We are happy to finally say that the new loft is now ready for the 2020 season.  We have posted a video of the loft on our YouTube page with a walk through of the new loft along with the new security system installed.  

We start accepting birds on Wednesday February 12th.  We have had several calls over the weekend from fanciers who were shipping birds out yesterday.  Please remember we recommend vaccinating your youngsters at least 2 weeks before shipping them to any one loft race.  We have detailed our intake process below regarding what will happen to your birds once they arrive at the Hoosier Classic

1. All Birds are vaccinated for PMV using the KM-PMV vaccine
2. All birds are treated for external parasites using "Spot On" by Klaus
3. Birds are placed in quarantine for 7 days and given 2 days of Vita Pro Combo
4. While in quarantine birds are treated for Canker using "Tricho-Green" by Dr. Peeters
5. One week after the birds arrive at the Hoosier Loft they are vaccinated for paratyphoid using the KM-1 Vaccine
6. After 1 week in quarantine they will be moved to the main loft.  Once in the main loft they will not mix with any other groups of birds until after they have been settled. 

All products used during the intake process are available through Vita King Products.  
We have provided tips below for fanciers to help ensure that their birds arrive in a healthy and stable condition.  Preparation on the breeders part sets your birds up for success during a One Loft Race.  

Don't Miss your chance to compete against the best birds in the world.  
We are currently over 3300 perches reserved.  The 2020 Season will be a very exciting one with $1,265,000 Million in Prizes.  No Race in North America Guarantees this much in prizes.
If you need help signing up feel free to call the office at 219-733-0011 or sending us an email

Link to the latest YouTube Video    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CaqO-nPbdE 

UPDATE FROM 10/16/2019

Unfortunately under a load of stress I have made a wrong decision as to how to handle the prize money.  In the last 48 hrs our world has come crashing down.  All I had on my mind were the birds lost in the fire.  There is a clause in our rules that states under catastropic events all entry money will refunded.  I should not have acted so fast.  If the heat of the moment I thought of only the birds going to the final race.

We will refund all "activation" money for birds activated after the 100 mile race.  We will also honor the winnings of race 3 & 4.  There will be NO average speed payout because the final race was cancelled.  

Now I have to take the gloves off!!  I have ALWAYS taken the high road and never spoke bad of anyone in the race.  I have watched my family cry for the last time.  Leaving the banquet Sunday evening we were surrounded by individials who thought it was the right time to come after us.  Last night we read that Eastern Pearl Loft (Yan Zheng) and Chen Loft (Dave Chen) believe WE set the loft on fire.  SHAME ON BOTH OF YOU!  What do we gain by this?  Why would I let my family go through this? Get Your Facts Straight!

Again, checks will be mailed out early next week.  There are several fanciers who had birds show up later and not paid for.  We will go breeder by breeder when figuring refunds.  Please keep in mind there were over 800 breeders in the race and this will take up to 2 weeks to figure.  All High Roller payments will begin to be refunded today.

We will host a race in 2020.  There will be no old bird races as we will use this loft for the young bird series.  All old birds will start to ship back in two weeks.  Any perch fees pre paid for old birds will be refunded as well.  Give us a couple of weeks and we will update with terms of next years race.  We will rebuild the million dollar loft and race, but to have it ready by March 1st would be really pushing it.  We want to believe we are resilient, but it is difficult to be when you are made to feel that you are involved in wrong doing.

Thank you to everyone for your support and I apologize for making the wrong decision so fast.  Again all I had on my mind was the birds lost in the fire.  This will be made right in the next few weeks.

Jim

Unfortunately under a load of stress I have made a wrong decision as to how to handle the prize money.  In the last 48 hrs our world has come crashing down.  All I had on my mind were the birds lost in the fire.  There is a clause in our rules that states under catastropic events all entry money will refunded.  I should not have acted so fast.  If the heat of the moment I thought of only the birds going to the final race.

We will refund all entry money for birds activated after the 100 mile race.  We will also honor the winnings of race 3 & 4.  There will be NO average speed payout because the final race was cancelled.  

Now I have to take the gloves off!!  I have ALWAYS taken the high road and never spoke bad of anyone in the race.  I have watched my family cry for the last time.  Leaving the banquet Sunday evening we were surrounded by individials who thought it was the right time to come after us.  Last night we read that Eastern Pearl Loft (Yan Zheng) and Chen Loft (Dave Chen) believe WE set the loft on fire.  SHAME ON BOTH OF YOU!  What do we gain by this?  Why would I let my family go through this? Get Your Facts Straight!

Again, checks will be mailed out early next week.  There are several fanciers who had birds show up later and not paid for.  We will go breeder by breeder when figuring refunds.  Please keep in mind there were over 800 breeders in the race and this will take up to 2 weeks to figure.  All High Roller payments will begin to be refunded today.

We will host a race in 2020.  There will be no old bird races as we will use this loft for the young bird series.  All old birds will start to ship back in two weeks.  Any perch fees pre paid for old birds will be refunded as well.  Give us a couple of weeks and we will update with terms of next years race.  We will rebuild the million dollar loft and race, but to have it ready by March 1st would be really pushing it.  We want to believe we are resilient, but it is difficult to be when you are made to feel that you are involved in wrong doing.

Thank you to everyone for your support and I apologize for making the wrong decision so fast.  Again all I had on my mind was the birds lost in the fire.  This will be made right in the next few weeks.

Jim

Thank you to everyone that has called, emailed, and stopped by yesterday and today to offer their prayers and support.  Complete strangers who do not fly the Hoosier Classic have called to offer support.  Emails have come from around the world.  We are truly blessed to be involved in such a great sport with so many great people.

We have been asked by some if the fire has been reported.  Please understand that when you have a fire the such as this it has to be investigated.  We are waiting on a professional inspection of "Cause and Origin" to determine the cause.  Once we know the cause we will share this information with everyone.  There has been much speculation as to how this may have happened.  We will not jump to conclusions until a professional finding is released. 

As far as dispersing of prize money we guaranteed a payout of $1,272,000.  Of that total $5500 was paid out on the 180 mile race and $3400 was paid out on the 220 mile race.  This leaves $1,233,000 in prize money.
The fairest way to handle this is to divide the $1,233,000 by the number of birds that were going to the final race.  The last loft fly showed 1922 pigeons.  This would pay approximately $641.51 per bird.  Again these 1922 pigeons flew all of the previous races and would have been shipped to the final.  We understand there are some people who may be upset with this decision.  I know we will never make everyone happy, but again feel these birds making it this far deserve to split the winnings.  It will take a few days to get all the information organized with the help of Wincompanion and we will start to get checks out later this week and early next week.  

My family and I have hosted the Hoosier Classic for 7 years now.  Some expect us to cut and run.  However our plan is to start building a new loft in a couple of weeks. For those that choose to enter the season for 2020 we offer a 5 bird team for $1000.  We understand some may be angry or disappointed in what happened this season as so are we.  However we love this great sport and the many friends we have made over the years.  For those who fly the yearling/old bird series we will update later this week once we have a better handle on if there is enough previous entries to hold the race.

I can not stress enough as to how sorry we are to everyone who lost pigeons in this tragedy.  Never in a lifetime would I have ever thought this would of happened.  

Please take time to enjoy your family, hug your children and tell them you love them.  My sons are my hero's after witnessing them trying to run into a fire this past Sunday morning.

Many have read on Facebook and an email from iPigeon that the Hoosier Loft has burned down overnight.  It is in fact true and we as a family are completely devastated.  We are heartbroken at this time and are trying to process the events from overnight. 

Our family has spent hundreds of hours working in this loft and it has become our life.  We are thankful that are children are safe, but we are devastated at the loss of something that we lived to do on a daily basis.  We are at a loss for words at this time.

We have asked Mike & Debbie Ganus to continue to host the auction and to host the banquet as well.  We know that everyone participating is at as much of a loss as we are and we would like for everyone that is in town to please attend the banquet, enjoy your evening and the company of others that love this sport as much as we do. 

We are resilient, we are workers, we love this sport and we love what we do. 

Thank you everyone for your prayers and we are asking that everyone give us a few days to process and deal with the fire department and inspectors

Jim & Kelly Ward

The birds were released for the 220 Mile Race from Salem, IL  at 7:15 am this morning into partly cloudy skies with a temperature of 52 degrees and a NNW wind of 2 mph.  

Best of Luck to Everyone!