Record breaking heat this week, hit 110F yesterday and cooling through the weekend. Personally not complaining too much, it hit 128F in Iraq when I was there in 2005 a few miles north of Baghdad while wearing full combat gear lugging around my rifle in the sand. I will take 110F any day over that because now I get to wear swimming trunks and flip flops instead of full combat gear!
The million dollar question is, how many gallons of water can slightly over 2,500 birds go through a day on hot summer days like this in the arid high desert region of WA? They went through 44 gallons yesterday and today will go through about the same. The birds are liberated each morning at 0600 slightly after the sun has crested over the hills to the east and by 0900 they are allowed to reenter. Our helpers go home around 1000 and at the time of typing this update up, 1530 which is 3:30 PM for you non military folks, they get fresh water again. We find it is FARR BETTER to give them fresh cool water in the afternoons then to have the loft full of waterers getting warm on days like this, it also helps with maintaining health them getting a fresh drink in the afternoons opposed to warm water.
Invariably some birds just can not handle the heat, they most likely (would put my house on it) have a underlying bacterial or viral issue that we just can not see with the naked eye. Yesterday we had one pigeon die and today had one as well, breeders notified. We have not had to remove a bird for several weeks, we are absolutely giddy over health this year, so having a bird succumb to this extreme health here and there tells us that if 99.99% of the birds are doing great even on days like this we are going to jump up and down with joy!
As stated the last few times in our updates, every evening we handle about a dozen birds checking on the progress of the flights regrowth. We are happy to report that they are growing in nicely with the aid of great quality feed supplied by Don Chapin with Juniper Feed, Don also does Top Pigeon clocking systems. The grain Don uses is locally grown in the Pacific Northwest, they also get fresh mineral grit twice a day and we alternate between Primilac and Ecoltonic from Ed Minvielle of Siegels in the water. When we find the need to medicate we also include Primilac, we find this keeps their good gut bacteria where it needs to be to help maintain optimum health.
OK running back to the house where it is cool, everyone try to stay coo!
Rick & Olga
Good morning fellow Racing Pigeon enthusiasts!
As you can tell we ran a complete inventory yesterday, birds trapped slowly for several hours so we highly doubt any were missed. If any were missed or stayed out overnight they will be picked up this morning as the clock is still running. The way our traps are set up this year no birds should be missed.
At the time of writing this the birds are out of the loft and have bath pans in front of them on the ground out in front of the loft.
We handled about a dozen birds yesterday while walking through the loft in the evening to see where they are in the moult. We are happy to report that the flights are coming in nicely and all throats were clear and their eyes were bright. This is something we do daily in the evenings while giving them fresh water and securing the loft for the night.
Record breaking heat this week, the birds are handling it nicely. We are out here as the sun is rising which makes things much easier for us and easier on the birds.
As it looks we should start training mid to late August, please be patient as we will not force them if they are not ready and we are on no set timeline.
We have a misting system being installed that will run the entire length of the aiviary, we are sure the birds will really enjoy this.
Good morning Apple Cup breeders and onlookers!
We are running a complete inventory today. All birds were forced out of the loft this morning so this will be a inventory of all birds entered. The birds have had the feed really poured to them since the flights were pulled and are trapping very slowly so there should be no birds being missed today.
Many of the birds are forming in to small flocks again and starting to take off for several minutes, it is just a matter of time before they are routing again like a majority were before having had their flights pulled.
Our neighbor took the entire week off work from his construction/welding job and says that the trailer should be done by end of week. It is good having your welder living so close because you can offer suggestions as the project unflods. This trailer is going to be like no other, when it is complete we will post pictures on Facebook.
We are supposed to have record breaking heat this week. The birds are given fresh water every morning and again in the evening. Now that health has evened itself out we are offering them frequent baths to help keep them happy, cool, and clean.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Good morning Apple Cup breeders!
We started letting the birds back out yesterday on their own after having had their 9th and 10th flights pulled 10 days ago. No birds were forced out of the loft yesterday and we are doing the same today, it is 0640 at the time of writing this and they were allowed to go outside at 0600. We will do this for another week or so and once they are for the most part going out on their own we will start running loft flying inventories again.
We did pull 8 birds out of the loft during our chip and health check and while pulling the 9th and 10th flights, mainly due to wing injuries and one died yesterday while colliding with another pigeon when they got spooked while being outside.
There is one pigeon that we found that is not assigned, ARPU 102391. We sorted through our records and can not find this pigeon in our written notes which we do when the birds arrived. If you own this pigeon please contact us so we can assign it under your breeder name.
We are very pleased with the health this year, it is holding well!
Everyone have a great Sunday with your friends and family.
Good afternoon Apple Cup breeders.
We just completed the chip and health checks as well as pulling the 9th and 10th flights. We really took our time going through the birds with a fine tooth comb pulling any broken feathers in the wing or tail of each bird. We removed a few birds that need a little TLC due to injuries and also found a few that needed new chips, one that was one number off and it will be fixed before the next inventory.
We will rest the birds for awhile now before they will start going back out of the loft hopefully next weekend. They will not be forced to fly, when the flights are nearly all the way in we will encourage flying more and start planning for the first training toss.
We had a unseasonably cool May and June and July has been cooler than normal, makes it much more enjoyable doing pigeon chores.
Health is great, never been better! We look forward to getting these guys flying again and running another inventory for you.
We are picking up the materials needed to start on the new trailer this weekend, we can not wait to show you it when it is done.
We are currently in the process of hand scanning each and every bird in the loft. We really take our time giving about 60 seconds per bird checking to make sure the chips are working and match the band number, pulling the 9th and 10th flights, lastly conducting a health check. Any broken flight or tail feathers are also pulled, we should be done in a few more days.
Once complete we will give the birds a break and let them start to grow their 9th and 10th flights before we start loft flying them again and then the next inventory will follow. Please be patient, health is great this year, we have pulled just one bird out of the loft in the last 10 days, incredible health this year and almost too good to be true!
Providing we do not have a bunch of smoke from these NW fires like we did last year, we should start road training in about 6 weeks.
Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!
Good evening everyone, hope you are trying to stay out of the heat!
Tomorrow we will run a complete inventory of all birds in the loft. We were going to do this over the weekend and start pulling flights today but it was forecasted for high 90s today and it did actually hit 100F. It is supposed to cool down over the weekend and also middle of this week so we decided to conduct the first complete inventory tomorrow and start pulling the 9th and 10th flights, checking chips and health, starting mid week when it cools back down and finishing up this weekend. We will start at daybreak and work as long as we can before it gets too hot for the pigeons.
Now that all birds have been settled and the last section on the west end of the loft is accessible to all birds in the loft, which has been blocked off to settle birds in the aiviary before they were moved down to the east end for trap training before being released for the first time, it is time to move on to phase two of their training. Now that all birds are settled and the very last section is open for all birds we have started running the birds out through the chute at the far west end. Once in the chute and closed off from the inside we are able to handle each bird outside accessing them through the top of the chute through flip up doors. We started their training a few days ago through the chute once all of the very last birds we just settled were with the program. The first day it took 60 minutes to convince them to go through a small hole at floor level at the west end, the next day 45, then 30, yesterday 17 it seems, today 13 minutes. The birds are literally running out on their own, they catch on quick!
The aforementioned is how we also in the past loaded up our crates on the outside of the loft before putting them on the trailer for training. Once we are done with pulling flights, checking chips and health, that entire west wall will be reconstructed. There will be a large normal sized door which will act as the release for just normal loft flying, for training our 20' trailer that is being constructed will simply be backed up to the door opening where the birds will be taught to walk in to on their own. This is the least stressful way of training racing pigeons, allowing them to self load.
If anyone has any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
The last of the birds that are entered in the Apple Cup for 2022 were settled today. We will let them trap with the older birds for a few days and then we will run a COMPLETE inventory this weekend or early next week. Our appologies for not running a inventory last week but our youngest daughter just graduated and her older brother who lives in AL and older sister who is in TX along with her husband and our first grandchild were in town visiting.
Game plan is to start pulling flights next week, also checking chips to make sure they are assigned and working properly, lastly a health check. Once all flights are pulled we will just let them be pigeons, they will be forced out of the loft daily but not forced to fly. Once they are all flying well on their own again, maybe with a little flagging, we will start road training in August providing the NW fires are not too bad this year.
Olga and I celebrated our 20th anniversary a few days ago, without her support there would be no Apple Cup. I can not say there will be a Apple Cup 20 years from now, but certainly hope we get to celebrate a 40th anniversary together and many more after...
It has finally started to warm up here, birds seem to be enjoying it but yours truly sure wish it would drop back down in to the 60s and 70s. Ha Ha
Everyone have a great week!
Good morning fellow pigeon nuts!
Very busy week for us here with our youngest daughter graduating Saturday and her graduation party yesterday. Our oldest Billy flew in from Alabama and went back home this morning and our daughter and family from Texas are here and go back home Saturday. We have one grandaughter who is 2 years old, always nice to hold and spoil her. Really warms my heart to see my four girls together, wife, two daughters, and grandaughter all spending time together. One of these days we will probably end up back in Texas so we can all be close together again but the youngest who just graduated has a full ride scholarship between my military benefits which she will be using and the scholarships she earned for academics.
We settled another group today and moved the last group from the W end to the E end where they will be trap trained for 6-7 days. Depending upon how they are trapping and responding to the whistle before feeding will determine when the last group is settled but it definitely will be next week.
If we have time this week we will run a inventory which will include all birds EXCEPT the very last week's arrivals which started trap training this morning. If we do not have time then we will run a inventory next week which will include all birds in the loft.
Removed one bird today due to injury, life is good here at the Apple Cup and we can not wait to start training!
Our doors are officially closed, please do not send any more birds this year.
Our goal of reaching 2,500+ birds and 500 breeders was met, thanks to all of you who made that possible.
Next step is to get all of these birds settled which have yet to be settled, once trapping well for several days in a row we will pull the 9th and 10th flights, check chips, and do a health check. Once the flights grow completely back in and the birds are loft flying on their own we will start to train, hopefully this will be early August providing the weather and smoke cooperates. The last few years these NW summer fires have delayed our training, hopefully it will not be as bad as last year this year.
We are running a inventory today, it is gloomy with slight rain so the birds are coming in very slowly which is exactly what we want so we do not miss any while they walk across the scanning pads.
We got a bunch of birds today, so back to work processing our last arrivals for this year. If you sent birds this week and they arrived today please send us a text and we will respond after we are done processing new birds and that includes entering them on Wincompanion. Please check our breeder list on Wincompanion to see if your birds have already been entered there before contacting us.
It is going to be a huge race this year, I personally can not wait to start training!
