March 2010 BLOG

3.25.10 - Thursday

I really enjoy blogging.  Writing is very therapeutic for me.  I am always disappointed when my schedule prevents me from writing.  However, during the past several months, we have been planning, scripting, filming and editing our first DVD on racing old birds that we will offer to the fancy in the next month or so.  We are about halfway through  producing the video.  Like my blog, the DVD will be different than most of the videos on the market today.  I will keep you posted as we finish the DVD. 

Recently, I was blessed by the following email:

"hi there Dr. John Lamberton
First of all, I would like to thank you and your wife for all the knowledge that I have gained in the pass 6 months or so. I just wanted to introduce myself to you. ............ I'm 26 years old............ I've always had pigeons in my life one way or another. I stumbled into one of your videos on YouTube and I checked out your web page and fell in love with pigeons all over again. Even though I don't race I can understand the love and passion that you put into your pigeons. I totally agree with you and your philosophy and training. .................This last year I built a little pigeon coop in the back yard and one day I want to get into racing................ I just want to tell you that you have done a great job with your web page and the masses amount of information that is on there. great job!!! I would love to be able to do and put the time into racing like you do someday. Thank you for showing me that you can compete at the highest level with only a few birds. Again thanks for your time."

I would like to thank the author of this email and the many others who continually offer encouragement to me.

This has been a very strange year so far.  Due to sporadic problems with the electrical system on the entire ranch over the winter months, the breeders laid their first round of eggs in mid-February rather than early January.  The light system in the breeding loft was on and off for extended periods of time which has confused the breeders.  Consequently, the first round is just now spending time in the settling cage on the landing board.  Normally, I begin road training the first round in April.  Therefore, this year's young bird team will be about 45 to 60 days younger than teams over the past 25 years.

The Northeast Oklahoma Racing Pigeon Federation begins their 2010 old bird race schedule on April 3.  It looks like a very nice race schedule.  Congratulations should be given to Federation President Larry Dobelbower and Federation Race Secretary Steve Trotter for their planning and management of the Federation's old bird race schedule.  

To date, we are going to race 9 old females and 12 to 14 old males.  This represents twice the number of birds that I prefer to race; but I want to race several old females that have been in the breeding loft and several late-hatches from the fall of 2009 that were rung with 2008 rings.  One of my favorites is AU 08 LAMBERTON 420, a Jef Cuypers - Antoine Jacops cross.  I named him the Blue Tom after Jef's son.  The Cuypers pigeons have turned out to be the best racing pigeons other than the Jacops pigeons.  I only have a few Cuypers pigeons; but they have already made a huge contribution to our racing accomplishments.  The YOUNG GUSTAAF is one of our best breeders. 

Our pigeons were fortunate to recently be confirmed as winners of the following National Awards in the American Racing Pigeon Union (AU):

In addition to training the old birds for the 2010 Federation race series, our Club has concluded several training races in order to test our pigeon's race chips and to verify the accuracy of the race information in the Unikon and Winspeed Race Programs.   Our club has concluded an 80 mile race and a 130 mile race to ready our birds for the old bird race series.  The first Federation race is April 3 from Paris, Texas to various parts of northeast Oklahoma.  The mileage is about 150 miles for our loft near downtown Tulsa.  I typically do not use the race series to prepare the race team.  I prefer to do that on my own before the race series begins.  Consequently, the old bird race team has been on numerous tosses from many different directions on and off the southern line of flight for the race schedule.

Our race teams are raced on the widowhood motivational system.  The 9 old females are coupled with a set of mates independent from the 14 old race males.  The 14 old males are coupled with a set of females independent from the 9 old race females.  I have found that using independent mates to couple with the race birds creates a superior motivational system to simply coupling the race females with the race males.  Independent mates are usually more consistently passionate with their race mates than race birds are to one another.  I believe that this observation has to do with the physical and physical stress inherent in a full widowhood race schedule.

It is important for the race team to develop a weekly schedule or routine of physical and psychological energy.  This weekly schedule allows race birds to rest during the week before the next race and to come into "race form" or to "peak" their energy levels (physical and psychological) on race day.  This development is developed and nurtured by scheduling training races before the actual or official race series begins.  In viewing the results of the training races for my race team, of particular importance is the amount of time from the first bird clocked to the last bird clocked.  I am not only interested in which racers are gaining form for the official race series; but am very interested in the form of the entire race team prior to the onset of the official race series.  The smaller the amount of time between the first and last birds' arrival times means that the entire race team is positively responding to the pre-race training program and all of the racers are ready to compete for head prizes.  It is my goal to clock every bird sent on a race in the top ten to twenty percent of the race results.  In Belgium, prizes are usually awarded to the top one-third of the race birds.  Fanciers in Belgium want their race team to score in the top 33% of the race sheet.  In-other-words, they want each of their racers to "win a prize" on every race.  While this is a lofty goal, a more rigorous goal is to race only those pigeons that will score in the top 20% of the race sheet.  Or the top 10%.  Belgian fanciers typically eliminate pigeons that cannot consistently score in the top one-third of the race sheet for the majority of the races flown over an entire 3 or 4 month race season.  That is probably the reason why we look to Belgium to find the seed stock for our breeding lofts.  The performance criteria is higher for the racing pigeons of typical Belgian fanciers than American fanciers and Belgian race schedules are more rigorous than typical American race schedules.  Consequently, typical Belgian fanciers keep fewer racing pigeons than typical American fanciers.  Also, Belgian fanciers usually keep fewer "average or good" pigeons than typical American fanciers.  Belgian fanciers want to race and breed from only the very best pigeons in their lofts.  And, Belgian fanciers want to introduce only the best pigeons into their breeding lofts from other top fanciers.  

I strive to be competitive and race with the fewest number of pigeons that is prudent and reasonable.  In the 2009 old bird race series,  I sent DE SINTA, the outstanding long distance Antoine Jacops white male, on several long distance races as a lone entry or as part of an entry of 2 or 3 pigeons.  I do not believe that it is necessary to send "a mob" of pigeons or crates and crates of pigeons to consistently score at the top of the race sheets.  I believe that the optimum scenario is to win every race with only one entry per race.

Relying on the skill, intelligence and training of one excellent pigeon wins far more races than depending on the random luck of a mob of poor, average or even good homing pigeons.  Every pigeon that is not as good as the very best pigeon on the race team only hurts the performance of the best pigeon by occupying, utilizing and competing for the same loft space and loft resources (air, physical space, feed, water, grit, etc.) with the very best pigeon.  Keeping pigeons other than the very best pigeons is a sure way to water down or dilute the overall performance of your race team.

To be continued...........please return...................................................thank you..................................Dr. John & Morgan Lamberton