Good morning to all of our Apple Cup breeders and to those of you paying attention to our race this year!
We are running a inventory today, birds were not forced out and this inventory will run for 2 days just to make sure we are not missing any.
We have had some cool mornings lately which the birds like and most are really starting to fly with many starting to route again.
Flights are nearly completely in so it is about time to start hitting the road in training. A few more times of running them in to the trailer so they can exit out the sides and they will be ready to go down the road.
We hit the lost report today so y'all can see if you have any birds missing. A quick scan through the list of birds missing, comparing the missing birds to the number of birds sent by each breeder, and it is obvious that something has to be going on in individual lofts. For example, if one breeder sends 10 birds and all are still here, another sends 10 and most are missing, well there just has to be something going on at home. Many who lost birds from the virus who took big hits we have already spoken to, nearly every breeder who took a big hit did not vaccinate at least 3 weeks before sending birds this year. A few breeders did vaccinate who took a big hit but right before shipping, this does not help because the birds do not have enough time to build up temporary immunity from the initial vaccination. Please vaccinate 2-3 weeks before shipping so when we vaccinate it acts as a booster.
In summary, flights are nearly back in completely and the birds are really starting to fly again. A few more times of running them in to the trailer and releasing them out the sides of the trailer on the property and it will be time to start inching them down the road.
Everyone have a great week!
Rick & Olga
Good afternoon everyone, hope y'all are having a great weekend and had a great Independence Day with friends and family.
Quick update just to show where we are at with your birds.
Today was the first day that we forced the birds to exit the loft through the sliding door at the end of the loft where the trailer is ordinarily at for loading. Up to today the windows were opened each morning for about 15 minutes where about 90% would go out on their own, the remaining 10% were forced to exit out of the end of the loft down the front hallway. It usually only takes the birds 3-4 times of having to exit out through the sliding door at the west end of the loft before they are actually running down the hallway on their own to go outside for their daily exercise. Plan is to run them out the loft through the hallway a few more times, once they have perfected this they will be forced to go in to the trailer to exit out the side doors which will be opened for their daily loft flying. This makes it so much easier to load birds up for training when we get ready to start training.
With the way the flights look in their regrowth and the way they flew this morning since we moved our daily start time up from 8 AM to 7 AM due to heat, we should start training in 7-10 days. It has got hot here, summer has arrived and we are working around the heat the best we can by starting earlier and giving the birds daily baths.
Health is maintaining within the loft, these birds look like they are ready to hit the road. Today a Prarie Falcon came by for a brief visit, the way the birds flew and the length of time and height they flew tells us that they are just about ready for road training and we are really excited about this.
We will run another inventory or two before training starts.
Hope everyone is staying cooo!
Happy Independence Day tomorrow everyone!
We ran a inventory for 2 days, yesterday was the 2nd day and birds were all forced out yesterday but they were not the first day of the inventory. Today we kept the clock running just to see if we could pick up some more birds and we did. After a examination of the pads we found that one section of our quad pads was not working. We replaced that pad today so we should no longer miss any birds during loft flying inventories.
The inventory we ran on 19 June showed 3039 and the inventory we started on 1 July and will conclude today 3 July shows 3033 thus far. The inventory on 19 June had 2 Apple Cup chip check chips used just to make sure the pads were working and the inventory we started yesterday we only used one Apple Cup chip check chips. In other words, the last inventory which started on 19 June had 3037 and the one we started 1 July has 3032 thus far. This means that there was almost 2 weeks between inventories and we have 5 birds unaccounted for. We have not pulled a sick bird out of the loft for over a week now so health is holding.
We will keep the clock running through tomorrow just to see if we pick up any birds that may not of returned yet.
We handled several birds this morning while forcing them out and we are happy to report that the flights are coming in nicely and the birds are starting to fly more and more each day. If everything goes as planned we should start road training in about 2 weeks.
Everyone have a great Independence Day!
Good morning Apple Cup breeders!
It has warmed up here in central WA, low to mid 90s now for awhile. The birds are given the opportunity to take baths daily and they are playing around like a bunch of kids off to school for the first time.
The 9th and 10th flights are coming in nicely and the birds are starting to fly more and more each morning. Providing we don't have smoke which we typically deal with this time of the year, we should be able to start training in a few weeks.
If you read our updates or watch our Facebook videos you know that we dealt with a virus shortly after the last week's birds arrived. We are happy to report that health is holding and we have not pulled a bird the last 7 days.
Seems we are having a internet connection issue today. I have my cell phone set up as a mobile hotspot but need to leave here shortly to take care of business in town and need my phone to take care of some of that business. When I return home later on and if the birds clocking are not showing up on Wincompanion I will reconnect to the internet through my phone and you will be able to view the clocked birds from this morning, please be patient.
Please get in the habbit of reading these updates, this is our primary means of communication with y'all.
Happy 4th of July to everyone!
Good morning to everyone across this great land!
If you read the previous update you will fully understand what is going on here at the Apple Cup regarding inventories and loft flying. Simple version, we do not force them out for a few weeks right after flight pulling and we usually do not run our next inventory until we start pushing them all out again. A few breeders have asked when the next inventory will be (please read these updates) so we decided to run one today after observing the birds outside the loft the last few days and seeing they are having no issues flying around the loft and trapping. After handling several birds this morning all of them have their 9th and 10th flights coming in nicely, all out about 1 inch. A group of around 150 got up and flew yesterday morning like they were ready to road train, the rest will be right behind them in the coming weeks.
Remimber, all birds were not pushed out this morning. Tomorrow we will push them all out and pick up any birds in the clock that did not go out today on their own.
As mentioned in previous updates, we had a viral issue that arrived with the birds during our final week of intake. Usually we took in 350-400 birds a week this year, the last week over 900. Prior to these birds arriving we pulled out 1 bird early on and 3 more as weeks progressed, this was all the way through March and we only took birds in March and April this year. We are happy to report that the last two days we have had no birds removed from the loft so it appears that the virus has run it's course and it should be smooth sailing from here on out.
If you had or ever have a bird removed for any reason you are contacted by us.
Adding on two more sections to the trailer has been completed, just waiting for a calm day to paint the entire trailer. Once this is accomplished the trailer will be butted up to the end of the hallway at the west end of the loft. The birds will be able to become familiarized with the trailer and like to use it as a big aiviary, this makes loading so much easier when it gets time to start road training.
Really looking forward to training your birds, hopefully the weather and smoke cooperates this year and we can get started earlier. We cut our intake one month short this year so that we could get started earlier and hopefully get done in time to offer a optional 400. Last year was a nightmare trying to drive through southern OR and northern CA to get those last few races in with icy roads, not something we want to go through again.
Hope everyone is having a great breeding season, still lots of late hatch races accepting birds!
Today we finished up our annual chip and health check while pulling out the 9th and 10th flights. A few birds were removed during the process, a few are back in the quarantine section getting some TLC. If you had birds pulled from the race or have birds requiring some TLC then you have been notified.
Game plan moving forward is to start road training mid July as long as the air is clear of smoke, have the activation race the first week in September and the final race mid October. If we get done early enough to conduct a optonal 400 mile race we will do so, but only if we can also get all of the birds mailed back before Christmas.
Below are a few more birds who needed chip replacement.
Tyler Loft 1152
Aziz 40513
Morelia Loft 23484
R F L 4727
Polson Loft 3007
The first few weeks after flight pulling we never force the birds out of the loft, they are given open loft every morning and access to baths. Because of this we will not run our next inventory for the next 10-14 days, it just causes confusion and lots of unnecessary phone calls....please be patient.
Everyone have a great weekend!
The health, chip, and pulling the 9th and 10th flights process is going well and as of today we are half way through. It has been hovering around 90F by noon so we start early AM to try to get at least 500 done a day before it gets too hot for us as well as the birds.
This is a slow process, each bird gets 20-30 seconds of being examined from head to toe. Any broken flight or tail feathers are pulled, any birds showing serious health issues are also being removed which has not been many, owners notified if their birds are pulled.
The following breeders had birds whose chips had to be replaced.
RF Family Loft 29
RGK Loft 38025
Chen Dong Loft 6325
Raizen 44465
Circle C Lofts 813
Boyett & Petes 31594
Leterbuc Loft 7618
Jiang Tou Loft 9965
A R Y Tony Loft 10411
ARY Tony Loft 10413
Aziz Loft 40514, was listed as 40614 accidentally
The birds who have already been checked are getting free loft in the morning, then the windows are closed and the ones who ventured outside come through the traps for feed.
We should be done by Friday, a inventory will follow in 7-10 days as we do not force the birds out immediately after we have pulled their flights for at least 7 days.
The birds are carrying good weight and look and feel healthy!
Yours truly is really looking forward to road training, this is going to be a lot of fun with this group of birds.
The trailer is having 2 more levels added on top to accomodate the birds this year. Last year we had 4 levels and started training with around 2500 birds, that comes out to 625 birds per level and they had plenty of room. This year we should start with around 3,300 birds so if you do the math there is more room for the birds this year than last. The trailer should be done in a few days, I can see the neighbor over there now welding and cutting away. Once it is done and painted we will butt it up to the end of the loft where the birds are ran down the isle in to the trailer so they can get used to it.
Everyone try to stay cool!
We ran the last inventory for about a week to show birds that may of got lost during the settling of the last group we received in April, they were hit by hawks and a falcon their second time out so we felt this was necessary.
Tomorrow we will start a health and chip check and then pull the 9th and 10th flights. If all goes well and we have no smoke from the typical NW fires we get here during the summer months we will start road training mid July and have the activation race around the 1st week of September.
We will not let the birds out while we are conducting the above so please be patient on the next inventory.
As mentioned before, birds of prey have been a real pain this year for some reason. A resident pair of Red Tails come every few days so it is really hard to predict when that will be. The last group that arrived the last week we accepted birds, 908 pigeons to be exact, got hit their second time out by the first Peregrine Falcon we have seen here in about a year and then the Red Tails showed up to take their turn. Now that all of the birds have been settled and out a few times the Red Tails are not a problem because they do not catch them, it is only the first day or two out that the Red Tails are a real threat and mainly in just scaring birds off. We have had a few birds showing up each day since running our first complete inventory starting a few days ago, since this is occuring we are continuing to run the clock.
As mentioned previously, we did encounter a virus that mainly affected the birds that arrived the very last week where we took in 908 pigeons. We are happy to report that there were absolutely no birds dead or sick in the loft this morning when letting them out, so mission accomplished in thwarting the temporary viral issue we encountered which is a great thing!
Now the above may sound bad to some, but let me use one breeder who sends the most birds each year to us as an example as to how we are sitting health/settling wise and that is David Clausing. David sent 57 pigeons this year, current inventory shows 54 birds still here and I know personally that one bird had to be removed due to a broken wing, so that leaves just 2 pigeons unaccounted for. We can live with percentages like that, however we would prefer 100% but that is not always realistic.
The birds are out loft flying as I am typing this, they go out every day come rain or shine!
Next week we will start going through the birds one by one checking chips, health, and pulling the 9th and 10th flights. We are hoping that by mid July we are down the road training and around 1 Sept we are having the activation race.
To all of my brothers and sisters who served before me, to those whom I served with, and to those who have served after and continue to serve our great country, have a great Memorial Day weekend.
We live in the country and are on a personal well, there was a issue with the well this morning and the tech had to turn off the power to work on the pump for about 2 hours. We are sure some birds trapped during that temporary power outage so instead of scrapping the inventory all together we will just run the inventory for a 3rd day.
This does not happen once we are training and racing because we use a UPS out in the loft, Uninteruptable Power Supply which serves as a back up power source during temporary power outages.
