08/27/2005

I apologize for not sending out last weeks loft log, but I was diagnosed with pneumonia and was not up to the task. I have included my brief notes regarding last week below.

Another race has come and gone. The race season is half over. The races are now 200 miles and over. While I have not won any races yet, I have won at least some pool money at every race so far. All told, my winnings are up? to about $15. And who said you can’t make money flying pigeons.

This weeks winners in the ‘A’ release was 0539 which I bred and 0965 bred by Ed Minvielle of Siegel’s Pigeons. Congratulations Ed! 0965 has been doing pretty well for himself so far this year.

It appears the birds are all flying up on the east side of town. I suspect that they follow the river, and I am a bit away from the river on the Southeast course. I have an excellent loft location, near rivers and highways, but not as good for the southeast course. Next year, I will be directly on the line of flight with 35E.

I have been doing OK, but not tearing up the track like I originally thought. I usually have several birds in the upper 10%, but not dominating the top. The birds appear to be headed on the uphill side, going towards a peak. Hopefully I can get them to peak for the money races at the end of September. The flyers that are wining now will be tough to beat.

Another two more Taliban were captured, the mythical score is now 15-3. There must be an Al Qaeda training camp nearby. It would have been 16-3, but an employee of the building next door came on my property and released it. I had some words with him and I suspect that it will not happen again.

08/20/2005

This was a tough race for the birds with tops speeds that appear to be below 1000 YPM. The ‘B’ release beat the ‘A’ release bird’s home.

My battery backup system is working excellently. A trickle charger is constantly charging the battery and the Unikon clock is hooked up to the battery. If power goes out, whether my GFI or from a transformer being blown out down the street, it automatically will be on battery power. No worries.

0554 was clocked at a different loft, at 13:19. But based upon my 8-hour rule, it will skip the next race along with 549, 554, and 966. 0531 returned home as I was basketing birds for this weeks race. He will skip and week and fly in the first 200-mile race. 0536 and 1177 are still MIA after this week’s race.

At last weeks race, at the club level, I took 7^th through 10^th out of 79 birds in last weeks ‘A’ Release. I also took 13 of the top 64 birds (341 birds entered), with the highest placement being 32^nd.

First place birds last week were 0555 on it’s maiden race from Don Lowe and 0533, one of my own. Congratulations Don!

This weeks first birds were 0534 that I bred and 0963 from Red Rose Lofts. Congratulations Linda!

Two more Taliban were captured, score is now 13-3. I can’t imagine the trouble I would be having if I just sat and watched.

08/14/2005

Last weeks race reports are posted on the web. For the loft results, I have posted all of the birds. The Club and Combine reports only show the significant birds.

My showing last week was not as impressive as I would have liked, but this week is going to be better. The birds are more motivated and are coming back from the race in large groups. While last weeks birds all returned, I did however have three birds MIA from the last race. Hopefully this is not a sign of a beginning health problem.

The eastside had most of the top birds in the Combine last week. As the winds get stronger, my birds begin to peak, many of the other’s birds begin a heavy body molt, the results will be stronger.

In my training during the week, 1132 received a bad wire hit. It only tore skin, no major muscle or crop damage, but it will be on the injured reserve list for a couple of races. I have it in isolation now but it will be with the flock in a few more days. I have elevated the status of 982 and will begin training it with the other birds this week.

I will begin enforcing an 8-hour no-fly rule beginning this week. If a bird has been out from a race for more than 8 hours, I will remove it from the race schedule that week. I will still loft and trailer train, if it appears healthy. After the one skipped race, it will be back on the team.

I had some issues with hawks this week. I actually had one enter the loft through the trap. In the end of it all, all birds were fine with no major physical damages, except one. I also had one earlier that morning attempt some trouble. That too left no major damages, but in any case, the double header ups the score to 11-3.

You can see a picture of the hawk at the following link.

http://home.comcast.net/~edrenckh/PigeonArea/images/100_0078w.htm

08/07/2005

The first race of the YB season is finally here and gone. 100 miles, but I am on the short end, only about 91 miles or so. As far as race watching weather goes, there couldn’t have been a better day. Saturday morning, sunny skies, almost no wind, 60 degrees. I even took a couple of short naps, after the first few birds were clocked.

I trained my droppers a few times while I was waiting. The first couple of times the droppers had other ideas, but by the time the race birds came, the droppers were flawless. All of the race birds trapped fairly well, but some were spooky and others dropped in like maniacs. Most hit the landing board right away. There were no mis-clocks.

All birds were entered except two birds. One needs to be scanned on Monday to be entered next week and one is still not flying well. That bird appears to be still recovering from the Pox vaccine.

Two birds from Bob Boltz of Ohio trapped first to my loft in the ‘A’ release (972) and the ‘B’ release (969). Congratulations Bob!!

In the first race, I thought the birds did fairly well, but did not come in as tight of a bunch as I originally expected. I only had single birds coming in, with my pick bird making it home dead last.

The ‘B’ release, about 10 birds were down on a drop, with only 7 of them mine. My pick bird was one of the seven, but as can be expected, the last to trap of the seven. Most of the rest of the birds were home within an hour, but two spent the evening outside either sitting at another loft or taking the long way home. Both were home at first light and were in relatively good condition.

Compared to last year, I don’t think my results were as good on the first race. Last year, I had all birds back but one within an hour. The race last year was a tough one, a 3+-hour 100-mile race.

I have posted the loft race results, along with a Wing Time Report to my web site. Our club figures the results on Mondays, and the club results are generally posted on the web sometime Tuesday. The combine results sometimes take until Wednesday. I have a link on my page to see all of the results, loft, club and combine.

I know one flyer in a different club beat me by 13 minutes, and he is about 9 miles further – but that is still unofficial. If I do well within my club, I will be satisfied. We have one of the top flyers in the combine. But given the choice, I’d take last place on every race if I could have the top ten places in the Gold Band Race.

I expect the birds to continue peaking and get better as the season progresses. Many of the other flyers birds will start a body molt and should begin a slow decline. My birds should be getting more and more aroused as they sexually mature, and the extra lighting will hold the body molt. It will also give the birds the extra ‘motivation’ and incentive that is necessary to win races. Many have a full wing with all adult feathering.

The birds are on a much more regimented schedule now, as they have been for the past week. Tuesday morning I will give them a training toss, Wednesday and Thursday they will get a 50-mile tosses on the training trailer. Heritage ACE pellets are fed on Saturday, with barley on Sunday and Mondays. A race mix will be fed the rest of the week with Heritage Turbo on Friday about 1 hour before basketing.

The birds will get to loft fly evenings and mornings that they are not being given a toss, except Sundays. Although when the early races are easy, they may even get out for a bit on Sunday too.

I have the birds separated, and they have been for a week. They get to see their mates after every training toss, and just before basketing. They are loft flown separately. There are several pairs that have already started to get close, and that should help in the motivation department as the season progresses.

I have ordered and received a battery backup for my Unikon clock from CBS. I did this after I heard of a local fancier that was in top contention for many concourse awards took a no-report on the 600-mile race due to a power failure. He had to go out of town for a family event. I should have it hooked up by the next race.

I hope all is well with everyone, and feel free to offer your ‘secret’ motivational techniques.