April is here and it has brought some wonderful weather to the Hoosier Classic. For almost a week we have seen temperatures range from the 50's to the low 80's, and with it has brought plenty of sunshine. The birds are loving the weather and the sun both in the main loft as well as in the quarantine. Often we find the birds in quarantine laying in the aviaries, wings spread soaking up the sun. The birds in the main loft are going out everyday weather permitting which for the past week has been basically every day. We have had a few days where the wind picks up a bit in the afternoon but the birds seem to be handling it well. The birds that are out flying really seem to enjoy being out and are definitely soaking up their surroundings. Every week we have birds moving over to the main loft now and they immediately begin to start learning the traps. After a few days of trap training they are then let out of the settling cages. All birds are vaccinated upon arrival and then again when they come out of quarantine which is approximately 2 weeks after arrival. The overall health is great right now and the birds activity levels certainly prove that. Again, the changes to both the main loft and the quarantine loft have proven to be beneficial for the birds. We are extremely happy with the way the improvements to the loft have benefited the birds. Last week we saw major delays with the post office in the arrival of birds. Kelly has spent a lot of time on the phone with fanciers and post office employees trying to track down boxes last week and we were informed this week that the delays are coming from FEDEX, as they move the USPS Express Packages around the country. Last week we saw very few boxes during the week but by Friday got a call to pick up 44 in the morning. Thankfully everyone that was missing a box had it show up by Friday. This week we have seen much better movement with the birds, not to say the problem has been solved, however they are arriving much better with 17 boxes on Tuesday and 19 on Wednesday. We expect more Thursday as well with calls we have received asking if birds arrived. So even though there are some delayed we are hopeful the shipping delays are close to being over. We currently have over 2250 birds in the lofts and expect to see many more over the next few weeks. Please continue to watch the clocking to see if you need to replace a bird missing during settling. If you have questions regarding your birds or are unsure if they are in the main loft or quarantine please feel free to contact the office and we can try to help you. We of course will not be able to find your bird in the lofts but we can try to calculate if the bird(s) may still be in quarantine. And finally we would like to remind everyone that when shipping birds to please send payments with the birds. Perch fees are required to accompany the birds and there seems to be a trend of birds coming in but no perch fees. Keeping track of unpaid birds is not an easy task and will result in your birds being put on hold in Wincompanion. This is the easiest way for us to keep track of unpaid birds.
We hope everyone has a great rest of the week and as always feel free to contact us with any questions. If Jim or Kelly are not available to talk we will either call you back within a few hrs or Maureen can help you. We currently spend a lot of time between lofts with settling, vaccinating, and intaking birds.
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