Birds were taken 15 miles today for training.  After waiting for quite some time for the haze to clear out we have decided to bring the birds back.   It is not clearing like we hoped and the longer we wait the hotter it is getting on the birds.  We will release them in the yard and let them get a bath today.  We will be back training tomorrow.

What should have been an easy training toss today turned out to be a very tough one.  Birds arrived to the loft from all directions this morning and acted as if they were afraid of something.  We did not see a hawk, however they were definitely spooked.  Birds have had 8 previous short tosses and we are confident we will continue to see birds come in throughout the evening as well as in the morning.  Any birds arriving this afternoon are trapping into separate sections and will only loft fly tomorrow.  The birds look good, so our plan is to train tomorrow, however we will evaluate the birds again in a few hours.

The birds have been released off the trailer for the last 2 weeks from our property.  This past Friday we started the actual road training with the birds being released 2 miles from the loft.  Today was the 3rd trainer at this distance.  We are watching the weather closely as our temperatures will be in mid 90's this week.  Our plan is to keep the birds training from these short distances until the heat lifts.  We are a few weeks ahead of schedule, therefore we feel no need to rush them.  

Health of the birds is very good.  All birds are fed Beyers Feeds, Jovati Grit and the Best of Vita King Products. 

Remember there is $1,200,000 in GUARANTEED PRIZES & there is still time to enter.  Checkout the "For Sale" birds on the Hoosier Classic Website.  There are birds being offered from some of the TOP OLR Fanciers in the country. 

Stay Tuned For All The Extra Categories Offered For The 2023 Season!

Today there seems to be an issue with the antennas and the birds clocking correctly.   We have run the birds through the antennas twice today and figured out what the issue was.  We have spoken to the Benzing Technical Support, however to "Restart" the system and have the birds clock a 3rd time is to much stress on the birds and it is very warm here right now.  

We will reset the clock tomorrow while the birds are out and things should be working correctly. 

We hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July Holiday.  Now that we are into July, we have started the process of flagging the birds to get them to fly.  We do still currently have the birds separated into 2 groups, as the younger birds are a little behind in the molting process.  Our goal is to alternate the birds going out and we have begun the process of flagging them to get them to fly.  We do put a little bit more pressure on the older birds when we do this, making them fly in longer intervals than the younger birds.  We will gradually get them both flying for equal amounts of time.  We have also begun to allow the birds to venture into the crates for the trailer.  We have placed them in the loading areas and allow birds to go in and out of them as they please.  Allowing them to do this will make the loading process less intimidating to the birds when we do start to trailer train them. 
We did have a collision yesterday morning with 2 birds while flagging and those breeders have been notified about their birds. 

The overall health of the birds is very good and we are very happy with the loft.  We will be running them through a canker treatment in the coming week as a preventative.  The weather for the next week looks to be good with mild temperatures between the 70's and low 80's for the next 10 days with 1-2 days of chances of rain.  We did have a 2-3 day stretch of very hot temperatures over the holiday with high humidity.  That has since moved out and things are much more comfortable for the birds. 

Remember there are still birds on the For Sale list that can be purchased to participate in the 2023 season. 

Enjoy your weekend!! 

A reminder that the race is CLOSED for 2023.  We are not accepting anymore birds for this season.  

We have been busy since last week with getting the last few weeks of birds settled, and learning the traps.  We still have 1 more group of birds to put chip rings on and then we should be able to do a final import with Benzing to get all of the birds registered into the system and have all of them to be able to clock.  We are going to aim to get chip rings put on tomorrow and have an import done by Thursday and hopefully be able to run all the birds through the system on Thursday.


Thank you everyone for your patience during the last 2 weeks.  We have had a lot of birds come in during this time and putting chip rings on should be the final step for these arrivals.  Our weather looks to be good through next week which will allow us to get the birds out daily in different groups.  The older birds enjoy flying around the loft and are very confident in their surroundings.  The younger groups definitely enjoy getting out as well, and we monitor those younger groups closely while they are out.  

If you need corrections, loft name changes, anything like that please send an email today or tomorrow so it can be done before we update with Benzing.    We will not change loft names during the season.  No Exceptions!  

This will be the last week of accepting birds for the 2023 season.  This will include new entries and replacements.  
We have done an inventory today of all birds except birds that arrived between May 6th - 14th.  The birds that arrived during this time have only been here a week and are still learning the traps.  Please check your loft lists and see if you have any birds that need to be replaced.  We would only suggest shipping birds on Monday - Tuesday.  We were notified that someone tried to ship on a Friday and the post office made them come back and get them on Saturday.  Shipping on a Thursday also does not allow enough time for the post office to deliver in a timely manner.   

The older birds have been out quite a bit over the last week.  The weather has been very good for the most part, with no high winds and barely any rain.  These are ideal conditions for the birds to be settled and allowed to loft fly.  Hopefully the weather stays like this.

We will do a final import with Benzing next week.  IF you need to move a bird to another team, change your loft name, etc., it needs to be done before we do a final import.  We will not make loft name changes once this is done.  Please be 100% sure that the loft name you are flying under is what you will want to finish the season with.  We will not change names mid season, NO EXCEPTIONS. 

Also, if you have birds here that you have not paid for, they must be paid for by the end of the week.  Next week once we do an import, any birds not paid for will be marked ineligible.  This will also prevent them from showing up on any clocking results. 
We want to have all payments settled and changes made so our time can be spent focused on the birds. 

If you would like to participate but are unable to get birds here by the weekend, there are over 150 birds currently available on the For Sale List.   These birds are available to be added to any team.  Perch Fees and Activation are paid for by the "Buyer."  Any and all prize/auction monies are split between the "Breeder" & "Buyer" with a 50/50 split.  Bird(s) belong to the "Buyer" at the end of the season, IF the bird does not go to the auction.   All breeders names are listed for each bird. 

Finally, thank you to everyone who has sent birds and supported the Hoosier Classic Race this year.  We are looking forward to an exciting season and big winners this year.  

If you need help checking on your loft lists, please feel free to call the office and we can help you check to see if anything needs to be replaced.