BLOG - September 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008, Morgan and I went to Strang, Oklahoma to visit our good friends, Bob and Carol McCormick. Strang, Oklahoma is remotely located and you have to want to go there to find it. Strang is northeast of Tulsa some 60 miles. On the way through Strang, we saw a Post Office and a Baptist Church. I'm glad I didn't blink. I might have missed the ambiance of the town. Outside of the metroplex of Strang a few miles, the McCormick's live in a beautiful home between two lakes (Hudson and Grand) that is a converted "party barn" formerly associated with a complex of lake cabins. Consequently, their home, Blue Horizon, has many amenities and conveniences not found in a more traditionally-built home. Carol cooked a fantastic breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatoes, and biscuits while we dined in the lower level of their home which is uniquely built and beautifully decorated with western art and original western posters featuring my childhood western heroes such as, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix, the Cisco Kid, John Wayne, Randolph Scott and many others.
As I have revealed for many years, Morgan and I take our pigeons with us almost wherever we travel. The trip to the McCormick's constituted an excellent opportunity to toss the young birds. After we reached the McCormick's, we toured their home and yard while we let the young birds orient in the crate. After about 20 minutes, we released the race team. Since the young birds oriented in the shipping crate, they immediately exited the McCormick's air space and quickly headed southwest towards Tulsa. Since the young birds are "chipped," their arrival times were recorded on the Unikon timer at the loft. The timer is connected to a printer. By printing off the results and adding them to the 2008 Young Birds 3-ring binder, the toss is now a part of a permanent record that will provide the data from which evaluations about the young birds will be made after the young bird race series concludes.
Remember two days earlier on Friday, these same young birds completed an 80 mile training toss straight south of Tulsa. Yesterday, they completed a 60 mile toss in almost the opposite direction. The young birds completed the toss from Strang in a little over an hour. These results clearly demonstrate that the young birds are very ready for a Federation race. The direction of Sunday's toss did not confuse them in the slightest. They raced home very quickly and arrived with the entire team on the drop (at the same time). The young bird's mates were locked in one side of the nest box. On all tosses, our young birds race home to their mates. when Morgan and I returned to the loft after our trip, we let the mates of the young birds out of their locked box to lounge around with the young birds for a few minutes before the mates were removed to a separate loft.
Training only on the line of flight makes no sense to me. During races, pigeons often return home from varied directions; particularly the opposite direction from the race course due to over flight. For instance, racing with a significant tailwind, if race birds fly past Tulsa heading north, after they realize their mistake, they must turn around and negotiate their way south towards home from the opposite direction than the one they traveled after their release from the race crates.
By training around the clock, young birds develop the necessary mental skills to reason their way home. Without fully and completely developing these specific mental skills governing orientation ability and acuity, confusion and fatigue often causes young birds and old birds to stop and temporarily or permanently give up their quest for home.
THINK LIKE A PIGEON
Pigeons are not people and they don't drive automobiles. If people were able to soar into the air and fly around, they might develop a different sense of space and distance than they have developed on the ground. It seems logical to people that if they were going to run a race or drive in a race from Austin, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma, they would follow highways north from Austin to Tulsa taking the shortest route possible.
Pigeons, however, are subject to weather and environmental conditions unlike their fancier caretakers. For instance, due to winds, pigeons may loop from the release point and come home towards the loft from a more horizontal direction. In an earlier blog, I discuss this phenomenon. Despite what people may believe, in 40 years of racing pigeons, I have never witnessed my pigeons following a highway all the way home. Although racing pigeons use physical landmarks to help them find their way home, they do not follow landmarks foot by foot or meter by meter. Pigeons can see many miles ahead of themselves. They do not orient their way home a mile at a time; I believe they orient their way home many miles at a time. Fifty or one-hundred feet or two-hundred feet above the ground, pigeons lose contact with the ground because their horizon is so much more vast than our horizon on the ground. when a rise in the near distance blocks our view as we drive down a highway, the rise doesn't exist in the horizon of pigeons racing high in the sky.
Consequently, it makes no sense to me that most fanciers train their pigeons primarily down the road towards the race stations used by their clubs, combines, or federations. Training on the "line of flight" is a misnomer, in my opinion. Why? Because the line of flight does not follow any particular road or highway connecting the release point with home. Winds, rain, predators, hunters, etc. often redefine the "line of flight" due to their influence. This is why I train my pigeons from any and every direction imaginable. I want the road training to develop their orientation abilities and skills such that they "reason" their way home based upon their skills and acuity. If racing pigeons are constantly released from the exact same point time after time, they will learn to react upon release and head towards what they think is home; even if home is located in a different direction than the one to which the reacting pigeon is heading. In the past, Belgian fanciers have experienced heavy losses when they have raced from Germany because France would not let Belgian pigeons enter the country due to the misconceptions concerning bird flu. Typically, Belgian pigeons race northeast from France into Belgium. when race stations change, many Belgian pigeons are at a total loss as to how to find their way home because of their training (or lack of it).
when you train your pigeons, think like a pigeon rather than a human. It will help your birds. Believe me!
As I have said before, the young females are coupled with old males and the young males are paired with old females. Younger pigeons model the behavior of older pigeons; and this is true with mated couples. The very best young widowhood males are mated with the best, most clever widowhood females in the loft. The young males will learn from the females by modeling their behavior. My son, Jeremy, has filmed a video demonstrating the young widowhood male loft, the mated couples, cleaning the nest boxes, and feeding the racers. The racers are fed in the box. The only item on the loft floor is the water fountain. I want the young males and the old females to spend as much time as possible in their nest box - bonding with each other and the nest bowl. In my opinion, racing pigeons cannot bond with a perch with the same intensity as they can bond with a nest box and nest bowl. Pickstone, grit, and grain are administered in the box and not on the floor. Click on the picture to view the video.
Several young males are featured on the video.
The 2008 Young Bird Race Team has been selected. To view the results, CLICK HERE. The key word in the first sentence for today's blog is the word "selected." Every young bird that is raised is not raced. Only January and February hatches are raced. Why? Because in order to race young birds on classic widowhood, they must be old enough to couple during the summer months or at about six months of age. In other words, they must be sexually mature in June and July.
Even though young birds may be sexually mature enough to couple in June, the coupling process is usually very tedious and requires a great deal of time and patience to complete successfully. Coupling is harder for young males than young females. Young males will usually act either sullen or too aggressively towards an old female during the initial phase of their courtship. They can fight with their new females and occasionally scalp or injure them if fanciers are not keenly aware of the courtship process. Once an old female has fought with a young male, it is very difficult to ever re-mate them successfully. You know - that tricky issue of first impressions. Coupling young males with old females often takes several days and requires that the females and males are separated by see-through wire. A classic widowhood nest box front usually features a wire panel and door that lets the couple see each other without the risk of injury to the female by a young "teenage" male savagely bent on satisfying his primal desires. After a time period ranging from hours to days, the couple will follow a more typical courtship without injury, either physically or psychologically, to the female.
I received an email asking me to elaborate on how and why 18 young birds were selected for the young bird race team. In discussing this question, it seems to me there are two basic ways of viewing a future or potential young bird race team. The first way to create a young bird race team is simply to race every young bird raised during the breeding season. Often a breeding season runs from January or February into May and June. Some fanciers wait until after the old bird race series to loft their young birds and begin road training them. Other fanciers go ahead and loft their young birds when they are ready to fly; but wait to road train them until a few weeks before the young bird race season commences. I define this system as a "bottom-up" approach. In other words, the race team is made up of all of the young birds raised during the breeding season. Using this method, the race team is comprised of young birds with varied ages. Because of the span of ages within the team, it is often easier to race the team to the perch; with perhaps a few of the older young birds mating and racing together or separately as pairs.
The second method of creating a race team can be referred to as the "top-down" approach. That is, a few birds are "selected" to race the young bird race series in a well-defined and well-managed motivational system. This model is typically the method followed in Belgium. The success of a well-managed motivational system depends entirely on the sexual maturity of the young birds. In other words, the race team must be sexually mature in order to play the system effectively. The system can run the gambit between classical widowhood and merely separating the sexes during the week before the race. Since the system defines the type and number of young birds within it, I refer to it as a "top-down" philosophy. The system defines the type and number of young birds that will race in the series. Using a classic widowhood system, the number of young birds is a function of the number of nest boxes in the loft and the amount of time fanciers have available in order to play the system successfully. While my race loft can accommodate up to 60 pairs of pigeons, I can only physically manage a maximum of 24 pairs of pigeons. Thus, the requirements and limitations of the system cap the number of young birds that can be selected for the race team.
Since sexual maturity is paramount in the widowhood system, Belgian fanciers couple their breeders in late November in order to hatch young birds that can receive their rings (banded) during the first week of January. The goal of early or winter breeding is to raise young birds that will be as old as possible at the beginning of the young bird race series in order to use their sexual maturity as a primary motivation to race home quickly. Typically Belgian fanciers race the first and second rounds of a breeding cycle that begins in late November and produces the earliest young birds possible for the young bird race series. Some fanciers reduce the amount of time it takes to produce two rounds of young birds by moving the first set of breeder's eggs under the old bird race team and letting the breeders relay immediately. when this method works correctly, the two rounds of youngsters are about ten days apart in age.
I follow the second method for creating a young bird race team. In January and February 2008, about 175 young birds were bred in the first two rounds of youngsters. In the bottom-up approach, each of the 175 youngsters would automatically be defined as a "racer" for the upcoming young bird race series. In the top-down approach, each of the 175 young birds is defined only as a "prospect" or "candidate" for the young bird race series. From the initial pool of young bird prospects, there are many ways that attrition can occur during the selection process. For instance, predators can eliminate youngsters. Youngsters can be lost off the loft during the "settling" process (flyaways). Young birds can have "night flights" if they are exercised too late in the evening or if the darkening system is not followed properly. Young birds can become permanently injured in flight by wires, tree branches, etc. Young birds can be stocked if they exhibit exceptional quality or if they are from older breeders that will soon need to be replaced by younger offspring. Young birds are removed from the team of young prospects if they do not conform to the "criteria of the hand" (evaluation by hand) or if they demonstrate physical defaults that will ultimately result in their loss during training. There are young bird prospects that will not couple at six or seven months of age. There are young bird prospects that do not mentally fit or appropriately respond to the widowhood system. There are also behavioral faults that can result in elimination from the team. Young bird prospects can be sold or donated. Lastly, young birds can be lost during road training. There are occasionally "smash" training tosses that may significantly eliminate young birds from the race team.
The final criteria of the selection process is one in which I record all of the arrival times for each young bird during a spring and summer long road training process. All of the training toss results are averaged and the results of each young bird are ranked. The top ranked 12 to 24 young birds will receive a nest box in the race loft. This selection process is the same as tryouts for the Olympic Games or the Dallas Cowboys. During summer camp in professional football, only players that represent the cream of the crop are allowed to remain on the team and get to play the game during the regular season. So it is in the Antwerp Union, Belgium and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Young birds prospects are continually evaluated and selected to occupy a very few nest boxes on a professional racing team. It is not enough that a young bird simply returns home. It is not enough that a young bird returns home within two hours of the first pigeons to arrive home after a training toss. Only those young birds that consistently rank in the top percentage of the training results are selected to race during the impending young bird race series.
While I can race a maximum of 24 young birds, I prefer twelve or less. Due to the fact that I couple the young birds with old birds, if I select 12 young birds for the team, I actually manage 24 pigeons. If 24 young birds are selected for the race team, 48 pigeons are actually managed. For me, there is a big difference between managing 24 pigeons and 48 pigeons; 24 pigeons are much easier to manage.
Please consider completing a short statistical exercise. After the 2008 young bird race series concludes, identify only those young birds that were the first clock birds for each race. Add up the number of birds identified. Generally, only five to ten young birds will be the ones that actually made a real statistical difference in the race results during the entire race series. The rest of the race team were statistical "extras" that may have only contributed at best to a Champion Loft category where all of the clock birds within a certain placing contribute championship points. then ask yourself the question: What if you could identify those five to ten young birds before the young bird season commenced? Instead of racing alot of pigeons, you could race only five to ten young birds. Instead of caring for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, or more young birds on the race team, you could only manage a few. By racing only a few young birds, could you spend more time with them? Could you road toss them more? Would cleaning the loft be easier? Would feeding the race team be cheaper? Could you save money by purchasing fewer medicines and supplements and less grain? Could you afford to feed a better grain to fewer pigeons? By identifying only the very best racing prospects before the race series began, would the costs, time and energy necessary to properly manage the race team go down while the benefits of a higher level of performance go up?
Flemish and Dutch wisdom observes that only a very small percentage of young birds make top racers. One notable Dutch fancier believes that he is lucky if he can find one champion in every 200 young birds that he raises. The same is true in other animals, like horses; or in people for that matter. There are only a few professional athletes compared to the large number of young people who dream of playing professional sports.
The goal of a five month long selection process (April to August) is to retain only those young birds prospects that are capable of playing the game at the highest level possible; and whose performance will generate results at the top of the race sheet. After the selection process is completed, if that number is one, five or fifteen young birds; only time and the impending race season will ultimately reveal those few champion pigeons, if there are any at all.
REPRINT - Today I have reprinted an article from last years blog. Today is the Friday before next week's race on September 13. I have been simulating the race week for a number of weeks now by feeding, medicating, exercising, and watering as if it were in the middle of the race series. The young birds have been celibate all week and will return home from a short training toss to their mates as if they had been on a race. I want the race team to learn the routines of each day of the week well before the race series begins. That way, they should be ready to compete on the first race. The following article is the reprint.
DID YOUR BIRDS KNOW IT WAS FRIDAY?
Today, the race birds knew it was Friday. As I mentioned earlier, pigeons (as well as most animals) learn the routines for each day of the week. On Fridays, the race team is kept in the loft to concentrate on the mental ands emotional aspects of the game. On Thursday, the race team exercised very well. The morning release was about 1 hour as opposed to the normal hour to an hour and fifteen. That means the team was peaking physically towards the end of the week - on Thursday - such that Friday's focus could be on motivation. On Friday morning, the loft was very noisy as the old widowhood males mated to the young females were calling their females as they sat in their section of the loft separated from the females. The race females displayed to me as I opened the half of the nest box containing the nest bowl and they rushed inside. Several of them spun in their bowls similar to a male, bobbing their heads and fanning their tails. As I did the same for the young males, several young males displayed, then laid in their bowls and called their females. The old widowhood females were on the floor by the section door hoping I would let them in with their young mates. I could tell it was Friday; and so could the birds. I let the young birds stay in their boxes and nest bowls until about noon. At noon, I let them in with their mates. The old males rushed into the young females loft and popped their wings as they shot up into their nest boxes. The same occurred with the old females. There was pandemonium as the birds saw each other for the first time since the last race. I usually show mates briefly on Wednesdays; but did not do so this week. The young birds are two months older than when they started racing and have raced 6 weeks not counting several training races. Therefore, I pushed them psychologically by eliminating the Wednesday session.
Every Friday, I show young racers their older mates in some way. Why? Because all of the young bird races require one night in the shipping basket before release. I want the young birds peaked when they are shipped on Friday nights. Because Fridays are always the same general schedule, the birds learn the schedule and know its Friday. Friday is the day of basketing for a Saturday release. The racers and their mates learn this routine. My birds knew it was Friday. That knowledge base contributed to their motivation because they know that Friday's schedule leads to a Saturday race after which they race home to see their mates. Another way to put it is that a race in my loft begins Friday morning. It does not begin when the birds are released at the race station. If you think about it, the race must begin at the loft and end at the loft. The race begins at the loft on Friday mornings with the onset of motivation and ends at the loft on Saturday afternoon when the racers arrive home. Races at my loft can be conceptualized as a complete circle - beginning and ending at the same point - the loft.
This race continuum illustrates the way races are approached at my loft. I want the race team to begin the race Friday morning. I want to intensify motivation all day long; peaking just before basketing. Basketing is the point at which the racers are removed from their loft, box, bowl, and mate. From that point on, the birds are waiting for an opportunity to return to their loft, box, bowl, and mate. The race is over when the birds return to their loft, box, bowl, and mate. At my loft, the race is not over when the racers enters the loft and the race band registers on Unikon. The race is over when the racer has flown up to his box and joins his mate. Mates are locked in the half of the nest box with the nest bowl. After racers have settled for a few minutes, they are let into the nest bowl with their mate. At this point, the race is over. I am always home to finish the race with my birds. I am seldom somewhere else. I call them in the loft, settle them, and let them into their boxes with their mates. It is at this pint that the race is over. KEY POINT: when the returning racers first enter the loft, drink Pedialyte from the water fountain, eat a food mix of 50% regular mix and 50% depurative mix in their box, and couple with their mates, they are beginning the initial preparation for next week's race.
DEVELOPING A MEASURING POINT FOR EVALUATING YOUR RACE TEAM
Oftentimes, organizations and activities are developed by using either an average or a lowest common denominator as a measuring point for audience content. For instance, television sitcoms are generally aimed at an audience that is in elementary or primary school. That is, the content and language in the television episodes are aimed at people in the third or fourth grade. Television shows aimed at a more intellectual or sophisticated audience, while immensely popular in the short run, generally do not last very many seasons. Why? There just are not enough viewers to keep the show active. Schools often develop content aimed at an average or below average population. More gifted students are separated into AP (advanced placement) or honors programs.
Let me suggest that your brightest - most special - young birds be separated into an advanced placement program. That is, separate the most gifted young birds into a "gifted" program and make the requirements of their management much more stringent than the "average" young bird can handle. Why do I suggest this division?
Racing pigeons is a game of competition. The better the athlete - the better the performance - the better the race results. Competition is at the core of the game. Because it is, the performance of the racers becomes the single most important variable in the game.
I measure the performance of each young bird against the best young bird on the team. The measuring point for evaluating the performance of each young bird is determined by the overall performance of the best young bird on the team. In order to determine which is the "best" young bird on the team, the young birds must be thoroughly road trained before the race series commences. Their performance throughout the training must be monitored and recorded. The data generated from this process will usually determine which young birds are the best and which young bird is the very best. On my race team, "163" has performed the very best of the entire team. Therefore, "163" has become the measuring point against which I evaluate the performance of the entire race team. Those young birds that perform significantly less than "163" are removed from the race team. That is, those racers that return from a rigorous training toss significantly later than "163" are removed from the team. You must determine what "significantly later" means. Is it an average of 15 minutes later - 30 minutes later - an hour later - three hours later - the same day?
If you consistently remove the poorer performing youngsters from the race team, you will observe that the race team will exercise longer around the loft. The race team will look brighter. The droppings will look much better. The overall sheen of the race team will become much richer and the team will perform much better. I would rather race one super young bird than twenty average young birds. The average young birds will always negatively affect the performance of the better pigeons on the team.
Many fanciers use the entire race series to select their team. At the end of the race series, the team is finally selected based upon the results of the race series. However, I am suggesting that you select your team before the race series begins by road training them enough that the cream rises to the top. Again I ask the question why?
Several reasons are time, resources and effort. It is much easier and much faster to basket a few pigeons than it is to basket many pigeons. It costs less to manage a few pigeons than many pigeons. It is more affordable to use better grain, those extra supplements and more affective medications if you are administering these products to a very few pigeons rather than many pigeons.
Yesterday, I removed "129" from the race team (129 is briefly featured on an educational video on YouTube). She was one of my favorites. She is a PHANTOM-bred bird down from Mike Ganus's Flor Vervoort Hofkens-based super pigeon. But, when she returned from today's exercise period, she was the first to land on the loft. I could tell that she was very tired and that her performance brought the rest of the team down to the loft with her. I will medicate her and try to determine her problem. There were no visible signs of injury. So at this point, her condition is a mystery. She had been performing very well. If I left her on the team while I medicated her separately, she would influence the team to exercise until "she" became tired. I want the team to exercise until the best pigeons becomes tired. "129" is not the measuring point from which the team is evaluated. For some unknown reason, she has quickly become the lowest common denominator. Leaving her on the team will only reduce the overall performance of the team. Therefore, she was removed from the team. And, once a pigeon is removed from the team, they seldom, if ever, are returned to the team. Due to the short young bird race series, there simply isn't enough time to rehabilitate her this year such that she will race at the top of the sheet. Perhaps she will race as a yearling.
I was really counting on this female. But the selection process is often a "cruel" process to use Antoine Jacop's word. That is, as fanciers - our expectations are often crushed by the harsh realities of racing. Our favorite pigeons or pigeons that we really like sometimes succumb to the rigors of training and racing. That is why it is best not to develop favorites, although I've never been able not to pick favorites. It's just human nature to do so. But we shouldn't let our favoritism affect our judgment. If you will examine your records, I would guess that very few, if any, pigeons that develop some type of problem, and were removed from the race team for a brief period of time, raced well during the year of the problem. They may have raced well the next season; but not the season in which they developed the problem.
Let me suggest that the measuring point to evaluate your race team comes from the very best pigeons on the race team rather than the average or poorest pigeons on the team. Look for the most gifted young birds on the team and continually separate them from the remaining birds. Create an AP class of young birds to race. If you use the highest measuring point possible on the team created by the best pigeons rather than the average or worst pigeons, I think you will find that the overall performance of the team will increase significantly - that the race team's results will be much higher up the race sheet - and that you will be more pleased and satisfied playing the game.
DROPPINGS
Although the beginning of your young bird race series may have already started, the young bird race series in Northeast Oklahoma begins Saturday, September 13. At this moment, I don't know what the affect of the latest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico will be in Oklahoma. Perhaps the rain will affect "opening day." We'll see. Regardless of the impending weekend weather, the young birds are in an intense preparation. As I have blogged in the past, one of the best indicators of the readiness of the race team is droppings. The droppings of the race team should be solid or more viscous as opposed to watery or loose. The bulk of the droppings should be brown. Due to the red cell vitamin and mineral additive regularly placed on the feed, the droppings are a darker brown than normal indicating that they are passing some of the product in the droppings. The droppings should be roundish or even shaped in a ball. The top of the droppings should be white due to the urine content. There should be "down" sprinkled on top and around the droppings. A slight coat of powder from the feathers should also lay on top and around the droppings. These signs are evidence of good health and form in racing pigeons. The droppings should be clustered more or less in one spot or one area. This indicates that the racers rested comfortably in one spot during the night period. It indicates that they were not anxious or moving around at night. It demonstrates that they slept and were still.
The droppings are evaluated twice a day before each exercise period when the nest boxes are scraped. Particularly during the race season, scraping the boxes twice as day has become one of the most important functions during the daily management routine. The droppings reveal the health and condition of each racer. The volume of droppings also tell me how much the pigeons are eating and how well they are digesting and absorbing the nutrients in their grain. If the droppings are not removed at least twice a day, old droppings become part of new droppings and it becomes very difficult to effectively use them as an indicator of whether or not the daily management process is working and effective. Droppings are a window into the inner world of the race team's bodies. Understanding the characteristics of the race team's droppings will allow you to better understand the health, condition and form of each member of the race team; and will allow you to play the racing pigeon game more competitively.
Today, the national weather forecasts don't look good for racing pigeons in Oklahoma on Saturday, September 13. Hurricane Ike is heading northwest through the Gulf of Mexico towards Texas. Ike is forecasted to hit the southern coast of Texas, then turn to the right and head north into Oklahoma. If that occurs, the rain will be very heavy throughout the state for the weekend. In addition, a cold front is racing towards Oklahoma from the north. Rain has developed in Oklahoma from the cold front today. Rain is expected from the cold front until Ike gets here. Therefore, rain is forecasted for the next week throughout Oklahoma.
The primary reason that I'm talking about the weather in such detail is because not only may the young birds not race this weekend; but they may not be able to exercise around the loft for the next week. The young bird's daily food ration is based upon a minimum of two hours of daily exercise around the loft. Due to the rain, the young birds may not get out of the loft for the next week. If this occurs, and if the young birds are fed the normal ration daily ration for the next week, a ration which is calculated to augment an intense daily exercise program, due to their inactivity and lack of daily exercise, the race team may put on too much weight before the first race a week later than originally planned. Consequently, due to the effects of the rain upon the exercise physiology of the race team, their daily food ration will be adjusted to include 1/3 barley. The barley content of the daily food ration will prevent the young birds from gaining too much weight before the first race, if the first race is pushed back to September 20. Starting tomorrow, if the race team cannot exercise, they will be fed a mixture of 1/3 mixed grains, 1/3 safflower, and 1/3 barley until they are able to exercise again.
I received an email asking about the medication program during the upcoming young bird season. First, the race team will receive a blue Pegosan pill every two weeks until the race series concludes. Pegosan tablets are an excellent treatment for coccidiosis and canker that does not have an adverse effect upon the racers in training. The week that the team does not receive a Pegosan tablet, they will receive a few drops of Ivermectin wormer. The racers also take a weekly bath with Adams Flea and Tick Shampoo thoroughly mixed into the bath water. This bathing treatment cleans the racer's body feathers, flight feathers, rings, and feet and legs. It also refurbishes the feathers' bloom. A regular bath also removes external parasites. Every Monday the race team will receive a treatment for respiratory problems. A maletail of Tylan and Lincomysin works well. I used to add Gallimycin; but I don't think it is available anymore. Suanovil is also an excellent product for respiratory issues; but it seems as if this product is harder on the racer's conditioning than Tylan and Lincomysin. I believe there are also several new products available in Belgium and Europe that have not yet filtered into the US.
In summary, there are four primary maladies that should be managed during the race season: coccidiosis, canker, respiratory problems, and parasites (external and internal). Although some fanciers may not treat regularly for these maladies until the race birds show signs of distress, I treat my racers weekly as I have previously outlined. Why? Because I believe that shipping crates are generally a filthy vortex of disease and parasites. Shipping crates should be viewed as an extreme danger to the health and well-being of your race birds. Consequently, race birds should be treated immediately after they return from every race before they are contaminated via the shipping crate. While the young birds receive electrolytes on race day, they are medicated each Sunday, the day after the race. It is important to aggressively prevent these maladies from establishing a foothold in the racers.
Finally, I was asked to comment on adenovirus in young birds. The following is a reprint from an excellent article I've read online written by my friend, Dr. David Marx.
Each
young bird season we see an increase in disease involving the bacteria E. Coli.
E. Coli is a normal inhabitant of the digestive system of pigeons. It has
disease potential, but usually needs a predisposing condition to allow it the
opportunity to cause infection. Several things can "open the door" for E. Coli
to cause disease. Stress, viral infections, intestinal parasites, and other
irritants of the bowel such as chemicals consumed while fielding.
The usual predisposing factor for young birds is adenovirus. It begins appearing
when birds are mixed, either in training, races or when accumulating birds from
various sources. The adenovirus by itself will not cause disease, but in the
presence of E. Coli, it allows the E. Coli to cause disease. Treating the E.
Coli infection usually eliminates symptoms although it does nothing for the
adenovirus infection; this is usually conquered by the birds own immune system
with time. There is not an effective vaccine for adenovirus, so we must just let
it run it's course as we try to control the E. Coli during outbreaks.
Usually during outbreaks of colibacillosis (E. Coli infection), we use a broad
spectrum antibiotic such as Amoxicillin to control it. Antibiotics will not
prevent it so use them only during an outbreak. The symptoms usually include
vomiting in some of the birds, abnormal droppings or diarrhea, and lethargy. The
birds will not train or race well during an uncontrolled outbreak.
A fecal culture and sensitivity study will allow one to choose the correct
antibiotic to use. Often we just go with one that has a good "track record," and
that has little or no effect on the birds, allowing one to continue training,
etc. Amoxicillin is my first choice of antibiotics when "shooting from the hip".
It is gentle on the pigeon and is the least expensive of the good antibiotics.
Use 3 Grams per gallon for about 7 days. Retreatment is often necessary, as
things may deteriorate within the weeks after treating, as the viral infection
spreads through the flock.
WHEN SHOULD RACING PIGEONS REMAIN IN THE LOFT?
Despite the positive benefits a rigorous daily exercise regiment, there are days when the race team should probably be left in the loft. These days often involve weather; particularly moisture. Damp and wet days often give rise to respiratory problems in the loft. By exercising the race team in the rain or mist, they can develop respiratory problems and quickly fall out of condition and form. It is usually best to leave the race team in the loft during periods when the dew point is high. The following short article on dew point is taken from the Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment at http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/index.html.
Dew Point
All air contains water vapour of varying quantities. The dew point indicates the amount of moisture in the air. The higher the dew point, the higher the moisture content of the air at a given temperature. Conversely, the dew point of humid air will be higher than the dew point of dry air.
Dew point temperature is defined as the temperature to which the air would have to cool (at constant pressure and constant water vapour content) in order to reach saturation. A state of saturation exists when the air is holding the maximum amount of water vapour possible at the existing temperature and pressure.
Condensation of water vapour begins when the temperature of air is lowered to its dew point and beyond. The dew point, like other measures of humidity, can be calculated from readings taken by a hygrometer.
As I indicated yesterday, I suggest that you add barley to the grain (up to one-third of the mixture) if the race team cannot get out of the loft to exercise for several days in a row. It only takes a few days for the race team to gain unnecessary weight that may slow them down on race day. Adding barley to the feed or increasing the barley content in the feed is usually a much better feeding procedure than reducing the volume of grain during feedings. Barley facilitates the normal feeding of the race team without overfeeding or adding undesirable weight to the racers.
Based upon additional road training and evaluation, the young bird team has been trimmed down to 13 pigeons from last week's reduction to 18 pigeons. At 13 pigeons, I still believe there are several young birds on the team that will not meet the rigorous standards set for each young bird's performance during the race series.
Last week I received an email asking why most of the 2008 young bird race team selections were females. Of the 13 young birds selected for the team, 12 are females. This difference between the sexes is essentially for two reasons. First, there were more good females bred this year than males. Several weeks ago, there were about 8 or 9 males still on the team as opposed to 15 or 16 females on the team. Secondly, as I blogged on 9.8.08 about a measuring point for selection of race team members, the 163 Jacops female emerged as the best young bird on the team irrespective of sex. Once she was chosen as the highest measuring point for selection, I determined that there was only one male of the 8 or 9 still on the team that met 163's standard. That male was 44403. He is simply magnificent! I believe that he has the same quality, i.e., genotype, pfemaleotype, and racing ability, as 163. 44403 is the only male that met 163's standard. As I have said before, I would rather race one excellent pigeon very well than 20 average pigeons poorly.
Saturday was the first race from Atoka, Oklahoma. Our loft airline distance is about 120 miles/192 kilometers. The club race results for LAMBERTON CUYPERS and TNT TITANS (Tony Smith & 18 year-old grandson and loft manager Josh Cooley) who race our pigeons are featured in the results. CLICK HERE for results.
As you can see, 163 was the first bird home and won the club race by a whopping 11 minutes over fellow race team members 2471 and 44435 which were 2nd club and 3rd club respectively. There were 183 pigeons in the club race. It was several weeks ago that I blogged that 163 was the best young bird on the race team. Today, her performance confirmed that evaluation. 44403 was 12th in the club. Since I did not work the males nearly as hard as the females were trained during the month of August and early September, I was very pleasantly surprised by his performance.
Although I just reported a few of the club race results in today's blog, tomorrow, I will analyze the race results of the entire team as they competed against each other. In my opinion, the statistics within a race team between race team members can be more important than the race statistics between lofts in the club, combine or federation.
The combine and federation reports for the first week's race from Atoka, OK have been calculated. As I reported yesterday, 163 won the club race. In the combine, 163 scored 21st against 856 birds and 31st federation against 1,346 birds. She was 5.37 minutes behind the 1st place federation winner.
Below is a printout of the arrival times for each of the 12 race birds. 163 clocked at 12.13.31. The 9th place pigeon, 2468, clocked about 30 minutes later at 12.48.02. In other words, 75% of the race team clocked within 30 minutes of the first bird. The 11th bird, 2483, clocked exactly one hour after the first bird clocked. In other words, 11 out of 12 birds sent clocked within an hour of the first bird. Only the 12th bird clocked, 156, was 1 1/2 hours after the first bird clocked.
One of the signs of preparation and form in the race team is the way the race team clusters around the time that the first bird clocked. I am pleased that almost all of the race team clocked within an hour of the first bird that clocked. I am surprised that 156 clocked last because she has trained very well the past weeks.
The longer the time or the greater the gap between the first bird clocked and the last bird clocked indicates the lack of uniformity in the form and preparation of the entire team. Hypothetically, it would be preferable for the entire team to clock first on the drop. But unless you're Mike Ganus, this feat rarely happens week after week during the race season. Let me suggest that you regularly analyze the time gaps between the race team members. Again, the greater the gaps, the more the diversity among race team racers. If racers are frequently coming home significantly later than the first bird clocked, there is probably a problem. The problem may be the quality of the racers themselves. It may be the form of the racers. It may be the motivation of the racers. Regardless of which problem exists, the goal is to clock the race team as quickly as possible after the first bird has clocked.
For me, these statistics are as important as how the first clock bird fared against the first clock birds of the other competing lofts.
Today, the race team looks good; but they don't look like the could race today. This is normal. The racers should peak on Saturday and not on Wednesday. After the race last Saturday from Atoka, OK, the racers recovered from the race on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. then they were medicated on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, the racers should be recovering from the medication and should begin to start the process of working into form. Wednesday through Friday, the management system concentrates on building form. This is accomplished through increased exercise and increased food. Today, the racers exercised about 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the evening. Their food is increased through the week as their exercise increases. In addition, the racers have not seen their mates for four days. They are becoming more demonstrative when I feed them; and more quiet when I am not in the loft. Because they are cloistered in compact 5' by 5' sections, they are forced to spend most of their time in their box. The droppings tell me where they rest. Most of the droppings are either in the open side of their box or in their nest bowl. There are very few droppings on the loft floor.
The droppings are dry, compact and round. They are dark brown due to the Red Cell on the food and topped with white caps. There is a small amount of down and dust sprinkled over the droppings. Most of the droppings are clustered in a small area rather than spread out over the nest box. All of the characteristics of the droppings are excellent and profound data that reveal a tremendous amount about the internal world and external behavior of the racers. I have been taught that the droppings should be studied carefully at least twice a day at a minimum for each and every racer of the team in order to evaluate the entire health and exercise cycle of each racer.
The flip side of the droppings is the food intake. The more the racers eat, the more the volume of droppings in the box. Each racer should eat the required amount of food for each feeding and excrete a corresponding volume of droppings. Racers should not waste food and should excrete a regular volume of high quality droppings.
This morning the race team exercised almost 3 hours. That is far to much exercise; but there was nothing I could do about it. They simply wanted to fly. This evening, the racers exercised about an hour in temperatures in the upper 80's. The racers flew longer today than they will on Saturday. Saturday's race is from Antlers, OK, about 130 miles/208 kilometers for our loft. The forecasted wind is from the south at 5 to 10 mph. With this type of tailwind, the race should be over in less than 3 hours. Because of the amount of exercise, the racers are consuming a robust amount of food. Tonight, the management feeding schedule calls for the racers to be fed all they can eat. On Fridays, the day of basketing, the racers are left in the loft and not exercised. Fridays are a day of meditation and mental conditioning. Before basketing, the females will see their mates for about an hour. Sometimes after basketing, the loaded hand baskets are left in the loft where the females can hear and see their mates through the top of the baskets. This maneuver helps motivate the females to burst from the shipping crates and head straight home to their mates and nest boxes.
The females really look good tonight and are developing form hour by hour. Tomorrow morning after 4 hours of exercise and all the food they can eat on Thursday, the racers should appear nearly ready to race. Their heightened energy will begin to make them mentally intense as they anticipate that the impending race is close. They anticipate seeing their mates after they return from the race. All of these factors contribute to the development of form. Form is a heightened state of readiness which allows pigeons to race rather than fly. Their breasts become pink, smooth, and free from scale. Their wattles become snow white. Their eyes become crystal clear. Their throats become clear. Their feathers become smooth and glisten. The feathers are covered with powder. The feet and legs are red and relatively clean. The females become very "femaleny" and the males become very aggressive. when the mates are shown, the racers immediately react and are aggressively amorous. Each mate must be happy to see their corresponding racer and should motivate the racer with an intense, aggressive display.
Saturday, the race was from Antlers, Oklahoma. The first birds home were two a drop: 44403, the only male on the race team clocked first and 169, a checker mostly Hofkens female clocked second. They ended up winning the first two spots in the club. 44435 scored 3rd club for the second week in a row. 169 cam home with oil covering her underbelly and legs. She had obviously stopped in an oil pit to drink on the way home. She had no oil on her beak; so I think she didn't try to drink - thank goodness. The toxins in oil slush and sediment could have made her sick and knocked her out of form at a minimum. I cleaned her twice with Dawn soap and she looked fine after a few days. She has trained well all week with no signs that her miscue could have severely impacted her health. She definitely seems to have dodged a bullet; but Saturday's race will reveal her form. Oil pits are supposed to have nets over them if they exist at all. However, now that the price of oil is so high, every Tom, Dick and Harry with oil on their property are pumping old wells that may have been dormant for years; and may be doing so without conforming to the safeguards of recent environmentally oriented operational regulations. Consequently, I suspect that the inherent danger to racing pigeons whose flight path contains significant new oil production is as high as ever. Since the Lambertons have been oil producers for generations, I make the aforementioned statements with a first-hand knowledge of the industry.
Ten out of 12 racers were at home within 30 minutes of the first bird clocked. Two were significantly late. 2471 was the final race team member to clock and came home with pond moss all over her head indicating that she went down to drink. I have no explanation for her performance considering she was 2nd club the week before Saturday's race.
The race team was medicated on Sunday and resumed their training as if they had never raced. In fact, the race took less time than several of their past morning training exercises. They are exercising over three hours in the morning and an hour in the evening. While this is more exercise than they require, I won't limit their feed to reduce their exercise time because each week of racing has a cumulative impact upon the stamina and endurance of the race team. Limiting their food now will negatively affect their performance on the 200s and 300s. As long as they want to fly now, I will let them. They may not exercise quite as long after they spend longer on the wing when the 200 and 300 mile races are flown.
While the young birds are in training, I am also turning my attention to the breeders. Tomorrow is October 1. The breeders will be coupled in just eight short weeks! On October, 1, 2008, I will start the process of medicating and vaccinating all of the breeders so that they will be very ready to couple on December 1. I usually begin with a treatment of Amoxicillin for 10 days. then, the breeders are treated for respiratory, canker, coccidia, and worms. Each bird is vaccinated for PMV. Each breeder must be totally healthy in order to couple.
Even if you don't breed early youngsters, be sure to couple several clique pairs near the first of December 1 in order to send futurity birds to the Texas Center Convention Races in July, 2009. Bill Hill, Roland Gutierrez, and Steve Trotter and other members of the Highway 75 Combine are hosting the Convention in Tulsa next year. Click Here to browse the Convention website. Bill, Roland, and Steve have attended many national and regional conventions over the years and are main stays at the annual Texas Center Convention. They have successfully hosted the Texas Center Convention in Tulsa several times. They really know how to put on an excellent convention! Both Bill and Roland are racing extremely well this young bird series. This past week, Roland swept the first six places in the Federation race from Antlers against 1,489 pigeons! Congratulations Roland! For those of you that are able to do so, please consider sending futurity birds to the Convention races and attending the Convention. It will be fun and well worth your time!
While the racers are recovering and transitioning from the race on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, they should be exercising vigorously by Wednesday. Depending upon the weather, Wednesdays are usually a high exercise day. Increased exercise results in an increased consumption of food and an increased percentage of intake utilization of the consumed food for each racer. Wednesday is the major "break" from the past week and the "beginning" of the hard onset of form for the next race. If the weather is bad on Wednesday, i.e. rain, fog, humidity (dew point) etc., this break day can be shifted to Tuesday or Thursday. But in a perfect world racing on Saturday, the most important day of exercise is Wednesday. If Wednesday is "break day," then Thursday should be a close repeat to Wednesday. On Thursday, the birds are fed all they can eat and they remain in the loft without exercise on Friday. As I have said before, Friday is a day of contemplation. While that may seem strange or weird to say, try the system. You'll learn that your pigeons are capable of things of which you have never dreamed.
This thought brings me to another point. I have spent a lifetime learning the regiment and the magic of the racing pigeon game particularly as it is practiced in the Antwerp Union in Belgium. I have raced there helping some of the greatest masters in Belgian racing history for over 20 years particularly with Antoine and Maria Jacops. These incredible life-changing experiences were a gift to me and were not the result of me or my abilities or lack thereof. For whatever reason, God crafted my life's path to include the art of racing pigeons as practiced by the Masters racing in the heart of the toughest racing pigeon competition in the world, the Union of Antwerp.
As it turns out, this path started with my dear friend Mike Ganus, one of the greatest pigeon fanciers to ever play the racing pigeon game. Without Mike's friendship and influence, my life may have turned out to be very very different than it has. The incredible importance of Mike's friendship in my life is one of the reasons that I require that the best of human character and fairness be included as major building blocks in the racing pigeon game. The racing pigeon game is not always about pigeons; it is usually influenced most profoundly by people through friendships. when I say friendships, I'm not speaking about someone being nice to someone else in order to get something from them, or to make something turn out like they wanted. I'm speaking about true friendships: relationships of give and take in which all parties are valued, self-actualized and deemed important.
In the Antwerp Union, Wednesdays are usually an important day of exercise, weather permitting. Saturday's race results are often most profoundly influenced by the quality and intensity of Wednesday's exercise.
Today Jeremy posted another video on YouTube. It deals generally with the important information and data found in the nest box and more specifically on droppings. I clean 13 nest boxes twice a day. It takes less than 5 minutes. In fact, each nest box probably takes about 15 seconds to scrape completely clean. Depending upon the day, I either use a large flat scraper or a smaller headed three-cornered scraper. This information can be found in the video detailing how to feed young males. Both the amount of grain left and the exact seeds left after each feeding are data that can tell stories about each racer. Some racers leave peas. Some racers leave corn. Others leave red milo. Some racers eat all of the seeds while others always leave seeds. To a degree, each racer must be fed separately; but the reality is that most racers eat the same type and volume of seeds each day. Beware of racers that do not eat! There is something wrong. By closing each section of the race loft, I ensure that a racer will not accidently consume the food of another racer who occupies an identical nest box in a neighboring section of the loft. I try to take behaviors away from the racers such they are required to pick the option I want them to choose. Pigeons are not people. Although they are creatures of habit; they cannot read our minds and will often choose an option unintended by the fancier if such as option is available. Successfully training animals and people for that matter often involves the removal of options. when the five race section doors are open, some of the racers will leave their nest box and fly to the floor ahead of me as I walk through the loft. However, with the section doors closed, they will remain in the nest box as I enter their section.
Back to today's video, I visually analyze the racer's droppings twice a day before the nest box is scraped. The droppings must be perfect each day in order for each racer to remain on the race team. Some pigeons drink more water than others. Those that drink too much are not chosen for the race team. Their droppings are often loose - even if they are in perfect health and form. As you can tell if you've followed this blog for any time at all, the criteria for a place on the race team are exceptionally stringent. Like I've said in the past, the pool of racers from which I chose are often 10% or less of the total number of young birds raised during the breeding season for inclusion on the race team. Quality of droppings, water intake, amount of food eaten are all qualities that make up a good racing pigeon. Today's video attempts to begin the discussion of the interpretive value of the elements in a racing pigeon's nest box including the droppings.
Each week, the race team spends Friday in the loft. Friday is a day of meditation and contemplation rather than exercise. The racers know that. So today, they are displaying and cooing every time I enter the loft and they seem restless and anxious to see their mates. Remember, all animals including people have internal clocks. The race team knows that today is Friday and they know they will spend the afternoon with their mates. At 2:00 pm, the widowhood males are let into the young female loft and the lone blue male gets to see his older female. At about 5:00 pm, the young bird team will be basketed for the race. The passion I observe in the race team today is their way of showing that they are ready and motivated to race tomorrow. Motivation is often observable if you know what to look for and how to see it. It is not always a display of high energy. Sometimes ii is quiet concentration and focus. 163 is very quiet when she is motivated while 2471 is very outwardly demonstrative. These two females share the same loft compartment and are total opposites in how they react to their world. 163 is quiet and focused while 2471 is highly demonstrative.
I think 44435 will have another good race tomorrow. She and her mate were the only pair I observed billing. Other pairs sat in their bowl together while less demonstrative racers simply bobbed their heads as they watched their mates display and move about the nest box. I believe that all of these gestures and behavior and data that can be recorded, quantified and interpreted.
163 has never really mated. Although she displays to a male, she eventually fights them. She seems more mated to me than any of the approximately six older males that have attempted to couple with her. Today, she did not see a male. Perhaps seeing a male last week contributed to her need for water on the race course. I have no idea. But she displays whenever I enter the loft. I always take a few seconds to spend with her and I never ignore her. She much too good of a racer not to take her behavior very seriously.
Each week of racing further reveals the intelligence, character, passion and stamina of each racer. Each week completed in the 8-week young bird race series is like a large piece of an eight-piece puzzle whose addition reveals another fascinating feature in the performance picture of each young bird racer. As I have said many times, the Belgian system of racing 16 weeks is far superior than our watered-down version in the United States. While this statement is no direct criticism of American pigeon racing, it reflects one very significant reason why I believe that on the average the Belgians breed better racing pigeons than are bred in the US. Why? Because 16 weeks of racing provides twice the evaluation data for each pigeon than an 8 week racing schedule provides. Why we don't race longer in America, is a mystery to me except to state the obvious. Pigeon racing is America is a local hobby managed by volunteer members who only have so much time and desire to volunteer. Pigeon racing in Belgium is a national sport managed by a Federation that pays members to work each weekend. Perhaps there is a systemic answer to the difference between the number of pigeon races organized in each country. Particularly in old bird racing, American fanciers manage, support and finance their race teams 52 weeks a year in order to race them 8 or 10 weeks. That is a ratio of 44 to 8 or 42 to 10. Only the most passionate pigeon enthusiasts seem to be willing to put in so much effort for such a small reward. The reward must be found in the simple animal husbandry of enjoying pigeons rather than the more complex enjoyment of human competition. In any event, tomorrow is the third week in the 8 week young bird race series from 150 miles/240 kilometers. The forecasted weather calls for a tailwind of from 10 to 20 mph.
We bombed on Saturday's race from Durant!!! The race team was late - from 6 to 20 minutes. Why? I can only speculate that when the race team flew 3 and 4 hours in the morning exercise periods during the week, it was too much training. Too much exercise during the week resulted in tired racers on Saturday. Last week we moved a 16' by 80' mobile home that had served as our office away from the front of the loft. The noise and activity during the mornings kept the young bird team in the air far too long to race well on Saturday. In addition, the removal of the office resulted in a new spatial environment for the race team. It took several days for the young birds to adjust to the new environs. Consequently, the race team didn't have the necessary edge to compete at the top of the race sheet.
Today, the race team exercised about 1 hour and 20 minutes. This amount of exercise is much better for the team. Racers that compete week after week only require about 2 hours of exercise per day in order to stay in form. As I have said in the past, one hour of exercise around the loft is about the same effort and 30 minutes of training on the road.
Next Saturday is the second 150 mile race. After Saturday, 50% of the race season will be over. In rating the overall quality of the race team, 4 races with a tailwind each less than 3 hours in duration does not tell much about each individual young bird. The mild and windy weather in Texas and Oklahoma does not easily lend itself to a rigorous evaluation of each young bird. In areas of the country with a mild weather similar to Texas and Oklahoma, this is why so many young birds are kept as yearlings and why old bird teams tend to be large. It can take several race seasons to determine the best racers from a breeding season.
The race team flew about two hours this morning. Consequently, I cut their food by about 15%. I will increase their food tomorrow to the normal daily amount; but I don't want the young birds exercising much over 1 1/2 hours in the morning. The ideal amount is from one hour to 1 hour and 15 or 20 minutes.
Last week, I injured my left hand and left leg moving the mobile home from the Ranch. I haven't been able to blog or to ship pigeons. It has been very difficult to drive. I am left handed and my right hand is partially paralyzed from a calf-roping accident. So, it has been very difficult the past week. Thank goodness for Morgan! She always takes great care of me.
I have been evaluating the breeders every day that I have been able. I have put a number of young birds back for breeders. I am beginning to couple breeders by pedigree on paper. In Belgium, most fancier's couple their breeders around December 1. The young bird race season begins in May in Belgium; so March or April hatches are too young to race. The 4 prestigious National young bird races begin about August 1 and continue every two weeks. In order to race youngsters on widowhood or any other motivational system, they must be as mature as possible. Consequently, youngsters are hatched as close to January 1 as possible.
Because I race the same system in Tulsa as fanciers follow in Belgium, youngsters are hatched about January 1. Although the young bird series doesn't begin until the second weekend in September, the young bird team could begin racing much earlier. when the young birds in Tulsa are taking their first 100 mile race in Oklahoma in September, the young birds in Hakendover have completed the 4 National young bird races and have flown races over 300 miles.
All of which to say, I am beginning the 2009 young bird race series now by studying ways to best couple the breeders based upon the results of the 2008 old bird and young bird race series for me and for other fanciers who race our pigeons. I will have each pair of breeders coupled on paper by Thanksgiving when they will actually be coupled. May I suggest that you try coupling your breeders around December 1 and racing mature young birds in 2009. It's really fun and will make your pigeons very competitive!
If you decide to raise early 2009 young birds, you can send your best young birds to the 2009 Texas Center Convention Races which will be held in Tulsa Oklahoma in July. Click Here to view the 75 Combine's website detailing the 2009 Texas Center Convention in Tulsa in July, 2009. The Convention and Race organizers are Roland Gutierrez, Steve Trotter, Bill Hill, Charlene & Larry Dobelbower, and Tina & Derik Webster. Roland, Steve and Bill have attended Texas Center Conventions for many years. They have also hosted several Texas Center Conventions over the last 20 years. These Conventions have always been great successes!!! If you want to participate in several great young bird races in 2009 and attend a first-rate convention, please consider entering the Texas Center young bird races and attending the July Convention. It will be informative and a lot of fun. The convention organizers always plan activities for fanciers and for spouses who don't want to spend every waking moment around pigeons. There is excellent shopping and very interesting places to visit in Tulsa including Discoveryland USA, SpiritBank Event Center, BOK Center Ticket Masters, Big Splash Water Park, Fair Meadows Horse Racing, Oral Roberts University, Creek Nation Casino, Cherokee Casino, Osage Casino, The Plaza Shopping Center, RiverWalk Crossing, Woodland Hills Mall, Brookside Entertainment District, Promenade Mall, Utica Square Shopping Center, Oklahoma Aquarium, Philbrook Museum, Gilcrease Museum, and the New Tulsa Hills Shopping Center to name a few.
The Convention hotel, the Southern Hills Hilton, is a very comfortable hotel that offers both convenience and comfort.
Although our loft didn't perform well last weekend, both Tony Smith and Kirk Hardin raced very well. Tony scored 4th, 5th and 6th club while Hanna and Kirk Hardin (Hanna is Kirk and Paula's beautiful and talented daughter along with equally talented sister Sarah) won both of their club races and scored well in the Federation. Tony's 4th and 5th place birds were raised at our loft and his 6th place bird was bred from our pigeons. All of the Hardin racers were granddaughters or daughters of AU 05 LAMBERTON 65 White Splash female. I donated this female to an auction in Oklahoma City and Paula bought 65 for Kirk as a present. Since then 65 has been a once in a lifetime breeder. In 2006, 65's nest brother, Diamond Jack, was the 4th National Ace Old Bird in the ARPU and later sold to a Japanese fancier. 65, DIAMOND JACKIE, has raised over a half dozen race winners and her children have been golden breeders. 64 and 65 are bred from an Antoine Jacops import male, DIAMOND RIO, is a son of the WHITE DIAMOND and grandson of the DIAMOND ACE. Their mother is FLICKER, a daughter of Flor Vervoort's and Mike Ganus's PHANTOM.
Tony's racers are also down from the Antoine Jacops pigeons. Time after time, the Jacops pigeons excel. They are simply the best!
More to come..........................................thank you.........................................................................................Morgan and John Lamberton