Hello Everyone. I hope you are all doing well. Everything is still going well here. Nothing exciting. We continue to trap-train and loft-in all the birds. We have been really blessed this year. We have lost very few birds lofting them so far.
We had a little sickness in the next to last group. We kept them isolated and treated them. We lost about 6 birds and the owners were contacted. This was over a month ago and it looks as though we are past that part of the season.
It is hot and humid! The heat index is high, with real-feel temps over 100 degrees each day. the birds have expanded metal floors now. The loft is 4ft. off the ground. We have a 'loft within a loft' which means the sections have a big space between the tops of the perch sections and the actual loft roof. The roof is vented. We also have open windows along the back of the loft. All this promotes air flow to help the birds stay comfortable.
That's all for now,
Bobby
(479) 719-3995
Hello Everyone! Everything is going well here so far. We have half the birds lofted in and have been outside many times. We are working on trap-training another group of about 50 birds. They will go outside in about one week.
We hand entered every single bird today. We have 329 birds here right now and a few replacements on the way. We plan to scan each bird and post an inventory list in a few days.
Check out our Homepage on our website at rivervalleyroundup.com. We have pictures and if you scroll down the page you will see our trailer that is being built by Jackson Creek Manufacturing in Denton, North Carolina.
Good Luck to All,
Hello Everyone! It's been hot and humid!
Everything is going scary good so far. We've had no youngbird sickness so far. We have still only lost about 3 birds lofting them in. Replacements have been received.
There's not a lot to report. We have many more birds arriving here tomorrow thru next week. Final birds are being mailed out on Monday. We should have around 325 at least. We anticipate losing a few more as we loft them in and will allow replacements for these.
We have a group of about 50 that will be going out for their 2nd time tomorrow, if the winds die down. We had 40 mph gusts here today (06/09/20).
Good luck to all!
Hello Everyone! I hope you are all doing well and staying safe.
Everything is going great at the River Valley Roundup Race. We continue to receive birds each week. We should have over 200 birds this next week with many more to come.
We have close to 100 birds fully lofted at this time and have more birds finishing their trap-training and preparing to go outside for open-loft soon.
We have only lost 3 birds so far. We have contacted the owners for replacements.
We made a few changes to our website. We are hoping to add weekly short video clips in a couple of weeks.
Although we advertised "Highpoint Bird" Prizes for this year, we are going to change over to "Average Speed" Prizes. Each approach has it's good and bad points, but after 6 years of "Highpoint Bird" we will try "Average Speed" for a while.
That's all for now. Good luck to all!
Hello Everyone. We are sending Steve Helfrich's 2 birds back on Monday. If anyone else has birds here they want back, let me know asap.
Good luck and stay safe.
Hello Everyone. Almost all the birds have been sent back! We should be able to send the very last birds next Monday.
A number of Breeders who won money on the 225 Mile Race have received their checks. The rest of the checks for the 225 Mile Race money winners are going in the mail daily. All will be mailed by the end of the week. These checks include any money won on any other races. Most wanted the return bird shipping deducted. We had to mail their birds to know what amount to deduct. Depending on where the birds go, the amount varies considerably. We have no way to predetermine the amount.
I will begin sending checks to the money winners on the 330 Mile Race (that didn't win money on the 225) next week.
Several breeders requested we deduct the perch fees for the birds they will be sending soon and we have.
Once again, thank you to everyone!
We are shipping out birds every Monday and Tuesday. I will contact each breeder as we randomly get to your birds. You do not need to contact me.
A few birds are arriving for the next race series. We will be taking birds until June 15th. It WILL save you a lot of money to use the new lower profile boxes.
Thank you to everyone for sending great birds to work with! Even though it is a lot of work, time, energy, and effort, I must confess I am a little sad to see this series come to an end. I wish we could keep going a little longer! It gives me great joy to see pigeons in excellent health and condition as they perform in an outstanding manner on race day. They are the most amazing animal athletes on the planet!
We will begin separating each breeders birds on Sunday to ship back on Monday and Tuesday. As we do, we will contact those breeders to see what they want to do with their birds. I will simultaneously total winnings, race fee deductions for those that requested it, and shipping charges, and mail out checks. If you have won $600 or more you will need to send a W-9.
The USPS has doubled their charges. Bird box companies are currently making boxes that are about 12" high and flat on top. This is supposed to lower the price of shipping. Fedex ships live animals and we will be contacting them to get more information. Some people cut the old-style boxes down to make them flat. The USPS is not supposed to accept these boxes as they say the integrity of the box has been compromised. Not all clerks are aware of this yet and some will accept them.
Thursday is the day! There's not a better day for another week or longer.
The forecast is calling for sunny skies and tailwinds. It's a rare day when there are no fronts or systems anywhere along the flight path, unless that changes in the next 36 hours.
We plan to release the birds at 7:45 in Plainview Texas. This increases the distance to about 415 miles.
Please check the race list to confirm all the information for your birds is correct.
If you plan to be here for the race please let me know.
Good luck to everyone!
Hello Everyone. We have more entries for our 400 Mile Race!
We now have 131 birds going to the race and 81 birds in the prize pool! That gives us $8100 for prizes. The payout is as follows:
1st - $2000 6th - $600
2nd - $1650 7th - $400
3rd - $1300 8th - $250
4th - $1000 9th - $100
5th - $800
We will give a Free Perch to the last bird home on the day-of-toss.
We have the basket list posted. We still have to add 5 birds for Callahan Loft and will do that later today.
We are watching the weather. It's been over 2 weeks since we flew the 330 mile race. There has only been 1 good day to fly the 400 from start to finish. That day was predicted to have strong cross winds but for some reason that didn't happen. We can only go by the forecast.
