12/08/2005

Half of my birds are now down on eggs. I actually have them on dummy eggs for the first couple of days, and will put all the real eggs down all at once tomorrow. That should ensure that they are not too large to band early next year. It will also make for a more synchronous hatching.

My club won the bid to handle the Gold Band Race again in 2006, so I am excited again to promote the race. I have attached the old 2005 flyer in this email. Most, if not all, of the information will be the same. I am going to try to promote a couple of different options for next year, but it will not affect the race. All of the details should be finalized by next week. I have the ability to accept birds at any time, as soon as they are ready. Most of the other flyers have to wait until late March. We will be flying South this year, the winds will not affect the course as much as the birds will not be flying across the wind as they did last year.

The Gold Band Race is a good race, not only for the winning birds, but it helps my club too. Hopefully all of you will want to fly in it. It will be a good primer, as we will be hosting the 2007 Midwest Race too. That should be a large payout race, similar to the AU race that will be held here in 2008.

It’s been pretty cold, but my loft is maintained at about 50 degrees. Just warm enough to not freeze the water.

12/03/2005

My birds are now paired up. The heat is in the loft and I am getting excited about rearing next year’s round of winners!

The 2006 – Twin Cities Concourse 47^th Annual Gold Band Race will be held on Saturday September 23^rd, 2006. A Concourse meeting is scheduled for this Saturday, 12/3. We will decide which club will sponsor the race. I will be flying it no matter what, but I may enter a few less birds than last year (49 bands in 2005) if our club does not handle the race. I will fly more birds in some of our other high-point club races.

I have put a Race Wind Analysis chart on my website. It lists the races over the last three years and the wind speed and direction. I have had a request to provide this information.

Next year’s race will be from the South. This should be a much better course in regards to my loft and the prevailing winds. On last year’s course, the winds were mostly from the South. Since my loft was one of the most southern lofts, I had a disadvantage - But I did do extremely well in the Gold Band Race.

In the latest issue of the Racing Pigeon Digest an article was published that I wrote about our Old bird Season. There was also an article on Merle Feia, legendary Widowhood Master, who flies in our concourse.

I have contacted many of you already and will be doing some follow-up calls over the next few weeks. I hope to be able to finalize my breeding plan and have a full team of birds without over-breeding. I find that it is easier to fly a smaller team ~48 birds than get too large. This is a great opportunity to test your birds against some of the finest flyers in the Midwest.