The race team turned in their worst performance of the race series this past Saturday. 2483 was 11th prize about 13 minutes behind the first bird clocked in the club. Although the east side of the club and combine filled the top of the race sheet, the race team seemed tired. I am surprised because I thought that the team was in excellent form and condition. I have no explanation for the team's poor performance. As a precaution, their exercise will be limited this week as they are prepared for the final young bird race of the series from 300 miles at Waco, Texas.

In order to control the race team's exercise, I am going to train them on the road from 15 to 20 miles twice a day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday instead of exercising them around the loft twice a day. By keeping them just a little hungry, they should trap quickly although they will not have exercised as long as normal. I will road train them from the north; although the race course is from the south. This exercise should also sharpen their orientation ability.

The breeders will be coupled in less than a month; on about December 1. For the past five weeks, I have been reviewing pedigrees and marking down which pigeons to couple. If you want to race the widowhood system in 2009 young birds, it is now time to begin the process. Widowhood and intense sexual motivation requires the oldest most mature young birds possible. Consequently, young birds should be hatched as close to January 1 as possible in order to race them in August, September and October. As I blogged earlier, the breeders have been on an annual complete medication program for about three weeks. The breeders should be in perfect health when coupled. If not, wait until they are in perfect health to couple them or foster the eggs from breeders that are not in perfect health.

As you may known by now, I generally prefer pedigrees that are line-bred to cousins, aunt-nephew or uncle-niece, etc. I am not generally prone to coupling parents to children or siblings to produce racers for young birds. I might couple this way for late-hatch breeders in late spring or early summer however

I received a call today from Bubba Wilson in Arkansas. On Saturday's 250 mile race, he won the top four positions with four on a drop. Three of the four racers were Antoine Jacops crosses. This makes five races in a row that Bubba has won with mostly Jacops crosses.

Last week I received a call from Arnel Vega who told me that in his current third year of racing, he went from the bottom of the race sheet to the top of the race sheet using the methods outlined in the blog and the videos on drjohnlamberton.com. Several weeks ago, he won a third prize in a large California Combine race just behind one of the top fanciers in the area. His turnaround on the race sheet was so dramatic that other fanciers have been seeking his secret. Arnel said that there is no secret; just high quality information on drjohnlamberton.com. Arnel told me, "This really works!" Yes it does. Motivated pigeons race home while less motivated or unmotivated pigeons fly home. It really that simple. Arnel is also performing well with a young bird in a futurity he entered out of a Lamberton pigeon.

Frank Jared in southern Oklahoma is also performing well with a Jacops cross in a futurity he entered.

Larry Adams in southern Oklahoma called to report on his race results. He has performed very well with Lamberton Jacops pigeons this race season winning a number of races. One particular male out of a full brother to Jacops' NUDIST coupled with a granddaughter to the VELO is one of his foundation breeders. This male bred two high point birds for two different fanciers in the past three years.

My friends and club mates racing under the TNT TITANS partnership, Tony Smith and grandson Josh Cooley, were 6th and 7th club with Jacops crosses.

My friend Steve King has sold Lamberton Jacops pigeons to friends who have performed very well in the last year.

Time after time, the Jacops pigeons race extremely well in any circumstance for anyone. They really are that good.

As I have blogged repeatedly, Jacops is a master at breeding pigeons that race and breed very well. He accomplishes this feat by maintaining a 70%/30% balance between line-breeding and out-crossing.

1. AU 08 LAMBERTON 234 is an excellent female bred primarily from the pigeons of Antoine Jacops. She is currently offered for sale on ipigeon.com. Her pedigree represents one of the pedigrees types that I look for when I couple the breeders in October and November each year.

234's sire is 1801. 1801's mother is BELG 03 6192439. 234's mother is BELG 03 6192440. These import pigeons are nest sisters and have both bred excellent racers. 234 is an aunt-nephew mating. About 75% of 234's pedigree is line-bred to the pigeons of Antoine Jacops. The other 25% is out-crossed to an excellent performance male who has also bred excellent racers in Holland. Antoine's target is 70% line-breeding 30% out-crossing. 234's pedigree is close to that target ratio. Consequently, since 234's physical structure is very good, she should race well and breed well.

2. AU 08 LAMBERTON 9 pencil male represents another type of pedigree I like to use to breed dual purpose pigeons. If you will notice 9's paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather are full brother and sister. This makes 9's parents first cousins to each other. I like these pairings very much! In addition, 9's maternal grandmother is also a cousin of the first cousins. Consequently, 75% of 9's pedigree is line-bred while 25%, the paternal grandfather, represents a 25% outcross.

3. The final example - and probably the best example - is AU 07 TEAM 814 blue white flight female. Please study her pedigree carefully. Her grandfathers are nest mates and her grandmothers are full sisters. Their pictures are on the pedigree. 814 is an example of a very nice pedigree for breeding. Her genotype is very homogenous and ideal for an out-cross to create a racing pigeon with superb hybrid vigor. 814 may have been a great racer also because she is absolutely perfect in the hand. In a few weeks, I plan on out-crossing 814 to another line-bred family of pigeons; probably the Ceulemans or Mattens.

Like I have been saying all week, if you want to breed early 2009 young birds, it is now time to thoroughly medicate the breeders. Medicate for each anomaly one at a time and for enough time to thoroughly rid the breeders of any problems. For instance, I give an antibiotic for 10 days. If necessary, wait ten more days after treatment and medicate again for another ten days. The goal is to create very healthy breeders to begin the breeding season. You must do whatever is necessary to make sure your breeders are perfectly healthy for the onset of the breeding season on December 1, 2008.

Write down each breeding male from which you wish to breed and select a female for each male. female selection should focus on line-breeding and out-crossing depending upon the pedigree target for a breeding couple's offspring. By December 1, you should select an ideal breeding pair for each male in the breeding loft. Perhaps you may want to poly-breed a particular male or males. If you do, pre-select several females for each male that is selected for poly-breeding.

In the case of younger breeders, I suggest pre-mating the last week in November. Pre-mating means that you introduce a new female to a new male for a day or several days (one day at a time) the week before December 1. For instance, put a male and female together on Monday and Thursday. Or Monday, Wednesday and Friday. However, only one day of pre-mating may be required to mate all breeding pairs on December 1. The goal is to produce eggs in seven to ten days after mating. This means mating on December 1 and having the females lay fertile eggs from December 7 to 10. Breeding couples that don't mate quickly on December 1 may result in (1) eggs later than desired, (2) eggs laid later than the average time of egg laying for the entire breeding loft and/or an infertile egg(s). The ultimate goal is to produce two healthy squabs from each breeding pair that hatch as close to January 1 as possible.

The performance of the 2009 young bird race team in the 2009 young bird race series begins this week. Although it is not too late to begin medicating your breeders now, I have been thoroughly medicating the breeders since early October.

I received the following email from Dr. Warren Shetrone, an esteemed veterinarian and pigeon fancier who re-located from California to Hawaii last year. Warren wanted to start racing pigeon in Hawaii with pigeons that could successfully traverse the incredibly difficult race courses among the islands. Warren contacted me, we discussed his goals, and he purchased AU 07 TEAM 26, a blue Antoine Jacops female that had performed very well in the 2007 young bird race series. Please read Warren's email very carefully. Racing pigeons in the islands is very hard. His email is as follows:

Aloha John; I was going thru my records the other day and found an email from you in which you stated that you were fretting which female from your race team to send to me. Fret no more my friend as this female produced two winners from the same nest when paired with one of most reliable old widowhood males I brought from California.

The female I flew here was one of only five birds to ever make it home from Maui (86miles) in the entire club. I rested these five birds and sent them back to Maui again She came with another female to win again by 2 hours . Three more arrived at my loft with no other birds returning. My club continued on for two more races until they ran out of birds. The moral of the story is that very few birds released at the edge of one island will strike out over 70 miles of open water without being able to see where they are going.

Her nest mate brother was sent as a youngster to compete in one of the many money band races they have in Honolulu. This young male hatched in late April was chastised as being too big and gangly, flew eleven straight races moving up steadily each week He was 2nd Combine against 600 birds two weeks before the big race from the Southern tip of my island(300) miles. I flew over for the big race and pooled him all the way. Birds were released at 7am and my bird came with a loft mate to tie for first place at 1109 ypm. I should explain that the trade winds always blow from the southeast which aids the Oahu birds and are disastrous for us flying in the opposite direction.

My partner Ron Boyer purchased AU 08 LAMBERTON 14 on my behalf in last week's ipigeon.com auction. I'd be interested in knowing what birds you acquire from Antoine's final sale.

Warren's tremendous success breeding the 26 female is incredibly gratifying for me. As I have been saying for over 25 years, the Antoine Jacops pigeons are some of the very best racing pigeons in the world. This is one of the reasons that I had the confidence to start selling pigeons in 2007 after years of prodding and encouragement from many friends, as well as the support and advise my dear friend Mike Ganus, the finest racing pigeon fancier in the USA and one of the best in the world. Concerning my other mentor, I am very sad that Antoine is selling most of his entire breeding and racing loft next month due to his health. The well-spring from which I have been purchasing super pigeons since the mid 1980s is about to dry up. However, I will still look to Mike and Antoine to help advise me in the future.

The fact that the young female and male, nest mates, from 26, raced so well in such tough physical conditions only reaffirms my confidence again in these superb pigeons. Congratulations Warren. Winning is not only the result of great pigeons. It also takes a great fancier. Congratulations!

By sheer coincidence, Bubba Wilson visited me several weeks ago from Arkansas. He said that he wanted an excellent, proven Antoine Jacops female. He purchased the DIAMOND QUEEN, AU 05 LAMBERTON 49 blue female, 26's mother. Good luck Bubba.

AU 07 TEAM 26 blue female's line-bred pedigree of Antoine Jacops pigeons is the following:

I had mentioned that I might start road-training the young bird race team this week because of their lack luster performance in last week's 300 mile/480 kilometer race. Due to the south winds this week gusting to 30 or 40 miles per hour in the Tulsa area, I decided that road training would be too unpredictable and ultimately dangerous and foolish. Consequently, the race team was exercised "open loft" on Tuesday and Wednesday. The same will occur on Thursday. The young birds currently look very good and seem to be preparing well for Saturday's race. But that's also what I thought I observed last week.

There are usually a number of management strategies that will perform the same function. Effect loft management sometimes involves altering a management strategy to obtain the same goal sought by a previous strategy that didn't seem to work as well as intended. Although the young birds need to rest after racing seven weeks in a row, they also need to remain in form through proper continuous exercise. Road training, open loft, and two regimented exercise periods per day are all effect ways to obtain the same performance goal. Because the young birds may be a little stale after seven weeks of regimented racing, a change to open loft daily exercise may refresh them. then again, it may make no difference at all. Hopefully it won't hurt Saturday's performance. We'll see how the results of the altered daily exercise regiment worked this weekend.

The 300 mile race from Waco was a good one. The race team all arrived in about 45 minutes after the first loft mate clocked which was AU 08 LAMBERTON 108 scoring 13th club. The race team has definitely fallen off during the last two 300 mile races. After winning 5 out of 6 club races, they may have been just a little tired. However, their performance was still good enough to win club average speed in the B Race Series. The 2nd average speed loft was about 36 minutes behind Lamberton Cuypers. Over 8 B races, the difference between the first and 2nd place lofts for each race was 3 minutes. In other words, on each race, the margin of victory from the first to the 2nd place bird was 3 minutes. In 1500 miles of racing young birds, that is very fast racing. But these figures bear out the fact that racing south from northeast Oklahoma into Texas with prevalent tailwinds is a very fast race course. The old-time relentless hard weather birds will not fair well on this race course. Only the fastest birds will win. Only the most intelligent birds will win. Birds that understand the game they are playing and are motivated to excel week after week in very tough competition.

Even though Lamberton Cuypers scored 13th in the Waco race, a Lamberton pigeon still won the race. AU 08 BLUE SKIES 166 Antoine Jacops blue female won the club race for TNT TITANS, Tony Smith & Josh Cooley. 166 was one of several young birds that we gave Josh and Tony to race. The BLUE SKIES band designation comes from the Blue Skies Charity Race we have sponsored on Lookout Mountain Ranch.

All of TNT TITAN's racers are Antoine Jacops crosses. They raced on the Lamberton young bird widowhood system.

If you look at the Lamberton Cuypers Average Speed Results, 8 different birds clocked first on the eight races. Since we began the race series with 13 birds, 8 of the 13 young birds won the club B average speed award: one male, 44403, and seven females. These statistics continue to validate the point that it doesn't take a large team of racers to be very competitive in pigeon races.

The Combine and Federation results are out for the last 300 mile/480 kilometer young bird race. Tony Smith & Josh Cooley won 3rd, 4th and 5th prizes competing against 945 pigeons! Congratulations gentlemen. Two of these birds are Antoine Jacops crosses while the 3rd prize bird is a "pure" Antoine Jacops young bird rung at Lamberton Cuypers loft. The parents of AU 08 BLUE SKIES 166 blue female have produced other excellent racers. 166's sire is a white Jacops' import male. I was just visiting via email with Art Casale about the Jacops' white pigeons. He knows of a fancier in California who races extremely well with these special pigeons. If you have been following this blog, you may recall that Jacops began racing pigeons with a white male, the Oude Witte (Old White) from Emiel Verhaert. Together with a blue female, the Blauw Witoog (Blue White Eye) from Warre De Schutter, this basic pair launched Antoine Jacops into the top of the race sheet in the Antwerp Union Belgium for the next 40 years. History has recorded that both Verhaert and De Schutter were "geniuses" or Masters in the racing pigeon sport in Belgium.

Still to this day, the Jacops pigeons produce whites on occasion. Often, these whites are gold!!! They race well and breed even better. Besides myself, both Steve Trotter and Bill Kinyon have raced extremely well with offspring out of white Jacops. Steve and Bill have been two of the best fanciers in the Federation for many years. More specifically, Bill raised 10 race winners out of a white Jacops female.

Back to Tony and Josh, their three females landed on a drop and all three were racing on widowhood to older males. As they can testify, the widowhood system works. Motivation is the key to winning pigeon races.

I encourage all readers to raise early youngsters to race on some form of proper motivation in the 2009 young bird race series. While you are at it, please consider sending young birds to the Texas Center Convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA July 14 - 19, 2009. As I have said before, three of the very best fanciers in Oklahoma are organizing the event: Roland Gutierrrez, Steve Trotter and Bill Hill. The Convention will be excellent and the races will be very competitive. Click Here for more information.

In addition, for you white and grizzle enthusiasts like me, Bob Roberson is promoting his one loft grizzle/white races again in 2009.

Bob has changed the loft location from his home near Chandler to the Oklahoma City area. I have entered this race before and will again in 2009. Perhaps I will see you at the races in October. In October 2009, there will be two races: the first from 150 miles/240 kilometers and the second from 300 miles/480 kilometers. These races are a great opportunity to test your grizzle pigeons. Click on the All Grizzle Banner for more information.

The next several weeks, I will pre-mate the breeders so that coupling on December 1, 2008 will go smoothly and quickly. I have been grading a few 2008 males and females from which to breed in 2009. These young pigeons will take more care and effort to couple quickly than the older breeders. If their youngsters are to hatch in the same time period as the older more experienced breeders, it will take a significant amount of pre-mating to put them on the same time schedule as the older breeders. The next several weeks will provide the opportunity to pre-mate younger breeders. I seldom couple two young pigeons. Instead, I couple young pigeons with older more seasoned breeders. If these young birds are placed in one side of a nest box with an older mate for several hours a couple of times per week, the pairing ritual will be much shorter on December 1.

I have visited with several fanciers in my area who already have their breeders paired on paper. This amount of organization is excellent! It will simplify the task on December 1 if these decisions have been carefully analyzed and decided ahead of time. Each day of the 365 day calendar year has a task that is repeated annually. Success is not entirely an accident or a function of random chance. Success is usually the result of careful thought and hard work. The degree of success of entire 2009 young bird racing season most probably will result from the decisions or lack of decisions that you make during the latter part of November each year about the youngsters you want to raise from your breeders pairs. Please consider coupling your breeders to produce prepotency and hybrid vigor. Prepotency is usually developed by line-breeding and hybrid vigor is produced from out-crossing. Try uncle-niece, aunt nephew, first cousins, second cousins as potential breeding pairs. Couple two different line-bred families to produce hybrid vigor. then after the 2009 young bird race series, take the best crosses and breed them back to one or the other families from which they came.

I often plan breeding couples two or three years ahead from birds I haven't raised yet. It is all accomplished on paper using a good pedigree program. I name the future pigeons Test 1, 2, 3, etc. and breed from young birds that I haven't raced yet in the 2009 yb race series and haven't even been hatched yet. Proper breeding is often like a good game of chess: one move after the other as a result of strategy and thought. Try not to make your breeding program entirely random. Although clique breeding pairs are often the result of good fortune, the majority of them are more a function of careful planning.

Last week, I placed an excellent half-Steketee female on ipigeon.com, AU 08 LAMBERTON 235 blue white-flight pied female. I may place one or two more Steketee-based pigeons on the internet. There are two beautiful daughters of the 603 Steketee raced by the brothers-in-law partnership of Oliviers-Devos breeding in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA. The 603 Steketee is a fabulous long distance racer that I have blogged about before. Many readers may not be familiar with the fantastic Steketee pigeons in Holland. The Steketee pigeons come from an incredible long distance fancier in Holland by the name of Jac Steketee. Click Here to read about Steketee. Another fantastic long distance fancier in Holland is Jan Polder. He became a national threat in 1985 when he purchased 15 youngsters directly from Jac Steketee's best breeders. Click Here to read about Polder's success with the Steketee pigeons.

Over the next several weeks, I will be posting an incredible set of 2008 pigeons on ipigeon.com, many of them outstanding females which will include most of the 2008 young bird race team.

1. "I have enjoyed your informative videos, particularly the widowhood setup. I am curious about watering the widowhood birds. My friend Art Casale steered me towards your website and speaks highly of you."

2. "A couple of weeks ago, quite by accident I discovered your website and started reading your blog. Since I am starting back into pigeon racing after a nearly 40 year layoff I found what you write to be both very interesting and very informative and just wanted to say that I am reading it and I hope you will continue writing it.

As someone who is starting over and approaching this as a total novice I find your blog very exciting as a source of information. I just don't know where else a person would find a how to instruction that would be so carefully structured on a day by day, minute by minute thought by thought basis with logic to enforce every minute detail of a working strategy for consistent care of the birds and development of a winning team. This is a great service for those of us starting out, as we can preclude many mistakes that might otherwise be made in a hap hazard trial and error method of searching for a system that works. You are probably aware that many fliers never share their secrets or systems. So thanks for your unselfish sharing of what obviously has been acquired thru much effort and energy over many years of hard work."

Thank you to all of you who know about the website and who enjoy the content. Your emails of encouragement make all of the difference in the world. I would prefer to blog every workday, but with life's busy challenges, it's easy to run out of time to spend on the computer. Your emails motivate me to write when I am too tired to do so strictly on my own will. Jeremy ( my son who takes the pictures and videos) and I are trying to make a positive difference in the Sport because it has given so much to me personally.

When I was 16 years old, I was a high school calf-roper. Practicing for a local calf-roping event, I made a costly mistake and was nearly dragged to death. I nearly lost the use of my right arm and hand and still suffer from major paralysis. The racing pigeons were a major factor in my recovery and remain a major component of my life today. While there are many sports in which I have great difficulty competing due to my disability (this is not a politically correct word anymore - I should have said challenges), I can compete with racing pigeons.

Since that accident, I have severely injured my left hand and wrist twice working with horses and cattle. In reality, I have less than one-half of a good hand with which to negotiate life's journey. I remember in the mid-eighties on a trip with Mike Ganus to Belgium, Tist Eyssen, the Janssen Brothers brother-in-law, told Rene Truyen that I grabbed the birds and held tightly when I handled them. Embarrassed by Tist's comment, Rene did not want to hurt my feelings by interpreting the remarks. But I could tell from Tist's hand motions and body language what he was saying. So I showed Tist my paralyzed hand and arm. He turned bright red from embarrassment. I will be forever grateful to him, however, for forcing me to begin to address my deficiencies and begin to learn how to handle pigeons with hands that do not function correctly. For me, handling pigeons and evaluating them by feel and touch has become artistry - not because I am good at it - but because it is so very difficult to do.

I remember on a trip to my home in Tulsa with his wife Maria, when he looked at the widowhood team, Antoine Jacops said that I breed better Jacops pigeons than Jacops. He then told me I had a tremendous eye for a good pigeons; but my major weakness was my hands. He told me that I would never be a good or great fancier unless I overcame my fear of using my hands to evaluate racing pigeons. From that time forward, I have used my hands as much or more than my eyes to evaluate pigeons for racing and breeding.

Believe me, if I can do it, anyone can do it. I encourage everyone to spend time in your loft at night when it is difficult to use your eyes as evaluation tools. Handle your best pigeons. After a while, your hands will send information to your brain that forms a mental image and begins to make some sort of sense about the type and conformation of various pigeons. Although you may have seen it, I made a video about evaluating pigeons with your hands.

Incidentally, while I am revealing some of my oddities, I blog and type one-handed with my left hand. For 16 years I was right-handed. Since then, I have been left-handed. Since my father and two of my three sons are left-handed, I am able to use my left hand very well. There may be some type of left-handed genetic advantage in my family. In addition, fortunately, I played the piano at 16 and was used to using both hands. So I type using all of my fingers backwards on the keyboard (no pecking with one finger). Due to the piano lessons, I type fairly quickly. Thank goodness for spell-check on Microsoft Word. It generally corrects the unintended extra letters that frequently find their way into my words in the blog.

Breeding season begins in about two weeks. I will couple the breeders and the widowhood team together about December 1. I will also turn the lights on the breeders and give them about 16 hours of daylight each day. The extended light will stimulate the sexual activity of the breeders and allow them to breed successfully in the darkness of winter. The widowhood team will not experience an altered light schedule. I believe that the widows should experience a normal winter's light in order to moult regularly during the racing season. Extended light helps the breeding process primarily in two ways. First, it allows the breeders to feed the youngsters longer hours during the day. The extra feed will translate into healthier, more robust youngsters. Secondly, extended light often results in a greater percentage of fertile eggs than normal winter light. Consequently, it is probable that more youngsters will hatch from breeders on a light system than breeders with no light system. Because I foster many of the breeder's eggs under the widows, I am not as concerned about the fertility percentage of eggs among the widows as I am among the breeders. I will throw away many of the widow's eggs in favor of breeding two rounds of youngsters out of the breeders that are about 10 days to two weeks apart in age.

If you want to breed more early youngsters out of the breeders, couple the breeders and widows (or foster parents) at the same time. Transfer the breeder's eggs to the widows and dispose of the widow's eggs (except in the case of your best racers). In about 10 days, the breeders should lay a second round of eggs. Following this procedure, you should be able to produce two rounds out of the breeders about 10 days apart. Even if you only have one or two good pairs of breeders, please follow this procedure. It is better to race several great pigeons that a whole flock of average pigeons. In pigeon racing, contrary to popular opinion, there is seldom safety in numbers. Greater numbers generally translate into more time, more work, and more expense.

Success in the 2009 young bird race season largely begins now. Your breeders should be medicated and vaccinated by now. Breeding couples should be determined based upon genotype and pfemaleotype and written down in a three-ring binder. Nest boxes should be clean. Nest bowls should be clean with new nest pads. Nesting material should be gathered. I gather pine needles at several places in Tulsa. The 2009 racing and breeding season begins in Tulsa on December 1. It is time to complete the final preparations for a great 2009 season over the next two weeks!

Last week and this week I have posted one of the best sets of young females on ipigeon that I have ever posted. In addition to several summer-breds, I posted several of the females on the 2008 Young Bird Race team including the 1st Ace West Tulsa RPC in the B Race Series, AU 08 ARPU 44435. There is also a full sister to the nest mates, AU 05 LAMBERTON 64 and 65 pigeons, AU 08 LAMBERTON 250 blue check white flight pied female. As a reference, 64 was the 4th National Ace 2006 Old Birds ARPU and 65 has raised six children that have won 1st place or equal first place for Kirk Hardin including last week's tough 300 mile/480 kilometer race in the Keystone RPC where 3 of the top 5 pigeons in the B Race were 65 children or grandchildren. The following are pictures of 65 and 250.

The are a number of excellent foundation females on ipigeon this week that have been raced or marked for sale.

THE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS OF USING A THREE-RING BINDER AS AN ANNUAL PERMANENT RECORD

Within each daily Blog during the calendar year, I often repeat or restate certain ideas. If this is boring or overly repetitive, please forgive me. But proper loft management is repetitive and I don't know how to reflect on management activities on a daily basis without repeating or restating. With that said, I strongly encourage everyone to purchase or find a three-ring binder today to use during the 2009 calendar year. I don't like binders with large rings as this type of binder is personally hard for me to handle. I like binders with small rings that are easy to open and carry. Be sure to get a binder with a plastic cover. Find a picture that motivates you and is something that makes you feel extremely good. It can be a picture of a pigeon or a fancier or your loft or your family - anything that strikes the most positive chord in your psyche. then, print the picture on an 8 X 10 sheet and slip in underneath the plastic see-through cover of the three-ring binder. You will be amazed at the positive motivation to use the binder that a relevant picture creates in your mind. Also, be sure to use page separators to create sections within the binder. Designate the first separator's tab as 2009 Breeders. then, designate the second tab as 2009 Youngsters or something to that effect.

By hand or using the computer or word processor, list the breeding pairs that you have decided to couple for 2009. You can copy the pedigrees for each pair and include that information in the Breeder section of the binder or I sometimes print a "Test" page from the pedigree program I use to create pedigrees. A "Test" pedigree will allow you to visually evaluate the quality of the youngsters produced from each breeding couple.

Under the second tab, write down or list in a table in a word document, each band number with a column for date of hatching, parents, color, sex, and special notes about each youngster hatched. The following template is one example that you might use in your binder.

Let me strongly suggest that you update the information in the three-ring binder on a daily basis if possible. Most of the time, recording information in the binder is more a function of discipline than of time. It may help to also use a clip board with several sheets of blank breeding records in the clip board. That way, when you ring your youngsters, you can jot the info down on the working notes on the clipboard and then transfer the information to the permanent binder. For smaller breeding operations, it may be easier just to keep the binder with you and only record the breeding records one time. I use several clip boards within the breeding loft to keep notes. If you are like me, I have found that I will perform a work function much more readily if it is very convenient to do so. And I am definitely to the age where my memory is much less reliable than in years past.

So, two management functions that I suggest you begin immediately are using a binder and a clip board(s) to easily keep relevant and important breeding information and notes. Especially when fostering eggs, immediately record each and every action that you make in the breeding loft. Believe me, it will help more than you can imagine later on when you are trying to remember what you did when you thought at the time that you would surely remember your actions.

The ideal pedigree should contain about 70% homogenous genes and a 30% outcross of heterogeneous genes. An outstanding homing pigeon with this pedigree with most probably race and breed well and is sometimes referred to as a dual-purpose pigeon. I believe that the percentage of youngsters raised each year that performs well as racers and are successfully retired to the breeding loft will dramatically increase if there is an organized well-planned breeding program in place rather than continually breeding two unrelated pigeons together hoping for magic to strike through a great outcross. A breeding loft that continually outcrosses every pair of breeders is playing a game of roulette in which the outcome is determined strictly by luck or chance. If you are more of a gambler type of personality, this type of breeding program may excite you and adequately fulfill your needs. However, if you are more of a connoisseur of the artistry of successfully breeding a family of pigeons, a more organized breeding program will probably fit your needs better. In this case, raising youngsters with a 70/30 ratio of prepotency to hybrid vigor will probably satisfy your needs much better.

The following pedigree for AU 07 TEAM 814 blue white-flight female demonstrates a type of line-breeding that has generated a pedigree with a very homogenous gene pool:

Let's carefully examine this pedigree. The parents of 814 are double first cousins. Their grandfathers are not only full brothers; they are nest mates: BELG 98 6121464 and BELG 98 6121465. The grandmothers are full sisters, BELG 98 6121421 and BELG 97 6200741. Further, all of the grandparents are related. The FINE CAHORS - BELG 95 6582941, sire to the grandfathers, is a half-brother to the SUPER ACE - BELG 87 6444021, the sire of the grandmothers. Both the FINE CAHORS and the SUPER ACE are children of the super-pigeon, KLEINE CAHORS that represented Belgium in the Olympiade in 1987 and were out-crossed to produce the grandparents of 814. If it were not for this critically important fact of out-crossing in the 4th generation of the pedigree, 814's pedigree would be too inbred and would not have worked. Although 814 was not raced, I believe that she has the pfemaleotype or confirmation to have raced very well. I definitely believe that she will make a great breeder. I plan on out-crossing her to a line-bred Vandenabeele or GOLDEN MATTENS male.

Breeding a family of successful racers and breeders around several outstanding pigeons is simply a matter of weaving a genetic fabric in future youngsters which includes the proper percentage of prepotency or line-breeding with the proper percentage of hybrid vigor or out-crossing. As I indicated earlier, according to the Masters, that percentage or ratio is approximately 70/30.

Depending upon how you started in pigeons and from whence your breeders came, getting to the 70/30 ratio may take some time and require some effort. If you are starting from scratch, I recommend that you out-cross two very high quality pigeons (Pair 1). then, take the very best youngster(s) of Pair 1 and breed them back to outstanding brothers or sisters of Pair 1. If you have no brothers or sisters to Pair 1, you will need to purchase or obtain another pair of outcrosses (Pair 2) whose children will be crossed on Pair 1 and the children of Pair 1. In 814's pedigree, the two original pairs were the FINE CAHOES coupled with a daughter of Gaby Vandenabeele's 1st Provincial Champion, the PICANOL, and the SUPER ACE crossed on a full sister to the infamous KANNIBAAL, the 1996 1st National Ace Middle Distance in Belgium. Is it understandable why I think that 814 will make a great breeder. Genotypically, she comes from the very best pigeons of Antoine Jacops, Gaby Vandenabeele, and Dirk Van Dyke that have been raced and won in the most elite racing competition in Belgium. when Antoine outcrosses his family of pigeons, he only selects the very best pigeons he can obtain from winning lofts at the time.

I always use a pedigree program to generate hypothetical couplings. It is very fast and very simple. I am able to couple breeders with a number of mates in only a few moments in order to select the best breeding pairs during the initial phase of the 2009 breeding season (2 rounds). After several rounds of youngsters are produced, breeding pairs are frequently separated and re-coupled. This occurs especially when I have selected more than one desirable pairing combination.

If you haven't done so, you still have about two weeks in November to mate your breeders on paper before December 1. In the meantime, select your breeding males and place them in their breeding boxes if you have not already done so. New boxes often retard the mating process if a male has a new box and a new mate. Once a male has identified his territory or box and feels very comfortable in it, he will accept a new female much more readily. Otherwise, the first set of eggs may not be as synchronized as possible with other breeders.

Especially for racers, loft training or road training a round of youngsters is much more advantageous if they are very near the same hatching age. If all of the breeder pairs lay their eggs from December 10 - 14, they will all hatch about January 1. Creating uniform rounds of youngsters is one of the most critical functions of a great young bird racing season. I'll discuss that subject next blog.

Particularly for racing purposes, it is very important to breed a uniform round of youngsters. To do this, you must synchronize your breeders to the exact same breeding schedule or routine. That is, if a fancier couples 20 pairs of breeders on December 1, the fancier should take every precaution so that all 20 pairs lay at the same time and hatch youngsters at the same time. when I say at the same time, I mean within a week or so of each other. In order to synchronize the breeders to the same breeding schedule, it is important to manage the following aspects of breeding:

1. Every breeder should be properly medicated prior to the onset of the breeding season.

2. Every breeding male should be in his nest box long enough to become familiar and comfortable with it and to claim the box as his territory. Depending upon the circumstances, it may take a few days to several weeks to manage this aspect. If a breeding male is already in his compartment or nest box, then this aspect is not a problem.

3. Premating new couples - If two pigeons are going to be coupled that have never been coupled before, it will help to premate these pigeons the last two weeks in November. when I premate new breeders, I close a female in one side of the nest box and let the male court the female through the wire door/side of the nest front. I can place a small water cup on the front of the locked side of the box so that the female can drink. I leave the female in the locked side of the nest box for two to eight hours. Depending upon the interaction between the couple, I may repeat this daily routine three or four times over a two week period prior to December 1.

4. Premating young females (late 2007 or 2008) or females that have never been coupled before - young females will often take two or three weeks longer to lay than older females that have produced youngsters. In order to speed up the laying period for young females, it maybe necessary to premate shy, slow-mating or immature females as many as 6 to 10 times before December 1. If a young female does not respond well enough to premating, she should probably be removed in place of another female that is more ready to mate. It is too important for the first round to try to force a female to mate that is not ready. Save her for breeding later in the breeding season.

5. Premating young males or males that have never been coupled - young males are often very aggressive when they are first coupled. They will often scalp or injure a female, young or old, very easily. It is best to thoroughly premate young males such that they will not hurt a female; but instead will safely drive a female to lay in a week to ten days. females that have been hurt by an overly aggressive or abusive young male will often refuse to mate with that male or take a very long time to do so. An unnecessary delay can be detrimental to synchronizing the hatch of a young bird race team.

6. Never place a new pair of breeders in a new nest box. The newness of the pairing is confusing to each bird and the newness of the nest box is confusing to both birds. By thoroughly premating new pairs and thoroughly acclimating them to their nest box, the laying time for new breeders can be significantly shortened by days or weeks.

7. Any age breeding male that is not completely and thoroughly acclimated to his nest box will often inadvertently fly to a wrong nest box and fight with the pair in the nest box. The fight will often damage, or break the eggs, or push the eggs out of the nest bowl to quickly chill in the cold temperatures in December. In order to protect the integrity of all of the eggs in the breeding loft and assure that they will hatch, males should be familiar enough with their nest box and the flight path to their nest box that the probability of their inadvertently selecting the wrong box is very low or nil.

In summary, breeding males should be thoroughly and completely acclimated to their nest box. New breeding pairs should be thoroughly premated. Breeding pairs coupled on December 1 should lay in about 7 to 10 days and hatch their eggs at the end of the month. Synchronize the first round of young birds in order to cut down on losses off the loft or when road training begins. The best team of young birds to race in August or September in the USA is a uniform team (the same approximate age) of youngsters whose incubation cycle was synchronized such that they are as near the same as possible.

As I have said before, I will couple all of the widowhood males so that the first round of breeder eggs can be fostered as soon after laying as possible. The breeders will lay a second round in about 10 days. In this way, the number of youngsters produced from the breeders can be doubled and hatched 10 days apart. I consider two rounds of youngsters from the breeders a excellent synchronized and uniform round of 2009 racing prospects.

Modern homing pigeons may be domesticated; but they are still wild birds from the moment of hatching. In order to play the racing pigeon game successfully, wild pigeons must be tamed and trained from the moment they hatch from their eggs. First, young birds should be healthy. Their parents should be completely medicated and thoroughly healthy prior to breeding in order to raise healthy youngsters. Secondly, breeders should be fed healthy food, i.e., excellent grain with plenty of protein. Protein usually comes in the form of peas. Breeders should have plenty of fresh grit and pickstone. They should receive vitamins and minerals. They should have plenty of fresh water. Different fanciers have different preferences concerning water. Municipal water is treated for human consumption and some fanciers believe that it is not good for pigeons. I honestly don't know. But I use the City of Tulsa's water to water the birds.

Nest boxes should be constructed so that eggs and young pigeons are covered by a warm parent's body at all times. It is not desirable that parents leave the nest frequently during winter breeding. Eggs and babies will chill very easily if their parents are frightened by any type of external danger including people.

After hatching, youngsters learn from the moment they can hear and see. Just as people do, youngsters use their senses to discover the world. After their eyes are open, they observe their parents and learn about their environment through their parents' actions and reactions. Tame parents teach youngsters to be tame. That is, if fear is not present in breeders, breeders will not teach it to their babies. It is critically important that your breeders and racers are as tame and quiet as possible. A chaotic loft will be passed down from generation to generation. Wild parents will teach their youngsters to be wild. Tame parents will teach their youngsters to be tame.

Animals and humans learn attitudes and behaviors from their very first teachers to whom they are exposed - their parents. If parents are fed in the nest box, youngsters will see their parents eating and model their behavior. The breeders are fed in small bowls in the nest box - one bowl for food and another for grit. If youngsters can access a water source, they will also learn to drink from the time they first learn to walk around the nest box. Youngsters can learn to eat by the time they are 21 days old. If they eat on their own during the 4th week of their life - a week when they require the most feed prior to weaning - their personal food intake will significantly reduce the stress of feeding on their parents. "Creep feeding" (feeding youngsters as babies) is much easier on parents. when squeakers are weaned from 25 to 30 days of age, they should be eating completely on their own. In years past, I have often placed youngsters on the floor at 25 days to teach them how to drink when they watch the older birds drink. They are also exposed to their first bath. Squeakers love to bathe and it is very good for them - weather and environmental conditions permitting.

Whenever the pigeons are fed each day, I "call" them. Youngsters learn the sound of my voice and what that sound means at a very early age. when young birds are weaned, it is possible for them to know how to eat, drink, bath, and come when called - if they are taught these behaviors. I feed just-weaned babies on the floor. Twice a day, I scrape and sweep the floor to prepare it for feeding the youngsters. I sit on the floor or sit on a small plastic pail and hand feed the youngsters. I talk to them. I call them. I gently pour the grain over their heads, necks and backs. I feed a handful of grain at a time and let them nearly finish that amount before gently spreading another handful or two on the flock of youngsters. I believe that their is a critical window of time when pigeons can be more positively affected and trained than at any other time in their life. In humans it is called "early childhood development." Modern research now shows us the young children have their personalities formed at a much earlier age that the literature used to think was possible. Antisocial personalities are created during the first year or two of life according to the latest research. I believe this is true in people and in birds and animals.

Homing pigeons are wild creatures with innate tendencies to flee anything that doesn't look, smell, and sound just like them. That innate wildness is a characteristic of survival and necessary for their species to survive in the wild. As fanciers and pigeon fanciers, we must neutralize the innate tendency to flee by building trust in all of our pigeons. Homers that trust their fanciers are entirely different creatures than a flock of wild young birds in a large room flying all over the room at the slightest interruption. I have seen fanciers call their pigeons out of the sky, tap on a hand crate, and load their pigeons without touching them in only a moment. Pigeons are incredibly smart and innovative birds. If they are not taught the right way to do something, they will learn the wrong way. Great fanciers teach their young birds at the very earliest age possible how to act as a classic racing homers. Michel Van Lint, arguably one of Belgium's greatest fanciers over the past ten years or so, hand feeds his youngsters from the time they are about a week old. His wife and daughter help him. He feeds them twice a day at a minimum. There is a bonding process that can occur between young birds and fanciers at a very early age if fanciers will take the time to develop the bond. From this bond comes trust. Trust is a condition that allows the greatest training. Great training usually converts into head prizes on the race sheet.

If you don't have the time to bond with 100 young birds, breed 20 and bond with them. If you don't have the time to bond with 20 young birds, breed 5 and bond with them. As I have said so many times: "it is often more satisfying to race a few pigeons very well than a flock of pigeons poorly."

Wild pigeons must be taught to be tame pigeons. Order must be created out of chaos. A condition of trust must be learned out of fear. The pigeon loft must reflect the calmness of an orderly system rather than the chaos of randomness. Tame and trained pigeons are a tremendous joy. Wild pigeons are a great deal of effort. The former can generate great satisfaction while the latter can generate great frustration.

May I suggest that if it is appropriate in your situation, dedicate yourself to a new spirit of excellence for the 2009 young bird season which begins on December 1, 2008. Clean your loft and prepare it for the upcoming breeding season. Couple your breeders thoughtfully and intelligently - genotypically and pfemaleotypically (pedigree and conformation). Manage your breeders effectively. Create order out of chaos. With these suggestions as a foundation, I urge every reader to start the 2009 young bird race season by hatching the best round of future champions as possible on January 1, 2009.

In 2008, Antoine Jacops competed in the pigeon races in the Hafo Turnhout RPC in the Antwerp Union amassing the following superb results:

1st    CHAMPION   YEARLINGS 2008
2th   ACE-PIGEON YEARLINGS 2008 with the B-08-6042082  pedigree click here
7th   ACE-PIGEON YEARLINGS 2008 with the B-08-6042090  pedigree click here
8th   ACE-PIGEON YEARLINGS 2008 with the B-08-6042056  pedigree click here
10th ACE-PIGEON YEARLINGS 2008 with the B-08-6042011  pedigree click here

There are full brothers and sisters to the parents of these Ace pigeons breeding in Tulsa, Oklahoma; including in several cases, the nestmates to Antoine's breeders. One of his best breeders in the last few years is the Miniem: 2nd Ace Pigeon Antwerp Union 2002 Yearlings and 15th Ace Pigeon B. D. S. (Belgian De Duivin Sport) Belgium 2002 (The 2002 Miniem is the 2nd pigeon Antoine has named the Miniem - Antoine had another outstanding distance Ace pigeon he called the Miniem years ago. The reason this information is relevant for me is that I also have outstanding pigeons bred down from the original Miniem). The nest brother to the 2002 Miniem is breeding in Tulsa in addition to three other full brothers. Sadly, in a few weeks, the Miniem will be breeding in someone else's loft as Antoine is selling almost all of his pigeons in December. The December 13 and 20 sales will mark the end of a golden era of over 40 years of incredible racing in the Antwerp Union in Belgium.

Even with his illness, Antoine's superb pigeons managed to win 1st Champion Yearlings in a large prestigious middle-distance club in the Antwerp Union in 2008. For those of you who may not remember, Antoine has been suffering from Meniere's Disease for a number of years. This disease is a disease of the inner ear in which the inner ear is constantly telling the brain that Antoine is out of balance. Consequently, Antoine's pupils constantly dilate and constrict trying to find the right balance. The net effect is that Antoine is constantly dizzy, out of breath, sick to his stomach, and tired - all symptoms of Vertigo. Often, Antoine can only care for the birds for a one-hour time period or less; and sometimes not at all - prompting Maria to care for them. In addition, Antoine can no longer drive or ride in the car so Maria must also enter the birds in all of the races at the club. Maria's health has not been so good also; so taking the birds to the club has been a major effort for her. Consequently, Antoine has decided to sell most of his pigeons and only keep a few 2008 youngsters to race for fun.

This change in history is very sad for me because the primary source of my pigeons for over 20 years - the Golden Well - is ceasing. In spite of that fact, Antoine and Maria will always remain like a brother and sister to me and Morgan and I will continue to visit them in Belgium. I suspect that Antoine will counsel me anytime I need additional Belgian breeders on where to find the best pigeons. He is one of the most respected fanciers in Belgium and knows where to find the best outcrosses to bring into his family of pigeons.

I have traveled all over Belgium for almost 25 years. I have never found a family of pigeons that race any distance under any circumstances like the pigeons of Antoine Jacops. You may ask yourself, well if this is the truth then why aren't his pigeons more popular in the USA? The answer to this great question is very simple and is tied up in the character of the man himself - Antoine Jacops. You see, Antoine is really very much like an American. He is an innovator, he is "old fashioned," and he has never ever let the pigeon merchants dictate the way he plays the racing pigeon game. If you lived in parts of Asia, you would know that Antoine's pigeons are enormously famous. Why? Because the Asians gamble thousands of dollars on the sport and Antoine's pigeons win!

As I have said before, the man that introduced Antoine to me on a trip to Belgium in 1986 is Mike Ganus. Because of Mike's character, Antoine allowed Mike to purchase youngsters to re-sell in the US. Antoine has refused to allow most of the well known pigeon merchants to sell his pigeons. Why? Primarily because Antoine always sells every pigeon that he offers for sale by himself - he doesn't need a pigeon merchant, or their publicity, to sell pigeons. Antoine does well on his own because of the high quality of his pigeons and his honest straight forward character. Since Mike changed his marketing strategy and quit selling imported young birds in the US in favor of purchasing Ace pigeons and selling their youngsters, I have imported Antoine's pigeons myself. Antoine and Maria are very old-fashioned in their beliefs. No hustlers or merchants trying to make a quick buck or euro at their expense need enter their driveway and ring their doorbell. Although the Jacops are extremely courteous to everyone, the answer to merchants has always been no. In 2005, when Antoine won 1st National Souillac, the feather merchants called him daily wanting to buy the winner. Antoine's answer was always no. After years of trying and coming extremely close, the Jacops finally won a 1st National, and the winning pigeon was worth more in their loft than in someone else's loft. Just the thrill of seeing him in the loft everyday has been priceless for the Jacops.

The tremendous relationship I have enjoyed with the Jacops family would not have been possible without my dear friend, Mike Ganus. Mike and Antoine have altered and changed my life in the most fundamental ways and have made my life much richer than any other course my life could have taken. I love homing pigeons. In addition to my family and my God, homing pigeons have done something for me that nothing else I have experienced in the world has managed to accomplish. Homing pigeons have given me a reason to get up in the morning and try to accomplish something with one hand and arm paralyzed and the other hand twisted and weak from several other injuries. What the calf-roping accident took away from me at the ripe old age of 16, pigeons have given back a thousand-fold. After the accident, when I wouldn't get out of bed for me, I got out of bed for the pigeons. In my life, I have literally risen up on their wings when my mind or my body didn't want to. My loft is like a sanctuary to me. I love to be there. The sounds coming from the lofts are like water - bathing me - nourishing me - encouraging me to compete in life with the same intensity that I ask the pigeons to exhibit during their races.

If I never entered another pigeon race - if I never sold another pigeon - if I never spoke to another fancier - if I never made another trip to Belgium - I would keep homing pigeons as a hobby. They simply bring me too much joy to ever stop.

The 2008 young bird team amassed a tremendous race record winning 1st Average Speed in the West Tulsa RPC B (Unlimited) Race Series. Five of the top nine Ace Pigeons were raced under the Lamberton Cuypers banner while a sixth Lamberton pigeon in the top nine was raced by TNT TITANS: Tony Smith and Josh Cooley. Below are pictures of the top two Ace pigeons.

The development of Ace pigeons is one of the great joys I experience in the racing pigeon game. For me, the game is about the pigeons and not about me. I don't fly races; the pigeons do. My job is to put all of the racers in the best possible position to accomplish the goals I set for them. The reason these images or pictures are important for me is that they are the images I envision when I begin the breeding season in October of each year. The images are visual representations of a hypothetical goal each fall. I am a visual learner and planner. I perform much better if I can visualize my goals. The above picture of the two females is my personal visual goal for 2009. The picture depicts the fact that that Ace pigeons start their development process inside their eggs rather when they hatch. Eggs are the first lofts that house future champions and Ace pigeons. The creation of quality eggs is a direct result of the quality of the decisions made during the next two weeks.

As I have said, each breeding season does not begin for me on January 1. It starts in October. In October, I begin thoroughly medicating the breeders and selecting breeding couples "on paper" (That's an old expression since data is now generated and stored on a computer.) December 1, the breeding couples are actually paired. In Belgium, January 1 is the target date for the 2009 youngsters to hatch. I begin the process of creating "diamonds" each fall as the loft is prepared for breeding.

Since next week is December 1, depending upon your location, it is now time to turn on the lights in the breeding loft for 16 or 17 hours per day to simulate spring time in the winter breeding months. Extended light stimulates the pituitary gland that influences the passion to breed. With show horses, we extend the lights in the barn during winter so that the show horses will continue to shed their hair and look smooth and sleek like they naturally do in the spring and summer. The pituitary gland is sensitive to the amount of light to which it is exposed. Extended light, i.e., 17 hours of light per day, automatically produces mating behavior in pigeons, and other animals for that matter. We put mares under lights in order to breed them in February to produce a January 1st foal. Like pigeons, large, more fully developed weanlings are often judged better in fall confirmation futurities. These futurities award sizable purses to the winners and the top ten award winners. Breeding early foals correlates into a higher probability of winning money in the fall. Early pigeons often race better in fall races because of their physical development and sexual maturity.

VERY IMPORTANT: Do not let the extended artificial light effect the race birds at all. Race birds should always experience the normal light of your area. Otherwise, extended artificial light will adversely affect their moult next spring. Contain the sphere of artificial light to the breeding area only.

WARNING: Normally, males become very aggressive during the initial mating stage of breeding. Coupling stimulates aggression. It's normal. It's natural. It's innate. However, males often turn their aggression on the other males in the loft. This is the reason that a male may force his way into a strange nest box and fight the breeders in the strange box. Overly aggressive males may destroy nests and eggs; and kill or scalp youngsters. Aggressive males may start fighting on the floor or in the aviary. It's a part of the process. This is why it is best to couple valuable breeders in small solitary lofts or large nest boxes where they can be isolated from other breeders. May I suggest that you keep a close eye on your breeders during the mating process and try to control unwanted or undesirable behavior among overly aggressive males.

December 1 is one week away. As a precaution, I premated the breeders today. Fortunately, today was a very sunny day so I could evaluate what up to now are theoretical matings in my hands and with the eye loop. While most of the breeders readily accepted their mates, I specifically looked for those breeders, if any, that sulked or did not readily couple. The SHADOW, an outstanding son of the PHANTOM, sulked when his new female was introduced. He misses his former mate. Consequently, I will continue to pre-mate him to his new female. Ultimately, I may need to switch females. I don't know. I will need to pay special attention to the SHADOW during the coupling stage next week so that his female lays her eggs at the same time as most of the females in the loft.

Frequently, couples that look good on paper are less desirable when actually paired. There is normally a period of adjustment this time of year when hypothetical couples are re-paired due to the fact that I just didn't like the couple together when I actually paired them. Or, sometimes I re-pair a couple because I find a mate or mates that I like much better than the mate I selected on paper. Rarely do I end up coupling the exact same pairs that I selected on paper. The paper matings generally provide a well thought-out guide to mating that can be changed or manipulated when the couples are actually paired. This time of year I often spend as much as 18 hours per day coupling the breeders in the hand and on paper. The decisions I make today will usually last a year. I take these pairing decisions very seriously and work very hard the last week of November and the first week in December to "get it right." I am constantly comparing pedigrees to confirmation in the hand and in the eye. Genotype to Pfemaleotype. Usually, I discover new matings that I didn't consider earlier in the year. The next two weeks are as time-consuming as any other period of time during the year. While it is exciting and fun, it is also physically and mentally exhausting. Of course it makes a difference whether a fancier is mating six pairs of breeders or sixty-six pairs of breeders.

I have received a number of interesting emails the past few days. The following email is from a fancier talking about a smash training toss:

I have kept pigeons all my life. I only started racing in 2008. I finished with the following results in my club: 2X's 2nd, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th,11th,12th,2X's 16th, 28th, 29t. These results were accomplished with only 12 birds on my young bird team. This was not my choice, but due to a smash training flight, only 3 weeks before the first race. Even though I had 12 young birds on my team, these results are from my best 4 birds. I had planned to race all of my 30 ybs the first couple of races. I guess you could say that smash training flight not only picked the numbers of birds, but also picked which one's would remain on the team. I have spent every spare moment I had the last 3 years, talking to and listen to, and reading everything I can get a hold of. Although I'm very pleased with my results for my first year, I have also realize some mistakes that I've made and learned from them.

I first saw your videos on My Tube, then I went to your site. I must say that I am very impressed, with all that I have seen. I most like that your blogs are more in the format of a daily journal. I have never gotten so much from someone in such a short time, as I have from you in the last week. I plan to continue to read on. I flew to the perch this year, and my birds was not breed early enough to have reach sexual maturity , and to fly on the widowhood. But it makes a lot of sense to do so. I am afraid that time and money will not allow me to be set up in time, for me to implement this program this year. But I have included this in my plans for 2010. So I will continue to read on and I hope that you don't mind if I pick your brain from time to time. Just wanted to say Thank You!

This email gives me the chance to talk again about the number of quality young bird racers that will be produced in 2009. Smash training tosses are a "natural" way of selecting the best young birds for the young bird race team. What I mean by natural is that smash training tosses allow the birds to select themselves for the team rather than the fancier. Most fanciers prefer to let the basket determine which young birds stay on the team and which young birds are eliminated from the team. I have advocated a method during training during which both the fancier and the basket determines team membership. As I have also stated before, the Lamberton 10% Rule states that about 10% of the young birds raised for the race season will make up the pool of quality racers for that year. The email's author reveals that he began with 30 young birds. After the smash training toss the team was reduced to twelve young birds. He reports the results for the top four young birds. 10% of 30 is 3. The author reported the results of the best 4. This email confirms the fact that only a very few young birds contribute to the top prizes won by the overall young bird team. If we only knew ahead of time which 10% were the best young birds for racing, racing young birds would be much easier and cheaper.

The term "smash training toss" is commonly and widely used by the fancy as a whole. However, because of the Lamberton 10% Rule (as it is referred to by my friends), the phrase "smash" training toss is actually a misnomer. Actually, we should expect to lose 90% of the young birds we raise each year lofting, training and racing young birds; or, we should expect that only 10% of the young birds will perform at the top of the race sheet. Fanciers have said to me that they only lost a few pigeons out of 50 or 75 young birds on the race team. While at first blush this seems to be a good situation, when I ask them to identify only those young birds that won the best head prizes during the race season, the number is usually less than 10% of the number of young birds raised. If a fancier starts with 75 young birds and only loses 6, leaving 69 young birds at the end of the race season, the 10% Rule would predict that 7 of the 69 pigeons would contribute the best results during the young bird race season. More times than not, only about 7 young birds will actually win the top head prizes.

For me, the task is never one in which I attempt to keep every young bird that I raise. The question that I try to answer each year is which few youngsters are the very best and which youngsters will win head prizes or prizes at the top of the race sheet each week. In 2008 young birds, the 1st Ace female, 44435, won a first prize, a second prize, and two third prizes. Out of the 8 young bird B series races that the team flew in 2008, one pigeon (44435) was the best bird on the race team for 4 out of 8 races. This one pigeon was the best racer for half of the race series (50% of the time)! If two females of 44435's caliber and quality were raced in the young bird race series, the two-bird race team still could have won 1st Average Speed in the B Race Series. So the task for me now is to raise or create as many healthy young birds as possible in January and February of 2009. then between February when they are weaned and September when they are raced, the task is to eliminate 90% of the young birds that I just spent so much time and effort raising in order to identify the top 10% to race on widowhood in the young bird race series.

I am never disappointed by a smash training toss unless I lose every single pigeon; and fortunately that has never happened. I sometimes comfort fellow fancier friends who are waiting and anguishing for the birds to come home during a smash toss quit anguishing as soon as the first bird returns. Why? Because if one young bird returns, they all could have returned. While I am waiting for hours during a smash toss, I want to see just one pigeon return. After one pigeon returns, I am off the hook or no longer responsible for the outcome of the smash toss. If one pigeon returns, they all could have returned. The first pigeon home is the first contribution to the 10% pool of excellent young birds.

During the 2008 young bird training regiment, 163 or 44435 were always the first young birds back from a hard training tosses. Their performances placed them at the top of the 10% pool. 2483, the 2nd Ace Pigeon, was never far behind. The results of strenuous training tosses clearly demonstrated to me which birds were the best young birds. Their performances screamed at me "we are the best. Choose us! Take super care of us by giving us the most room, good mates, quality food, a clean loft, and fresh clean water. Don't choose those other inferior birds or average pigeons just because they returned, sometimes hours late on the day, or a day or two later. Choose us. Pamper us. Devote the entire young bird loft and all of your energies just to us. We will race the fastest for you all by ourselves." I listened and they delivered.

I am always more thrilled about which young birds arrive first from a training toss than how many young birds returned as a whole. As long as one bird returns, I could care less how many return. I believe that the number of young birds on a race team or that survived the race series is only a "psychological comfort" for fanciers and usually have little to do with the overall performances at the top of the race sheet. when fanciers tell me that they are beginning the race season with 50 to 100 young birds, I feel like those numbers actually place those fanciers at a distinct disadvantage. Unless fancier are retired, in good health, have few financial concerns, and want to spend the majority of their time training and racing pigeons, racing 50 to 100 pigeons well is very hard to accomplish. It is better to race a few pigeons very well than many pigeons poorly.

Although I am preparing on December 1 to raise a great number of pigeons, my goal in 2009, as it is every year, will be to identify only those very few that will race home the very fastest. Breeding young birds is usually a great deal of work for a very small result. But the small result, an Ace champion, is more than worth the effort for me. The great Gerald Koopman states that fanciers are very lucky if they find a champion pigeon in every 200 young birds raised each year. While Koopman's definition of champion is probably much different than many American fanciers, that's the reason I buy breeding stock in Belgium and Holland. The game and fanciers' expectations are much more stringent there than in many other countries. While I don't mean to denigrate our racing system in America or insult American fanciers in the slightest, the overall game is more difficult in Belgium and Holland than it is played in other countries.

I believe that as long as one bird returns, smash training tosses are good, healthy, and necessary in order to identify the very best young birds each year. For me, the game is not about how many pigeons are kept, saved, or how many return. The game is about how many young birds return quickly. The game is about speed rather than general homing ability. The game is about how many pigeons we eliminate during the training phase in order to race a very few high quality potential champions during the young bird race series. Each year, only a very few young birds will rise to an elite level - if any of them rise to that level at all. Next week the breeding season begins in Belgium, in Holland, in Europe, and at the Lamberton loft in Tulsa, Oklahoma. All of the fanciers in these places will raise as many young birds as possible in order to discover one champion racer. A daunting task? Yes. But the pot at the end of the Rainbow has always been a fascinating mystery and a thrilling quest for those who desire its riches!

Dear Dr Lamberton, First of all would like to congratulate you on your site as it is very informative and interesting. I would like to ask you where you keep the females or males when you remove them from their partners? Do you keep them in a separate compartment of the whole week and then you put them back with their mates on the race day only? Sorry but I just managed to get a few pigeons which I am using for stock and liked a lot the widowhood method which I would like to try. As you can see I am a beginner. Thanks and well done again.

To answer this new fancier's question, widowhood mates are removed from the sections of the loft containing the race team to another section of the loft from Saturday evening after the race to the next Friday afternoon when they are "shown" to the race team. It is best to hold widowhood mates in a room or loft section at the end or on the side of the widowhood loft sections. Suggestion: Construct your loft such that all you need to do to let the mates into the loft is open a door. The door can be a big walk through door or it can be a small door only for pigeons. Under no circumstances is it practical to hand carry each mate to the racing loft or even crate the mates to place them in the racing loft. Whatever type of loft set-up you use, construct it such that the mates can enter the racing loft and exit the racing loft with the very least amount of work and effort on your part as possible. I open a walk-through door and let the mates stream into the racing loft. Pigeons are very smart. They know when you open the door and stand away from it that it is time to see their mates. They will literally knock you down racing from their loft into the next loft to see their mates.

I have found that young birds need to see their mates more often than old birds. Old birds can generally go one week without seeing their mates and not lose interest or sulk too much. Young birds are not as mentally mature as old birds. I sometimes show the young bird's mates to them after a mid-week training toss on Wednesday for races on Saturday. Young males seem to need to see their mates more than young females. Possibly because of their immaturity or possibly because of their aggression, young males like to see their females for a few minutes up to an hour or so after a mid-week toss. I never let the pigeons together during a mid-week rendezvous; but lock a mate in one side of the nest box for about thirty minutes to an hour. They can see each other but the males cannot tread the females. This year racing females and one male, there were no mid-week tosses or mates shown on Wednesdays. That may have been a mistake. I don't know.

I received an email from a fancier who wants to pair his breeders on December 1 and wonders when he should pair his race team in order to breed a uniform round of young birds. My answer is as follows: Go ahead and couple your race birds with your breeders on December 1. However, there are two problems that should be considered. First, if the race team is placed under lights, they will probably moult earlier than normal next summer. If they are raced in April and May, there will be no problem with the moult beginning too early. If they are raced later, they may start moulting during the summer. I usually prefer to let them raise their youngsters with normal light. This can be accomplished in Oklahoma. It may be different in other parts of the US or another country. Secondly, if the race team lays a second round of eggs, they will begin the wing moult. I often separate the females from the widowhood males before then female lays a second time when the youngsters are about 10 days old and let the females finish raising the youngsters. Since I "creep" feed the youngsters in the nest using a small clay pot, a single parent can still raise very healthy youngsters.

Because the races in Oklahoma begin the first week in April and generally end the first week in June, the moult is not often the problem that it might be in geographic locations where old birds are raced on different schedules. If the race team is placed under lights and if their females lay a second round of eggs, the danger of the wing moult beginning is not too large in Oklahoma. But the danger might greater be in other places. Generally in Belgium, race teams are coupled on December 1 at the same time as the breeders; but not allowed to lay a second round of eggs so that the wing moult will not begin. Later in the spring, the race team is re-coupled a few weeks before the race season begins and the eggs are removed after ten days. As an example, if the races begin in Oklahoma on Saturday, April 5, the race team would need to be re-coupled about March 8. If re-coupled on March 8, the race team will have eggs in 7 to 10 days or March 15 to 18. On March 25 to 28 the eggs are removed and the males begin widowhood. The widowhood males and females are re-coupled in order for them to begin the race season on a schedule of celibacy during the week and coupling every weekend on race day.

Extended winter lights particularly help younger pigeons couple. Again, in Oklahoma, on December 1, the older males on the race team have little problem coupling if they like their female. The weather is usually fairly mild. Sometimes younger racers are slow to respond without lights. Also, extended lights provide breeders with longer hours to feed youngsters. But longer hours are not required if breeders and youngsters are fed in a pot or in a hopper "buffet" style or continuously. If youngsters are fed and/or watered in the nest box continuously from the time they are a week or so old, they do not require the lighting schedule that other feeding methods may require. Lights can help fanciers with work schedules or family obligations who feed in the evening or dark by necessity. Experiment with your pigeons in your geographic region with your personal work and family schedule. You may not need to use extended lighting. Or, extended lights may be perfect in your situation. Your breeding methods should be based on trial and error and experimentation. You may discover a better method than I am describing. Don't be afraid to take reasonable chances.

I know of fanciers who place their youngsters on the floor at about there weeks of age. The area on the floor is called a "nursery." Noisy youngsters will often force non-parental pigeons that are feeding other youngsters into feeding them. Also, youngsters on the floor watch the old birds eat and drink if they are fed and watered on the floor. I have tried this method of feeding youngsters in the past and it works very well. If you cannot feed in the nest box, may I suggest that you create a nursery on the floor and place your youngsters there at about three weeks. As soon as young birds first begin to walk, they can find their way to food and water. The physical strain of raising youngsters is greatly lessened on parents whose youngsters are placed in a nursery. Further, if you spend time in the loft in the evening after work, teach the young birds into eating from your hand or to eat sitting in your lap. You will raise much tamer pigeons that may race harder because of this special relationship that they have developed at a very early age with you.

In conclusion, to be on the safe side, if you couple your racers next week or during the winter, try to let them raise their youngsters under normal lighting and don't allow them to raise more than one round of youngsters. when the youngsters are about 10 days old, separate the mates of the race team and let the mates care for the youngsters. See to it that the youngsters eat well by creep feeding them by themselves or feed them on the floor as part of a nursery.

Referring back to Wednesday discussion of winter-breeding the race team, it is most desirable for the racers to fly the longer races with a wing full of flight feathers. If the wing moult begins early due to winter-breeding, the wing may not be as full as it should be for extended flight or the racers may be moulting a longer flight in May or June when the longer races are flown. That is why it is best for the old birds to start moulting their flight feathers in the spring rather than during the winter.

I have watched next week's weather forecast. Tuesday, December 2 and Wednesday December 3 are forecasted to be sunny and warm. The temperature on Tuesday is forecasted at 65 degrees Fahrenheit in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tuesday looks like a perfect day to couple the breeders and the race team. If the breeders are not fully coupled by Tuesday evening, I can still finish on Wednesday - another nice day. If the weather is too poor in your area to couple your pigeons on December 1 or next week, wait until the weather is better. If that's not a possibility, couple them anyway. It is not necessary to hatch youngsters exactly on January 1. In fact, youngsters hatched in February and March can still race on widowhood. In addition to racing older youngsters, a primary reason for breeding early youngsters is the ease of training a uniform group of young birds.

I just received Antoine Jacops' Sale Catalogue. The following page is the Sale Cover.

On the Cover, Antoine features the 1st National Souillac 2005 winner and the 4th Ace in the Antwerp Union 2004. As it turns out, in addition to being a great racer, the 4th Ace pigeon, the "076," has been an excellent breeder. As it also turns out, a full sister to "076", the "190" female, is breeding in Tulsa. This outstanding female just happens to be the maternal grandmother to AU 08 ARPU 44435, the 1st Ace Young Bird in the Club. As it seems, the "076" and the "190" are both excellent breeders on two continents. GUSTAAF, a foundation breeder for Gustaaf and Jef Cuypers (my partner in Belgium) was paired with the "190" female to produce the mother of 44435, AU 06 LAMBERTON 59. 59 was so spectacular that she was removed from the 2006 young bird race team during summer training and entered the breeding loft as a future breeder. 44435 is bred from (1) a full brother to the NUDIST, (2) GUSTAAF, a foundation male for the Cuyper's, and (3) the "190" female that is a full sister to Antoine's "076." With this pedigree, 44435 was destined to be a champion racer. Although I have heard fanciers say that they cannot tell a potential young bird Ace just by looking at the pigeon, if you had seen 44435 in the summer, it would have been relatively easy to tell her excellent quality. Good young birds show their quality by their posture and poise, their temperament, their eye clarity, their response time, the way they take off and land, the way they fly, their feathering, their wattle whiteness, and their reaction and relationship to their fanciers. Both 44435 and her mother stuck out like sore thumbs as six month old young birds. Their quality was easy to spot. Both "076" and "190" are high quality pigeons bred down from high quality pigeons. Their progeny are winning in the Antwerp Union Belgium and in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA.

The Cover of Antoine's Sale Catalogue also pictures three reference pigeons: the SUPER ACE, the KANNIBAAL, and the PICANOL. These are additional reasons why Antoine's pigeons have so much quality. The SUPER ACE represents Antoine's old family of pigeons while the KANNIBAAL and the PICANOL represent out-crosses. The KANNIBAAL was the 1996 1st National Ace pigeon Middle Distance in Belgium. The PICANOL was a 1st Provincial Ace for Gaby Vandenabeele in 1983. Antoine has also out-crossed other high quality pigeons into his old family: pigeons from the Janssen Brothers, the Van Laer Brothers, Flor Engels, and a sister to a 1st National Ace for Tom & Karel Hufkens. The extreme high quality of Antoine's out-crosses have infused his old family with hybrid vigor. The high quality of the old family has kept his strain prepotent. Some families of pigeons become so inbred that they lose their hybrid vigor, and although they still may breed very well, they no longer race well. Conversely, some families of pigeons are so out-crossed that they may race very well, but they do not breed particularly well, i.e., many young birds are bred in order to breed one good one. There is a very delicate balance between prepotency and hybrid vigor that I have discussed in the past. Antoine believes that the ratio is 70/30, i.e., 70% prepotency and 30% hybrid vigor or 70% line-breeding and 30% out-crossing.

The "076" and the "190" female are not excellent breeders by accident. Antoine did not just throw a dart at a board. They are the result of careful thought, planning, breeding and selection. Next week is the beginning of the breeding season in many parts of the pigeon world. The results of a planning process over the past few months, a planning process tested by the rigors of the young bird race series, will be put into action. Breeding excellent racing pigeons does involve a certain degree of luck, but it also involves hours and hours of thoughtful consideration and planning.

More to follow......................................................Thank you......................................................John and Morgan Lamberton

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