Last Race Success

Well the season is over and the last race was successful. Finished 3rd 5th 6th 8th 9th.  See results
Breeding is now the main focus. Breed winners from winners.




white doves

Last YB race of the season

This is the last YB race until next year. I wasn't thinking I would race this week but The birds are feeling great, they are over all the illnesses and are flying high. This Saturday is a 350 mile race with NW winds in my favor. I will send the birds that haven't really scored well and my top birds can relax and start thinking about making babies. I trained yesterday 50 miles and released the birds in groups of three.
 I am hoping that I have a sleeper bird. A bird that hasn't done anything yet but has just come into condition and will pull out a win. This has been a good season but our club has been deprived of the combine results. The guys in Miami have not turned the results into the AU and getting them from the club has been a source of aggravation.
 My breeders have gone together thanksgiving weekend and I suppose I will start a blog on breeding after this weekend.


Funeral Doves

Victory In the Band race

Took 2nd and 3rd in the money (band race) with sick birds. 350 miles, NW wind in my favor. Missed 1st place by 51 seconds See Results

Trained twice this week 45 miles. Birds did start feeling better on Tues.






Pigeons For Sale

Birds are recovering

I have 8 Band race birds left out of 20. Only 6 are healthy enough to race this weekend. One of those six is border line race ready.
I trained the 8 birds yesterday at 45 miles. They loft flew for an hour this morning but wanted to come in after 30 minutes.
I will get one more training toss this week and they will loft fly for 2 hours each day. My best chance for winning money this weekend is if I get a favorable wind.






White Doves For Sale

Birds are not well

300 mile race today and it was a disaster. Sent 14 birds and only got 1 back. Got 0 birds back for the money. Results
Band race next week. Some banded birds have gone too far down hill to be able to fly 350 miles next week.

No race for me

It kills me to miss this week, especially when the wind was in my favor.
The birds are on antibiotics and only have 6 days to recover. Some are still vomitting and others are finished. 3 birds have gone lite. (lost weight).

Bad news but good

Birds are sick. Throwing up and diarrhea. Adeno virus, Young bird sickness. It started on Monday after the race with one bird. I removed him and treated him with anti biotics. Yesterday there are several more and this morning all out virus.
The birds will recover but I will miss the race this weekend. I will treat the whole team with Baytril (anti biotic) this won't treat the virus but will keep the birds from getting overtaken with e-coli or Salmonella.
The good news is it happened this week and not next week for the money race.

Victory

Finally my young birds produce. finished 1st 3rd 4th 8th 9th 11th 12th 13th 17th 24th and a total of 14 in the top 40. see Results I have to attribute their success to the wind. We have a strong NW wind and my loft is located East of everyone else. The birds are in super health and the wind brought them straight home.
I was out of town this week and the birds only flew around the loft.






Beach Weddings

Race results for 2nd 200 mile race

Trained 50 miles on Wed. and loft flew every day.
Race was light East wind and clear. finished 15th 16th 18th 19th. Results
I noticed a tape worm in the bath water on thurs. Gave the whole loft moxidectin in the water, late this afternoon. I will leave the worming med down for them until tomorrow afternoon.
I am going out of town tomorrow and won't road train at all next week.





White Doves

Race results 200

Very strong winds from the east. Birds did well.Finished 14th 19th 21st and 22nd. Congratulations to Medellin Loft for his first win. See Results. I am missing half of my team at the moment. I am hoping they will trickle home later today and tomorrow.








Pain Relief for Dogs

Good Training Toss

Trained the birds 50 miles this morning. Released 3 at a time. Birds came home fast and don't seem to be ill. Sunday's race results will show if they are not feeling well. I am confident they are well and will race well.









Beach Weddings

Sickness in the Loft

Trained the birds 50 miles on Tuesday. Released the birds 15 at a time. Birds came home in less than an hour.
I noticed this morning That the loft smelled differently.  Adeno virus. This odor is caused by Adeno. Usually the birds will vomit and their droppings will be watery and green. The birds droppings are fine now and none are vomiting yet. I recognize this odor from last year. I had to sit out 2 races while they recovered.
I will have to wait until later in the week to see if the birds come down with it. This virus is also called young bird sickness. The birds are not flying very long. 20 minutes and they are ready to come in. This is a sign that they are not feeling well.
199 was missing from the race Sunday along with 1833. 199 came home Tuesday afternoon. She looks fine and is flying today with the others.

Race results 150 miles

154 miles for me. N to NE light wind. clear. Finished 4th with 14 birds in the top 50. First bird this week was the same bird as last week. 1869 was the second bird in. 1869 has been in the top results every week. 1869 is the top bird for the club. See Results . Notice that roofer lift and jojo are on top every week. They are father and son team flying from the same loft. They are hard to beat, but are shipping 60 birds from the same loft. I will need to keep at it to beat them.




White Pigeons

Friday Training

Trained the birds 50 miles. Released the birds in three groups of 15. Birds left quikly and headed straight home.

Tuesday training

Trained 50 miles. Released 3 at a time. Clear sky no wind. Birds circled the area longer than usual.
I will train again on Friday to 50 miles, weather permitting.
The birds are loft flying well from1 to 1 1/2 hours. If I slip in the race results I can increase the road training.







Funeral Doves

Race results

This race was the 150. I thought it was another 125.
Finished 11th 12th 13th and 11 birds in the top 50.
16 seconds and these three birds would have been 8th 9th 10th
Click here to see the actual results

Basketing Day

Saturday, I fed them this morning the usual and gave them clear water with 1 tablespoon of honey. They weren't allowed to fly this morning. They will rest all day. I will feed them at 5pm only small grains. They will be basketed at 7pm for a ride to the club. The race should be the same as last week. The wind and temp are going to be the same. I will post the results tomorrow when I get home from the clock out.

2 Training Tosses This Week

Trained 50 miles on Tues. Released the birds 3 at a time. All of the birds beat me home which was a first.
Trained the birds 70 miles on Thursday. Released them all together. It took 75 minutes for all to come home. All came home together. Birds are loft flying well. They fly 1 to 1.5 hours in the morning and then again in the evening. I don't have to flag them ( waving a flag to keep them flying). they are just staying out because they want to. This is the first year in which my birds did this. As soon as they come out they disappear for a half hour and then I see them fly by. They are then gone again. They will circle the loft when they are ready to come in.
The birds' health is extraordinary. I did notice this morning I heard a bird sneezing.
Race is the same as last week 126 miles. I will keep the birds locked up tomorrow and make them rest all day.


Fancy Pigeons

Race Day Results

126 miles for my birds. Very fast race. Took 4th place at 60 MPH (1761 ypm). Had 12 birds in the top 45 places. 2 min out of first place click here to see Results.  I am encouraged that the birds are doing well. I will post the combine results as soon as they are available. Flying against 270 pigeons is not much competition but the combine will have 2000 bird's results




Flats boats

Friday Training

Trained the birds 50 miles. Released them 3 at a time. weather - clear and hot. Still not trapping well. The birds land on the roof before the landing board.





Funeral Dove Release

Tuesday training

Trained the birds 30 miles this morning. I could only go 30 miles because the weather north of there was pouring down rain. Released the birds all together in light rain. All came home in 50 minutes except 1. A red pied hen came in with a broken leg. when the one missing bird came home in the afternoon his whole chest was torn open. I conclude that a hawk or falcon must have dove through the flock and caused the birds to dive down into wires or trees. Unfortunately both injured birds are auction race birds. I think both will heal in time for the auction race which is the weekend before thanksgiving,




Wedding Dove Releases

1st Race Success

First Race is Over and the birds did well. They could have done better had they not sat on the roof. The birds won 5th and 8th place and 8 more birds in the top 50. First bird in was number 230 it took over a minute for him to trap. 1 minute wouldn't have moved him up in the standings but a few more seconds and he would have moved down in the standings.
Here is a picture of the 3rd and 4th bird in. they sat on the roof for several minutes and actually placed 18th and 20th. Had they trapped right away they might have been in the top 10.
Here is a link to the race results. I am flying under the name Pompano Bch loft.
Results I haven't received the combine results yet but will post them when available.

Basketing Day

Big day is here. Basketing 30 young birds to take to the club tonight. Race is 86 miles for me. I don't expect to do well tomorrow. My birds are not trapping well and this race will be fast. There will be seconds between the top 20 birds. If my first bird sits on the roof longer than 1 second he will lose. As the races get longer I hope to do better. I will also be working on the trapping with the team.






White Dove Release Alabama

Last training before first race

Trained the birds 50 miles. Let all go together. They were caught up with over 100 other birds that were flying south. Birds arrived home in small groups. First group of 6 came home in 1 hour and 9 minutes. Another group of 6 came in while the first group was trapping. Birds are sitting on the roof for 30 seconds before dropping down to the landing board.






Homing Pigeons For Sale

Out on the Road

Trained the birds 50 miles this morning. Released the birds in groups of threes. Clear skies with a 15 mph side wind. They all came home in 70 to 80 minutes. they are not trapping well. some sat on the roof for up to 7 minutes. My wonderful wife sat outside for two hours and took notes. I love my wife so much!

Vacation

After 1 week of vacation the birds are back on the road this morning. I had to go out of town for a week so the birds didn't get much training. My daughter fed and watered them. They only were able to fly around the loft in the mornings. They of course were overfed and under exercised. They are not trapping well. Don't know if the break from training will be a good or bad thing.

92 Mile Training Toss

Trained the YB team 92 miles exactly this morning. I have a GPS and I navigate to a waypoint I have marked at my house. A direct line from where I released the birds to the loft was exactly 91.8 miles. They were released at 8:30 am . I have the clock set up now that the birds are wearing their chips. They all came home together and all clocked at 10:32 . 1324 Yards per minute. 45 mph. You can calculate ypm by multiplying the miles times 1760 and then dividing by the number of minutes the birds flew. 1760 is how many yards are in a mile. 2 hours and 2 minutes would be 122 minutes.
Birds look and feel great and are ready for the first race which is exactly 86 miles for me.

Race schedule

100 mile sept 27
150 mile Oct 3
200 Oct 10
200 Oct 17
250 Oct 24
250 Oct 31
300 Nov 7
300 Nov 14
350 Nov 20
400 Dec 4 Season finished

chips are on

Met at the club last night to code chips into the clock. I now have chips on the birds so that I can start clocking the training tosses.
we also have an auction race this year. It works like this; I brought 10 birds to the club. The birds are placed in wire cages for all to view. Everyone can then bid on the birds. If someone bids and wins one of my birds and then the bird wins the race that person wins the money raised in the auction. Here are the birds that are in the auction;1825, 1854, 1873, 1840,1835, 2990, 2957, 1877, 1848, 1841 I have the money on all but three of my birds. If any of those three win the bidder has to give me 40% of the prize money.

Training 50 miles

Trained 50 miles this morning. Tossed in groups of three. I am waiting 5 minutes between releases and it seems to be enough time that they are not getting together. Sunny at release, small showers along the route home. Birds are coming in from the East, which means they are flying down the beach all the way home.

Wed sept 8 Training

Trained at 40 miles released the birds in groups of three. Birds hit several rain showers on the way home. Not trapping well. They are landing on the roof of the house first and then hoping down to the landing board. Will have to work on this. I am losing 10 seconds.

The First 50 mile training Toss

Trained the whole Team 47 birds to the 50 mile training station which is 50 miles north on the interstate highway. Released the birds 3 at a time. It took them 1.5 hours average to get home. My wife said 1 bird came home first by himself in 1 hour. Didn't get his number. I saw a lot of flocks flying south.
Today is Labor day and I guess everyone is off of work and training their birds. One group of three got caught up in a flock of about 100. Most of the groups of three probably ran into other people pigeons on the way home. I wasn't patient enough this morning and waiting long enough between releases. The birds were catching up to each other and coming home in groups of 6 and even 1 group of 9.
I have added a piece of video from this am training.

supplimenting the feed

The birds have had a few days off but will begin tough training tomorrow. I am down to 47 birds for the team. I will switch to high carb feed which I mix myself. I give the birds probiotics in their water and on their feed. I also give them Juice plus tablets spread over the feed. I will use Garlic Oil to make the powder stick to the feed. They also get 1000mg of Vitamin C in their water twice a week.Races start in just 20 days.

Released 3 at a time

Released the birds at 40 miles this morning. Let them out just 3 at a time. I wait 4 to 5 minutes in between releasing groups so that they don't get together and learn to wait on each other. Shot some video this morning while releasing.

40 mile toss

Trained the whole YB team 40 miles this morning. Thundestorm half way home. Heavy rain at 20 miles. The birds had to fly through 8 miles of heavy rain. Released the birds in three groups of 15. All came home in 1.25 hours. The birds were dry when they hit the landing board, which means they flew east around the storm.
The birds feel really good, all are healthy and are ready to race.

30 miles again

Trained from the 30 mile training spot. Birds did not mix with local pigeons. They were home when I got home. I drove 75-80mph down the highway and they were circling the house when I pulled up in the drive way.

30 mile training this morning

Trained the birds 30 miles this am. Where I released the birds, there is a loft and the guy was flying his birds this morning. All 50 of my birds mixed with his. Only 35 of my 50 birds came home. I am sure they will trickle home throughout the day. I think I will end up loosing a few.
I think training them there might be good. The birds will learn that they can circle with the other pigeons or come home. My thought is they might learn to not circle and break away from a circling flock. On the other hand it may teach them that when they come out of the basket they are supposed to circle for a while before they head home. I think I might avoid training there again.

Loft flying well

The birds have been loft flying very well the past few days, so I haven;t taken them up the road again. I will probably give them 2 road trips next week. There are only 4 weeks of training left before the first 125 mile race.

Road trip for the young birds

Recovering from a stomach bug I felt well enough this morning with some help from my wife to take the whole young bird team ( -2) up the highway 20 miles. I let them all out together and all but 1 came home together. The lone ranger came home by himself 15 minutes later. He is probably just out of shape.
I live right along an interstate highway that runs north and south. Our race stations are all straight north along this interstate 95. The best way to train, for me, is to teach these birds to simply follow I95 home. It is proven that homing pigeons will follow rivers and highways on their routes home. It is my training theory and I am sticking to it. I know it doesn't help me when the wind blows hard out of the East and the birds end up inland.

Maybe Wed.

I got sick Sunday night so I wasn't able to train them down the road. I am starting to feel better so maybe wed. I can train them.

First training toss

Monday I am hoping to train them for the first time since they had there flight feathers pulled. I will pick back up at 20 miles. There are 2 birds that I wont send 1870 and 1878, both grizzles. These particular 2 have not been keeping up with the flock while flying around the loft.

Feed

If the birds are hungry they trap right in after exercising. If they are not hungry they will lounge around the roof and the yard.
I have 2 pigeons that aren't mine. I counted 52 last night and I only have 50. They were all wearing 2010 bands so that means 2 were not mine. I will go through them when they finish flying this morning and see which ones they are.

The New Loft built June 2010

Last night the birds trapped oh so nice. This morning when I whistled them in only half trapped. The other half sat on the roof. Finally Mr. Hawk scared them and they are off flying again. They will not get breakfast this morning. We will see how they trap this evening.

Trapping nicely

This morning The YBs trapped nicely. I definately have been overfeeding them. I am now timing their feeding instead of measuring out the amount of feed. I am giving them about 10 minutes. I am watching them and when a few fly to the perch I remove the food.
Feed is the only way to train. They didn't sit on the roof yesterday or today. They are coming right in when I whistle them.
Gave YBs provital in their water. A mix of vitamins and probiotics.

Monday

The birds flew nice this morning. When it was time to come in after 40 minutes of flying 12 didn't want to trap. They didn't get breakfast.
This evening a sharp shinned hawk decided to make a play for the young birds. They flew for 2 hours and then trapped straight away. The hawk knocked one bird down in front of the loft but the bird got up and flew off. He didn't get a scratch on him. I don't think having the hawks around is such a bad thing. I say that now but when I loose a good bird I will change my mind.

Begining

I have begun to train my young birds for the 2010 season. Here is where I am at: I have pulled 1 to 3 flight feathers depending on the age of the bird. The older birds only needed 1 feather pulled because they were already moulting Their 8th feather. I figure by the time racing starts they will be naturally completed with their moult. 2 birds didn't need any feathers pulled. I moved these birds to another loft section and allowed them to continue flying.
I pulled feathers a bit late. June 23rd. I clipped the ends of the feathers and waited 2 weeks before I pulled them. Some guys just pull them. Other guys will pull one feather at a time so that they can keep the birds flying. I must admit the time off of training while the birds were kept in was nice. All of the young birds were kept inside while they grew their feathers back.
All of my young birds were trained out to 20 miles before they were locked up to grow feathers. I figure when they start training again they can start right back at 20 miles. They were all trained from 20 miles 4 times. I did not start at 1 mile and work my way up. I started at 20 miles for the first training toss. Joe Rotando recommends a first toss from 40 miles. I have done this for the past 2 years but guys in the club thought I was crazy. Some said I risk losing my whole team with a crazy stunt like that. I got scared and and only went 20 miles. I lost only a couple the previous years from the 40 mile toss. I lost 2 from the 20 mile first toss. Rotando says that short tosses are a waste of time since a pigeon can see 12 miles in every direction around the loft.
I am right at 50 young birds today.
For the last 7 days I have been letting them fly around the loft twice a day. Earlier this week I wasn't forcing them to fly but for the last 2 days I have been kicking them all out of the loft and making them fly. They have been flying for a few minutes and then landing on the roof and panting. This morning they flew continuously for 45 minutes and when they came down they were not panting. They are ready to go up the road again. I will probably take them 20 miles on Wed.
I now have to break them of the habit of landing on the house roof. They land on the roof and sit for a minute and then hop down on the loft's landing board. I will make sure they are really hungry when I let them out and then when they are finished flying I will whistle them in.
This year I tore down my three lofts and built one large one with four sections. The difference this year is the landing board is too close to the house roof. I am thinking it could be a problem. I don't want the birds returning from a race and landing on the house first and then hoping on to the landing board.