News and Updates
Mar-28-2024
THIS WEEK'S INTAKE

Over the last 2 days we have added 225 more birds to the loft, they are in the quarantine cages and will be assigned chips next Tuesday and put in a section of their own.  They will spend a week looking out the aiviaries and getting use to the loft, the following week trap trained, the following week settled.  This is our 4th week of intake and this is how we usually do things from intake to settling. 

Week 3 birds are looking out the aiviaries this week, they will be trap trained next week. 

Week 1 and 2 birds were merged this week.  We should of already had week 1 settled however we have had a lot of rain lately and we did not want them taking baths in the puddles around the loft.  This early in the season when they are still working their "buggs" out, if they are all huddled up in water puddles canker will rear it's ugly head so it is better to wait for the ground to dry up and for us to get some sunny days to get them settled.  We also don't want to let them out for the first time and it starts raining, some will just sit in the rain all day and if away from the loft will stay out overnight putting themselves in harms way.  Game plan is to let them out for the first time on Monday or Tuesday, in the meantime they are being trap trained every morning being called in for food.  

We added 2 more traps this morning, the birds are really enjoying more entry points to the inside of the loft.  We however do not have all the cables to link all of the traps to the clock, they are on order and as soon as we get them we will run a inventory of the first 2 week's worth of birds, the first inventory was 1st week birds only.  

Health is holding, we have removed 3 birds so far and we have had 1,041 birds arrive this year so their should be 1,038 birds in the loft.  

For those of you who do not read all of our updates, here again is our shipping instructions.  

Vaccinate for PMV at least 2 weeks before sending.  

Register on Wincompanion before sending, you can go to our Home Page and click on Sign Up to do so.  

Put your Loft Name on the top of the lid when you ship, preferably on the shipping label.  

Mail on Monday, Tuesday at the latest, our post office is closed Saturday so do not risk your birds getting stuck over the weekend.  

PLEASE, follow the above instructions, it makes thigs here run so much more smoothly if you do.

If your birds are entered under our Breeders List that means your birds arrived.  If they are not on the list check your tracking numbers through USPS.COM and let us know you have birds enroute.  

Game plan is to do a chip and health check early June, pull the 9th and 10th flights, then start road training late July to early August.  Hopefully we will have the activation race early September around Labor Day and can get the races completed early October and birds mailed back in November. 

Thanks for the tremendous support everyone, there are currently over 1,000 birds in the loft and over 2,200 perch reservations.  Our goal this year was to hit 2,500 birds, with 6 more weeks on intake it looks like that is going to happen!

Everyone have a great Easter weekend!

 

Rick & Olga 

Mar-28-2024
ALL BIRDS ENTERED THAT ARRIVED TODAY

All birds that arrived today have been entered in to Wincompanion.  Click on our Breeders List and scroll down to your Loft Name, there you can see the birds that have arrived here today or in past weeks. 

I will give a more detailed weekly report after we finish intake this week.  Basically, the first two weeks birds are trap training together, we planned on letting them out this week but we had hard rain earlier in the week.  We like them to go out when it is raining but not the first few times they are being settled.  We will wait for some nice weather on consecutive days to get the first birds settled.  Health is great, removed 1 bird last week and 2 this week, out of nearly 1,000 pigeons we will take that, breeders were notified.  Again, more detailed report in a few days.  

 

Rick & Olga

Mar-22-2024
APPLE CUP WEEK IN REVIEW!

We picked up another 240 birds this week, total numbers are about 2,000 perch reservations and nearly 800 in the loft.  Next week we will start loft flying the birds that arrived the first week, 2nd week birds will be trap trained, the birds that arrived this week will have chips assigned Tuesday and go in the loft.  Thank you all for your continued support of the Apple Cup, a little boy's dream come true!

As many know, Phil Hubis of Loan Oak Loft is getting out of the sport due to having a stroke last winter.  We hope Phil has a full recovery and one day can get back in to this sport that we all enjoy so much.  Phil has decided to have a complete sell out of his birds, he only breeds from 8 pair and they either have to of been top racers or top breeders to stay around Phil's loft.  Olga and I are proud to become the new owners of two of Phil's proven flyers that flew in One Loft Races, below is a brief description from what we know of these two gems headed our way. 

2216 LOL 2022 Hen

1st AVG Speed in the Sooner Challenge 327 birds, 1 hr 23 minutes ahead of the 2nd AVG Speed bird. 

Now here is the remarkable part about this pigeon, you just don't see this often, if ever. 

1st 200 miles

1st 250 miles

1st 325 miles

1st 400 miles

To say we are stoked to have this pigeon headed our way is a understatement!

The second bird is 2103 LOL  2021 Cock

3rd AVG Speed TX Dash For Cash out of 764 birds. 

We have had a great week taking in new birds, corresponding with new breeders, securing some great impactful breeders......sometimes it just all comes together!

Thank you Loan Oak Loft for these two outstanding pigeons with excellent race records, we hope to make you proud!

If sending pigeons to the Apple Cup please read our previous updates, there is a lot of information on shipping pigeons to us this year.  I will abbreviate for those who do not want to read previous updates.  

Vaccinate for PMV at least 2 weeks before sending. 

Ship on Monday or Tuesday only, our post office is closed on Saturdays. 

Register on Wincompanion before sending. 

Put your loft name on the shipping label.

Do not overcrowd your boxes. 

Please do not tape your box lids so tight that the birds can not breathe, heat escapes out of the top flap, just put a zip tie on the ends and they will be fine. 

Everyone have a great weekend, yours truly is going to go dream about future matings with the new additions we have coming from Loan Oak Loft, thanks again Phil Hubis!

 

Rick & Olga

Mar-20-2024
ALL BIRDS ENTERED THAT ARRIVED TODAY

If your birds arrived today they have been entered under our Breeders List.  Just click on the Breeders List and scroll down to find your Loft Name, if birds are entered they are here. 

We brought in a little over 100 birds today, between tomorrow and Friday we should get about the same. 

There are currently 1,900 perches reserved and there are 655 birds in the loft.  So far no birds have had to be removed due to sickness. 

Rick & Olga

Mar-19-2024
QUICK APPLE CUP UPDATE

First week birds are trap training all of this week, they will be let out for the first time next week and once trapping nicely we will run a inventory. 

The birds that arrived last week had chips assigned today and were put in the loft where they will look out the aiviaries for a week, the following week they will be trap trained. 

There is a lot of information on the Apple Cup in the previous updates, please read them if you have questions because in most cases the answer to your question is covered there already. 

Simple shipping instructions below. 

Vaccinate for PMV at least 2 weeks before sending. 

Ship on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. 

Register before sending.

Put Loft Name on top of the box, on the shipping label is preferred. 

Do not overcrowd your birds, temps are starting to increase. 

Looking forward to a new group arriving tomorrow. 

Everyone have a great day!

 

Rick & Olga

 

Mar-14-2024
ALL BIRDS ENTERED THAT ARRIVED TODAY, STILL UNASSIGNED BIRDS.

All of the birds that arrived this week so far have been entered in Wincompanion and can be viewed under our Breeders List, if you click on your Loft Name under the Breeders List and your birds are listed it means they arrived.  I am sure we will get a few tomorrow which is Friday. 

Still trying to identify the breeder whose birds arrived yesterday, from what I could read it said Masters of the Midway, however no such breeder exists.  The three birds are FAMP 124, 102, and 109.  If you know who this may be please tell them to contact us so we can get their birds properly assigned. 

We have over 1,800 perch reservations and there are currently 535 birds in the loft.  Last week arrivals are out in the aiviary looking out the loft, the birds that arrived this week are in the quarantine cages until next Tuesday when we assign chips and put them in the loft. 

If we don't update before next week, everyone have a great weekend!

 

Rick & Olga

Mar-14-2024
UNIDENTIFIED BREEDER TODAY, PLEASE READ AND HELP IF YOU CAN!

We processed a bunch of new birds today and there is one breeder's birds who we are not sure who they belong to.  On the box it says Masters of the Midway, however there is no breeder signed up under that loft name and there is no loft name on Wincompanion under that loft name.  We placed those birds under Monsters of the Midway Loft House of Dragons, this is the closest we could find.  The birds are listed below. 

FAMP 124

FAMP 102

FAMP 109

If you know who this breeder is, please send us a text at 254-247-9504 so we can get them assigned under the right breeder.  I could not read the label, could not read the phone number, that is why I am asking for help. 

VERY IMPORTANT, register before sending, put the loft name on top of the box preferably on the shipping label as the post office often times puts their labels over your loft names.  Thanks in this matter. 

One breeder sent 7 birds in a box designed for 3-4, only 4 birds survived.  PLEASE, do not overcrowd your boxes!  This breeder also taped up the top lid so tight no air could escape.  It is not necessary to tape your boxes, pull all cardboard off of the vents and just zip tie the lid.  The hot air can escape out the top of the lid, but not if you tape it up like Fort Knox. 

Everyone have a good evening, looking forward to new arrivals in the morning!

All birds from last week had chips assigned yesterday and today was their 2nd day in the loft.  They will get a whole week to look around and get familiar with looking out the loft, the following week they will be trap trained for 7 days, then we will settle them.  We do it this way every year, week they arrive they are in quarantine cages, 1 week to look around the loft an play in the aiviaries, then 1 week of trap training before being let out for the first time. 

 

Rick & Olga

Mar-10-2024
1600 PERCHES RESERVED AND GROWING EVERY DAY!

We brought in 331 birds this week, none showed up today so that means everyone's birds arrived by Friday. 

There are over 1,600 perches reserved so far and it is growing daily.  Our goal was at least 2,000 birds this year, looks like we are going to surpass that. 

For those new to the Apple Cup, please read below. 

No money due with birds, $350 per bird after the 115 mile activation race hopefully early September and yes this includes the perch fee. 

165, 200, 250, 300, and 375 mile races for average speed. 

Please register before sending, if you can't figure it out send me a text at 254-247-9504 and I will get with you ASAP to help you register. 

Mail on Mondays, Tuesday at the latest but Monday is preferred.  Our post office is closed on Saturdays, do not risk your birds having to hang out in a post office over the weekend by shipping late in the week. 

Put your loft name on top of the box, not inside the box on a note, not on the sides of the box, just right there on top of the box in bold letters. 

Vaccinate for PMV at least 2 weeks before shipping. 

Apple Cup

PO Box 313

Moxee, WA 98936

254-247-9504

If you have questions please send me a text with your Loft Name, I will call you if need be but 90% of the questions can be answered via text or in reading these updates which we do often. 

Everyone have a great weekend!

 

Rick & Olga

Mar-08-2024
TODAY'S ARRIVALS ARE ON WINCOMPANION NOW

We picked up 94 more birds today to add to the 200 we received yesterday.  Please check our BREEDERS list above and search for your birds by breeder in the top left hand corner.  If your birds are not listed then they have not arrived yet. 

The new arrivals look great, lets hope it stays that way!

 

Rick & Olga

Mar-07-2024
TODAY'S ARRIVALS

We received 50 boxes today with 200 birds within, a few local breeders dropped off. 

If your birds arrived today they are entered on Wincompanion under our Breeders List on this site.  If they are not listed this means we did not receive yours and will receive them most likely tomorrow or Friday.

Every single breeder who sent birds today entered before sending, most put their Loft Name on top of this box.  We can not express how much we appreciate you doing just these two things, it saves us a tremendous amount of time not having to try to figure out where to assign your birds if you don't do these two things for us before sending.

We are quickly approaching 1,600 perch reservations, at the rate we are going we may just hit our goal of 2,500.  Our goal is to get 2,000 activated this year!

Thanks everyone!

 

Rick & Olga

 

 

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