blogfebruary2008

Today is a typical day in Oklahoma. A very gusty southwest wind will take the temperature to the mid-seventies. Tomorrow a cold front is coming. The temperature will be in the high thirties. The south wind most always rages just before a front sweeps through Oklahoma. I am now watching the weather twice a day; morning and night both on television and the internet. It is difficult to properly care and feed old birds when the temperature, humidity and wind vary so radically on a day by day basis. In order to equalize these weather conditions, I feed 1/3 barley in the old bird mix. I also feed 1/3 safflower. when (if) the weather calms a bit, I will reduce the barley and safflower to 25% each and 50% of a good general race mix. I like a race mix with few peas and lots of small seeds: wheat, kafir corn (white milo), oat groats, hemp, rape, red milo (not a lot), rape, sun flower seeds and millet. I like to mix a finch, maleatiel, or parakeet feed into the race mix never reaching more than about 10% of the general mix. I add corn as the weather and distance require. Racing pigeons can eat more small seeds than they can large seeds. Consequently, small seeds give them more energy because they eat more of it. I am now starting the old birds on a basic race mix as they begin their training regiment for old birds which begins April 5.

The old birds are exercised twice a day for one to two hours each exercise period. As a rule, old birds don't fly as much or as long as young birds. If you have the time, keep the old birds exercising without stopping for an hour, then call them into the loft and feed them. If you can't be at your loft, let them out for about two hours. They may fly as much starting and stopping for two hours and they would fly in one continuous hour of non-stop exercise. If you can't be there to call them into the loft in two hours, let them have open loft until you or someone else can call them inside and feed them. If open loft doesn't work either, take them on short training tosses on your way to work or wherever.

The reason so many excellent fanciers in Belgium, Holland, Germany, etc. race so well is that the entire family helps out with the birds. Pigeons can elevate a families gross income significantly if flown well. Thus, entire families care for the birds. when I visited the Houbens years ago, I was impressed by the way the family worked as a group to care for the birds. The Janssen Brothers had a distinct advantage because several of the Brothers each had their chores in the loft. One cleaned the loft. One cared for the breeders. One cared for the racers. One took care of the business or financial function of the loft management. In Oklahoma, my wife Morgan cares for the breeding loft. I often hear her talking to the breeders and youngsters as if she were talking to our grandchildren. Her gentleness and routine adds very important qualities to the success of the breeding loft.

Racing pigeons without proper motivation is not "racing" and it is defined in Europe. Since the modern day Sport was started in Belgium, I tend to define the words I use in terms of the culture of the Belgian racing world. There is a big difference between "flying" and "racing." "Racing" involves motivation that stirs the very essence of racing pigeons. Motivation is a state of mind. Generations of winning genes, super health, excellent conditioning, and proper feeding are four vital corner stones of successful racing; but without passionate motivation - without a focused state of mind, pigeons do not race as defined by the Flemish and Dutch to name a few.

The quality of competition determines the importance of motivation. If an experienced fancier is competing against several new fanciers, the experienced fancier's birds do not need to race as fast as if the fancier was competing against seasoned veterans. In the Northeast Oklahoma RPF, we compete against fanciers like Bill Hill, Jim Robinson, Steve Trotter, Steve Cassidy, Ken Robinson, Larry Dobelbower, Roland Gutierrez, Stuart Child, Tony Smith, Bill Shroufe, Ron & Kay Smith, Charlie Mayfield, George Glasby, John Muggenborg, and Bill Kinyon to name a few. (I apologize if I spelled any of my fellow fancier's names wrong.) It is very difficult to win a Club, Combine or Federation race. In Belgium, we compete against Achiel Van Gilbergen, the Herbots, and Michel Van Lint to name only a few. Our pigeons must be motivated passionately each and every week. Nest positions are too difficult for us to set up each week for the natural system; so we race our pigeons on the widowhood system. Widowhood creates a passionate level of motivation each week.

There are fanciers that bred an early round from their best widows. I did. There are other fanciers that use their widowhood team to raise a round out of their breeders. I did this also. There are widows that did neither. I have those widows too. Regardless of whether or not the widows raised an early round, they should be coupled the first half of February or by February 14, Valentine's Day. They will usually lay in a week or ten days after coupling. Three weeks later, the eggs are pipping. Youngsters can be weaned in order to place the old birds on widowhood anywhere between the first week before April 5 or the week after April 12. There are some fanciers who like to race the first one or two races on widowhood when the females have been removed and the widows are caring for the youngsters by themselves. I only let the widows raise one youngster; not two. Feeding a single youngster is easier for the widows than feeding two youngsters. If you want to raise two youngsters from particular pairs, remove one youngster when the female is removed and let her care for one of the youngsters separately from the widowhood loft. Because we only race eight weeks of old birds in Oklahoma, I like to put the widows on widowhood several weeks before the race season begins. I like to have them ready to compete on the first race.

In Belgium, old bird racing begins in May and lasts into early fall. There are more than twice as many old bird races in Belgium that there are in Oklahoma. Consequently, our widowhood systems are not identical at both lofts. The widows are not separated from their mates as early in Belgium as they are in Oklahoma. This blog generally discusses racing old birds and the widowhood system as it is used in Oklahoma more so than in Belgium.

Today is raining. The cold front that came on the heels of yesterday's windy hot day is passing through Oklahoma now causing a cold rain pocked with thunderstorms. All of this means that the old birds and the young birds will remain in the loft until the weather breaks. Currently, I think it will be tomorrow before the racers soar into the partly cloudy skies that make up the contour of their lofty world. Nevertheless, if it were a sunny day, the old birds would have been released at dawn - or just after - depending on the amount of daylight the squeezed through the clouds on the East horizon. On days with no clouds, I like to release the old birds about 20 minutes before official dawn. At first, the old birds fly erratically in the twilight. But after a few days, they adjust to it and exercise freely. At high altitudes, dawn begins before we see it standing on the ground. I like to present racers with opportunities to think and reason. This early morning release is a way of forcing racers to find the light in the twilight by soaring higher than they might have flown if released 30 minutes later. This may not seem practical; but I think it pays dividends in long distance and over night races.

The old long distance master George Goswick lived in Tulsa. As a teenager, we were friends and he frequently talked with me; although he didn't always like to talk about pigeons. He won many long distance races. He owned the 700 mile race station from Brownville, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He often clocked 700 mile day birds. He accomplished this tremendous feat by forcing his racers to exercise in the middle of the night. George lived in the middle of town with lots of electrical and phone wires outlining his backyard or garden. His birds learned to exercise at night and to avoid the dangers of the night such as high wires, trees, etc. George clocked countless 700 mile day birds at night. We also used to fly a 1,000 mile race from Orlando, Florida to Tulsa. George would usually win this race also. Depending upon the weather, the race took from 3 days to a week to complete. Again, his birds would race at night; often arriving days before the birds of the other fanciers in his club. While I don't train at night to the degree George did, I still like to release the old birds as early as possible in the morning. George wrote a book entitled "Living With The Birds." It is an interesting book to read if you can find a copy of it.

I remember that George flew Trentons. He was a builder. He had a beautiful large loft with a large office. There was a huge glass window that separated the office from the breeders. As a young fancier, I thought that watching the breeders through the glass wall while sitting at the desk was just about the coolest thing I had ever seen. George, and a fancier by the name of Keith Parrett, were my mentors. Mr. Parrett as I called him, flew Bricouxs, Sions, Wegges, and Gurnays. These were tough, hard weather long distance pigeons that dominated the local racing landscape. From what I heard from my mentors and read about these strains, I developed a love and a passion for European pigeon racing in general and the Sport in Belgium in particular. Since I was a teenage fancier, I wanted to travel to Belgium and learn about the Sport from the Masters.

Today's blog started with racing pigeons at night and George Goswick. But since I seem to be waxing about the past, please let me finish the story. In the early 1980's, I read a story in an old Racing Pigeon Bulletin about a very young pigeon fancier by the name of Mike Ganus. Intrigued by the article and believing that I might find another fancier who was as passionate about pigeons as I was, I called Mike and introduced myself. That telephone conversation began a life long friendship. How in the world could I have predicted that this teenager would revolutionize the Sport of racing pigeons during his lifetime. In the mid-eighties, Mike organized a trip to Belgium with five fanciers. Two of them were Mike and myself. The other three were Dan Van Lake who races very successfully in Little Belgium in Florida; Bob Brumagin who races well in the Northwest; and Dominic Rappucci, an excellent fancier in the northeast. We are featured on Mike Ganus's first video on racing pigeons in Belgium.

Mike & me at Ad Schaerlaeckens Standing: Dan Van Lake, Jos "De Klak" Van Limpt, Mike Ganus, Bob Brumagin

On this trip, I met Antoine and Maria Jacops, two of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Antoine was King of the Antwerp Union in 1985 with his tremendous pigeons. I purchased Antoine's imports from Mike and have never looked back. These tremendous pigeons race in any type of weather from any distance. I have never had to "specialize" in short, medium, or long distance pigeons because Antoine's birds can do it all

I subsequently made several more trips to Belgium and Holland with Mike. Eventually, I worked up the courage to go by myself thanks to the constant generosity of the Jacops. In the last several years, I have partnered with Jef Cuypers and his wonderful family: wife Christine, daughter Sophie, and son Tom. I also met Christine's wonderful parents, the Roger Lautermans. Roger gave me the tremendous grizzle male from his hit pair that I blogged about in January. The Lautermans primarily speak French. So, I have been taking a introductory French course from a local Community College in order to communicate effectively. Bon Jour Roger.

Jef Cuypers using the Herbots Vita Duif Roger Lautermans & Me in front of our new loft

One of the first questions I get from fanciers who want to know about my birds is "What distance do these pigeons fly?" I always smile when I hear this question. Antoine believes that if you raise ten young birds from a breeding pair, that 2 will be best at the short distance, 2 will be best at the long distance, and the other 6 will race well somewhere in between. This belief brings me to a point. In Belgium, fanciers choose a distance or distances from which to compete. If need be, they obtain pigeons from a fancier who performs well at this distance. Those pigeons that perform well at the distance chosen by the fancier are selected based upon performance. The point is, pigeons race well at a particular distance primarily because of the aspirations of the fancier; rather than the unique qualities of the pigeons. In Belgium, some of the best long distance fanciers are located in Flanders. If a fancier lives in Flanders, the distance races are the distances that allows him or her to race most competitively. Consequently, fanciers in Flanders often choose to race long distance because they can compete best nationally in long distance races. One of the greatest long distance fanciers in the Flanders area was Roger Florizoone, "Mr. Barcelona." At his dispersal after his passing, I purchased 6 of his top pigeons including a super son and a sister to his Barcelona winner.

NEW FANCIERS: Let me suggest that you first decide how you want to race. Once that decision is made, only select those pigeons that meet that criteria you choose. I think that one of the greatest disservices we can do to new fanciers is to give them 20 or 30 breeders that may or may not fit the criteria that they ultimately choose to race. New fanciers often spend years trying to make their new breeders fit their system by mating and re-mating these gifts in countless ways. They often lose years of time developing their own family of pigeons. I suggest to new fanciers that they purchase, swap, barter, etc. for one or two pairs of breeders that fit the type of racing to which they aspire. It is best to learn to breed several excellent pigeons rather than 30 or more average pigeons. It is best to learn to race several excellent pigeons rather than 30 or more average pigeons. It doesn't take a mob of pigeons to race well. It only takes several excellent racers; or even one Ace. There are those who think that races are won through numbers rather than Aces. This is not a Belgian concept. But it is prevalent in the US.

Now you may understand a little more about this blog. Blogging gives me a chance to mentor in like manner to the way I was mentored. The blog represents the ideas I have picked up during the pursuit of a dream that I have cherished since I was 14 and bought my first pair of racing pigeons from Keith Parrett. I am simply returning the favor afforded to me by the Masters of the Sport. I blog because, as a college professor, I love to write. And I love to write about the Sport I love. I consider it my duty to repay the fanciers that have shaped my life by handing their ideas down to new generations of fanciers. I don't do this for my ego. I have no trouble with my ego and don't need to have it self-actualized through the pigeon Sport. My God, my wife and my family take care of my ego. If ever you don't like what I have written in the blog and it bothers you, simply quit reading it. Meanwhile, I am going to continue to do my duty to the Sport and have fun writing by blogging.

when training begins, I need to get into a personal rhythm. The exercise schedule is for both me and the birds. If I don't maintain a schedule, the birds can't follow a schedule. Racers are confined by the options and schedule we give them as fanciers and managers. We are the beginning point to any successful racing season. Are you ready for old birds? Have you made a commitment to race well by following a regiment that molds the old birds into a finely tuned race team? It's now time to commit to excellence. How does one start? Where does one begin?

Step 1: I like to get up and let the old birds out to exercise at dawn. I force them to fly for an hour. After an hour, they have open loft for about an hour. They often get a bath; although they are not allowed to bath on Thursday or Friday before a Saturday race. In mid-afternoon, about 2 pm in February, the exercise period is repeated. If your work schedule is from 8 am to 5 pm, find a way to exercise your birds and work too. If you have children that play sports, find a way to exercise your birds, work, and support your family. Pigeons are incredibly adaptive birds. They will respond to whatever schedule you create; or to no schedule at all. I have discussed this topic in an earlier blog in January, I think. I often hear that fanciers quit the Sport because of work or family considerations. I find this sad. If I had to race only 1 pigeon because of other obligations, I would do so. If I had to breed from 1 pair of super pigeons, I would do so. I find that the greatest problem with the Sport is the number of pigeons we manage to keep. Manage 12 pigeons correctly (Breeders, Old Birds and Young Birds combined); rather than 100 pigeons incorrectly. One super pigeon will make a race series very exciting and rewarding.

Step 3: Bath the old birds using a medicated shampoo to eliminate external parasites, if any.

Step 5: Begin feeding an excellent race mix even if you must add grains to make it right. Make sure that the mix contains at least 25% barley.

Step 6: Couple your old birds by Valentine's Day for either the Natural or Widowhood Systems.

Step 8: Begin tossing the race team from 5 to 10 miles in every direction possible. Frequently toss the race team into the wind. Single toss when able. Teach the birds to break home by double tossing or triple tossing the old birds with friends.

Step 9: Have fun with your birds. After all, the wonderful Sport of Racing Pigeons is a hobby.

Step 10: Have fun with your friends. Hobbies are usually social events. With several of your friends, select a good restaurant for breakfast, lunch, or dinner in a nearby town. Toss your birds after you eat. Liberating after eating (the fanciers, not the birds) thoroughly gives the racers an opportunity to settle and orient in the crate. Water the birds in the crate while you are inside the restaurant.

During the weaning process, there may be several young birds that lose their luster. They may sit fluffed up and have green and/or watery droppings. As a rule, I quickly remove these young birds from the young bird loft and ultimately eliminate these pigeons. Sickly or weak pigeons will never become Ace pigeons. If you want to separate these youngsters and medicate them, go ahead. I don't have the time and energy to treat these youngsters. I want to spend my time and energy on the robust youngsters. As a young person, I loved to read the Jack London books. Two of my favorites are "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang". London's story line in these books illustrates the theory of the "survival of the fittest." London was a fan of Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher who influenced London's thinking regarding evolution and survival. Nietzsche writes about a "superman" philosophy that describes survival, excellence, and performance. Charles Darwin also theorized that evolution results from a hereditary process through which the strong survive and the weak die. I tend to read and identify with the scientists, philosophers, and authors who write about survival as a function of breeding, strength and performance. So it is in pigeons. I prefer strong pigeons rather than weak pigeons. when 100 youngsters are robust and healthy, why spend time and resources on the 10 or 15 that are weak? I prefer to spend energies on youngsters who robustly pass the test of weaning. Consequently, I eliminate those youngsters that show weakness. While I don't like to lose any youngster, some pigeons are stronger than others. I want the strongest youngsters on the race team!

KEY POINT: Don't focus on the pigeons that fail to meet a rigorous selection criteria. Focus instead on the youngsters who exceed the selection criteria and survive the selection process. Value the best pigeons rather than the worst pigeons. I frequently hear fanciers lament the birds that they lose on a training toss. I seldom regret losing pigeons. I focus instead on the birds that return from a toss. I quickly forget the birds that are gone from empty box perches. I only focus on the birds that consistently fill the box perches soon after liberation.

KEY POINT: If one pigeon can make it home from a training toss, all of the pigeons could have made it home. Example: Let's say I take 60 young birds on a 25 mile training toss. After 4 hours there are no pigeons home from the toss. I always begin to wonder if I did something wrong. However, when that first bird arrives home, I no longer worry that I made a mistake in training. Why? Because if a single pigeon makes it home, then all of them could have made it home. I focus on the pigeons that survive selection and training and forget about the ones that don't.

If you will evaluate the pedigrees of the young birds that survive a tough training toss, you will find very important clues about your breeding program. If 18 pigeons make it home from a 25 mile training toss for 60 pigeons, there will usually be several of the returnees that are siblings out of the same breeding pairs. Why? The best breeding pairs should breed the best racers. You can learn a tremendous amount of information about your breeders from a very tough training toss.

To recap, the old birds are exercised twice a day. The young birds are exercised once a day after the old birds have exercised for the second time. But what about the breeders? Right now, the second round is receiving their ring or band. After the second round, I like to re-couple a number of the breeding pairs. I experiment with breeding pairs by accessing the software that I use to manage the loft and create pedigrees. I use Power Pigeon. There are several other excellent software packages to manage your loft. Although there are several functions I like about Power Pigeon, there are several glaring deficiencies. I have discussed these deficiencies with the author of Power Pigeon. However, he has been unresponsive to improving his product and expanding the abilities of the software. Nevertheless, I use Power Pigeon to generate "TEST" pedigrees. I load different males with different females into the sire and dam form fields on the pedigree generation page of the software and print a TEST pedigree. These TEST pedigrees yield a visual way of analyzing the percentage of line-breeding (prepotency) versus the percentage of outcrossing (hybrid vigor) in the pedigree. Based upon what I have learned from Antoine Jacops and the Janssen Brothers, I prefer to couple breeding pairs whose children have pedigrees with 70% line-breeding and 30% out-crossing. I calculate these percentages using TEST pedigrees as a data field. Mike Ganus and the Herbots couple "best to best;" even if the parents are totally unrelated. I like to combine these two methodologies. How? I like to line-breed and outcross the best to the best.

Try creating TEST pedigrees. Use software packages or some sort of short-hand system to improve the way your breeders are coupled. Otherwise, the breeding success of your breeding loft may only be a function of luck. After the breeders have bred several rounds, or more if you pump eggs from top breeders and use pumper pairs to sit them, consider re-coupling the breeders to vary the youngsters on the young bird team.

Although I have blogged about soupspoons in 2007, I will briefly repeat it again now. Europeans use soupspoons for many tasks. A soupspoon is bigger than a table spoon. For many years European fanciers have used soupspoons as measuring devices for medications. If you have ever purchased European products to treat your pigeons, chances are the directions referred to treatment measurements in terms of soupspoons. I have about a dozen soupspoons that I use in the loft. The best use for them is feeding the old birds. On Monday, the widows usually receive a half soupspoon of race mix for the morning feeding and a full (as opposed to level or heaping) soupspoon of race mix at the evening feeding. By Thursday evening, the widows receive two full soupspoons of race mix. From Monday to Thursday, the widows exercise routine and energy level will double their consumption of race mix. It would be very hard to for me to properly manage the loft without soupspoons.

Depending upon the weather forecast and the cloud cover in the eastern horizon, the old birds will be released at dawn. I have included a website that calculates the time for sunrise/sunsets in case you would like to print a sunrise/sunset calendar for your city like the calendar above. CLICK HERE

After the old birds have been liberated, the old bird loft is scraped and cleaned. Hand scrapers can be purchased at any of the pigeon supply houses for nest boxes and perches. I use a flat long-handled scraper that can be purchased at Home Depot or most hardware stores in the garden section to scrape the floors. I sharpen the blades on the long-handled scrapers with a grinder; and keep them sharp with regular maintenance. I use good sturdy brooms that can easily clean corners to sweep-up droppings from the floor and large heavy-duty plastic dust pans to collect droppings. I empty the droppings into large plastic trash cans and spread them over the ranch land as fertilizer. By scraping every day, the time it takes to adequately clean the loft is minimal. While the old birds are still exercising, the 2-litre water fountains are cleaned and rinsed. I use Clorox once a week. The grit is changed and/or refreshed. Fresh Pickstone is available at all times. Race grain is mixed. After thirty minutes to an hour, the old birds are called into the loft and fed. For the old bird race team, the morning chores are finished. Tomorrow the sunrise is at 7:19 am; so the old bird chores should be finished by 8:30 am.

After finishing old birds, I let the young birds into the aviary on the landing board. They stay out for about an hour - the amount of time it takes to manage the breeding loft. The breeding loft features a heavy-duty wire mesh floor. The droppings fall through the floor on to the ground several feet down. There are chickens under the loft to eat any grain that falls through the floor and to aerate and turn the droppings through their continuous scratching routines. Obviously the floor of the breeding loft does not need scraping. I only scrape the breeding nest boxes after each round is raised. I don't like to disturb the breeders by a daily scraping. The breeders and babies are checked visually. They are fed - water fountains cleaned, and grit and pickstone refreshed. The breeders are bathed several times a week. Once a week I use Adams Flea & Tick Shampoo to eliminate external parasites and thoroughly clean their feathers. when breeders bath frequently and are sitting eggs, the dampness from their breast moistens the eggs and makes the shells easier to hatch from. Any week-old babies receive their ring. Once rung, the data is entered into a breeding book that includes the date hatched, the date rung, and parentage. After a week as the babies pin feathers begin grow and to fill in, their color is also noted in the breeding book. At weaning, I try to decide the squeakers sex and record it. Managing the breeding loft takes about an hour and is generally finished by 9:30.

After finishing the breeding loft, the young birds are called into the loft through the trap and are fed. Any young birds that don't enter the loft through the trap while the other young birds are being fed, are not fed. Hunger is a great motivator. After missing one or two feedings, young birds will charge through the trap and eat well. During the time young birds are learning to enter the loft, if they don't eat, their droppings may turn green and become loose. If they are strong and healthy, under stress, their immune systems will kick-in and protect them from disease. Be sure to keep alot of fresh pickstone available as they may it some of it trying to satisfy their hunger. The pickstone will also help them. If you want, keep a little barley in a feeder for them to peck on. Although pigeons are not ducks, I believe that they learn through an imprinting process that occurs early in life - primarily during the first 90 days of their life. It is critically important for young birds to learn to respond to your commands during weaning. Young bird's brains are like sponges and soak up everything to which they are exposed. KEY POINT: If you don't teach them to be smart and tame, they will remain ignorant and wild. Don't' feed or reward young birds for bad behavior. Feed them and praise them for good behavior.

I received an email asking me to discuss shipping limits. This is a topic that my own club wrestled with several years ago. There are several parts to this issue:

The AU policy on shipping limits is as follows: "Shipping Crates: should allow Young birds a minimum of 42 square inches per bird, 45 for old females, and 48 per old male. For two day races, recommended minimums are 52 square inches per old female and 64 per old male."

Let me ask you the following question. As a Sport, if we spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on: breeding stock - a loft - an electronic timer and chips - feed - medications - gasoline and vehicle maintenance for training - and race fees - and spend hundreds of hours managing our racing lofts - then why would we want to crowd or pack our race birds into shipping crates that will produce enough stress in a few hours to negate all of the time and expense we have spent on our pigeons preparing them to race? Does that seem logical? Does that seem humane? The heat and overall stress on our race birds in the shipping crate can be significant. Each race bird needs an adequate amount of space in which to be comfortable and maintain the "racing form" that many of us spent hours of our time developing. The fastest way to lose a race or encourage a smash race is to overcrowd shipping crates. I believe that overcrowding shipping crates is cruel! I

There are fanciers who like to race a small race team and fancier who like to race a large race team. In our area, those fanciers who race a large number of birds are known as "mob flyers." There are fanciers who genuinely like to raise a large number of pigeons, and I don't want to take anything away from anyone's right to race a large number of birds for the love of the game. So this discussion does not concern fanciers who genuinely love to race large numbers of pigeons. However, many mob flyers are typically fanciers who know very little about the true Sport of racing pigeons. Their only hope of winning a pigeon race is to ship enough pigeons that one of them may have a chance to be the best bird in the race. These fanciers are not skilled. They do not race by preparing individual pigeons for particular races. Instead, they prepare mobs of pigeons hoping that one of them may be ready to race each week. Their theory of racing pigeons relies totally on luck rather than skill of knowledge of the game.

Mob flying makes more of a difference in the young bird race series than the old bird race series. Young birds are most susceptible to the powerful influences of the "flock." Old birds are more physically and mentally mature than young birds. Old birds will "break" from the flock in order to race the "truest" flight path home. Young birds often fly a "looped" flight path. That is, they often decide to follow the flock farther than necessary in order to race home according to the straightest flight path. Figure 1 below illustrates the difference between a straight or true flight path and a "looped" flight path.

If the fancier in Loft 1 ships 150 young birds in a single race, and the fancier in Loft 2 ships 30 young birds in the same race, the young birds racing to Loft 2 will most probably follow the young birds from Loft 1 far enough home that when they finally decide to "break" to fly home, their flight path home will be more horizontal than vertical in direction. Looping is generally responsible for most of the time differences on the top of the race sheet. All racing pigeons must learn to "break" from the flock in order to be competitive in pigeon races. KEY POINT: Every minute your pigeons refuse to break from the flock equals at least two minutes lost on the race sheet. Why? Because each minute that racers don't break from the flock adds at least an additional minute that they must fly home horizontally. (The accuracy of this ratio depends upon how far Loft 1 is located from Loft 2 west to east.)

Pigeons can be taught to "break." I will take this subject up in the next blog. Because most fanciers are not familiar with teaching their pigeons to "break," the number of pigeons shipped can dramatically influence the outcome of pigeon races. You may have seen this tendency in your own club. There are techniques to beat mob flyers and neutralize the competitive advantage they seek to gain by shipping large numbers of pigeons to a race. These techniques focus around the concept of "breaking." Experienced and successful fanciers can overcome the competitive advantage that a mob flyer gains by shipping large numbers of race birds. In the 2007 Young Bird Race Series, TNT Titans, Tony Smith & Josh Cooley, often dominated the competition on a weekly basis racing seven young birds. Yes, that's right readers! Seven young birds.

In order to deal with the problem of shipping limits, our Federation offers the following race schedule: Every fancier, through their club, rents 1 shipping crate on the Federation trailer for a $160 race fee for 2008 Old Bird Race Series. According to the AU Guidelines, each Federation shipping crate can hold a maximum of 40 pigeons. Consequently, every fancier can ship 40 pigeons in two races for a $160 race fee: the A Race with a 5 bird limit, and a B Race with a 35 bird shipping limit. The A Race evens the playing field by limiting every fancier to a maximum of 5 birds. Usually, fanciers enter their 5 best birds in the A Race in order to be competitive. In the B Race, there is no theoretical shipping limit provided there are enough available shipping crates on the Federation trailer. Let me explain. If a fancier wants to race more than 35 birds in the B race, he or she must rent additional shipping crates for each additional 40 pigeons. Each additional shipping crate costs $160 per crate. For an example, let's say that Mark wants to race 76 old birds. Mark can race 40 old birds for a $160 race fee: 5 in the A race and 35 in the B race. That leaves Mark with an additional 36 old birds. Mark can then rent one additional shipping crate for $160 that will allow him to ship 36 more old birds. If Mark wishes to ship 117 pigeons, Mark must rent 3 shipping crates for a $480 race fee.

So let's summarize the discussion. The topic of shipping limits is usually a controversial subject. For the good of the Sport, we hope that our membership believes in fairness; but in actuality, there are those fanciers who care more about winning than they do fairness. So I offer the following suggestions to mitigate the situation:

1. Decide a fair number of birds that can be shipped for a basic race fee. Allow additional birds for an extra fee. Our Federation charges more per crate. Other organizations charge by the bird. A club might charge $1 per bird over 30 or 40 or 50 birds shipped. If a race fee covers 40 pigeons and Mark wants to ship 96 pigeons, at $1 per bird, Mark would be required to pay $56 more dollars to race 96 pigeons. Money is a way of allowing unlimited shipping with a deterrent for mob flyers. A club may only want to charge an additional race fee of 10 cents per bird over and above a pre-determined limit. The higher the price per additional bird, the greater the deterrent to ship a large race team. (In Belgium, shipping fees are calculated per bird, i.e., a particular race might cost 1 or 2 Euros per bird. It is generally too expensive to ship a large team of birds because pooling is usually mandatory. Shipping fees in Belgium are radically different that they are in Oklahoma.)

2. Another way to handle the problem is to increase the number of races on race day. Instead of having two races on race day, have four races. when our club went through this problem several years ago, we doubled the number of races we offered on race day. We had an A, B, C, and D race. The Federation offered the traditional A and B races. Our club then flew a C and D race. The C race was a sprint race every week from the same 100 mile race station south of Tulsa. Strictly for variety, the D release was a 100 mile release in the opposite direction from the other races. Normally our races are from the south out of Texas north into northeast Oklahoma. The D race was from Kansas south into northeast Oklahoma. With enough races on race day, fanciers cannot send a "mob" of pigeons to any one race if they participate in all races. SUGGESTION: Find out if those people in your club who race alot of pigeons genuinely like to fly alot of birds for personal enjoyment. If so, try to accommodate them by offering more races on race day. If these fanciers simply want to dominate the race sheet with a large team, legislate a limit that is most fair to the majority of the club. Legislation is a socio-political tool that is necessary to control those people who do not understand or respect the concept of social fairness.

I believe that it is very difficult to properly motivate more than about 40 to 50 racing pigeons. If a race team is coupled together, then it is possible to motivate the entire team. If there are 25 racing males and 25 racing females coupled together, it possible to motivate all 50 pigeons using either the natural or widowhood motivational systems. However, unless a fancier is retired, disabled, or an independently wealthy entrepreneur, it is very hard for most fanciers to devote enough time to the Sport to manage more than 50 racing pigeons. Fanciers who race more than 75 pigeons, mob flyers, have a very difficult time managing and motivating their entire race teams. Certainly someone who races 100 to 150 pigeons doesn't' race pigeons according to any system that I have observed in Belgium other than William Geerts. Geerts sent up to 150 widowhood males to a race. However, Mr. Geerts had an entire team of loft managers and aides helping him manage his racing operation.

I couple the race team with non-racing mates. So if I want to race 50 pigeons, I have to manage 100 pigeons. This is alot of pigeons. My point is that I believe that mob flyers race at a disadvantage when they race and ship so many pigeons. The sheer number of pigeons they ship is the fatal flaw in their system. when I see someone bringing 4 or more crates of pigeons to shipping night, I smile. There is no way these fanciers can properly prepare their pigeons to win. In this blog, I am going to reveal my most secret training techniques that will help you compete with mob flyers on the race sheet. If you are a relatively new fancier, or a fancier that has not yet experienced the success to which you aspire, read on!

1. Make sure you have a proper loft. A good loft is the most basic building block to success. Without it you're wasting your time. The qualities of a good loft are:

2. Make sure you have good birds. Don't accept other fanciers rejects. Never accept more than 10 pigeons from another fancier unless they are young enough to loft and race. Don't let a fancier cull his or her loft by placing average pigeons in your loft. Consider trading a service or work off a kit of birds from an established fancier. Or, build your breeding loft the old fashioned way, simply buy a small loft of high quality pigeons. If you are a new fancier, don't pay more than $600 for any pigeon; even if its worth it. Most new or inexperienced fanciers don't need expensive pigeons in their loft unless they can truly afford it. There will be plenty of time to experience the thrill of purchasing high dollar pigeons after gaining the success that it will take to properly utilize high dollar birds. Start racing with 12 racers or less. when you know how to race each of your racers successfully, increase the number if necessary.

3. Use the best feed and the best products that you can afford. Grains should be very clean. If the feed is dirty, let your local feed store and the feed manufacturer know about it - pleasantly.

4. Race a good system: either natural or widowhood, or some other type of modified version. I prefer racing the widowhood system because the widows do most of the work.

5. Be a good student. Read everything you can and watch every video possible on racing pigeons. If there are fanciers in the area that fly the widowhood system, spend some time shadowing them at their loft. It takes little time to race widow properly. Don't be afraid to try something new. Just because something has been done the same for many years doesn't mean that something can't be done differently - just for fun if for nothing else.

6. Be a good teacher. Teach or reinforce previously learned behaviors every single day with your pigeons. In my loft, school is in session 365 days a year.

7. Respect your fellow fanciers. I could spend a month of this subject; but instead will move on until I am emotionally ready to deal with this highly volatile subject.

8. Be a good sport. Congratulate your clubmates in victory and defeat. treat others in the fancy with the same respect that you would like to experience. Never be too big to apologize. Never burn bridges with others. State your opinions calmly and with respect for others.

10. Respect your pigeons. Your pigeons are incredibly smart and bright. They reflect your temperament and abilities. Respect your pigeons and enjoy them. It's not their fault if you don't have the time, energy, and skill to properly manage them.

After you have experienced some success accomplishing the preceding 10 tasks, you may be ready to understand the following training techniques. In Saturday's blog we talked about breaking from the flock. Let me ask you a question: Where along the flight path do you want your pigeons to break from the flock to head towards home? I often hear fanciers telling me that if their pigeons don't break by a certain place on the race course, they can't compete. They pick a release spot 30 to 60 miles down the flight path from their loft and toss their pigeons multiple times in order to teach them to break home from the flock. So I repeat my question. In your area, Where along the flight path do you want your pigeons to break from the flock?

My breaking point is the shipping crate. The easiest way to win a pigeon race is to teach your racers to break home directly out of the shipping crate. That's right!!! I teach my pigeons to break from the crate upon release. If the flock takes 10 to 20 minutes to leave the release point, I want my racers to have a head start equal to the time it takes the flock to begin to head home. Theoretically, I want my pigeons 10 or 15 minutes ahead of the mob flyer and his or her 150 pigeons at the start of the race. If the mob flyer's birds break in a timely manner, it's because they followed my pigeons or just got lucky.

1. The first toss for each young bird is a single toss. I don't want the young birds to learn to follow stronger pigeons home on their first toss. On each young bird toss, the young birds sit at the release point in the shipping crate for at least 20 minutes or until I think they have oriented while in the crate.

2. Liberate the young birds from every direction possible. If you take young birds in the same direction every toss, they will begin to react when they are released from the crate rather than think in the crate. In the horse industry, this dependency or reaction is known as 'handedness." If an animal or a human performs the same task exactly the same way every time, they will start to react without thinking. While this may seem beneficial, I want my pigeons to think about home, and about the way home, while they are sitting in the crate. Pigeons that react to the release may accidentally follow other birds or head the wrong direction. As an example, this past 2007 race season, France closed its borders to Belgian pigeons at the beginning of the race season. So, the Belgian Federation scheduled the early races from Germany. Because the Federation always races from the south out of France and Spain, all of the race birds were used to reacting out of the shipping crate and heading north. when they were released in Germany, they automatically headed north as if they were in France. There were very heavy losses for many fanciers; ultimately destroying the entire racing season for many. Look at the following map and visualize the race birds instinctively heading north from France towards Belgium. Now visualize the same liberation from Germany. Where do you think the pigeons went? Many of them never returned home.

3. Give young birds many tosses from all directions from 90 to 180 days of age. Keep these tosses under 25 to 35 miles.

4. Couple young birds with old birds at 6 months of age. Let them raise one youngster.

5. After coupling, continue training by decreasing the number of tosses and increasing the distanced tossed. Beginning at 6 months, train them twice a week from 50 to 60 miles. Because we race on Saturday, I train on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Let the young birds race home from longer distances when they have a mate, eggs, and a youngster.

6. Four weeks before the young bird series begins, train with another fancier or two fanciers that live apart from your loft. Double or triple toss the young birds several times.

Always let racers orient in the crate before release. During this entire training regiment, your young birds should be breaking straight home out of the crate; particularly after they are coupled at 6 months. However, there may be pigeons that simply won't break home quickly. They may fly around the release area until another young bird has been released. These young birds will never make winning racers and should be eliminated from the race team. Not all young birds break the same way out of the crate. Some catch on better than others. These are your best birds. Why are these your best birds? Because motivation is a function of intelligence. Pigeons have different IQs. Only those pigeons that visualize their home, their nest box, their mate, their nest bowl, their eggs, or their youngsters and who develop a passionate state of mind as a result of being separated from their home environment by the shipping crate, will break out of the shipping crate on a true flight path home. If they are strong, fit, and ready to race the distance, they will win the race almost every time - guaranteed. Only keep those pigeons that break quickly from the crate and head straight home.

Mob flyers cannot train individual birds. They cannot properly motivate their pigeons. Typically, they load their pigeons into large shipping crates and release them as a flock. These pigeons never learn to break. If they ever do break on a race, it is more a function of luck rather than skill. Do you want to be a lucky fancier or a fancier that trains to win? I urge you to teach and train each of your wonderful race birds. Reinforce their skills every day. Love each pigeon. Take great care of your race team, especially when they reward you through their performance. Never treat them like flock of chickens.

when you basket your race bids, have you ever wondered what they think? Do you suppose they gripe to their loft mates in the shipping basket. Do they complain and say things like:

If we put ourselves in the role of our race birds, how would be feel? If we see our race birds or our pigeons as inanimate objects that have no feelings, are we likely to make decisions that will hurt the realization of our goals in the long run? If our primary goal is to win pigeon races, then we need to understand the Sport from the perspective of the pigeons. I prefer that my racers enjoy me, their loft, their mate, their nest box (personal space), their exercise, and racing. I want them to enjoy their life in my loft. You can tell when pigeons enjoy themselves. when you liberate them, they explode off the loft soaring into the skies. The males chase the females and the females flirt with the males on the loft roof. The males, and sometimes the females, soar and display their pleasure around the loft. They often enjoy bathing and basking themselves in the sun lying on one wing. They enjoy their nest boxes. They enjoy the peace of living in a loft space or territory that belongs strictly to them and to no other pigeon. when a couple of pigeons are sitting in their nest box tending their babies, and another pigeon flies into their box, the nesting pair, particularly the male, will quickly attack the invading bird to cast it out of their space. I do not believe that most fanciers fully understand the importance of the nest box for a quality racing pigeon. The best racing pigeons are very territorial. The best racing pigeons feel passionately about their personal space. They don't like their personal space invaded by any other pigeon other than their mate. Even older young birds that they raised in the box are not welcome after weaning. An adequate and comfortable personal space for each racing pigeon is one of the most critical components of a winning racing pigeon loft. Do you think that a team of 150 young birds can be properly housed such that each bird has a comfortable personal space? A loft that would adequately house 150 young birds with comfortable personal spaces for each young bird would probably need to be a minimum of 6 feet tall, 6 feet wide and 95 feet long. This loft would allow a fancier to race each young bird celibate or without mates. If you add mates, the loft would need to be a minimum of 125 feet long.

If your old bird loft can only adequately house 15 racing pigeons comfortably, is it logical to house 25, 35, or 50 pigeons there? The construction of your loft will mathematically determine how many race birds you should keep. The number of race birds that you keep beyond the optimum mathematically calculated personal space for each pigeon will give you an idea of the "crowding factor" in your loft. Is your loft overcrowded by 2 pigeons? Is it overcrowded by 25 pigeons. Is it overcrowded by 100 pigeons? Here is how to calculate your crowding factor. In my opinion, each race bird needs a minimum personal space or nesting area that is 12 inches deep and 30 inches wide. This amount of space includes enough space for a mate. However, I prefer a personal space of 24 inches deep and 30 inches wide. Six nest boxes of these measurements will easily fit in a loft section 5 to 6 feet wide and 5 feet long.

Most Belgian lofts have multiple sections that each contain 6 to 9 nest boxes in them. Generally, these lofts are 2 meters wide and 12 to 18 meters long. In Oklahoma, my racing loft is about 6 feet wide and 64 feet long. There are 10 identical sections in the loft that contain 6 nest boxes each. In other words, if I race only one sex, the racing loft can adequately house 60 pigeons (10 sections times 6 nest boxes each) at a maximum. If you do not give each racer a comfortable personal space, i.e., living space or nest box, it will be almost impossible to properly motivate your racers to return home quickly to their territory. Racing pigeons return to a personal space. They do not simply return home to a loft or because they are hungry or thirsty. Examine the personal space of each of your racers. Is it big enough? Would you want to live there? How would you feel if you had to live there?

Measure the square footage of your young bird loft. Only house the number of pigeons that can comfortably claim an adequate personal space. If that calculation results in a low number of pigeons, increase the size of your loft. As a general rule, if you house 35 pigeons in a loft space that will only adequately maintain 20 pigeons, you will loose 15 pigeons during training and racing at a minimum. Over time, the number of pigeons that can comfortably fit in a loft space will equalize during training and racing. A proper loft has a proper balance of pigeons and loft space. Are your old birds and young birds at peace? Do they feel comfortable in their personal space. Do they have enough room to enjoy their life in your loft? when they are shipped to a race, why should they race home as opposed to fly home? What makes them passionate? What are you doing to make your racers passionate in general; and passionate about racing home? when you race against fanciers that understand these nuances of the Sport, it's really tough to consistently compete at the top of the race sheet. I don't care how many pigeons a fancier races. I have often had the good fortune of winning races or placing in the top ten of races by shipping 1 or 2 pigeons against fanciers that shipped 50 or more pigeons. It only takes one highly motivated, well-bred, properly conditioned pigeon to win a race. Would you feel comfortable or confident shipping one pigeon to a race? How many pigeons does it take to bolster your confidence in your work?

In the 300 mile, 480 kilometer, 2007 Young Bird "B" Race, from Fairfield, Texas on October, 27, Tony Smith & Josh Colley, TNT Titans, shipped 2 pigeons. CLICK HERE for Race Results. Tony and Josh won 1st prize in the Federation race against 58 lofts shipping 1,081 pigeons. TNT Titans won the race with an Antoine Jacops pigeon bred from LAMBERTON CUYPERS breeders. While TNT Titans shipped 2 pigeons, Bill Hill scored 2nd place and shipped 30 pigeons, Larry Mitchell placed 5th and shipped 24 pigeons, Stuart Child placed 6th and shipped 23 pigeons, Bill Kinyon, Top Gun Loft placed 11th and sent 50 pigeons, and Steve Trotter placed 12th shipping 29 pigeons. This race data clearly demonstrates that the best bird wins regardless of how many pigeons other fanciers ship. Tony & Josh were able to properly prepare their very small team and compete with those fanciers who shipped 10 to 25 times the number of race birds shipped by TNT Titans. Congratulations Tony and Josh!!!

My suggestion to new fanciers or other fanciers who have not met their racing goals, first learn to prepare a few race birds properly before you try to race 25 to 50 race birds.

Oversized nest boxes are better than smaller more austere nest boxes. There is a correlation between the size of a pigeon's personal space and the passion or aggression of a pigeon. As a general rule, the best birds capture the top boxes and/or perches. Unless the nest boxes are large, two rows of nest boxes are enough. The distance between the top box and the bottom box should be small unless the nest boxes are large. If nest boxes are too close to the floor, males on the lower boxes will try to dominate the floor of the loft. If there are feeders, water fountains, grit or pickstone bowls on the floor, males in lower nest boxes dominating the floor will chase other pigeons off the floor and keep them from eating and drinking.

The nest boxes in my widowhood loft are about 3 feet off the floor. There are three rows of boxes two wide. Figure 1 depicts one of 10 sections in the widowhood loft. Five sections are on either side of the hallway into which the widows trap.

The widows are fed in the nest box. Each widow gets the same amount and mixture of grain. They also have grit and pickstone available in their nest box. Although they have 2-liter water fountains available on the loft floor, I can water each widow in their nest box with small cups that hang on their nest fronts. when the widowhood females are locked in their half of the nest box, they are watered using these cups.

Unless you experiment with different size nest boxes, it will probably be very difficult to fully understand the importance of the nest box size upon the mind of the champion racing pigeon. Some widows will defend their nest box by slapping your hand with their wing if you slide your hand into the bottom of the box towards the widow. I often play with the race birds by giving them peanut treats in their box; or by fighting them with my hand. Would you prefer to live in a small tent? How about a small recreational trailer? Are you working hard at your job to live in the smallest space into which you can fit? Why do people aspire to large homes? Why do we start with small "starter" homes and then spend our lives working to live in a bigger house? Is it so different with pigeons? Can you see or imagine correlations between your own life and the life of your pigeons?

In Tuesday's blog, I wrote about the conversations I imagined our race birds might have with each other in the race crate if they could talk. These conversations might seem ridiculous. However, in my opinion, the only way to truly be a "great fancier" is to empathize with our pigeons to such a degree that they become partners with us. Empathy, or "taking the role of the other," is one of the most important aspects of being an excellent fancier. "Taking the role of the other" is a sociological term that simply means putting ourselves in someone else's place or shoes such that we begin to understand the world from the perspective of the other. I believe that it is imperative that a good fancier understands the pigeon racing game from the perspective of the best pigeons in the loft. Understanding our top pigeons will give us a much better, and much deeper, understanding and appreciation of our best birds. The next step after understanding our birds is bonding with our best birds. I also believe that an excellent fancier "bonds" with his or her best pigeons forming a relationship that stimulates the birds to develop a deep passion for their home and race faster to their home. Likewise, bonding allows the fancier to develop a deep passion for the race birds and inspires the fancier to manage the loft to the best of the fancier's ability.

All great performers have a passion for what they do. The great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, had a tremendous passion for vocal music. Itsaak Perlman has a great passion for the violin. when he played, Pele had a great passion for soccer. Tom Brady has a great passion for football. In all great endeavors, excellence goes hand in hand with passion. Since the Sport of racing pigeons is actually a duet or deep partnership between fancier and pigeons, each partner should feel passionately about each other as well as the game they are playing. Do you feel passionately about your pigeons? Do you feel passionately about the Sport? I hope so. But let me offer a word of caution. If a someone's passion is simply beating other people, then that fancier might as well choose bowling or chess or some other sport that doesn't involve animal husbandry. Because when someone races pigeons simply to beat other fanciers, in my opinion, he or she is using living animals simply to satisfy the desires of his or her ego. However, if a fancier's passion is managing the loft to get the best out of his or her pigeons, then that fancier is partnering with his or her racers to achieve a common goal. For me, racing pigeons is like playing the violin or the piano. when properly performed, beautiful music is produced. Instead of the keys on a piano, I love the whirr of the air as it rushes between the flight feathers of outstretched wings as a homer sails down from the skies, banks once around the loft, and lands gently on the landing board on race day.

For those fanciers whose passion is soothing their ego by competing in the racing pigeon game, large parts of my blog will make little sense. For those fanciers whose passion is partnering with their pigeons to excel in the racing pigeon game, I hope my blog unlocks a new world that enriches every moment spent with the birds. For those fanciers who feel little or no passion for their birds or the game, I suggest being content with having a good time in the racing pigeon game and not worry about winning races.

Passion is a motivator. In 2005, on a 500 mile (800 km) race, there were no day birds in the Tulsa area by dark. A little after dark, I heard the flutter of wings. It was one of my two best racing females - Antoine Jacops crosses - what else. A few minutes later, in total darkness, my second super female, the nestmate to the first bird, quietly landed on the loft and trapped. These nest mates were the only two day birds in the Tulsa area; and 2 of 3 day birds in the Federation. Although I could try to take credit for their performance by documenting how I fed them and how I trained them, the truth is that they came home in the dark at the end of a long day on the wing because of their passion. Although they were hungry and thirsty, I don't believe that they raced home simply to eat and drink. I personally believe, and have been taught by the Masters in Belgium, that they raced all day long and into the night because of the passion they felt about their mates, their nest areas or personal space, their loft, and about me. As a result of their performance, their passion was infectious and created a reciprocal passion in me.

Let's be passionate about our Sport. Let's be passionate about our birds. Let's understand what we asking our race birds to do from their point of view. Let's build bonds with them. Let's love them. Let's care for them the way we want to be cared for. Let's treat them the way we want to be treated.

Excellence involves passion. Passion motivates. Motivation produces excellence. The racing pigeon Sport is a reciprocal partnership between fancier and birds toward the common goal of excellence. In my opinion, excellence should be our goal. Not winning. If we strive for excellence, winning will follow. Let our passion for our birds, for excellence, and for the Sport, inspire us to do everything humanly possible - within our resources and ability - to put our pigeons in a physical and mental position to maximize their God-given abilities. This is my own personal goal and hope for the Sport. If I am motivated to do my part, the pigeons will be motivated to do their part. The fruit of our partnership comes on race day, when those tiny specks on the distant horizon grow larger and larger, and reveals through the shimmering clouds, our thoroughbreds of the sky, racing with all the passion they can muster from the love for their home. For me, there are few greater joys and peaks in life, outside of my God, my wife, my children, grandchildren, family, and good friends, than this.

Let's do a little compare and contrast exercise. Let's focus on old birds. If you were to enter the old bird racing loft of Antoine Jacops, Mike Ganus, the Janssen Brothers, Jos Van Limpt "De Klak," Flor Engels, Karel Meuleman, or any of the other greats of the Sport, you will probably see a few large nest boxes in several identical sections. You may find about 12 to 18 old birds, 12 to 18 yearlings, and 24 to 36 young birds. In the lofts of many of the smaller fanciers in Belgium, the numbers of pigeons will be less. You may find 6 old males, 12 yearlings and 20 young birds. Why?

Belgian fanciers only race the number of birds that they can adequately manage. The Flemish believe in only racing very competitive pigeons or those pigeons that have the potential to be very competitive in time. Racing pigeons that can't compete in the top 1/3 of the race sheet, or consistently win prizes, are not kept on the race team. On shipping night, I seldom see 4 or 5 baskets belonging to a single fancier packed full of 20 or more pigeons lining the club walls waiting to be scanned. There are not that many fanciers who ship a large number of pigeons. It is the exception rather than the rule. Why? Again, because the best fanciers only keep the number of pigeons that they can easily manage, that they can develop a passionate relationship with, and that genuinely have the potential to be a multiple prize winner (prizes generally are given to the top 1/3 of the race sheet).

I like to raise several hundred young birds from the first two rounds in January and February. But as I have said in the past, I narrow the race team to 40 pigeons or less by the second week of June. I don't race all of the pigeons that I raise. One of the greatest differences I see between American and Belgian fanciers is the art of selection. Most Belgian fanciers have little trouble eliminating pigeons from the race team based upon personal preferences and criteria other than the basket. I have absolutely no problem taking young birds or yearlings off of the race team. I know what I prefer in a racing pigeon. Those young birds that do not meet my personal standards for quality racers are removed from the racing loft. Of the 200 young birds now in the race loft, I already know most of the pigeons that will make the final cut. I was once talking to D. Wayne Lukas about selection in race horses. As you may know, Lukas is a top thoroughbred race horse trainer. He said that when someone leads a yearling out of a stall for him to possibly purchase, he knows whether or not the yearling will make a potential champion by the time the yearling is halfway out of the stall door. I feel the same way. Potential champions have a certain look about them. By the way they look and the way they move and fly, they beg me to give them a box and a mate. They beg me to simply give them a chance to compete. I have blogged that I believe that a good bird is a good bird. A good bird will compete as a young bird, as a yearling, and as an old bird if managed correctly. Most good racers make good breeders. By line-breeding young birds, I raise the percentage that good racers will be good breeders. A line-bred Ace pigeon is almost always a winning formula.

Did you know that breeders are a luxury? Why? The old bird race team can serve as breeders. One or two rounds of young birds can be raised from the old birds before the race season begins. And, by organizing the race schedule properly, the same birds can be raced almost every weekend if the race liberator manages the races appropriately. Fortunately, we have benefitted from the quality liberation expertise of Carl Dewberry, Steve Trotter, and Larry Dobelbower in the Northeast Oklahoma RPF. In summary, a quality loft can breed and race successfully with 10 or 12 pairs of old birds and 40 young birds.

I select beautiful, strong, quick, and intelligent young birds to fill the vacant race boxes. In earlier blogs, I have discussed the selection process that I use to select the best young birds from the total number of young birds that are raised. In June, after each young bird has been selected for the race team and are mated in their box, I continue to deepen my relationship with them. I try to understand each young bird from their point of view. For instance, when I am showing old females to each young male, I only leave a female with a young male if there was an instant chemistry between them. On occasion, I have gone through 5 or 6 females before I find one that instantly excites a young male.

Historically, there has been a significant economic gap between racing pigeons in the US and racing pigeons in Belgium. For years in Belgium and the European countries, the price of "petrol" has been over dollar a liter. At a dollar, that's about $4 per gallon of gasoline. A 50lb. bag of feed is over $20. Traffic on the major highways as well as the country roads is heavy. In America, gasoline has been less than half of the price in Belgium. Feed has cost $8 to $16 per 50lb. bag. In general, traffic has been less than the traffic in Belgium. One of the reasons that the Flemish house so few racing pigeons is because of the cost of keeping and training racing pigeons. To repeat the opening statement of this paragraph, historically, the cost of keeping pigeons has been much higher in Belgium than America.

In the last year, the gap between Belgium and Oklahoma pigeon economics has narrowed significantly. In Oklahoma, a 50lb. bag of breeding and racing mix has increased in price by about 30% in the last several months. As we all know, the price for a gallon of gasoline has been just under or just over $3 per gallon. My family has been in the oil business for three generations. Let me tell you friends, the price per gallon of gasoline is not going to go down significantly. Depending on world politics, the price may continue to go up. Certainly in 5 years, $3 per gallon of gasoline may be wishful thinking. It is not now cost efficient for fanciers to train their pigeons down the road in the car by themselves. The cost of housing pigeons has risen significantly over the last year. The cost is now much closer to the cost in Belgium. Whether or not you agree with my writings about keeping a few high quality pigeons as a way of succeeding in the game, over the next few years many fanciers will keep fewer pigeons simply because of the costs associated with breeding, feeding, medicating, and training homing pigeons.

In Oklahoma, many fanciers think that it takes hundreds of birds to successfully compete in the game. The real nuisance of this type of logic is associated with the retention of fanciers. Most fanciers think that they are required to make a choice between racing pigeons and a job or family or both. Unless a fancier can raise 100 pigeons - unless they can maintain an old bird team of 30 to 50 pigeons - unless they can house 20 to 30 pairs of breeders, a fancier must leave the Sport in order to spend time with the family, work overtime or travel. I have never seen a fancier simply cut down to 6 pair of breeders, 12 pair of old birds, and 40 youngsters in order to stay in the Sport. They leave the Sport because they think they can't be competitive with just a few pigeons. This is nonsense!!!

I believe that unless we can simplify the Sport of racing pigeons and make it more user-friendly, it may cease to exist as the Sport we know and love in the next 20 years. when I started traveling to Belgium in the early 80's, there were about 150,000 fanciers in the country. Now, I would guess there are about 50,000 fanciers. when you go to any club houses in Belgium, most fanciers are wittekops (white-headed) over 50 years old - and I'm one of them. The number of young fanciers entering the Sport are few.

There are many different types of racing clubs in Belgium. There are 6 to 10 clubs within a few kilometers from Hakendover; the village in which my partner, Jef Cuypers, and his family lives. Several of the clubs are sprint clubs. One is known as the "fun" club and races each week from 100 kilometers. That's about 60 miles. The racing is competitive; and the camaraderie is high. Many fanciers enjoy drinking and talking about birds. It's much easier to spend time at the club house (tavern) when the race is very short. There are middle distance and distance clubs also. Antoine Jacops likes to compete in Hafo Lier, a very competitive middle distance club in the Antwerp Union. CUYPERS LAMBERTON competes in several clubs on a regular basis. when training, we compete in a short distance club. when racing at the middle distance, we enter a more competitive middle distance club. We often do both on the same weekend. There are clubs that race on Saturday and clubs that race on Sunday. There are a plethora of choices every weekend as to which clubs to enter and from which distances. I love it.

The first round of the young birds are now flying around the loft. They have not grouped yet; but instead zig, zag and crisscross the sky like random pin balls. Several were lost off the loft. Several were removed from the team for health reasons. Several have been killed by hawks and owls. The owls make it very hard for young birds to spend the night out of the loft in the trees or on telephone poles. The young birds are exercised after the old birds have been exercised twice around the loft or road trained. That is usually about 3 or 4 pm in the afternoon. The young birds are fun to watch. Learning to use their wings is a real adventure for most of them. I have already selected about a dozen young birds to watch. If they keep away from the hawks for a few more weeks, they may be well on their way to become champions. I look for the healthiest, most robust youngsters to watch. I take notes almost on a daily basis. I look for the unexpected or unusual and make notes about those observations. Each day, if several young birds catch my eye, I make notes. After several weeks, I look for the number of times the youngsters appear in the notes. If youngsters appear three or four times in the notes, it generally means that they will make it to the race team and may very well be an excellent race bird. Every day, I select the future race team based upon what I see and feel. At 45 days, I prefer young birds who look very alert, who are not afraid, who stand up straight and not fluffed up all the time, whose eyes are wide open and not squinty, whose feathering is smooth and silky, who are physically mature, who are not afraid to fly, who land on the loft and not in the trees, and who are pictures of perfect health. These are a few of the selection criteria that I use each day to make decisions about the future young bird race team. I select and make notes every day. I won't wait until June to make selections on a single day or over a weekend. The race team will be chosen by June when I actually remove those birds that are not selected.

I recently called my partner, Jef Cuypers, and asked him to email an update from Hakendover, Belgium for the blog. Green font refers to my translation added to Jef's report. Jef's update is as follows:

Hello Johnny !!!

Here's some feedback which I promised you when you called.

For the 2008 breeding season, we started with 18 breeding couples. I also coupled about 20 widowers and they raised 1 or 2 youngsters each. This will make us start with approx 70 or 80 youngsters, 20 widowers and may be 5 or 6 yearling females (if I have the time).

For the breeding loft, I use a feed mix of Beyers, Versele - Laga and Vanrobaeys. I've learned that it is better to mix different breeding food than feeding just one brand of seeds. It is best for the pigeons to have a bigger choice of grains. On top of that, I add regularly P40 which is a powerful compressed mixture of grains (pellets) and also egg food (John, I don't know if I translate it correctly). I must say that the youngsters really look spectacular (like you always say....).

Click on picture to see KASPER P40 pellets available from Global Pigeon Supplies.

Normally the racing season will start mid April if the weather is OK. when the widowers are training well at the loft, I will drive them away for a few times (3 or 4) before their first race of 100Km (approx. 60 miles). After a few weeks, they will compete in the middle distance races (350Km or approx. 225 miles). The first National race for Old birds and Yearlings will be on May 24 from Bourges which is 450Km for us (approx. 280 miles). I'm not sure that I will enter the yearlings in this race; but certainly the old birds. As of May, we will have a middle distance race every week. Depending on the weather, normally widowers are flying every week at least 300Km (approx. 180 miles). We have 5 widowers for the long distance races (over 600 kilometers); and these pigeons will be trained for these races. They will fly only 2 long distance races this year in order not to force them.

To calculate miles, divide kilometers by 1.6. For instance, the 450 km Bourges race on July 26 calculates to 281.25 miles (450 divided by 1.6).

To view these race stations in France, please Click on the KBDB emblem.

But again John, remind your readers that for the past few years, the racing calendar is not set in stone due to the impacts of the bird flu. We had the same problem last year. The KBDB decided not to race pigeons from France in early 2007; but raced instead from the other side of Germany. For many fanciers this change was very very bad and resulted for us with severe losses.

Here is the website address from Daniel Vanceulebroeck : http://www.vanceulebroeckdaniel.be/ Like I told you, I had to pick up 2 pigeons from Vanceulebroeck for a fancier in South-Africa. The South-African fancier asked me to breed 2 youngsters for him with the Barcelona Star paired up with one of his females. The second round will stay in Hakendover. I was impressed about the quality of the Vanceulebroeck pigeons and what I like the most is that his pigeons fly well from 100Km till 1000Km.

See you this summer, my partner! Jef.

READERS:
Barcelona Star is an excellent son of De Barcelona, a 1st National Barcelona winner in Belgium that we purchased at the complete dispersal of Roger Florizoone's pigeons after his death. Barcelona Star is featured on the front page of this website. Roger Florizoone was known as Mr. Barcelona and had some of the very best long distance pigeons in the world. We purchased 6 of his very best at the dispersal auction including Barcelona Star and a full sister to De Barcelona.

Trading pigeons or putting a great female with a super male owned by separate fanciers is a common method of introducing new blood into a successful racing loft. Last year, we coupled our Florizoone pigeons with 6 pigeons of Jos Deno, one of the Herbots partners and one of the greatest middle and long distance fanciers in Belgium. A friend of Jef's from South Africa purchased two beautiful females from Daniel Vanceulebroeck. He wanted Jef to pick up the females and ship them to him. Before Jef ships the females to South Africa, however, he will take one of the females and breed two rounds coupled with Barcelona Star. The first round will be shipped to the South African fancier with his two females; while the second round will stay at our loft in Hakendover. Daniel Vanceulebroeck has excellent all distance pigeons that should blend very well with our pigeons in Belgium and Oklahoma. when I arrive in Belgium this summer, Jef and I will visit Daniel Vanceulebroeck to see if there are several of his pigeons that might help our breeding lofts.

Since the final Old Bird Race is June 7, 2008 in Oklahoma, I will travel to Belgium this summer to train and race the young birds in the 4 National races. I will couple the young birds to old birds and train them just like I train in Oklahoma. I will train the young birds in every direction in addition to regular training around the loft. It is my belief that training all directions tends to reduce losses during flight.

There are a few interesting comments from Jef's update yesterday on which I would like to expound.

First, Belgian races have three race categories: old birds; yearlings; and young birds. Not every race includes all three of these categories. The May 24 National race from Bourges is for old birds and yearlings only. In the 2008 Old Bird Race Series in Oklahoma, yearlings are not differentiated from old birds. Old birds can refer to 8 month old late hatches or 5 year-old pigeons.

Second, Belgian fanciers do not race yearlings and two-year old pigeons to the long distance over 700 or 800 kilometers. In Oklahoma, I have seen a late hatch win a 600 mile race (960 kilometers). As a general rule in Belgium, good long distance pigeons are matured three years before they are raced to a long distance race like Barcelona.

Third, Jef has coupled 18 pairs of breeders. In order to raise more young birds, he also coupled the widows. We uses the widows to foster eggs or feed a youngster out of a proven widow. As I said earlier, some Belgian fanciers do not have breeders (other than retired racers); but breed instead out of their race team. This breeding method eliminates a breeding loft; and saves the expense, time, and effort of maintaining breeders. After Jef has raised our race team, he will breed youngsters to come to Oklahoma in the fall for breeding and for sale in 2009.

Be sure to click on the Belgian emblem in yesterday's blog to view the race stations in France. The race stations are very similar in Belgium and Oklahoma. In both cases we race from the south southwest to the northeast. In Oklahoma we race southwest into Texas. In Belgium, we race southwest into France.

when Morgan and I arrive in Belgium, Jef will have trained the young birds around the loft. I will take them down the road to get them ready for the National races. Although I will train them on the line of flight, 50% of the tosses will be from the east, west, and north. Strangely, the roads are best from east to west; and second best to the north. The roads south to southwest towards France are narrow, winding, and are often traveled by tractors and other farm equipment which often makes driving extremely slow. I prefer to train on good roads that are fast. Luckily in Tulsa, we have great highways extending in all directions from Tulsa. As I have said many times before, I like to train into the wind. It cuts the driving time down by at least 50%. A 10 mile toss into the wind is better than a 20 mile toss with the wind, in my opinion. Training into the wind is like an athlete running up stairs or cyclist riding up a mountain. These tosses should be short and often. That's why they are called "wind sprints."

The widows are beginning to look really good in Oklahoma. The increased exercise and training around the loft coupled with a few short tosses has them alert. The barley is making them trap very well and has increased their overall responsiveness to my verbal commands. The 2008 young birds are also extremely responsive by aggressively coming when I call them to eat. I am watching the young birds for the unusual and taking notes on my observations. One very nice blue youngster was strutting and displaying to another young bird. These birds were only hatched January 1. I will keep my eye on this youngster. So far, I like what I saw very much. I have a round out of the Lautermans male; one of which is a particularly beautiful grizzle male. He has captured my attention on several training flights around the loft. He trains like an old bird; full of confidence. The first round is right where I want them in training. This is very important because the second round is about 3 weeks old and will be coming out of the nests soon. Any behavioral problems with the first round will only be significantly compounded by the training of the second round.

We regret that once again we have to report a theft of pigeons. Last night 8 pigeons were stolen from Ludo Claessens. Included in the theft were top pigeons such as Simply The Best, Nest sister Kirsty, Blauw 007…. Because he was frightened by the many thefts, Ludo Claessens had luckily moved his best breeders to another address last week.

Last week PIPA also reported that 19 pigeons were stolen in the loft of Filip Norman from Belgium. These thefts are in addition to quite a number of thefts over the last 60 days in Belgium, Holland, and Germany.

For all the latest racing pigeon news in Europe and Belgian race results, click on pipa.be.

I always remember that Antoine Jacops told me that I would need to be "very cruel" with the birds. Puzzled, I questioned him more. In a short time, I realized that Antoine's English had influenced his words. What he meant was that we should be very strict and disciplined with the young birds from the earliest age possible. Last night, when I went to feed the young birds, as I entered the hallway next to their loft, they all raised their wings and aggressively recognized me. They were hungry and recognized that I would give them food. when I called them into the hallway to feed, they all aggressively ran towards me into the feeding area. Many ate from my hand. I gently poured small handfuls of grain over their backs in order to make them more tame. The discipline that comes from reinforcing this behavior twice a day inside the loft will be of particular benefit when the young birds are outside the loft. The only way for me to control my birds is to build expectations in their minds. Calling when feeding builds an expectation for the satiation of hunger. I build control into the psyches of the young birds inside the loft before I let them out. By feeding a significant portion of barley in the daily regiment, I do not "starve" the young birds; instead I actually fill them up. But since barley is primarily a filler, the young birds will become hungry again in a relatively short period of time.

By imprinting these controls into the psyches of the young birds at a very early age, they will remember their learned commands throughout their life. In order to teach the young birds the widowhood race system, respect and control must be learned at the earliest possible age. Young birds that are ignored or untrained for the first 3 to 7 months of their life will simply learn to become wild and undisciplined and will never make the responsive racers that is necessary to consistently win pigeon races and earn championships. when the old birds are called into the loft, they quickly make their way through the trap because they have been reinforced to perform these tasks hundreds of times.

Another way to calm and tame the young birds is music. I have found that slower, quieter music calms the racers. Loud rock, jazz, or heavy metal music is avoided. Instead, classical and new age music is played quietly in the loft. Introduce music or any other "new" stimulus in the loft only during the off season. Never introduce new stimuli or commands during the race season unless there is a dire reason to do so.

Over the next 6 weeks, the training periods for the old birds will be strictly enforced to adequately prepare for the first race on April 5. As early in the morning as possible, the old birds enjoy their first exercise period. They are exercised one hour non-stop unless I can't be at the loft. I have previously discussed strategies for the times I am away from the loft during exercise periods. About 2 to 3 pm, they will have their second exercise period. Again, they exercise one hour non-stop. After exercising, the old birds are called into the loft and fed and watered. Feeding schedules have been discussed earlier. After the old birds are exercised, the young birds are liberated several hours before sunset. This regiment is repeated Sunday through Friday. Saturday is race day. In about 2 weeks on Saturdays, I will start to simulate the race schedule by road training the old birds 50 to 90 miles down the race course. The old birds will be placed on widowhood one to two weeks before the official race season begins April 5.

Success in the 2008 Old Bird Race Series begins now. If necessary, medicate the old birds. Treat for worms, external parasites. respiratory infections, coccidiosis, canker, and other infections of the crop mucus membrane. Bathe the old birds at least once a week using bath salts or an acceptable medicated shampoo. It is very important for old birds to develop very healthy feathers and plumage. Feathers respond very favorably to regular baths with bath additives.

Clean the old bird loft now. If droppings have built up over the winter, remove them and let the loft dry out or "cure." The loft should be very dry and clean to house a vibrant old bird team. Thoroughly clean the water fountains with Clorox or other satisfactory disinfectant. Clean nest bowls. Soak them in a 5-gallon bucket with a mild soap or detergent.

Buy the grains now that are necessary to adequately feed the old birds during the race season. If necessary, order safflower, barley, hemp, or other specialty grains from a reputable grain supplier and begin feeding them now. Don't wait until the race season starts to begin feeding these wonder grains. Start now.

Start treating your race team as if the first race is next week. Six weeks before the first race is the time the old birds should start the race schedule regiment. If your race season starts later in the year, begin your training regiment six weeks before the first race. With this said, let me acknowledge that our first race is 150 miles or 240 kilometers. Because the first race is this longer distance, a 6 week training regiment is what I think is necessary for the old birds to be ready to race on April 5. In Europe, the first races are 50 to 60 kilometers or about 40 to 50 miles. If I was racing in Belgium this spring, I would not begin training the old birds down the road 6 weeks before the first race - if the race was 60 kilometers. Europeans use training races as a part of the race schedule. We don't do this in Oklahoma. We start our racing at 240 kilometers in old birds. There is a huge difference in the training regiment that precedes the old bird race schedule if the first race is 60 kilometers or 240 kilometers (38 or 150 miles). The training regiment that I have just discussed assumes that the first race is April 5 from 150 miles. If your situation is different than mine, adjust your training regiment accordingly. Soon, either by myself or with several club members, we will simulate the early race schedule in Belgium in our own personal vehicle rather than joining forces with other fanciers in the Club or Combine to institutionalize a training race regiment every week that will lead up to 150 miles on April 5. Several years ago I offered the club a "pre-Federation training race service" every weekend leading up to the first race. However, due to club politics, the training regiment was discontinued. Currently, it is up to each fancier in the club to road train their own race team at $3 per gallon of gasoline. Does that seem economically prudent to you? Not to me!

Yesterday, a Coopers Hawk severely injured a late hatch for the second time. The late hatch is silver in color and was also hit by a hawk last fall. It had just gotten completely over the last injuries and was training very well. Yesterday's injury will prevent him from ever racing again. However, he is bred from an excellent couple and will probably visit the breeding loft in 2009 if he mends successfully. Because of the hawk in the area, I took the elite race team on a 20 mile road toss from the south on the line of flight; instead of training them around the loft. The elite team is made up of the old birds that have earned multiple prizes in past years. They are housed in a separate loft from the yearlings and late-hatches that are still in the proving stage. The elite team is made up of 17 old birds that live in a loft with 6 nest boxes in each of 5 sections. The bottom two nest boxes are shut, leaving the old birds to choose from the top 4 boxes in 5 identical compartments. Some sections have 4 widows in them and several sections have 3 widows in them. I can't emphasize the positive role that plenty of space has upon the health and the psyche of quality widowhood males. A large space increases their aggressiveness and their calmness; and their desire to return home quickly. when I enter their loft, they never move from their box and stay very quiet. The widows are medicated much less when they are not crowded into a small area with many other pigeons. It is very easy to thoroughly inspect each bird when there are only 3 or 4 birds per section. I can also spend quality time with each bird and further motivate them to return home quickly.

Today, the elite widows trapped using the Unikon. I printed the arrival sheet and entered it into the 2008 Old Bird Race Series 3-ring binder. Remember, I take copious notes each race season and keep these notes and other training data in a 3-ring binder using an organizer with tabs. The tabs allow me to quickly access various data without shuffling through the papers trying to find something. I strongly urge all fanciers to keep a 3-ring binder to organize notes for the breeding and racing seasons.

Wednesday, when the weather is better, I will road train the yearlings and late-breds that have not yet earned a spot in the elite loft. There are about 40 of these males. These birds have been raced in 2007 young birds and/or trained to 50 miles or 80 kilometers. Each one has been selected as a prospective widowhood racer for the elite loft. Fortunately I have the time to exercise each loft of widows. I don't ever mix the elite widows with prospective widows. The elite widows have earned the right to live in a spacious quality loft with every convenience I am able to give them. The elites are the veterans that have earned their rights and privileges.

Due to the hawk, I will keep the 2008 young birds in the loft. I am hoping the hawk will migrate in several days if unsuccessful in its attempts on the loft. I recently talked to a fellow fancier who attempted to loft 22 young birds on a day when a hawk visited the loft. He now has 3 of his young birds home from this disaster. We all know how dangerous hawks are to the birds. Last week, another friend's excellent old bird was hit by a Coopers Hawk. Although the old bird returned home, he will not race again. Spring must not be far away. The hawks are starting to migrate in and out of the area. Training is often a mental chess match between me and the hawks in order to protect the pigeons from these dangerous raptors. Although I usually advocate a rigid training schedule, the appearance of migrating hawks often alters the schedule until they leave. when they are indigenous to an area, the birds can learn to stay alert and train in spite of the hawks in the area. The hawks often help the old birds stay aloft when they would actually like to return to the loft before the training time is over. They also help the racers learn to trap very quickly. The racers that don't stay up during training and trap quickly after training may not survive the rigors of racing.

The 2008 young birds are really looking beautiful. The first round youngsters are beginning to resemble older pigeons now that they are about 2 months old. Many of the couplings that were determined last October and November may have been successful by the early look at the youngsters from these couples. Let me show you several. Please take a close look at Pedigree 1.

AU 08 LAMBERTON 1 was bred to couple with the Antoine Jacops pigeons. LAMBERTON 1 is a young bird bred from two Willy Ceulemans-bred pigeons. The father, BELG 98 6040168 is a direct Ceulemans. He is a full brother to ELIAS who won a 4th National Limoges and a 6th National Bourges. Their father is the BLUE FLOR who won 5th National from Bourges for Ceulemans. The BLUE FLOR is the key breeder that I based LAMBERTON 1 around. So, the grandfather to LAMBERTON 1 on the father's side is the BLUE FLOR. The grandfather on the mother's side, GFL 1139 SILVER VALE, is a double-bred grandson of the BLUE FLOR. Finally, the grandmother to LAMBERTON 1 on the mother's side is a daughter of the BLUE FLOR. The BLUE FLOR appears in the pedigree of LAMBERTON 1 four times. LAMBERTON 1 is roughly 75% down from the BLUE FLOR and 25% outcross. LAMBERTON 1 should be a very strong racer due to the physical build of both parents or pfemaleotype; and a very good breeder due to line-breeding to the BLUE FLOR or a 75% line-bred genotype.

LAMBERTON 1 was bred to race and breed. 1's mother was bred for stock especially to breed to the sons of the BLUE FLOR breeding at our loft in Oklahoma. LAMBERTON 1 was several years in the making since I first needed to line-breed his mother. Good dual purpose pigeons are seldom an accident. Often they represent years of study, breeding, and selection. I bred a number of youngsters before LAMBERTON 1's mother was chosen for the breeding loft. She is truly a magnificent female. I also bred a dynamite 2007 late-hatch sister to 517 that will breed later this spring. 517's father, the SILVER VALE, has turned out to be a magnificent breeder. Kirk Hardin placed very well with several grandchildren in the 2007 Young Bird Race Series. The SILVER VALE is a son of the GOLDEN VALE - a 1st Ace Provincial Antwerp Union Belgium. The GOLDEN VALE is a son of the BLUE FLOR. 5th National Bourges. Champions breed champions. Line-breeding to these champions gives the offspring prepotency. Outcrossing infuses hybrid vigor. Breeding good pigeons that are dependable can be a function of luck; but most of the time it is a function of hard work and planning.

The father to LAMBERTON 2 is PIETRO. He is a grandson of the BLUE FLOR, 5th National Bourges. PIETRO's father also bred the OBELIX, 1st Provincial Ace Antwerp Union. I coupled PIETRO with a daughter of is half-brother, the OBELIX. Because PITRO and OBELIX are only half-brothers, I coupled the OBELIX with a daughter of the GOLDEN VALE who is a son of the BLUE FLOR. In summary, LAMBERTON 2 is line-bred to the BLUE FLOR through PIETRO, OBELIX, and GOLDEN VALE. LAMBERTON 2 is outcrossed to other pigeons of Willy Ceulemans and the Aces of Antoine Jacops.

LAMBERTON 3 is bred from a male from my good friend, Achiel Vangilbergen in Hakendover, and a female from my partner, Jef Cuypers in Hakendover. Jef and I are friendly competitors with Achiel in Hakendover and we race in several of the same clubs. I have an excellent male from Achiel and an excellent female from Jef coupled together. This coupling is an outcross. If LAMBERTON 3 is a good pigeon, its genes are heterogeneous for breeding. In order to line-bred and increase LAMBERTON 3's chances of breeding well, I could couple LAMBERTON 3 with a related pigeon from Achiel or a related pigeon from Jef. Normally, I prefer uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, and first or second cousin matings.

I prefer racing pigeons that are 1/2 , 2/3s or 3/4s line-bred to outstanding pigeons as breeders and racers. I also like to couple half-brothers and sisters to begin a line-breeding.

Racing pigeons need to have a positve mental image of their home. To race home quickly, they must also develop a passion for their mental image of home. Champion racing pigeons have an IQ for both of these realities. These are mental qualities of pigeons that cannot be determined in the hand or on a pedigree. Snapshots can of these mental qualities can be noted primarily through observation. Spending time with and observing the race birds has many important functions. First, it calms the birds and allows the fancier to build a deep personal relationship with the race team. Second, spending allows opportunities for keen observations. As I have said in the past, a healthy relationship between fancier and Ace pigeon should begin as early as possible. I begin a relationship with the parents of young birds rather than the young birds themselves. Tame breeders tend to raise tame youngsters. Remember the blog on "modeling"? Young birds tend to model the behavior and habits of their parents; just the same as people do.

There are youngsters that love a nest bowl. They will sit in a nest bowl in a nest box for hours. This is usually a sign of a pigeon with a high IQ. Try placing your young birds in a loft with boxes and bowls. Observe their behavior. Over time, you should begin to notice youngsters that simply roost and young birds that create and enjoy a home. I believe that youngsters that really seem to enjoy their box and bowl make better racers. They have a higher "Game IQ". Since there is no other way to test your young birds other than the basket; it benefits your performance in the game to spend as much time as you can observing your youngsters in order to find those with the highest "Game IQ."

Like people, pigeons that are physically correct and have a high IQ are the best racers and breeders. Widowhood is a game. There are pigeons that have a high IQ for the widowhood game and those that do not. I have found over the years that the percentage of youngsters raised to play the Sport at widow is less than 10%. There are also pigeons that have an IQ for the natural system. These are pigeons that have an extraordinary passion for their home and their youngsters.

Do your youngsters like to roost; or do they enjoy their home? Do they have an IQ for the game you are playing in your area? What do you see when you observe your pigeons? Do you take notes and record your observations? A primary characteristic of a champion fancier is teaching youngsters that are physically superior and have a very high IQ the intricacies the game. A champion fancier and a champion pigeon must have the same mental image of the game and the same passion for the game. I believe that a champion fancier sees his or her racers as extensions of him or herself. As I have also said in the past, champion fanciers build deep relationships with their champion racers; they don't use them to satisfy personal psychological or emotional deficiencies.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					1 Sunrise: 7:25am Sunset: 5:49pm	2 Sunrise: 7:24am Sunset: 5:50pm
3 Sunrise: 7:24am Sunset: 5:51pm	4 Sunrise: 7:23am Sunset: 5:52pm	5 Sunrise: 7:22am Sunset: 5:53pm	6 Sunrise: 7:21am Sunset: 5:54pm New Moon: 9:45pm	7 Sunrise: 7:20am Sunset: 5:55pm	8 Sunrise: 7:19am Sunset: 5:56pm	9 Sunrise: 7:18am Sunset: 5:57pm
10 Sunrise: 7:17am Sunset: 5:58pm	11 Sunrise: 7:16am Sunset: 5:59pm	12 Sunrise: 7:15am Sunset: 6:00pm	13 Sunrise: 7:14am Sunset: 6:01pm First Qtr: 9:34pm	14 Sunrise: 7:13am Sunset: 6:02pm	15 Sunrise: 7:12am Sunset: 6:03pm	16 Sunrise: 7:11am Sunset: 6:04pm
17 Sunrise: 7:10am Sunset: 6:05pm	18 Sunrise: 7:09am Sunset: 6:06pm	19 Sunrise: 7:08am Sunset: 6:07pm	20 Sunrise: 7:06am Sunset: 6:08pm Full Moon: 9:31pm	21 Sunrise: 7:05am Sunset: 6:09pm	22 Sunrise: 7:04am Sunset: 6:10pm	23 Sunrise: 7:03am Sunset: 6:11pm
24 Sunrise: 7:02am Sunset: 6:12pm	25 Sunrise: 7:00am Sunset: 6:13pm	26 Sunrise: 6:59am Sunset: 6:14pm	27 Sunrise: 6:58am Sunset: 6:15pm	28 Sunrise: 6:56am Sunset: 6:16pm Last Qtr: 8:19pm	29 Sunrise: 6:55am Sunset: 6:17pm

nest box	nest box
nest box	nest box
nest box	nest box
The front is sheeted with plywood.