I want to welcome all of the Midwest Convention flyers to my loft. I appreciate your vote of confidence in my handling abilities and myself. I will make sure your vote of confidence is not wasted and will apply my full efforts to winning the race!
This will be a periodic update to let everyone know what is happening in my loft. Sometimes I will make mention of a specific bird, but most often not. I will place a bird inventory on the web for all to see. This log will also be on the web. Both training and race results, when they begin will also be on the web.
http://home.comcast.net/~edrenckh/PigeonArea/index.html
I am sending this email to all of the fanciers in the past that shipped birds to the Gold Band Race. Next year, in 2008, we will again have that race. I hope many of you will return to the race in 2008. I am going to try and get a larger prize for out-of-area flyers.
It finally started to get a bit colder here in Minnesota. My first round of youngsters is on the floor and most of the pairs are on their second round. I hope that most of you have already paired and are anticipating some eggs soon. We cannot accept birds until the first of March, but I will be ready on the first. Feel free to ship them on February 27th, as they normally take two days to arrive anyway. It is incredibly nice to have a heated loft and be able to get out of the cold when feeding the birds. Only one of my lofts is heated, but I certainly appreciate it. I am sure the electric company does too.
I am hoping to breed ~25 youngsters of my own for the regular season so that I have enough to fly for average speed and other awards. I will send the convention birds to as many races as I can, but I will be watching the weather like a hawk… I want the birds to be in races, but nice flying back home. They can buck headwinds on the way home from the Convention race, but if they do not make it to the actual race it doesn’t help anything.
If you are not able to get the young to me the first week or so of March, please jot me an email and let me know when you will be ready. Some flyers do not want birds early, but I am of the mentality that they cannot be too early, unless it violates a race rule…
I picked up a pair of breeders yesterday at the Viking Pigeon Auction. Mostly Ganus background, I am going to try and get a round out of them and send them to the convention race. Time will tell if they are of any substance.
I am hoping that my first round will be flying well before any of the Convention birds arrive. I may even be able to take them on a toss or two to make them “hawk proof”, as much as I can. It will not prevent a direct hit, but it may prevent a few losses if there is a near miss.
If you could, jot me a line and give me an idea how you are coming on your breeding for this race. If for some reason you cannot ship birds, let e know as I can fill those spots fairly quickly. I have turned down many flyers, or have made some reductions in birds shipped so that I could take up to the maximum of 50 birds.