July - August 2010 BLOG

7.19.2010 - Monday

The 2010 Old Bird Racing season is now concluded.  The Long Distance Challenge released on June 25 from Knoxville Tennessee was a very hard race for some of us.  Click Here for the results.  Congratulations to George Glasby who won the race for the second year in a row racing with his grandson Kaleb.  George sent about 46 females and clocked several of them on the second day.  So did Kay and Ron Smith!  Unfortunately, the West Tulsa Club did not start clocking birds until the 4th day from release.  when I tried to enter our birds in Winspeed, I learned that Winspeed will only accept clockings that are 3 nights out or less.  I have no idea why the AU decided to limit clockings to 4 days after release.  Although 4 days is probably enough time to satisfy many or even most pigeon races, I think that there will be a number of races, particularly from the distance and/or extreme distance, that will require more clocking days than 4.  A quick look at several of the AU speed records from 1,000 miles and longer supports my suspicion.  It is my understanding that the AU Board of Directors may not be interested in modifying Winspeed in order for fanciers to enter as many nights out as they wish.  Consequently, all local clubs that rely on Winspeed to calculate their race results to be downloaded to the NDB are limited to only clocking pigeons that come home in 4 days.  I do not believe that the IF restricts the number of days fanciers may clock birds.  But I do not know for sure.

I am very proud of the widowhood males.  There were 7 yearlings and 2 late-breds (9 to 10 months old) on the race team.  These 9 pigeons won the 1st Average Speed Award in the B (Unlimited Entry) Race Series in the West Tulsa Racing Pigeon Club, the Highway 75 Combine, and the Northeast Oklahoma Racing Pigeon Federation.  Several of the yearlings were in the top 100 National in the Long Distance, All Distance and Marathon Distance Award Categories.  The two late-breds, Saint Fairfield and Saint Austin, are full brothers sired by Saint STEPHEN, a beautiful Karel Meuleman-Antoine Jacops son of the long distance Belgian ace Saint Triden.  Saint STEPHEN was crossed on a beautiful GFL double-bred granddaughter of the Golden Mattens which is also down from the pigeons of Karel Meulemans crossed on Janssens from the Brothers.  Both late-breds won 1st prizes in old bird races from 300 and 400 miles.

It is now time to redouble our efforts towards the young bird teams.  Jeff and I have been training our young birds around the loft and down the road.  Jeff has taken his young birds on about 25 tosses to date while my young birds have only been on about 15 tosses.  All of the road training has been from points in a 360 degree circle from our lofts.  As you must know by now if you read these blogs regularly, we train from every direction possible including the line of flight which is south. Our tosses have been limited to a maximum distance of about 25 miles except for one toss when I intentionally tried to reduce my young bird team from about 30 young birds to less than 24 young birds by taking them 50 miles in the heat of the day.  I think about 21 young birds returned.  Since our breeding season during the winter was delayed about six weeks from normal because of a malfunction in our lighting system, our management schedule is also about one month to six weeks behind our preferred schedule.  Currently, we have separated our males from our females and have been coupling the young females with the widowhood race team and a few retired AU Champions.  Since the females are about six weeks to eight younger than normal, they are taking much longer to couple with the males than is normal.  We are having to be very patient since our race team is so young.  when the young females do not respond quickly enough to the older males, the males often become frustrated and angry at the females.  Instead of courting the females patiently, the males will aggressively peck the females on the head and chase them out of frustration. Consequently, we pen the females up in one-half of the widowhood nest box for several days in order to slowly and successfully couple them with occasionally aggressive males.  A process that usually takes only a few days can last a week or longer to complete.  Consequently, extreme patience is required at this time in both of our lofts in order to successfully couple the young females with older males.  The same is true for most of the young males.

Ultimately, I would like to race about 12 young females during the 2010 young bird race series.  Currently, there are about 16 females in the young female loft.  Over time, I hope to reduce the young female team down to about 12 females or less. Twelve young females are about as many as I can manage effectively.  Feeding, exercising, training, educating, scraping. bathing, medicating, coupling, etc. takes a great deal of time per pigeon to manage in such a way as each pigeon has a great chance of becoming a champion.  Twelve pigeons are a full plate for me to accomplish these tasks.  Add to that the fact that each female requires a well-managed mate.  So managing twelve race pigeons really equates to managing twenty-four pigeons when the race bird's mates are factored into the management system.

I have received several emails over the past few months asking about how I select a young bird team from the time they are in the nest to the time the races begin in early September.  Selection is one of the greatest stumbling blocks for fanciers as they manage both their young bird and old bird race teams.  Fanciers still seem to hold onto the belief that racing pigeons is a numbers game.  Fanciers believe that it takes 30 to 60 (or more) pigeons to constitute an average competitive racing team.  Actually, nothing could be farther from the truth.  The more pigeons one has on the race team - the harder it is to race at the top of the sheet.  Because selection seems so hard; let's talk about it. 

THE ROLE OF THE POWER OF RECOGNITION IN THE SELECTION OF A RACE TEAM

Every single day your pigeons are constantly giving out information about their quality and condition.  In fact, most days they scream out their unique characteristics and attributes.  In order to understand these characteristics and in order to make early selections of young birds, you must develop what I am going to call the Power of Recognition (POR).  The POR is an acute ability to use your senses to gather critical information.  In other words, you must see, hear, and feel your pigeons the entire time you are in the loft.  Here are a few Recognition factors that I use in the loft every day.

Look at your pigeons.  Look for differences among your pigeons.  Is one pigeon more aggressive than the others?  Are there pigeons that are afraid and constantly fly away from you or race around the loft trying to get away from you?  My son Jeff is a new fancier in that he is completely on his own in his own loft for the first time.  Although he has helped me for years around the loft, he now has his own loft and birds to manage on his own.  I am amazed and very proud at what he sees in his loft every day.  He has learned the habits and characteristics of each of his 18 young birds.  And, Jeff has added 18 more young birds in another section of his loft to race as late-breds in the 2011 old bird race series beginning in April.  Jeff is constantly telling me what he has observed in his loft.

One of the best ways to keenly observe your pigeons is to hand feed them on the floor after thoroughly scraping and sweeping it.  Slowly dole out small handfuls of grain allowing your pigeons to come right up next to you and pick the grains from around your feet and near your body.  I like to sit on a five-gallon bucket or sit on the floor in order to be close to the young birds and to develop a rapport with each one of them.  If your young birds are hungry enough, they will fly up onto your lap or your hand in order to eat.  The young birds that respond to you and tame the quickest in order to quickly develop a close relationship with you are often very good pigeons.  Be suspicious of flighty pigeons or pigeons that grunt and hop or jump away when you come near them with your hand full of grain.  They are often very poor pigeons. 

One particular emailer mentioned pigeons that occupy the top perches as good pigeons.  While there is some truth to this observation, when you remove those pigeons from the loft, other pigeons will take their place on the top perches.  Some of my best pigeons occupy the second row of nest boxes.  Both the WITTEKOP and COOL HAND LUKE occupy second row boxes.  So be careful to depend upon the "top perch" theory with a grain of salt.  Although you may discover some very good pigeons by following this theory, you may also ignore some outstanding pigeons that do not occupy top perches or boxes.

If you have the time, sit in your loft and watch your pigeons.  You will be amazed at what you discover.  For instance, after being hand fed, pigeons will often fight with each other for their place on the loft floor; males especially.  Immediately after feeding, observe which males or which females are the most aggressive and dominant.  These pigeons often make very good racers.

8.12.2010 - Thursday

THE POWER OF RECOGNITION CONTINUED.................

I like to watch young birds fly from the floor to their perch.  I prefer birds that power themselves using their wings like a hummingbird.  Their wing beat is distinctively fast.  These pigeons are usually very strong and their wings and flight feathers are built for power.  Their arm bones are often shorter than less powerful pigeons - their flight feathers are usually long and thin - and their wings are covered by a thick coat of feathers.  I do not particularly like pigeons that jump up off the floor or push themselves off the floor with their legs in order to create the power and momentum to fly up to their perch.  Watching young birds as they first begin a flight will allow you to visually evaluate the power, potential speed and ultimate racing ability of your pigeons.

2.  Listen to your pigeons.  I regularly listen to the sound that the air makes as it travels through the flights of the young birds make as they fly up to their perch from the floor or as they fly away  as I release them from my hand.  Listen to the sound that young birds make when they land on the loft floor.  I prefer pigeons that do not make a loud noise or a loud thud when they land.  I prefer pigeons that have enough balance and power to float down to the loft floor rather than fall down to the floor.  I prefer pigeons that land quietly and solidly with enough balance not to tip over or fall over when they land.  Like a gymnast performing a routine in competition, I value pigeons that land relatively quietly and do not tip over or fall over when they land.  I prefer pigeons that land solidly straight up and down with balance and power.  I also prefer pigeons that land in their nest box with one leg on the floor of the nest box while holding the other leg up dipping their head and slightly spreading their wings.  Besides balance and power, this type of display often reveals character, aggression, and attitude - all characteristics that together form the cornerstones of motivation.  And motivation is the intellectual and emotional fuel that powers pigeons to race home quickly rather than casually fly home.

3.  Feel you pigeons with your hands and fingers.  If you are a relatively new fancier or a fancier that lacks the confidence to evaluate your pigeons or does not understand how to evaluate your pigeons with your hands, spend a considerable amount of time in your loft at night when it is most dark.  Keep the lights off.  Use a small flashlight to provide enough light to handle your pigeons.  In the darkness, use your fingers to feel every part of your pigeons.  Start with your best breeders or your best proven old birds.  They are your best pigeons.  Develop a mental picture of what they look like with your hands and fingers.  Compare this mental image with the image you develop while handling all of your pigeons.  Feel their keel, the tightness of their vent to the end of the keel bone, their vent - feel their back - feel their feathers - feel their arm bone - feel the width of their chest - feel the thickness, richness and smoothness of their feathers. Use the information from your hands and fingers to evaluate your pigeons.  Champion racing pigeons should have a keel that is not too deep - a wide chest - a short arm bone - plenty of thick, rich, smooth feathers - their vent should be right at the end of their keel and their vent should not be large and soft but rather small and tight.  Eliminate all pigeons that feel very differently from your best pigeons.  There is a good chance that they will not perform as admirably as your best pigeons in the racing loft or breeding loft.

4.  A good loft has a certain smell.  Healthy droppings have a certain smell.  I believe it is possible to smell the health of your pigeons.  A good loft is dry.  Healthy droppings should be dry and tipped with the white color of urine and healthy droppings should be sprinkled with a small amount of down and pigeon dust. Lofts pocked with these type of droppings have a distinctive smell. In contrast, lofts that are damp with runny, loose and watery droppings smell very differently from lofts that contain dry droppings.  Clean, well-scraped and well-swept lofts smell differently than unclean lofts or even lofts with deep litter.  I have smelled the dry and healthy lofts of many top fanciers in Belgium.  I have spent many many hours inside the racing and breeding lofts of Antoine Jacops. These competitive lofts have a specific and recognizable odor.  My lofts in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA are lightly scented with the same odor that I smelled in Vorselaar, Belgium.  Healthy pigeons have a unique and recognizable smell.  Healthy lofts have the same unique and recognizable smell.  Healthy droppings do not stink.  The smell of healthy droppings is not offensive.  The smell of unhealthy droppings stinks.  The smell is strong, acrid and offensive.  I urge you to evaluate the health of your pigeons and the health of your loft by analyzing the smell of your pigeons, your loft and the droppings of your pigeons.  The legs, feet and toes of healthy pigeons are generally clean and free of droppings.  Healthy pigeons smell good to me.  Unhealthy pigeons smell bad.  Their feet are often caked or lightly soiled with unhealthy droppings, their vents may be tainted and may smell of acrid droppings.  Their feathers may be tainted with the smell of unhealthy droppings - particularly around their underbelly and vent.

Racing pigeons emit and give out a plethora of data every single moment of every single day in many ways.  There are many fanciers who for one reason or another cannot or do not recognize this wonderful world of information.  Many fanciers believe that the basket is the only way to evaluate racing pigeons.  From the gifted master fancier Antoine Jacops, I have learned to understand and appreciate the robust world of information that exists in abundance every single moment inside the exciting and dynamic world of a pigeon loft.  Through sight, smell, and feel, I have learned to take in and assimilate as much data as I have the mental and physical energy to gather each and every day.  I am blessed because Jeff has also developed these same abilities.  Evaluating racing pigeons through your senses is not hard.  It doesn't require anything special but time, awareness, and effort.   

8.13.2010 - Friday

FIGURE 1

I received an email from a first year fancier wanting to know more about the widowhood racing system of motivation and wanting to view a schemata for a widowhood loft.  FIGURE 1 is a drawing of a widowhood loft that I designed a number of years ago.  I encourage everyone to build one loft in the shape of a cross.  Let the top of the cross be the landing board or area.  Let the sides and the trunk of the cross be the areas that house your pigeons.  One area of the loft can be young birds - one area can be for old birds - while the third area can be for lofted breeders and/or extra pigeons.  In Figure 1, the areas on the arms of the cross marked "C" represent loft sections that are approximately 5 ft. wide and 5 to 6 feet deep.  The areas marked "G" are loft sections with either box or more narrow traditional perches that house celibate pigeons: either males or females.  The areas marked "E" are nest boxes at the back of each loft section.  There are typically 4 to 6 nest boxes that are 15 inches wide and 24 inches deep that are fronted with plastic coated wire nest fronts built in Belgium.

The areas marked "H" are hallways and/or doors.  The areas marked "D" or "DD" in the trunk of the cross are lofts for old birds and/or breeders, i.e., lofted breeders or racers that have been retired to the breeding loft.

All of the areas previously discussed surround the area in the middle of the cross marked "B" which is a foyer into which all of the pigeons enter and trap after they have been exercised, trained or raced.  The area marked "A" is the landing board which allows young birds, old birds, and breeders to enter the loft using several small entryways fitted with one or two Unikon scanners.  Once birds trap into the loft, they can be directed to move to into areas marked "C," "D," or "DD."

If the left arm of the cross is used for racing widowhood males, the corresponding areas marked "G" will house their mates on perches.  If the left arm of the cross is used for racing widowhood females, the corresponding areas marked "G" will house their mates on perches.  All widowhood males or remain celibate during the week and return home to their mates on race day.  Depending upon the number of widowhood males or females fanciers want to race, all of the areas marked "C" could be used to race either sex.  In this case, all of the areas marked "G" will house the celibate mates of the race team.

I will always use a single loft built in the shape of a cross as depicted in FIGURE 1.  I believe that it is mentally  satisfying to racing pigeons as well as very functional for me as a pigeon fancier to allow my pigeons to trap into the loft using the same trap that they used when they were raced as young birds and old birds and as retired breeders.

To be continued.........................................................................Thank you................................Dr. John Lamberton