Flagging birds today - they have been babied for too long. About 80% of the flock are free-flying really good.
We are working them twice a day!
Health is great - a few birds need replaced e-bands or cleaning.
Recall that we delayed our training due to the local Federation flying their YB season and birds over our loft.
We did not want to risk losing birds to overfly as our neighboring sister race did and dropping over 300 birds in one toss - we believe we did the right thing by delaying.
See all the prior updates for all the details ~ No need to re-hash!
Stay tuned for daily updates from here as we crank up the momentum !
Open lofting the birds for another couple days before we start them back up on formal training path to 100 miles.
Not all the birds are free-ranging as we would like For 45+ minutes.
Health is optimal - so its only a matter of loft management to get them operating as one flock.
Birds are not sick - so no medication needed - juat probiotics and Vita Pro Combo in water aeveral times weekly.
All the best for 2020
Steve
Happy New Year to you and your family - all the best for 2020 ~~!
Birds are back out today after the period of a wet, cold and windy Christmas. Generally with puddles of water around the loft, we keep them in as we do not want them drinking anything outside at this time. We hit 32 degrees here. and birds will need to adjust.
Birds will be on Open Loft today and everyday this week and get them back up in the air for 45 minutes after they were roughed up last weekend.
Best regards
Merry Christmas to you and your family from us ~~!
Looks like operator error from my helper on the "Live Clocking" inventory attempt. Not sure if it was Internet down, password related or wrong USB port for the Wincompanion.
Well rain, rain and winds thru Christmas and also predicted for Friday. Bieds will get some down time to regroup and back in the air and on the road again.
best regards
Power has been restored to the loft as of Saturday - Utility company had shut it off due to some water damage/flood erosion that could have potentially caused some issues to the electricals.
BIrds have been exercising well in part to our persistent aerial predators and have been out every day on open loft.. We took them on some short orientation tosses down the street 1 mile, 10, 15, 25. CLocks were not on as we had no power until Saturday. The 25 mile was released in light tail winds and partly cloudy - later turned to 10-15 mph and the birds struggled, taking off in the wrong direction and coming from the west/north west which is opposite to our southeast direction for this series. We turned the birds out in the evening thinking it was a clock issue - and reran the birds through the traps. Hope that a lot of the stragglers come in today (cloudy and strong variable winds from the south).
BIrds will be on lockdown for a few days due to strong winds/rain forecasted. After that looks like another nice spell of weather - will re-group and start at the 10 mile marker.
Best Regards
All is healthy and well at the lofts. Since the Federation races have completed, OLR birds are out every evening (except yesterday Sunday with gusty winds and cold front moving in). A cold 37 degrees this morning - but waterers did not freeze over.
We were doing evening releases due to the persistent aerial predators but now we will swtich to morning releases and start flagging this week to get everyone giving us 45 mins air time... and then down the road like clockwork.
Best regards ~~
Our Federation races are finally over - the last two races were 1456 ypm and 1472 ypm in December. The October/November races came in at 1883 ypm working their way down as the winds shifted. This is perfect for working races now - we are excited that we made this decision to delay (and going forward all our races will be in Dec/Jan).
The weather turned nasty Saturday night thru Monday with inches of hail on the ground in some places. The next 10 day outlook looks beautiful - the birds are now being put through their paces. We still have the airborne predators angling in - we had some deterrent temporary nets up which seemed to work.
Best regards ~
Birds are looking well - lots of vigor and wing flapping. The last Federation shipping is Thursday night FINALLY - so we will have the OLR birds out Thursday, Friday, but locked in on Saturday for the local Final race. Still have the predators here - the "hawk migration" has not occurred and we have to watch them. We have lost several droppers and a few to these guys since last inventory ~! Give them a few days out and we will start flagging if they are not readily taking to the skies. As soon as the birds are giving me 45 minutes and ranging - they will be taken down the road. If they are not ranging - we will take them a mile - that usually jumpstarts things. They have packed on a few ounces with all the cold temps - eating with a passion ~!
Our Hughes satellite is down at the lofts with all the wind/rain - supoosed to be fixed today. Birds were ran through the traps on Sunday. Missed a few and turned on Monday to catch the stragglers. If the satellite is not fixed today - we will take the clock/module home and upload the latest inventory at home.
Schedule Tentatively: We will not skimp on the training (you have seen our training over the years). Roughly 2-3 weeks of training quickly to the proverbial Activation Toss (Jan 5th). While entries are incoming, the very important conditioning tosses will continue at the 50/75 mile markers alternating until the 1st race (~Jan 11th), 200 mile (~Jan 14th), 250 mile (~Jan 19th), 300 mile (~Jan 24th), Final 365 (~Jan 30th). These days are +/- a few days. However once we start the races the 150 and 200 happens in fairly quick succession 3-4 days, then the other races 5-7 days apart like clockwork - choosing the best days to go in that range ~!
Wet, windy and cold 40 degree Thanksgiving ~! Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
We awoke at 5:00AM Friday to emergency alerts and thunderous noises - 3 tornadoes touched down (one not too far from the lofts) and downed trees in neighboring areas. This is not tornado alley and this is unusual - ALL is safe - just damp and muddy surrounding the lofts. The drainage is good with drains surrounding the 2-acre property on the north and west sides.
A short race today from 150 for the AZ Federation (and last race next week thankfully which will allow us to operate without anxiety of 1000's Federation birds training over our lofts during the week) - they have slowed down from 1883 ypm to 1500+ last week. We will make this change permanent for Arizona Classic Derby going forward - having the races later in December 2020/January 2021 which eliminates the blowhome conditions (losses, overfly, hot, etc in October/November). Birds are fully moulted out, slicked, and training is easier with less heat stress, and working races. These advantages will allow us to accept birds from March thru August (which is good for the small OLR like ours with typically less than 400 birds - getting those late entries in August will boost our intake numbers significantly to 600 - our capacity is 800).
We look forward to getting this guys tearing up the skies and on the road now ~!
Other ramblings - If we can get 150 entries to enter an Old Bird series (February/March 2020) - it will be 300-400-500 miles with minimal perch/entry fee. Payout 20%/10%/30%/40% for Average Speed/300m/400m/500mile split limited to 5% of birds going to actual race. If we get less than that - we will fly your birds in the local Old bird races for free (and you can have them back after the series). The race course will be the same as Arizona Classic Derby and Arizona Federation youngbirds/old birds - and the timing will be perfect from completion of our series to start of Federation races.
Birds are looking good - droppings are rock solid ~!
Rain last Tuesday - Friday with damaging winds and hail and more forecasted for a wet, wet Thanksgiving from Wed - Friday again - we have received more rain in the last few days than we received in the entire year in Arizona. We will keep this birds in and start putting the birds through their paces after this next storm moves on. The Federation is also wrapping up with 2 more races - so we feel more comfortable having the friendlier skies to ourselves. The Federation races have dropped in speed from 1870's to 1500's this week - so it is more conducive to working races and not blow-homes.
Stay tuned - it's about to get exciting ~~!
