3/27/2005

No additional birds arrived this week, but several more will be arriving next week. I was able to get all of the birds out several times over the past few days. Many, if not all of them, have taken a few spins around the loft. I am fortunate that even when the pigeons are quite a ways from the loft (100 yds), they can still get a visual on it. I have not seen any hawks in the past week. Perhaps my nesting crows are keeping them away. All birds are still accounted for.

For those of you that subscribe to the Racing Pigeon Digest, in the March 15, 2005 issue, page 67 is an article that I wrote about our clubs 2004 racing season. Look for the article “Twin City Racing Pigeon Club 2004 Season Report”. I will be doing an interview of our oldest flyer soon, one that has been flying pigeons for over 50 years and submitting it to the Digest too.

The weather has turned a bit warmer, so all of the pigeons have been given a bath. I put Ivomec in the water to keep lice and other pests off of the pigeons. Last year I saw a pigeon-fly on one of my birds, even though “we don’t have pigeon flies in Minnesota”. It did a small bit of feather damage, but I discovered it early enough. I will give the birds at least weekly baths from here until the end of the racing season, weather permitting. I have removed the water heaters and loft heater in my breeding loft. I hope that the cold weather is over.

My World of Wings pair of bird hatched their second and final round. The babies are both doing fine. They will make up my final gold band birds that I breed. All together, I will have 21 of my own Gold Bands and 28 from other flyers. Slightly larger than the team I had last year, but very manageable. My loft could hold many more birds, but I like them to have plenty of room. I will only have two non-Gold Band birds.

Most of the earlier birds have molted a flight or two. I thought that they would have molted a few more by now, but I guess that’s what it is. My original goal was to get all of the body and wing molted before the races. I will begin the darkening phase at the end of April. They are on 19+ hours of light now. Most of the birds have also begun a slow body molt. Many of them are already starting to show signs of maturity. They continue to spar and coo a bit. I will magnify this attitude for the racing season.

3/20/2005

I received two birds from Bob Boltz of Ohio. Both birds looked great. He has two more to follow. I am working with them to learn the ropes of the loft.

All of the birds except the latest two have been out on the loft roofs and exploring the ground around the lofts. The snow keeps them from picking up too much stuff on the ground. Actually, even the birds I got this past week got out for a time on Sunday, but they seemed to find they way around pretty well. I forced one back in the loft right away; the other flew around a bit with the rest of the birds. It made me a bit nervous, as they are both pretty new to the loft.

The entire loft looks healthy, all birds seem to be still accounted for, and no recent hawk attacks. It has been a good week. I have noticed that even though I still have the birds on extra lights, they are molting their body feathers. Some of the older ones are starting to act like males and spar with the other males. The oldest are only 2 ½ months old, but are beginning to become mature.

I banded a pair of babies from my World of Wings pair. Only two bands left to use up. The other set of eggs should be hatching by the end of this week.

It looks as though a pair of crows has taken up residence in my yard. It has been a few years since they have nested in my pine trees. While I am not a fan of crows, there is an old saying “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. As long as they continue to harass the hawks in the area, it may keep the hawks away. I have also been sizing up the nest, but I really don’t have time for another pet crow. They are pretty fun though.

Our first club meeting of the year will be tomorrow evening. It will be good to see some of the competition again and talk pigeons. Since this is my first year flying old birds, I will be asking quite a few questions, although some people like to joke a bit and tell me completely opposite things. I have gotten used to it by now.

Lots of snow this past weekend. Spent a fair amount of time either plowing or catching up on sleep. It all pays the bills though.

3/13/2005

I received an additional eight birds in the last week. Birds were received from Linda Joneli from Red Rose Lofts and Charles Dinsmore of FBI Pigeons. All birds arrived and were extremely healthy. They have all been in the settling cage several times and go through the trap without issues.

When all birds have arrived, I will have 49 gold band birds that will be getting ready for the races. I will have raised 21 and received 28 from out-of-area from eight different lofts.

The birds that I received the week prior have been outside of the settling cage and are getting used to the idea of where ‘home’ is. No real flights yet, but to the ground and up to the landing board.

I had an issue with hawks the past week. No fatalities, but I had a 200+ yard chase of a young bird by an aggressive cooper hawk. The hawk swooped out of the woods and knocked my pigeon to the ground, just as it was leaving the loft roof. Luckily (for the pigeon and the hawk) it didn’t bind. The pigeon recovered and flew away, with the hawk in hot pursuit. When it got close to the office building across the street, reflections in the large panes of glass may have confused the hawk. It zigged when the pigeon zagged. I went over and retrieved the pigeon from the ground. A bit scared, but unhurt.

Shortly after the first attack, a large red-tail hawk was coming over from quite a way away. It slowly descended and started on the final approach. From my visual calculations, it was headed directly my loft roof. Since I was outside, I was able to deter the hawk. Not really a true attack, but if I wasn’t there, it would have been. It must have been the south winds, as I don’t usually see too many hawks around my house.

One of the shipments of birds has a case of pigeon pox. Upon arrival, they looked fine, but the pox developed about five or six days after arrival. I am not sure at this time if all of the birds will pick it up, but the birds who have it are doing fine. I guess it’s sort of a ‘real’ vaccination. Most likely, they will wind up healthier for catching it. They all will still get the actual vaccine sometime in May/June.

I had a young bird return after being out for five days. Somehow it managed to figure out where he really lives. In any case, he’s in quarantine for a few days and will be back with the main flock soon. With that bird returning, I have not lost any birds while settling yet this year.

My first round of eggs from my “World of Wings” pair has hatched under foster parents. All are doing well. The Wings pair is on a new set of eggs, recently confirmed to be fertile. These will be the last two rounds of youngsters I raise this year for racing. All four will sport Gold Bands.

3/06/2005

The first out-of-area birds have started to arrive. I received four nice youngsters from Ed Minvielle, of Siegels Pigeons. They looked great, right out of the box. It didn’t take them long to find the food and water in the quarantine cage. Three blue checks, and one blue bar.

Upon arrival, I will keep the birds separate for a couple of days so that I can make sure that they are eating well and appear healthy before I put them in with my other birds. I also vaccinate for Paratyphoid. All birds will be vaccinated for Pox and PMV at the same time, as soon as my last birds have arrived.

I can only imagine that it must be a fairly traumatic experience to be put in a dark box and go with out food and water for a couple of days, only to arrive in a strange place. These new birds have now been out in the settling cage and they are trapping a few times a day.

This week was a bit disappointing in terms of my old birds. My hens and young birds have been housed together. On Tuesday, as I was letting them out of the loft, some of the birds seemed a bit hesitant to get out. Normally I wouldn’t have thought twice, but when they were still flying well after dark, two hours later, I got concerned and remembered the hesitancy. I wound up losing one young bird, and two old hens. I even lost AU 04 TC 4177, my top money winner as a young bird. She was also an AU Hall of Fame winner and a UPR ACE pigeon.

To make matters worse, while some of the young birds were attempting to roost in the tree just before dark, a red-tail hawk took a swipe at them. Only the birds in the tree took off, the ones on the loft roof stayed put. The hawk injured no one.

About ½ of the young birds spent the night outside, the hens took three days to all get in. They were around the loft, but wouldn’t trap. I have not let them out since. I think if I would have had a dropper, I could have gotten them down before darkness. I will be getting two droppers in April, when they are available locally.

On the bright side, my young birds flew for over two hours, and even with the night flight, I only lost one.

Being a glutton for punishment, I turned the old cocks out for exercise Saturday, and still have about 2/3’s of them outside. They pick in the yard and fly around, but won’t trap.

My lesson learned was to make sure and cut down the rations considerably before any more pigeons get out, although I will make an exception for young birds. But I want to make sure there is at least 3 hours of light before they get out again.

I have also ordered a book, “Champions Reveal Secrets Book”, so I will be in the know on any of the top secrets that are available. I have often wondered, if a secret is revealed, is it really still a secret?