUR UPDATES BEFORE CALLING. We are getting way too mamy calls with the same questions which are covered in the updates.
As mentioned in previous updates, we are not going to divide your birds up and send them to several different locations. The birds entered under a breeder's loft name will be sent to the address on Wincompanion.com under the loft name listed. Make sure the address and phone number is current, if not update it as soon as possible.
