News and Updates
Oct-09-2021
HAPPY SATURDAY! High Desert Breeders,

Hope you are well and enjoying the fall weather, if you have that. Birds are sitting in the loft today enjoying some rain fall and winds. We have a few storms passing through and then it looks to be some decent weather over the next week. 

Over the past month, we have band-checked all the birds, examined wings and overall health. Your birds are looking really good and handled nicely. All but one had really good weight. A couple we had to give a shot of LA 200 for respiratory infections. Most of them are through the worst of the body molt and they are starting to look like pigeons again. All the birds are together now and we are starting to force them all off the loft and making them fly some. A nice group is already flying an hour plus. Then you have the group that circles 5 times and lands. 

The goal is to get as much loft flying in this fall and get them into good shape. If the weather holds out long enough before winter and the birds are right we will try and get some tosses in. Don't count on that happening but that is always the goal. We will see if winter starts early this year. Most years we are able to fly until Thanksgiving or a little later. 

We will try and post a loft flying inventory every week. Any questions reach out to us. Best of luck to all that are entered in Young Bird OLR's. 

Kenny and Corey
Sep-06-2021
OPEN LOFT High Desert Breeders,

Last heatwave this week before the start of Fall type weather. Sounds like June and July broke lots of records this summer in our area. With that, your birds are doing well. They were able to enjoy a bath and loved it. Birds are in a heavy body molt.

All birds have had the opportunity to go outside. Birds are currently in two groups which we are alternating each day. The oldest group all gets kicked out and made to fly for a little bit. The youngest group just has the aviary opened up and it's free choice for them to go out or stay in. Once the youngest group has had a bit more time to go out on their own, we will start forcing them all out. Some days the air quality and smoke are still too bad to let them out. So that has slowed the process of getting all the birds out. Once all the birds are going outside we will start to run inventories on Wincompanion. Until the next update. 

Kenny and Corey
Aug-22-2021
FINISHED ACCEPTING FOR THE 2022 SERIES High Desert Breeders,

A little less smokey today. The last two weeks have been bad in our valley with smoke and air quality. Over that period of time, the birds have been locked up for over half of those days. The older birds enjoyed playing around in the morning today and the younger birds have an open loft for the afternoon. With the smoke, we have had to be a little more patient with getting the last groups out. Over the next few weeks, the younger group will have the choice of going outside or staying in and then after that, we will start forcing them all outside. All birds but the last two weeks' worth of birds have had the opportunity to get outside. Once all birds are out we will start doing inventories for you to follow. 

We are finished taking in birds for the 2022 series. Looking forward to getting all the birds on the same page and getting some good loft flying in. Thanks to all who sent! Any questions please get ahold of us. 

Kenny and Corey
Aug-08-2021
ONE MORE WEEK High Desert Breeders,

Smoke, smoke, and some more smoke. That's what the last few days have been here in the valley. Birds haven't been outside loft flying since Friday. We are pretty cautious with the smoke and flying the birds. If air quality is poor and visibility is low we will keep the birds locked up. Not sure what the best parameters are but each year we have this smoke, we will figure it out. One of our biggest concerns is the long-term impact the smoke could have on the bird's respiratory system. We don't what the birds compromised for the races. Hopefully, it will start to clear up a little more here shortly as winds will eventually change.

We are accepting birds for ONE MORE week, until 8/15. We also did an inventory of all the birds that have been outside at the beginning of last week. If you haven't checked that out please do so.

Looking forward to getting all the birds out and in the air this Fall. We have a very nice group of youngsters from you all. Thanks and any questions please get ahold of us. 

Kenny and Corey
Aug-01-2021
TWO WEEKS LEFT High Desert Breeders,

Happy Sunday. We have finally received some rain here in the high desert. Yesterday evening we received about a half-inch which is not common for us. Thunder and rain continue this afternoon. The rain is nice and so is not having smoke in the valley. The hills are clear for at least a few days. Birds were able to go outside this morning and play around before the next storm rolled in. Birds continue to go out each day weather allows. We are currently just doing a free choice for birds to go outside and fly. All birds but the last two weeks are outside. 

Just a friendly reminder, we are taking in birds for the next two weeks before we are done accepting birds for the 2022 series. If you would like to test your birds against the mountains and the heat of Nevada. This would be that race. Any questions, please get ahold of us. Thanks. 

Kenny and Corey
Jul-25-2021
ACCEPTING BIRDS UNTIL 8/15/2021 High Desert Breeders,

Hope this finds everyone well. Summer is flying by. After talking with several breeders, we are taking all birds until 8/15/2021, not just replacements. We will have an inventory of the birds in the first part of August. All birds have had the opportunity to go outside, except birds from the last two weeks. All breeders have been notified if they have lost a bird due to sickness. We have been very fortunate with overall very healthy birds with the heat this summer. USPS continues to get most boxes here in two days. 

We have had smoke from fires here in our valley the last two weeks. Air quality is still good enough to continue to open up the loft daily. It has hindered our ability to road train our personal team for club racing. We shall see what happens with fires and smoke over the next couple of months. 

That is all for now. Thanks. 

Kenny and Corey
Jul-03-2021
INTAKE UPDATE High Desert Breeders,

Happy 4th of July weekend to all! Intake of birds has gone very smoothly so far this year. USPS has done a great job of getting boxes here in two days. We have had a couple take 3 days. Birds have been in good shape coming out of the boxes. Always can be scary with the heat.

We currently have 288 birds in the loft. Once Wincompanion gets wiped out for the 2021 series we will input the 2022 birds that we have received. We have wrapped up 2021. All birds have been shipped out. All checks were put in the mail last week and Monday; unless we have talked. 

Your birds are doing well. All birds received before 6/12 have had free choice to go out every day. Some birds are grouping together nicely and flying 20+ minutes. Others are happy to just sit on the loft and others are even more excited to go peck at the rocks on the ground. Birds received 6/17-6/26 will start to have free choice of going out in the afternoons this weekend. 

Just to recap what happens when birds are received. They are put in quarantine pens for a week or so and if they look good, that week's worth of birds go into a section in the main loft. While in quarantine pens they are vaccinated, wormed, and dipped to be debugged. Then they enter the main loft. While in the main loft, we use lots of different canker medications through the hot summer months, as that is one thing that can easily pop up with all the stressors they encounter. We regularly put Primalac and Oregano in their drinkers. Drinkers are switched out every day and soak in 55 gallons of bleach water. Lofts are cleaned regularly and disinfected with Virkon S. Pretty much the same stuff many other OLR's do to help maintain the health of the birds. 

Just a friendly reminder that we will be done taking in new birds the first week of August. Any questions please get ahold of us. Thanks!

Kenny and Corey
Jun-17-2021
SHIPPING BIRDS OUT AND HIGH DESERT 2022 SERIES High Desert Breeders,

Thanks again to everyone who let us handle your birds this past year! It is always amazing to see such a small creation conquer such incredible feats. 

We will be shipping out the rest of the birds Monday and Tuesday (June 21 and 22). If you haven't heard from us about shipping, your bird is still at the loft. When we ship out birds we will contact you via text or email with the tracking number. Unless you have given us an address to use, please be sure that your Wincompanion information is current because that is what we will use for a shipping address. If you will be gone next week or need birds shipped on a certain day please contact us. If you want your bird back and have not contacted us please do so. All 2021 birds that are not claimed will be leaving our premises Thursday, June 24th. With the intake of 2022 birds already in process, it is time to move out with the old and in with the new. Once birds are shipped out we will start getting checks in the mail. Be sure to get us a W-9 if you won over $600. 

For the 2022 series, we are taking in birds until the first week of August, 7 more weeks. Then a week for replacements. We are just over 170 birds at the moment. Don't forget to include a bird list and what vaccines you have done when you ship your birds. If you want you can use the Perch Form. Printable and fillable. Any questions about the race look at the webpage or contact us.

Thanks!

Kenny and Corey
 
Jun-14-2021
FINAL WRAP UP AND SHIPPING BIRDS High Desert Breeders,

Congratulations to the breeders with birds on the 1st drop! And congrats to everyone who ended up with a day bird. It's a lot of miles to travel with tough terrain to navigate, limited water, and heat to boot. The birds that made it home are some tough puppies.

We have had some internet issues at the house. It went down yesterday at noon and hopefully will be resolved tomorrow. Likes to do this when it's needed the most. That's what happens when you live in the country and the only option you have is hillbilly internet. I was able to use a friend's phone tonight with a hotspot to get all the birds uploaded from the last day and a half. Wincompanion is current as of 9:00 pm on Sunday. 

I would like to take a second and brag about Sam Haslem's bird 158. This Blue Check Hen is flat-out a phenomenal racer. Winner of average speed (almost 2 hrs), on the drop from the 300 and 380-mile race. Not only that, this bird would go fly an extra 2 hours or so after a 40 mile or 60-mile toss once the races started and she was feeling good. You can go look at her trainers to verify. She would take a small group of hens with her and go tripping. There is only one other pigeon out of 11 yrs that I recall that compares to what this pigeon has done this year in this series. Finding those special birds is what makes running a race like this worth it. 

One more quick shout-out to Keyways 68, Blue Bar-Hen. 3rd average speed, 5th place on the 300-mile race (came in all by her lonesome), and on the drop from 380. Another gem that revealed herself through the race series. 

If you would like your birds back, please email or text and let us know ASAP. You can call too but having something in writing helps us out a lot. If you won money, we will take shipping out of your winnings. We will try and ship out some boxes of birds this Tuesday. And the goal will be to ship out everything else on June 21st and 22nd. If we don't hear from you by this Friday the assumption will be that you don't want your birds.

Also if you won more than $600, get us a W-9. You can email us a copy or mail it. We will try and get those checks out in the next couple of weeks as we get the needed forms. Any questions get ahold of us.

Once we get 2021 Wrapped up, we will close out Wincompanion for 2021 and start inputting the 2022 season birds into Wincompanion. We currently have around 160 in the loft for next year. 

Thanks again for letting us put your birds through a tough series that really tests their abilities. Another season is in the books!

Kenny and Corey
Jun-11-2021
BIRDS LIBERATED FOR FINAL! Good Morning,

Birds were released this morning at 7 am. They all circled up nicely and started to head toward Vegas but then decided they had better head home. Winds for the first 100 or so miles should be on their nose. Then over the rest of course it should switch to a slight tail wind. Temperatures should be in the high 70's as the weather heats up and a few spots will crest 80. It should be a good test for your birds. 

It could be an 8 hour flight or it could be a 9+ hour flight for the lead birds. So many unknowns of what they will run into in the rugged Nevada Terrain. 

Food will be ready around Noon if you plan on watching the birds come in. 

Best of luck to all and thanks for letting us care for your birds and test them. It was a very fun group of birds to work with!

Kenny and Corey
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