HC

 

 

 News and Updates
Sep-16-2024
BIRDS FOR SALE
6 BIRDS FOR SALE -
 
BUYERS RETAINS OWNERSHIP (unless bird places in the top 100 and goes to auction),
KEEPS ANY AND ALL PRIZE MONEY
$600 per bird
 
VK 8708
MD 100
ARPU 20103 - SOLD
ARPU 20114 - SOLD
ARPU 20165
ARPU 20166
Sep-14-2024

Activation payments are due by Wednesday September 18th.   


All birds have to be paid for prior to the 1st race. 


Please get your payments in so we can get the races started.  We have many that have sent information for tracking numbers for payments that have been mailed in.   If you do not plan to activate your birds, please contact us and we will list them For Sale.  
Unpaid birds after the deadline will be sold, and breeder will lose all rights to the bird(s) and/or any prize money. 

If you need to pay using a credit card, the office will be open on Saturday 9/14, from 8:30 - 12:00 to take phone payments.  Please call the office directly to make payments at 219-733-0011. 
Please do not call Jim, he does not process payments and will refer you to the office.  

If you make a payment using the PayPal links on our website, please note...PayPal does not provide any notes you may enter regarding loft name or # of birds.  If the name on the payment does not match the Loft Name, please send us a separate email with the payment info and loft name. 

Have a great weekend everyone and we can't wait to get the races started.
Sep-10-2024
ENTRY FEES NOW DUE
Congratulations to Orozco Loft for the 1st bird in the clock today. 
It was a much faster activation than anticipated.  A few groups of birds went past the loft as we seen many return from the East.  As of this evening we have a 96% return from.  Birds will stay in the loft tomorrow, will be back loft flying on Wednesday and training on Thursday.

Everyone's Favorite Part.....Payments!

Entry fees are now due for the 2024 season.  Payments must be received by Sept 19th.  This allows for 10 days for payments to be collected.  
Payment options are listed below.  As always, if sending payments though the Post Office, PLEASE send with some type of tracking number.  Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, Certified, etc,.  There are several businesses that have had checks stolen in the mail within the Chicago and NW Indiana area.  It has happened to not only Vita King, but other fanciers that either do business in the area or have mailed payments to fanciers in this area.  We believe the problem stems from the Chicago Sorting Facility, and our mail is processed through this location.  If Money Orders are stolen it can be a major problem trying to get your money back. For your own protection, add a tracking number that can be monitored. 

Please remember this is an ALL OR NOTHING ACTIVATION.  All birds returning from the activation have to be paid for.  You can not pick and choose which birds you want to activate.  Any unpaid teams will be sold after the 19th. We have fanciers calling daily to get unpaid birds, they will sell quick.  IF you do not plan to activate, please contact our office and we can begin to offer them for sale.  
 
PayPal & Credit Card Payments will have processing fees applied
Sep-08-2024
Below is a link to a 15 min long video of the birds prior to the 100 Mile Activation. 

Activation will be tomorrow 9/9/2024.  We are aiming for a 7:00 am release, with temperatures in the low 50's and sunny skies in the forecast.   Birds are looking and feeling great.  We wish everyone the best of luck.  We will have a live stream of the arrivals at the loft tomorrow on our YouTube channel.  You can use the link below to access today's video as well as the livestream tomorrow. 

Payments from the Sprint Series were moved for every breeder that had entered and were applied to the activation.  Emails were sent to each breeder with the credit for your account, if a valid email was available.

There were 10 birds that were removed today with injuries that will not heal for them to participate in the series.  They have been marked as "Injured" on the eligible list, and breeders were notified via email or text. 

We will send more information out tomorrow regarding payments for activation, however as a brief note, we would like to have all activation payments in within 7-10 days to allow the races to begin.  Please plan accordingly to ensure payments are made on time.  If using the post office to mail payments we HIGHLY SUGGEST mailing with some sort of tracking number (ex: priority mail, priority mail express, certified, etc.)
Walk through and look at some birds prior to activation
Sep-08-2024
PLEASE READ - SPRINT & ACTIVATION

Unfortunately, the Sprint Series will not be available for this year.  Due to a technical issue with Sprint Series Races overlapping into the 4 Main Races for Average Speed it makes it impossible to calculate correctly.  We have spent some time on the phone with Terry from Wincompanion looking for a solution and there is nothing that works without drastically changing the "Average Speed" calculation after the 165 mile race.  The only other solution would be to include the 100 mile activation in the Average Speed calculation, however that would be changing the rules of this being a 4 Race Series and we do not want to change rules just before the start of the series.  Cancelling the Sprint Series is the fairest option at this point. 
Spint Series payments can either be Refunded, OR can be moved towards a payment for activation. We will automatically add any Sprint Series Payments to your activation total, UNLESS you contact our office for a refund.  Once activation is complete, if you have made a payment towards the Sprint Series you can contact our office to confirm your activation total and ensure that Sprint Payments were moved to activation.  
We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.   

With that being said, the Activation will be on Monday, September 9th.  The birds had some great trainers this week and are feeling great.  We have not trained over the weekend due to it being the 2nd weekend of dove season as well as rain yesterday and today that lasted for most of the morning. 

Have a great rest of the weekend & Good Luck on the Activation.
Sep-02-2024
UPCOMING WEEK

We will resume training tomorrow.  Our plan is 55 miles tomorrow and 70 miles on Wednesday.  

Birds continue to exercise well, and appetites are great.  Many of the birds are through the molt while others will be finishing soon.

Sprint Series 
Now is the time to nominate your Sprint Series birds. The series will be 3 races 100-125-165 mile races.  The series is basically a "short" average speed and will payout to the top 3 average speed winners between the 3 races.  The entry fee is $125 per bird due now. There is a PayPal option on our website for the Sprint Series.  If you choose to pay using that option, you will still need to contact us to tell us which bird because the online PayPal system does not show us any notes.  The office will be open tomorrow at 8.00 am CST to make payments.  219-733-0011

If training goes well this week, we plan on activation being over the weekend or Monday.  We will be monitoring the weather for the best day. 

Have a great week everyone!
Aug-28-2024
NO TRAINING TODAY

Our hope was to train today, however due to overnight rain that lingered into this morning we are not training.  The rain has left low clouds and the sun not peaking through, making for an unfavorable sky for the birds.  We will aim to be back on the road tomorrow. 

Have a great day
Aug-25-2024
Birds have been trained everyday this week with trapping getting better everyday.  The birds have now gone 55 miles twice.  Yesterday we had 3300 birds trap in about 15 minutes, while today we can clearly see the birds got into some trouble along the way.  The training location was the same, however by 9:00 am we started to see birds coming from every direction.  We are going through the loft this evening and checking for injuries as we have seen several today.  After we contact breeders regarding injures (notifications will be via email), we will post a list. 

Our afternoon temperatures did rise to around 90 degrees and we will see heat indexes around 100 degrees the next 3 days.  We have been asked when activation will be.  Our goal was August 31st however with the next few days of heat as well as dove season starting this coming Sunday it looks to be more like sometime between September 6th - 9th will be activation.  We will only fly during the week for the first 2 weeks of September.

Our team has worked hard to prepare the birds for a successful season, and we don't plan to rush them at this point. 

Remember there will be a "Sprint Series" this year.  $125 per bird due before the 100-mile activation.  The Sprint Races will be based on the 100 - 125 - 165 miles.  If your bird does not go to the 100-mile activation, your entry fee of $125 will be refunded.  

Top 3 birds will receive prizes.  Prize payouts are listed below in the Sprint Series Flyer.  To enter the Sprint Series please call the office to pay or send a check.  If you do plan to send a check, please call us anyway so we can make note and ensure the birds are eligible and look for your payment.  (Processing fees apply for credit card payments)

Birds will loft fly tomorrow morning and afternoon.  Keep an eye on WhatsApp & Facebook for videos.
We will update again Tuesday or Wednesday with a plan once the heat lets up. 

Have a great week.
Aug-19-2024
TODAY'S TRAINING

Birds are home, however we have had a hawk today that has been very relentless and has a large group still flying. 

 

We are continuing to monitor them and hopefully get them in soon.  
Aug-15-2024
TRAINING UPDATE

There is no training today due to the weather.  If there is no rain in the morning we will be back training.  The weather looks a bit sketchy today through Sunday.  After that it looks as if we will have 10 great days for training.

At this point health is very good.  The birds have adjusted to their schedules of training every morning and a loft fly every afternoon of 30-45 minutes.  All birds are offered a bath 3 times a week.

As for training, if our release point allows us to release all birds together we will.  Most of the releases have been a mass release.
Any late arrivals after the afternoon loft fly are trapped in their own section for evaluation and immediate access to food and water. 

Just a reminder that we have a WhatsApp group chat that we upload videos to from the trainings.  We try to upload those same videos to Facebook.  If you would like to get added to the WhatsApp group please send us an email with your telephone number and we will send a link to get added to the group. 
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