Every year we get asked the same questions, what are our speeds like, what kind of pigeons should I send, what is our course like?
Lets address those three questions separately and independentally.
Looking back at the final race speeds starting in 2016, this is what we found.
2016 1252 YPM
2017 1421 YPM
2018 1432 YPM
2019 1409 YPM
2020 1427 YPM
2021 1369 YPM
2022 1577 YPM
The final average final race speed over a 7 year time frame is 1412.428 YPM.
As far as what kind of pigeons do well on our course, we always give the following advice. If sending to a race that does not train much then send those small to medium naturally buoyant hens that many believe stand the best chance. If sending to a race that trains a lot like ours, do not be afraid to send your larger pigeons because through training these stand just as good a chance as those small to medium hens that many feel are the best, in fact if it gets windy those stronger birds usually stand a better chance and I have seen this flying this course and in TX. Experience has shown us, and remember we put our hands on every single pigeon during return shipping, that many of our winners have been medium to large pigeons and yes that means cocks too.
We race out of the south back to us here in the north, it is the only way we can feasibly race. If we go west we run in to the Pacific Ocean, north Canada, east the Rocky Mountains, so the only way we can go is south or SE. Five miles south of us the birds have to cross a ridgeline that is about 1,200 feet high, same at 20 miles, and then they go over Satus Pass at 45 miles which is 3,250 feet in elevation, these ridgelines all run east to west and the birds must fly over them to return home flying out of the south back to the north. From our loft the first 20 miles are desert, then from 20-45 it is a gradual climb up to Satus Pass and turns in to valleys and forest. The forest continues up to the city of Goldendale which is 60 miles south of our loft, another 10 miles and you hit the mightly Columbia which runs the entire lengh of southern WA and northern OR. Down in the Columbia Gourge wind is almost always blowning, sometimes up to 100 mph but 60 is fairly common. Average width of the Columbia River is 1 mile, this is absolutely our biggest obstacle. Once on the south side of the Columbia it is rolling hills and wheat fields, then starts to turn in to pine trees and rolling hills after about 115 miles and valleys all the way down to the release point in northern CA at 350 miles. The pigeons are released over the border in CA, then thy fly through the entire state of OR in to central WA.
So in summary our final race is usually around 1400 YPM, medium to large pigeons fly just fine here, and your birds will fly over the desert, ridgelines, mountains, forest, and the Columbia River on their way home with generally a W to NW wind.
If you are looking for a course that is tougher than most, then look no farther!
We are quickly approaching 1,700 perch reservations and 300 breeders, we will most likely double both those numbers once we get all the birds in the loft. Last year we brought in over 2,500 pigeons from slightly over 500 breeders. This yar we predict 3,500 birds from 600 breeders.
Remember, absolutely no money due with the birds at arrival. We will have the 100 mile activation race hopefully in September, you will have 7 days to pay $250 per bird for the Bronze race which is mandatory and all birds must be entered. There will be Silver and Gold categories for $250 each and these are purely optional. So enter the Bronze for $250, Silver or Gold for another $250, or all three for $750. All three race categories will pay out the top 10% of the pigeons shipped to the final race for each of those categories.
Here is a real simple way of looking at what I just said.
Bronze, 2,000 pigeons shipped to the final means the first 200 pigeons win prize money.
Silver, 1,000 pigeons shipped to the final means the first 100 pigeons win prize money.
Gold, 500 pigeons shipped to the final means the first 50 pigeons win prize money.
Click on our Payout Tab to view a estimate of the payout for the Bronze race, this will give you a idea of how the payout will look for all three race.
Loft upgrade projects are coming along nicely and we are excited to see how the birds look in and around the loft with these upgrades this year. The exhaust fan project will be done tomorrow, this should create a literally dust free environment for the pigeons and for our staff. We had great health last year, we believe it will be even better with the fans being installed.
We will start accepting birds in March and end in April. Please mail on Mondays, Tuesday at the latest so your birds do not get held up over the weekend.
Register before sending and put your loft name on the box when you ship, remember no money in the box with the birds.
Apple Cup
PO Box 313
Moxee, WA 98936
254-247-9504
Best way to get a hold of us is through text to the above number.
Everyone have a good evening and hope your breeding program is going well!
Oh one last thing, please vaccinate for PMV at least 2 weeks before sending. When your birds arrive we will vaccinate them again and this will act as their booster. According to DVM Colin Walker of Australia through personal correspondence, the first vaccination gives 80% immunity from PMV, a booster 14-21 days later should give 100% immunity.
Rick & Olga
Good evening fellow pigeon nuts!
We sent out the 1099s yesterday, if you do not get yours in a week please let us know.
We also sent out refunds last week. This includes those who paid their entry fees before the first race and had a bird(s) get lost before the first race, as well as those who paid for shipping but won money and had shipping deducted from their winnings. If you win money in the Apple Cup we will deduct shipping costs from your winnings, please do not send us a payment for shipping if you won money because it temporarily confuses the heck out of us, we cover this in the rules.
Tremendous interest in this year's race, our 8th year of hosting the Apple Cup and it will be bigger and better than last year! Last year we had a great year statistically, our goal this year is to get 90% of the birds activated which we do not remember ever happening. We set lofty goals for ourselves, it gives us purpose each day when we wake up and take those all too familiar steps toward the loft.
We may of already mentioned in previous updates, all of the left over birds are now gone and underneath the expanded metal floor where the droppings fall to the ground has been completely cleaned out. Exhaust fans will be installed throughout the loft this weekend, a misting system is being installed once it starts to get warmish, and we are seriously thinking of installing a feeding system to where the birds can be fed from the outside of the loft with the troughs inside the loft along the back wall. Every year we try to do something to improve, this year we are super motivated to repeat last year's success and to do even better so we are making several improvements!
Remember, no money due with the birds, $250 per bird only AFTER the activation race. If you want to also enter the Silver or the Gold, or both, it will be $500 for the Bronze which is mandatory plus the Silver or Gold, or $750 for all three. After the activation race you will pick out your Silver and Gold entries and pay for them at that time along with your Bronze entry fees. Bronze is the main race and all birds must be entered, again Silver and Gold are purely optional.
I would like to give a big shout out to my younger brother Jeff Mee who retired today. For some reason he seemingly tries to copy what I do being the older brother. His anniversary is the same as I had with my ex wife, and you guessed it, I also retired from the US Army on 1 Feb, 2008. Man where does the time fly!
Remember, not accepting birds until 1 March, any sent in Feb will be sent back.
Good afternoon everyone!
Finally made homes for all of the extra birds, man does it feel good to have a completely empty loft again!
Under the loft has been completely cleaned and the pigeon poop will be hauled away before any new birds arrive, we saturate the ground with Virkon S several times before any new birds arrive. The floor is about 3 feet off the ground on the east end and about 4 feet off the ground at the west end where the ground starts to slope downward at the back of our property.
Next project is to install exhaust fans on the back wall of every section in the loft. These fans will be on a controller whereas we can control the length of time they are on, when they come on and shut off, or if we just want to keep them running 24-7. Last year we had no respiratory problems however still feel that this will be good for the birds, and of course for our workers when they are inside the loft caring for the birds.
Next project is to install a misting system on the front of the loft to help keep the birds cool and clean when it does get hot, they will also have access to baths once we have all birds in for the year and settled.
While these two projects are being done we are working on more perches for the loft as well.
Thinking about putting a feed trough on the back side of the loft that will run the entire length of the loft. The trough will be slightly above floor level and can be filled from the outside of the loft, this will pay obvious dividends for our workers and on days when we give our workers a day off and we have to do everything. Our workers do the loft cleaning, disenfecting of the loft and feed trays, we control the feeding part always.
Definitely going to put 2 more levels on the trailer as we are expecting more birds this year.
Remember, we are only accepting birds March through April, so please do not send any birds in February. Last year we accepted birds February through May. February can still be cold and wet here, March and April we usually have just awesome weather, when May rolls around it can start to get hot. We feel by not taking any birds in February when weather is still unpredictable, then in May when it can get hot, it will be a lot less stress on the birds when they arrive and are being settled. Our health was great last year, we are hoping for even better this year!
We are nearing 1,500 perch reservations already, our limit will be 3,500. If we get the number of pigeons activated in the mandatory BRONZE race, then in the optional SILVER and GOLD races, we may top $1,000,000 in prizes this year.
Do not miss out, the Apple Cup is going to be bigger and better than last year!
Remember, no birds until 1 March.
We have been working on updating the site this evening, please take a look and particularly at the Payout Tab. The estimated payout posted under our Payout tab is for the BRONZE race only based upon 2,500 birds activated and 1,500 going to the final race with the top 10% earning the prizes. The SILVER and GOLD races will be very similar to the estimated BRONZE payout chart with the top 10% of the pigeons shipped to those respective races winning the prizes!
Please let us know if you have any questions, text is easiest way to get a hold of us.
Good morning fellow racing pigeon enthusiasts!
Part of the reason to post whose birds were being shipped this week was to shake the bushes a bit, word gets around quick and in doing so we find out if we accidentally missed someone. We did discover that we had missed one breeder who had already paid, one breeder who had one pigeon not shipped that we need to go find. Since the last update a few individuals came forward and requested their birds, yes it is way past the deadline but if we have to sort through them again might as well let these guys get their birds back instead of being hardnosed about it.
Below are the breeders whose birds will be mailed back next Monday. If you have not received your birds yet and want them back, you have until 5 PM PST to go to our payments tab and pay for shipping, we will not accept checks at this point. After paying for shipping through our Payments Tab that is located off of our Home Page, send us a text at 254-247-9504 letting us know you have accomplished this. We will be sorting through the remaining 300ish birds tomorrow early AM, after tomorrow we will make no more acceptions or accomodations.
Floridian Loft
David Chen
Jose Carlos Pigeon
Skyruiz Loft
Vacas Flacas Loft
Abraham Ramirez
Galvan's Loft
Rino's Loft
Again, if you have not received your birds yet and are not on this final list then go pay through our site and then send us a text letting us know you have done so.
Please read to the very bottom, there is a update to this message that we put out earlier regarding other breeder's birds being shipped next week that have just surfaced after posting this update.
Tomorrow we will ship the very last of the birds that have had shipping paid for. According to our rules breeders have 14 days to pay for shipping after the final race, our final race was Thanksgiving day. Since we could not get all of the birds shipped out prior to Christmas and will not ship pigeons during the Christmas and New Year holidays, we extended the cut off date and were more than accomodating. We will have about 350 birds left after tomorrow, we will not sort through them again so please do not ask. This year we hope to be done early November and if so we will be strict on the 2 week rule so that we can ship all of the birds back before Christmas and find homes for the leftovers.
Since this is the very last shipment, we have decided to post a list of those breeders who have pigeons being shipped tomorrow so these breeders do not need to contact us asking if their birds were shipped.
123 Bird Love to Fly
Liu's Loft/168 Loft
APC (22099)
Team Alferenz Loft
Barry Yu
Medina Loft FL
Jose Carlos Pigeon (Ready for pick up)
La baraca Jal Loft/Mexnusa connection Loft
Platt Flyers
Rachel Olivieri (103)
Thunder Birds Breeding Loft
TX Lin Loft
Good Earth Loft
Meulman Loft
We are very proud to say that every single pigeon that needed to be mailed back got mailed back this year, roughly 900 out of the slightly over 1,200 that returned from the final race and the few that arrived after the clock was turned off. Most of the pigeons looked great when they were put in the box and had lots of muscle on them, moreso than in previous years. Our plan is the do exactly what we did healthwise this year that we did last, if it is not broke don't try to fix it as the old saying goes.
Everyone have a great week!
UPDATE:
The following breeders birds will be shipped out not this week, but the following week.
If you paid for shipping and have not received your birds yet and do not have your birds on one of these two lists, then text us immediately with your loft name, first and last name, and what date you paid for shipping and if it was via PayPal or a check.
SKYRUIZ LOFT
The main purpose of this post is to shake the tree so to speak, so let us know if you paid and are not on one of the above two lists so we can research it and figure out when we will be shipping your birds. If you have yet to pay for shipping then we can add you but only if you pay via PayPal through our Payments Tab. If you do so text us and let us know that you paid and we will log in to PayPal to verify, once verified we will add you to our ship list.
We finished shipping out the last of the birds yesterday, glad that is over!
Invariably, there are always a handful of pigeons we missed when shipping two separate weeks before Christmas, then again this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We will sort through the birds just ONE LAST TIME starting tomorrow to find 3 pigeons we missed on this week's shipments.
IF THERE ARE ANY PIGEONS YOU DID NOT RECEIVE THAT YOU WANTED RETURNED, YOU HAVE UNTIL 9 PM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME TODAY TO LET US KNOW VIA TEXT ONLY.
If you do happen to text us wanting a bird back that you think we may of missed, please identify yourself by LOFT NAME and the bird's band number and let us know today, tomorrow will be too late.
Our game plan is to ship the remaining birds out next Tuesday, remember Monday is a holliday.
We have well over 900 perches reserved for this year's race and a lot of interest in our Silver and Gold categories. We have yet to make changes to our site, however here are the only real changes you will see when we do update our site which will be in just a few days.
We are only accepting birds March and April this year in hopes we can get the races started and ended before winter weather sets in here in the Pacific NW.
Three categories instead of just one, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Bronze is mandatory, all birds must be entered. Out of the Bronze we will pay a little on the 250 and 300 like we did last year, pay AVG speed prizes, and most will be on the final race just like last year.
Silver and Gold are purely optional, prizes are for the final race only.
Each bird is entered in the Bronze for $250, enter either the Silver or Gold for a total of $500, or all three for $750.
If we get the number of birds we are expecting and entered in each category we could very well reach $1,000,000 in prizes.
Entry fees are not due until AFTER the activation race, that is for the Bronze which again is mandatory, also the Silver and Gold. We will collect race fees just this one time for all races.
We had our best year ever last year despite having twice as many birds. This is our 8th year and we feel we have finally got a good grasp on what it takes to manage a large number of birds and get most to the first race and a large percentage to the final race.
If we get done early enough we will offer a 400, however ONLY if it looks like we will have time to conduct a 400 and still get the birds back to the breeders before Christmas. We absolutely do not want to still be mailing birds back after Christmas this year, just too cold and a big mess out there once the snow starts to melt. If we do offer a 400 it will be $250 a bird and fees will be due within 7 days of the final 350 mile race.
Again, main reason for this update is to talk about getting the last few remaining pigeons back to their breeders before the rest are given away which will be next Wednesday after all remaining birds are shipped Tuesday.
Everyone have a great rest of your week!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send us a text or a call.
Rest of the birds will be shipped next week Mon-Wed.
Over 100 breeders already signed up for this year with nearly 600 pigeons and growing daily!
Do not miss out on one of the biggest races for 2023!
As per our rules, you have 14 days to pay for shipping after the final race and we are WAY past that date. Tomorrow early morning we will sort through the birds to identify those being shipped next week, this is the VERY LAST TIME we will be going through the birds.
If you have not already sent payment for shipping the ONLY WAY to do so is through our Payments Tab where it will take you to PayPal, you can use a credit card as well here.
If you pay via PayPal you MUST text us at 254-247-9504 and identify yourself by loft name letting us know you did so, we will then verify that you paid and will add you to the list of breeders whose birds we are pulling out tomorrow to ship next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Any CA birds are being shipped on Wednesday, same with OR and ID birds.
If you live in Hawaii make sure that you contact John De Carlo in CA who will coordinate shipment of your birds, we will be mailing the HI birds to him on Wednesday. John knows what documents are necessary to ship birds to HI.
