Disaster Strikes -- Getting up and getting in the fight

I haven't written on the blog for quite a while. I'm sure any following has disappeared. This has been a difficult year. I haven't raced this year at all. On March 24th, 2009 at tornado wipe out some of our buildings and caused major damage to the racing and breeding loft. In our nick of the woods, this was about a month before old bird racing started. There was no electricity to the loft for weeks. Unfortunately, the barn that was destroyed was in the middle of the circuit that led to the loft and required electrical expertise beyond my ability. Half the roof had been ripped off and the loft was flooded with rain. Some breeders were lost as well.

In truth, I was just disgusted by the blow that was delivered. There was so much clean up and repair to do that I just couldn't justify putting the pigeons ahead of all else. I really miss this season. I am a competitor and I want to win. I am sorry that I took on that attitude but there were other things that I'm not going to mention on here that also were taking their toll. The summer is almost over, young bird racing is starting soon. I will not be flying young birds as I didn't raise any intentionally and those that were unintentional were not banded and were sold to friends.

This post then I guess is about starting over again. A friend, Jim Brown sent me some new breeders which arrived almost a week after the destruction. I received all my fathers breeders and racers as he moved and is now out of pigeon racing. Now is the time to figure out what breeding stock to keep and what to get rid of. I also have all the rarer colored birds barless blues, barless browns, recessive reds and yellows as well as blacks, whites and duns. Do I keep them or pitch them and focus on racing?

There are a lot of questions and I have a lot of birds to take into consideration. The rest of this year and the winter will about preparing the loft to function the way I want to fly a new system. I am picking myself up and getting back into the fight. I guess if anything this post is more of an expressed affirmation to the fact. Keep tuning in, as I will be posting on this much more often.

Club boundaries and membership requirements

I haven't blogged for months. I've been busy with other things, with family, with the house, etc. But honestly, I guess I haven't really thought about anything meaningful to blog about either. The other day, I called a fellow member to tell them about a positive contact I had with someone wanting pigeons. They would be a good prospect for future membership. Then I was informed that there were members of another club that wanted to join our pigeon club. Not a problem because we pretty much do not have any boundaries as long as you a someone of good character and standing. We had a member from another club join ranks with us last year and he has been loyal.

When we wrote our constitution and by-laws, for membership, a fancier would have to belong and compete for 1 year after which there would be a vote. That vote was required to be unanimous for membership. At the time, there was a purpose for that wording. I personally feel that time has passed. But now comes the problem. The new member, does not want to let he other two prospective members join. Why not? Because they are often top competitors in their own club and quite frankly, he does not want to get beat.

Well, that kind of steams me personally. After all we gave this new member a chance and it worked out. Now however, he wants to stand in the way of other people switching to our club. There are ways around him such as to amend the constitution to remove the unanimous wording (which by the way DOES NOT require a unanimous vote).

Well, I don't know hot things will shake out on this. I was steamed and wanted to vent a little. What do you think about this situation? Should a club be open to membership regardless of memberships in other clubs?

Finding a system for a 12 hr work schedule

The challenge this year is finding a system for a 12 hour work schedule. I leave the house a 5pm and get home about 6:30am. With the price of gas and feed skyrocketing, I decided to try open loft. The birds would fly between 5pm and 9pm. They were in good shape for the last 400 miler. My first bird got 3rd club and 12th in the IA/NE combine and I was quite pleased. That same hen took 2nd place club on a 600 miler last season.

The down side. Something got into my loft. I found the wing of a young bird on the floor and with some looking, found the head. I also found the carcass of a 2nd pigeon outside. I have "Blast Doors" that I put down at night that totally secures the loft. With the open loft, I've had to keep them open because I leave for work before the birds are done exercising.

So now it's back to open loft when I am home and keeping a sharp edge to their appetite so they will all be in before I leave for work when I feed them. When I work on race day the wife will have to close the blast doors.

It was a good try, but that system isn't going to work anymore.

Nuff said!

Pigeon Racing in Sports Illustrated

Here is a recent article in Sports Illustrated titled The Birds. I don't subscribe to Sports Illustrated but was made aware of this article due to negative comments regarding it in the pigeontalk.com forum discussion groups. While it's great that pigeon racing receives a mention in a true sports magazine, it seems that the article put down our sport and had negative connotations. Review the article and post your opinion.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/01/23/the.birds0128/index.html

Is racing pigeons becoming a rural hobby?

This is an article that has played out in many different places around the racing pigeon world in the last few years. This is especially true here in the United States. First check out the link:

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/02/15/FLYAWAY.ART_ART_02-15-08_B2_OT9C92B.html?sid=101

What's your opinion? How often do you see the same battle in your area? Has this same situation affected your club?

Breeding for Colors and white birds

I have posted on http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/index.php the sale of the barless blues, barless browns and blacks. Not is the time to decide on color matings for next year. Surprisingly there has been a number of request for the barless blues. There was one request for either a brown with spread or a dilute black. Unfortunately, I have a pair of blacks that throw a dilute black (dun) once in a while, but they always get lost in training. In the browns, I have nothing other than barless at the moment.

Brown/Khaki is the most recessive of the three color groups that also include black/blue, and red/ash. My brown is a hen and therefor, no matter what I mate her to, it will not be brown as the color gene is carried on the sex chromosome which the hen has only one, she gets from her father and the cock gets two, one from each parent. Since the hen has only one, quite simply "she is what she is". Now, the only way to get the brown back is to mate her to a direct son. Any son of hers will carry both the gene for black/blue and brown/khaki. The hen will either pass on the brown/khaki gene to a son, or she will pass on the sex chromosome which will produce a hen and that hen. The result will be; 1/4th black/blue hens, 1/4th brown/khaki hens, 1/4th black/blue cocks that also carry the brown/khaki gene and finally 1/4th brown/khaki sons which are homozygous for the brown/khaki gene. For these later sons, they will ALWAYS produce a brown/khaki hen regardless to whom they are mated.

If anyone is interested, I will still be setting orders for barless blues, possibly barless browns, blacks and recessive reds. Still in the works are recessive yellows. You can reach me at domanskifamilyloft@dishmail.net

End of the Racing Season

It's the end of the racing season. Time to decide who to keep on the team and who to eliminate. It's time to take a hard look at the breeders and evaluate their performance. It's time to think about frozen waterers and feeding pigeons in the freezing cold. The super cold may not be here yet, the mother nature is giving us the warnings that she soon will be here.