Happy New Year to all of our fellow pigeon friends out there!
Olga and I took our daughter who is home from college out to Texas to see the rest of the family for Christmas, with flight delays we just got home. Game plan was to start shipping the rest of the birds back which have had shipping paid for starting this coming Monday, however when we got home we found out our main helper has Covid and is just starting to recover to where she feels like her old self. Therefore, instead of starting to ship birds this coming Monday the 2nd of Jan 2023, we will start shipping birds back the following Monday which is the 9th of January, 2023. With flight delays to Texas as well as on the return trip, our main helper recovering from Covid, we have to delay shipping for a week and hope you understand for the aforementioned reasons.
All checks have been sent to those of you who won money and most of those checks have cleared the bank, last batch was sent 21 December, 2022. A few of you have not received your checks yet, only a handful from what we have heard so far. Give it a few days, if you do not get your check we wll gladly send one out to those of you whose checks got lost in the mail. If you won money this year and have not received a check from us then just text us, not call, and let us know who you are by Loft Name so we can research it.
A very few of you are owed refunds who paid for your entry fees early and had a bird(s) get lost before the first race. We will tackle this shortly and get those checks out in the mail, we did not want to mix refunds with prize money checks when we were mailing same.
If you get the Racing Pigeon Digest you have seen our advertisement on the front cover of the most recent edition. Same as this year, no money due with birds, $250 per bird after the activation race which will be hopefully in September. There will be 3 categories, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Bronze is mandatory and is $250 per bird, we will pay out of this a little on the 250 and 300, AVG speed, with most going to the top 10% shipped to the final 350 mile race just like we did this year. Silver and Gold races are optional and are $250 each, all prize money will be paid out to the top 10% shipped to those races. So enter just the Bronze for $250, enter also either the Silver or Gold making it $500, or for $750 enter all three. If we receive the number of birds that we are estimating and everyone says they plan to send, we could very well have over 1 MILLION in prizes this year!
There is HUGE interest this year, we have nearly 500 pigeons already reserved and we have not even updated our site which we will do in the next few days before Olga goes back to work doing tax preparation. Our loft will hold up to 3500 birds, if we outgrow it we will add on to the loft and we have plans on adding additional levels to our trailer to accomodate birds and not overcrowd them.
This year we simply could not hold a optional 400 miler, it was tough enough getting the 350 in before we were coverd in snow and ice which we are now, looking out the window we are completely fogged in. If we get done early enough next year we will offer a optional 400, but only if it looks like the weather is not going to be like it is this year.
Happy New Year everyone!
Rick & Olga
All birds whose breeders won any amount of money have been sent as well as all WA state birds.
The last of the checks were mailed out yesterday with the exception of 3 breeders who we are still waiting on W-9 forms on.
All of you who did not win money but have sent checks or paid for shipping via PayPal will have your birds shipped out starting the first week in January.
We are not accepting any birds until March, we are only accepting birds March and April 2023.
Same as this year, no money due with the birds, $250 per bird due only AFTER the 100 mile activation race, this is the main race and we are calling this race the Bronze Race for 2023. There will be prizes on the 250 and 300 mile races, AVG speed, and the top 10% of the birds shipped to the final will win the prizes in the Bronze.
Silver and Gold races are also $250 per bird, these are optional races and all prizes will be paid out to the top 10% of the birds shipped to those races on the final race.
In summary, Bronze is mandatory, all birds must be entered, Silver and Gold are optional. So enter just the Bronze for $250, enter one of the other optional races for a total of $500, or enter all 3 races for $750.
There is HUGE interest in this race this year, if we outgrow the loft we will expand, same with the trailer.
We are emotionally overwhelmed with some of your supporting comments this year, we have not heard any negative comments so we must of done something right!
If you do not hear from us again before Christmas, we here at the Apple Cup staff wish all of you a happy holidays and a Merry Christmas!
Please read these Wincompanion updates before contacting us, usually your questions can be answered here.
All of the birds whose breeders won $550 or more in this year's race series have been mailed back as of today.
All breeders whose birds arrived last week, providing you have provided us with a current signed and dated W-9, had your checks minus shipping mailed last week.
All of you breeders who had your birds shipped back this week, providing we have a current signed and dated W-9 and require one, will have your checks sent this week minus shipping.
ALL OTHER BIRDS WILL BE SHIPPED EARLY JANUARY if paid for via PayPal through our Payments Tab or if you mailed a check.
We shipped 125 boxes last week, 100 this week and this was all of the birds to breeders who won money this year. We have about 150 checks and 100 PayPal payments so far, this means we have around 250 breeders left to send birds back to.
If you sent us PayPal payment for shipping there is no reason to send us a picture of the payment, text us to see if we received it, if it went through we got it.
If you sent us a check we try to deposit them fairly quickly, please check your bank statements before contacting us to see if we received your check.
As mentioned several times over the last few months, make sure your Wincompanion account is current and up to date as this is where we go to retrieve information for shipping.
Back to writing checks, everyone have a great rest of your week!
As per our rules, you must claim your birds by the 14th day of the final race, that day is today. Please go to our PAYMENTS TAB and pay via PayPal, or send us a check today.
We are in the process of mailing back birds to ONLY those breeders who won any amount of money this year, we simply deduct shipping from winnings and will be sending out checks shortly. We shipped 125 boxes this week and have about 90 boxes to ship out next week, again these are ONLY those breeders who won money this year and can have shipping deducted.
All other pigeons will be shipped out early January, hopefully starting the first week. We are getting too close to the Christmas and New Year's holidays to feel comfortable about shipping any closer to Christmas after next week, or between Christmas and New Year's Eve.
A brief explanation as to how we are conducting shipping this year for those of you who have requested shipping your friend's birds with yours and why that is not always possible.
We sorted pigeons last week in to three categories, those whose breeders won money and can have shipping deducted, WA state birds for pick up, and all of the rest whose breeders did not win any money. All of the birds which were shipped out this week were sorted in to Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday shippers. The birds whose breeders won money but we could not ship this week will be shipped next week and be sorted in to Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday shippers. All of the WA state birds have been returned except WA Syndicate which will be picked up next week. The only birds shipped on Wednesday this week were from CA and a few from OR, these states are near us and there should be no problem with delivery on time.
All birds whose breeders did not win any money were put in to the west end of the loft, there are about 700 birds left to sort through just one last time and those whose shipping is paid for will be mailed back after the holidays. Since we already separated the pigeons belonging to those breeders who won money, 125 boxes shipped this week and about 90 next week, it is not practible to search for just a few pigeons whose breeders did not win money to ship with their friend's birds who did win money. We know this is a invonvenience for some of you, additional costs involved with shipping, however try to understand our situation. If we had just a handful of pigeons left we would of just waited to ship all birds at the same time, however we had over 1,200 pigeons return on the final race and it takes time to sort and get these birds mailed out which can not all be done in one week.
In short, today is the last day to pay for shipping of your birds if you did not win any money and these pigeons will be shipped out early Jan after the holidays.
We are getting a ton of questions about next year's race. When things settle down here a bit after having got the rest of the pigeons shipped back next week which are slated to be shipped before Christmas we will make some minor changes to our site in regards to the 2023 race. No major changes, but here are a few changes that come to mind.
Still no money up front, $250 per bird due ONLY AFTER the 100 mile activation race.
There will be three categories for 2023, BRONZE, SILVER, and GOLD. The Bronze race is the main race, all birds must be entered in to this race. The Silver and Gold are both $250 each and are optional, prizes for these two races will be to the top 10% on the final race only. So enter only the Bronze for $250 which is mandatory, then either the Silver or Gold for an additional $250, or all three for $750. We are estimating that with 2500 in the bronze, 2000 in the Silver, and 1000 in the Gold we will have over $1,000,000 in prizes.
We have charged a $100 perch fee since 2015, going in to our 8th year it will be the same. This year we took 0% of the capitol, next year we will take 15% of the capitol to help offset expenses and our still cheap perch fee that we have had since 2015 as well as the risk of conducting a race with no perch fees up front.
Last big change for 2023 is we will have a smaller intake window. We are only going to be accepting birds March and April for 2023, however we may extend that in to May if need be to reach our goal of around 3,000+ birds to start training with. Every indication is we are going to be bigger next year so we have hired another daily loft helper for 2023, thus the reason for taking 15% of the capitol to help pay for his wages.
Everyone have a great week, we will check back in soon with updates on shipping and plans for 2023.
It took three days to sort through the birds but we finally finished today, what a relief! The birds were sorted in to three groups, below is a description of those three groups.
WA state birds, available for personal pick up now. Please come between 9-12 tomorrow the 2nd of Dec which is Friday, or Saturday the 3rd between 9-12. Sunday we will preparing boxes and shipping labels for the birds to be shipped out on Monday and Tuesday, this means do not come by to pick up birds on Monday the 5th or Tuesday the 6th. You are more than welcome to come Wed, Thur, Fri, or Sat next week between 9-12 but let us know you are coming via text by loft name.
We will start to mail back birds to breeders who won any amount of money this year starting next week, we will simply deduct shipping from your winnings. We have a limited amount of boxes as our box company did not follow through on their shipment which we ordered 3 weeks before the final race. Anyone who won money this year, your birds will be shipped back before Christmas.
The remainder of the birds we will sort through again after the 1st of the year, those who got shipping payments to us on or before 8 December will have their birds shipped back early Jan.
So in a nutshell, WA birds are available for pick up between 9-12 any days other than Sun, Mon, or Tue, those who won money this year will have their birds shipped back before Christmas, those who did not win any money however still want their birds returned you have until 8 Dec to get your shipping fees to us and we will mail your birds back after the 1st of the year.
Please read previous updates for more information on return shipping.
Game plan for return shipping below, please read all details.
Only those who won prize money this year will have their birds shipped back the first week we start to ship. We have it figured up that this will require 208 boxes, this will keep us and our small rural post office busy for the first week. After these birds are shipped back to their owners we will start to ship out the rest of the birds, please be patient as we have a lot of pigeons to ship back this year and our goal is to have all of the birds shipped back the week before Christmas.
When we sort through the birds for the first time we will pull out all of the WA birds, we will announce here when those birds will be available for pick up. If you are a WA breeder and DO NOT plan on picking up your birds then let us know so we can ship to you.
We do not need you to contact us letting us know you want your birds returned, when we receive your payment for shipping we will then know you want your birds returned. Please text us at 254-247-9504 letting us know that you DO NOT want your birds returned. This makes it easier for us during the sorting process as non returnees all go in to a section of their own, we truly appreciate those of you who have already taken the time to do this.
AS PER OUR RULES, YOU HAVE 14 DAYS TO CLAIM YOUR BIRDS AFTER THE FINAL RACE, FINAL DAY FOR YOU TO GET YOUR SHIPPING PAYMENT TO US IS 8 DECEMBER, NO EXCEPTIONS.
We use only brand new 2 bird boxes from Boxes For Birds as we have found these are absolutely the best and allow for the best airflow, we will not put more than 2 birds per box and birds will be divided to eliminate fighting, no exceptions. Remember that these are adult birds now, not babies that will not fight in the box.
1-2 birds $75.00
3-4 birds $150.00
5-6 birds $225.00
and so on...
Make checks payable to:
Apple Cup
PO Box 313
Moxee, WA 98936
Make sure you put your loft name on check in the bottom left hand corner, do not write return shipping, pigeons, just put your loft name in the bottom left hand corner and make sure it was the loft name that you used this year in the Apple Cup.
Olga will have the PayPal link enabled again either today or tomorrow. We disabled it because we were unsure how much it was going to cost for shipping this year.
Make sure that your Wincompanion address and phone number is correct and up to date, this is the only address we will utilize for return shipping. Gets way too confusing when we are asked to ship this bird here, that bird there, please send to my cousin or partner, please understand our situation.
Last day to get your payment to us is 8 December, please do not be late!
Yesterday the birds got a great start down in Macdoel, CA under perfectly clear blue skies, this continued all the way up to the Columbia River which is about 70 miles due south of our loft to where it turned to broken clouds and ground fog. This continued all the way to the loft, this morning more of the same. Despite the poor conditions the birds had to fly through the last 70 miles they still came in like champs yesterday and continue to do so this morning. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, any birds we do not get in today should be here tomorrow as these birds have been trained a lot this year on the north side of the river and even though the conditions are still poor, they know their way and know it well!
Congratulations to everyone who had birds in the money yesterday, we paid out the top 10% of the birds shipped which was the first 146 pigeons. The first bird through the trap was bred by Licorice Whips 70030 ARPU, congrats brother!
Below are the 5 pigeons who won prize money in AVG speed. Olga asked me not to add these pigeon's winnings on the final race report, got a little confusing last year and we made a mistake which we ate financially. Well, to be honest I made a mistake and do not want my accountant, which is my wife Olga, mad at me again. Ha Ha
1st, was 2nd on final, Yupeng Yang 0202 VIK (17.20 ahead of 2nd AVG speed) $9,000
2nd, was 76th on final, Oscar De La Torre 0004 VRAR $7,000
3rd, was 14th on final, Desert Rose Lofts 28290 JEDD $5,000
4th, was 38th on final, Washington Syndicate 68307 ARPU $3,000
5th, was 70th on final, 7757 JEDD $2,000
If you won $600 or more, you know the deal, send us a SIGNED W-9 form, you can download one from our site, it is the last tab on the left at the bottom. WE VERY MUCH PREFER YOU MAIL IT TO US, makes it easier to make out especially from those of you whose penmanship is worse than mine which is truly hard to believe. Make sure your FULL NAME is on the form and your SSN or EIN. If you absolutely must email it then so be it, just make sure the ink you use is dark, form is completely filled out and is legible, do not text me or IM me through Facebook your forms please. We need all prize money sent out before 1 January for accounting/tax purposes, no money will be sent until we receive your W-9 and any corrections that we inform you of that need to be made.
If you won any money your birds will be mailed out the first week we start shipping birds which will hopefully be the first week in Dec, waiting on boxes still, frustating. If you did not win any money then please be patient for a day or two, we will post another update informing you of what it will cost per box and let you know that the PayPal link is again enabled for those of you who wish to pay electronically. We only accept checks or PayPal, no other payment methods. Again just to clarify, breeders who won money this year will have their birds shipped first as we will simply deduct shipping from your winnings. If you did not win any money this year then your birds will be shipped in the weeks following our first shipment to the breeders who won money this year, no exceptions.
Here is some additional information below that may be of interest.
No, we are not moving back to Texas, at least not yet and we get asked this quite a bit. I told my three kids that I would not go back to work after I retired from the Army after 20 years just to pay for their college. I told them that if they wanted to go to college then it was going to be done one of three ways or a combination of the following, join the military like I did and go to college for free, or earn an athletic or academic scholarship. Our oldest Billy went to college on a baseball scholarship, middle daughter Sasha joined the Air Force and is still in and is going to make a career of it, youngest daughter Angelina earned an academic scholarship to WA State University, go Cougs! Angelina is a freshman at WSU, after she graduates in 3 more years and we see where she lands we will then make a decision as to where we will end up.
As for now I love/hate the challenge of flying racing pigeons on this crazy course compared to where I flew in central TX where I hardly ever lost any young birds, guess I just like challenges! Therefore, the Apple Cup will continue, probably until at least Angelina graduates in 3 more years from WSU. We do not plan to make any drastic changes for next year, but here are a few that come to mind that Olga, my helper Mushie (younger sister Sheila who is really the secret to any success we have), and myself.
We will not be accepting birds until March, this year we started in February. We simply need a break since it took so long to get these races in this year due to smoke and other minor setbacks and if you are following the results today, we are going to have a lot of birds to ship back. We do not want this to be a 12 month opperation, real easy to start to suffer from burn out from all involved.
Second change is we will only be accepting birds in March and April, no birds in May like we did this year. We are hoping that by shutting the acceptance window earlier we can get flights pulled earlier, start road training earlier, which equates to starting and finishing races earlier BEFORE this NW fall/winter weather starts to arrive and birds shipped back to you the breeders earlier.
Next year we plan on having three categories, bronze, silver, and lastly gold. The bronze race will be the main race and all birds must be entered. The silver and gold will be optional races. Each race will be $250 per category, so enter the bronze for $250, one of the others for $500, or all three for $750. We are hoping for 3,000 pigeons and if we get the numbers we project in the silver and gold races we should end up with over $1,000,000 in prizes.
We did not take a % of the capitol this year. Next year we will take 15% due to the fact that we have been conducting this race since 2015 and started with a $100 perch fee, here in 2022 it was still the same. We are also taking on a huge risk with not requiring any money up front, all expenses are on us and we only collect if your birds make it to the first race.
As mentioned above and as was the case this year, NO PERCH FEE UP FRONT, $250 per bird only AFTER the activation race.
So no big changes for next year other than a 2 month acceptance window being March/April, 3 categories to enter instead of just one, a little earlier races to try to beat this PNW crazy weather!
Remember those W-9 forms folks, and stay tuned for further instructions on shipping expenses for those of you who did not win any money.
Before I forget, DO NOT CONTACT US LETTING US KNOW YOU WANT YOUR PIGEONS. If you won money, we assume you want your pigeons returned, if you did not win money then simply pay the appropriate amouts which we will announce in a few days here in the Wincompanion updates. We will only use 2 bird boxes from Boxes For Birds, birds will be shipped using dividers so they are not all beat up on the return trip back to you. PLEASE TEXT US AT 254-247-9504 if you DO NOT WANT YOUR BIRDS RETURNED, identify yourself by loft name. This greatly helps us out when we sort through the birds for the first time by putting the DO NOT RETURN birds in a section of their own so we do not have to sort through them every week while we are identifying birds to be shipped the next week.
WA breeders, I will pull your birds out the first week we sort through birds for the first time which should be starting next week after all birds have had a chance to return. These birds will be put in our holding cages in our processing center, I will need these birds picked up in a very timely manner so we can free up the holding cages for the next birds to be shipped the following week.
Below is some time for some bragging rights from the Apple Cup staff!
1,984 pigeons were activated, 1,449 went to the final race despite the last 4 races where the brids flew through snow and fog to get home and in every case it was not forecasted. This comes out to 73% competing on the final over 6 races that were originally activated.
There were 497 breeders who had birds go to the first race, 483 of you had birds go to the final. This comes out to 97% of our breeders who had birds activated having birds make it to the final race. Normally we would just let the results do the talking, good or bad and we have had both, but this is just too good to not mention!
I told several of my friends this year, even though we had nearly twice as many birds as years before I figured this would be our best year yet due to the health I was seeing in the loft. I posted several videos on Facebook, some live lately, of the birds in and around the loft. Health was incredible this year, we have come up with a system that we will most assuredly repeat for 2023.
This is no cupcake course! The birds here fly over the desert, over several tall ridgelines, through passes through the mountains, over the Columbia River which is on average 1 mile wide, through the forest, no easy feat my friends.
If you want to see if you have tough pigeons give us a try in 2023, we guarantee you will get your money's worth!
We hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed watching the Apple Cup final yesterday as much as we did!
Of course we will be back, bigger and better!
Yesterday the birds got a great start down in Macdoel, CA under perfectly clear blue skies, this continued all the way up to the Columbia River which is about 70 miles due south of our loft to where it turned to broken clouds and ground fog. This continued all the way to the loft, this morning more of the same. Despite the poor conditions the birds last 70 miles they still came in like champs yesterday and continue to do so this morning. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, any birds we do not get in today should be here tomorrow as these birds have been trained a lot this year on the north side of the river and even though the conditions are poor, they know their way and know it well!
According to our rules the top 10% of the birds shipped to the final race earn the prizes. On the last race we clocked 1464 birds, today we had a trainer and clocked 1441, started to rain early afternoon after most had trapped thus the reason the stragglers did not make it back. We are assuming that most if not all of the rest of the birds should clock in tomorrow morning, so instead of posting the payout based upon 144 birds earning the prizes we will stick to our calculations we made a few days ago based upon 146 pigeons earning the prizes. I plan on getting on the road fairly early tomorrow and want to get this posted tonight becasue we have a lot on our plate before I start to head south with the birds tomorrow and do not want to forget to get this posted before I leave.
Here is the payout based upon 1464 pigeons, top 10% means 146 pigeons win the prizes!
1st $20,000
2nd $18,000
3rd $16,000
4th $14,000
5th $12,000
6th $10,000
7th $9,000
8th $8,000
9th $7,000
10th $6,000
11th-20th $4,000 ea
21st-30th $2,000 ea
31st-50th $1,000 ea
51st-146th $550.00 ea
51-146 actually came out to 546.875, we rounded up to $550.00
We did not take a percentage of the capitol this year, 100% of capitol is being paid out.
$252,500 in total prizes on the final race!
We have a few breeders who have RSVP for the final race already. If you plan on attending please text us at 254-247-9504 to give us a headcount so we know how much food to prepare. We will serve Thanksgiving dinner at 1 PM.
Bring a comfortable chair, warm clothes, even a blanket if you like.
Good luck to everyone who has birds going to the final race!
Studying the weather forecasts it appears as if Thanksgiving day, the 24th next Thursday is going to be the best day for the final race. We were shooting for Saturday the 26th however it looks like that day is going to have a fairly strong tail wind, we do not want a tail wind final race and we do not think you do either. After this next weekend we are seeing heavy overcast along with snow and rain for a week solid down in southern OR and northern CA where the birds are going to be released. We do not want to wait 10-14 days between the 300 and the 350, this is just as about as bad as purposely flying them through inclement weather.
If you plan to attend RSVP by texting me your loft name at 254-247-9504. We need to get an accurate head count so we know how much food to prepare, also please bring a comfortable chair and very warm clothing.
As always, race days are tentative based upon changing weather conditions. Please read Wincompanion updates daily, if race dates change that is where we will post same.
All of you are more than welcome to text me at 254-247-9504 the day of the race to see if the race is still on before traveling here. Do not call me before the posted release time on the day of the race, I will have enough on my plate that morning until at least 0800 as I haul all the races myself so I can observe conditions and make a decision on whether to release, move to a different location, or cancel to race another day.
Again, please text me at the above phone number to let us know you are attending and how many individuals you are bringing with you.
All birds that came in today went in to their own empty section and have access to feed, grit and water all day. We plan to train on Tuesday in preparation for the final.
