Journal & News from the Loft Managers:

November 7th, 2011 - Last Year of Gold Country Challenge & Closing Thoughts

This year (2011) will have been the final year of the Gold Country Challenge. There will be no Gold Country Challenge in 2012.

My dad and I have talked a lot since the end of the race last weekend and after five years of doing this it's just time to move on. We want to thank everybody who has supported the race this year and in any of the past races since we started in 2007. The majority of the breeders have been great to deal with and we will miss the interaction with those breeders, especially at the BBQ for the final race. Only through this race and sport of pigeon racing could I meet and become friends with a falconer from Egypt who also happens to be one of the nicest, funniest, and most interesting people I have ever met. There are of course several other wonderful people we have met and sometimes became friends with as a result of handling this race. We will miss that aspect of the race, meeting and interacting with the more positive breeders.

We will not be handling the Gold Country Challenge anymore for a few different reasons. One reason being that handling a one-loft race is a lot of work that takes a lot of time and it can also be very stressful. I don't think many breeders realize just how much time and how many little things go into hosting a one loft race. It really is the equivalent of a full-time job and after doing it this long both of us are at the point now where we would like to be able put that time into other things and not have to deal with the stress and negativity of managing a one loft race.

I mentioned stress above and when handling a one-loft race the stress starts right away as inevitably in the spring you end up with sick and dying birds. Every one loft race deals with this and some years are better than others, but despite your best efforts to prevent it........ if you host a one loft race you will end up with sick and dying birds at some point. It's just reality. The usual underlying cause is Circovirus and then other secondary infections are what actually kill the bird. Unfortunately some breeders just don't know much about Circovirus or worse they choose to ignore the truth. Some can't seem to understand that handling one-loft birds where youngsters with developing immune systems come in from all around the country is different from handling their own birds in their backyard. So when you call someone to tell them their bird died you get questions like "I sent you healthy youngsters, how could my bird die?" A breeder can send a team of completely healthy youngsters but when they get mixed into the same loft of other seemingly healthy youngsters (some of which are carriers) from several different breeders, the end result is you get some birds that get sick and some of those die. We quarantine sections of the birds when they arrive, vaccinate, and have disinfectant in the water daily but you still always end up with sick birds. Viruses spread so easily and can be harbored by the carriers for so long it's impossible to completely prevent. The majority of birds entered usually stay healthy and never show a sign of sickness but even seeing the first dead youngster sucks and is not something you want to deal with, but you do and get through it.

The other really stressful part of handling a one-loft race is training and losing birds. Nobody likes losing birds anyways on their own young bird team but I can tell you it's 10 times worse when you lose someone else's bird that they paid a perch fee for. When you have a bad toss and lose several birds it's one of the worst feelings in the world because you know those birds are birds that both you and their breeders had high hopes for. Sometimes you lose birds that you thought were for sure going to be good and be there at the end and all it takes is one bad toss for them to be gone. However nobody loses birds on purpose and it is part of pigeon racing (especially one loft racing). I know there are a couple one loft races back east that have been having a really rough go of it right now in training/race losses and I feel for them because it is the most stressful part of handling a one loft race.

The other reason we are not handling the Gold Country Challenge anymore is the increasing negativity from a small but very vocal minority of the breeders. We are just tired of dealing with it and are making the decision to not have to deal with it by simply not having the race anymore. Unfortunately like with any sport, pigeon racing and especially pigeon racing for money can bring out the absolute worst in some people. There are many breeders that when they don't do well or lose birds handle it with class and realize that is part of the game but there are others that when they don't do well or lose birds insist on having someone to blame. It can't possibly be that they sent a bad bird or even just bad luck, they have to blame somebody and are convinced they were going to win the race had you not lost their bird.. You try not to let it get to you but when you have a couple bad tosses or races in a row it does get to you.

A letter we received in the mail yesterday from a breeder (after we had already made the decision to not have the race in 2012) made the decision even easier and we both said this is exactly why we don't want to do this race anymore. The main complaint in this letter was that he entered 5 birds in the race and we were expected to get all 5 of his birds to the first race......but being in that we only got 3 of his 5 birds to the first race we had failed. He goes on to complain about a couple other things but basically all boils down to the fact he did not win anything in the races. One point he failed to mention in his letter is that one of his birds was killed in the spring by a hawk and he was given an opportunity to send a replacement but he chose not too.......who knows maybe not sending the replacement was part of the plan so that he would have something to complain about. The other interesting thing is that this breeder is in several other races and I'm pretty sure he has lost birds in all of them and did poorly in most of them, so apparently every one loft race has failed him.

We have another local breeder that for the last two or three years in a row keeps questioning the payout for pools (and capitol after first drop). We have always since the start of the race paid all pools and capitol by the drop, most breeders who have been in the race since the beginning know this as it is clearly stated in the rules and in the ad. This particular breeder for the last 2 years has had a bird trap well on a drop of birds, so sure enough after the fact he is angry that the pools are paid by drop and accuses me of changing the rules. Even though those rules have been explained to him last year and the year before and this year I even had them posted on the pooling table right in front of him when he filled out his pool sheet. Nothing changes with the rules every year nor does his complaining. I don't like being called a liar and I really don't like being called a liar by a breeder who does so out of sheer greed. Ironically 4 or 5 years ago this breeder had a bird that was pooled clock on the tail end of a drop and he asked how the pools are paid, he was told by the drop.............his response "Good that's how it should be". Unbelievable and can't help but laugh just thinking of it.

Finally the last general area of negativity we had this year was regarding training. During the main portion of training we heard some complaints but really more so once the first two races went bad, a few breeders suddenly had all the answers and the reason the birds were doing bad was because they were not trained between the races. Who knows maybe training would have helped them a little but I highly doubt it because they loft fly so well and it has never been an issue before. In the four prior years of the race we have never trained between races and the results have always been excellent. Only this year when we have a couple bad races do people suddenly have a problem with it. On my own Young Bird and Old Bird team, I never train once the races start and have obviously done very well or I would not do it that way. I found out years ago through trial and error that with the system I run, as long as the birds loft fly well they don't need training once the actual races start. For us it made more sense to let the birds loft fly for 90 minutes (which they usually do) than to take them on a 30-60 Mile toss to someplace they've already been in the mountains that also has falcons. I actually found with my own birds they did better without the training, as training is somewhat stressful on them since you have to basket them and they get driven around on windy/bumpy mountain roads.

One thing people have to understand when they send birds to any one loft race is that how you do it at home is not necessarily how the loft managers do it and just because somebody else does something different than you do, doesn't mean they or you are wrong. I learned that a long time ago with training and even with other methods of racing pigeons........different handlers do things different ways and still achieve success. That's one of the nice things about the sport as there is no absolute path or specific plan for success, there are many ways to get there. It's all about doing what works best for you and there is more than one road to success. Unless you are actually there at the loft handling, feeding, and training the group of birds you really don't know for sure what they need (at best you have an educated guess). That is why you pay a loft manager of a one loft race to begin with, he is there everyday to take care of the birds and to try and make the best decisions to get them to perform well. Doesn't mean the loft manager always makes the right decision but by and large those decisions are always made with good intention. Constructive suggestions from breeders can definitely be a good thing but outright blame and "you are doing this wrong" does not help.

In conclusion the last 3 or 4 paragraphs do not really apply to most of the breeders in our race, because most were supportive, positive, and understanding. For the more negative breeders if you pickup any thing from the above I would hope it is to slow down and not always rush to judgment and look for someone or something to blame. If things are going bad with losses in a one loft race that you are in, trust me the loft manager is already stressed out about it enough as it is and harping on him is not going to help. If your birds are not doing as good as you think they should be doing, maybe they don't adapt to that handlers feeding system, the race course, or maybe they just are not as good of birds as you think they are. The answer is not always black and white and the good thing is there are always more races to get in. As with any sport the adage "there is always next year" also applies. For the Gold Country Challenge there will be no next year but once again would like to thank everybody for this year and the past five years.

- Matt Hans

 

October 1st (Saturday) - Updated at 4:45 PM

Race 1 scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday) will be postponed until later in the week because of very strong headwinds along the race course and especially in the mountains.  There is an area of low pressure off the coast sending in clouds and very strong headwinds this weekend and we will also start getting rain on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  It's possible that tomorrow morning could be ok but the race is far enough that the birds might not reach the sierra's by the time the bad headwinds start (it started early today) and then it could turn bad real quick.  Race 1 is a 60 Mile jump for these birds from their longest training toss and they just don't have the experience in bad conditions/very strong headwinds that club or combine birds would have after several races.  

It's one of those tough decisions where where we could take them there and it could turn out ok albeit slow or they could get caught up in the bad headwinds early and we could have a bad race with heavy losses.  On this course in order for the birds to come online they have to fly over Sierra's and Mount Rose (9000 Feet).  They'll do that on a good day or even an ok day with reasonable headwinds but when you start getting 20+ MPH headwinds (with much higher gusts on top of the mountains)  it forces the birds to go way off course and try and go around the mountains.

That is not really a gamble we like to take for the first race when everybody just paid their entries and there are still 3 more races to go.  The next decent day looks like Thursday or Friday.  Friday for sure looks good.  It is supposed to rain hard on both Tuesday and Wednesday.  We will still try to keep the final race (Race 4) on schedule if possible with just 2 or 3 less days between each of the first 3 races to get everything back on track.  So right now the plan is to have Race 1 on Thursday or Friday and then have Race 2 about 4 or 5 days later.

 - Matt

September 27th, 2011 @ 10:20 PM

Monday's long toss from 104 Miles went pretty well and at this time we are only missing 2 pigeons from that toss....I'm still hoping to maybe get one or both of those back tomorrow.  If everybody pays their entry fees we should have 170+ Birds going to the first race.  We had that one rough stretch for a few tosses in the middle of training but on the last five longer tosses the birds have been doing well.

The 104 Mile Fernley Toss on Monday was interesting in how the birds arrived and acted when they got home.  The first drop came out of the north and there were 67 Birds in that drop.  They were just a couple minutes slower than I expected but still pretty good time.  When they arrived they were extremely nervous and jittery and after landing several of them were on edge looking out towards the sky like something was after them and they wanted to take off again.  It took 3 or 4 minutes to get them all in because they were so nervous and on the verge of taking off again that I had to back off.  About 7 minutes or so after they arrived another big drop (2nd Drop) arrived from the North East, only this time the birds were not nervous at all and instead they trapped quickly and the only ones that did not trap quickly were the cocks chasing hens around.  From then on some of the smaller drops that arrived were very nervous and jittery like the first drop and others were completely calm and acting like everything was fine.  At one point at the 1 hour mark we had two birds arrive and both of them were so terrified that one of them landed in a tree and the other in the dirt in front of the loft before they went in.  So it appears that on some point on the way home after the flock had already separated into more than one group, a falcon/hawk went after one of the groups and the other group was unaffected.  The end result was still a very good toss with almost all of the birds making it.........just thought it was a little weird to have some drops being skittish like they saw a falcon and other groups completely calm that didn't see anything on the way home. 

Everybody should have received their entry fee information in the mail by now and entry fees are due this weekend.  If you have not mailed your check by the end of tomorrow Wednesday 9/28 you need to call or email because unless you live on the west coast it won't make it here by Saturday.  Quite a few entry fee checks have arrived already but there are still plenty more to go. 

A few breeders have already pooled for the 2nd and 3rd Race so I'm going to try and get those posted into WinCompanion sometime within the next few days so that all of the breeders can see who is pooling ahead of time and maybe that will encourage more pooling in Race 2 and Race 3.  As I mentioned in a previous journal entry, we have streamlined the pooling for Race 2 & 3 and pooling in those races is essentially the same thing as a "Crapshoot" or "Hot Spot" like some other races.  Normally between Race 2 and Race 3 one of those races ends up with a very small first drop, so there is money to be made on pooling in those races.

We will probably just loft fly for the rest of the week as it is supposed to be pretty hot again for the next few days.  The weather forecast already does not look good for this weekend (chance of rain and strong headwinds) but hopefully it will improve as we get closer to the weekend.

- Matt

September 24th, 2011

This Monday will be the 104 Mile Toss.  Monday is supposed to partly cloudy with mild temperatures and a light headwind so it should be a good morning to go.  The last few days before today it has been 100 degrees so we chose to loft fly the birds rather than take them anywhere on a toss.  Last time we tried to go on a short toss on a really hot day, the birds overflew and that turned out to be the worst toss we've had......so it's safer just to loft fly.  There is a cold front coming in tonight and tomorrow (Sunday) is supposed to be like a hurricane with really bad headwinds in the mountains so that is why we are waiting until Monday. 

We did loft fly the birds this evening and posted it to the training section.  All 175 birds are still here and scanned in.  We did have a little mixup on WinCompanion where we forgot to create a new training race before these birds started scanning in this evening, so on the prior toss from 73 Miles the last 13 birds had their times overwritten and changed to this evening's times.  Luckilly we caught the mistake right when they were starting to scan otherwise it would have messed up the results of that whole toss but the last 13 birds scanned from Toss 20 (73 Miles) were all here early on that toss and were not clocked today as the times indicate.

I will update this page again on Monday the day of the 104 Mile Toss.

- Matt

September 21st, 2011 @ 7:00 PM

The 104 Mile Toss originally scheduled for tomorrow will be delayed around 4 days because of extreme heat.  Today reached 101 degrees and tomorrow and Friday are both supposed to be around 99 to 100.  Those are daytime highs but because of thermal inversion it gets very hot here in the foothills in the morning (with cooler evenings than the valley).  On days like today we are well into the 80's at 9:00 AM and by 10 AM it is really cooking here in the foothills.

With that much heat, going 104 Miles tomorrow would have been a little too risky.  All it takes is the main flock or a significant portion of the main flock making one wrong turn in the mountains and then it gets too hot for them to get home so they sit down (and losses are high).  Right now we are planning on Monday or Tuesday for the 104 Mile Toss.  That still gives us plenty of time to get them ready for the first race.  The birds have been doing really well the last 3 or 4 tosses, so we want to keep that going and not have any setbacks before the first race.

We mailed out entry information Tuesday, so everybody should be getting their paperwork in the mail in the next day or so.  If you do not receive your paperwork by this Saturday please call or email.  Remember Entry Fees are due by Saturday October 1st.  It is best to send them early next week so that they get here on time and if any of your birds are lost before Race 1 your entry fees will be refunded on any birds lost.

Will update again in a couple days to advise of what day we go on the 104 Mile toss.  Monday is the day we are hoping for.

- Matt

September 19th, 2011

We are now less than 2 weeks away from the first race and we are getting closer to the end of training.  The birds will be going 104 Miles this Thursday and that will be their farthest toss.  It is supposed to be 97 degrees on Thursday, so hopefully it doesn't get any hotter than that.  The high temperatures should not effect the early birds that are in before the heat but it could slow down some of the later returns.  After Thursday's toss they will go on another 60 or 73 Mile toss sometime early next week and maybe one more short toss after that before the first race.

This past Wednesday and again on Sunday we went on 73 Mile tosses and both times the birds came very well with most of the birds being home early in good time.  On each toss we only lost 1 bird and that is fortunate considering this toss takes place on the other side of the east slope of the Sierra's (meaning the birds have to climb over 9000+ feet mountains like Mount Rose).  The single birds we lost on each toss were both birds that had been doing really well in the previous training tosses, so maybe a falcon got them as those are 2 birds that should have made it.

Entry Fee information and Pooling Sheets will be mailed out tomorrow, so everybody should have their entry fee documents by the end of the week.  The first race is scheduled for Sunday October 2nd, so your entry fees must be here no later than Saturday October 1st.  Please make sure to mail your checks early enough so that they make it here before the end of next week.  The Entry Fee document lists the birds you have here as of today (9/19) but by the time you get your entry fee documents in the mail the birds will be going on the 104 Mile toss, so please check the results of that toss and in the few days that follow to make sure all of your birds are here.  If you send your entry fees early and any of your birds are lost during the remaining tosses, your entry fees on those lost birds will be refunded.

As mentioned, included in the mailout will be Pool Sheets for Races 2 & 3 and also Race 4 (Final Race).  We have added pooling to Race 2 this year and it is a condensed version with only the 10-For-1 and Winner-Take-All Categories out to $50.  Race 3 also has the same condensed pooling as Race 2.  We are hoping by only doing two categories for these two races that it will encourage more people to pool since more of the money will be concentrated into the same categories.  The pooling in Race 2 and Race 3 is essentially the same thing as a "Hot Spot" or a "Crap Shoot" like some other races have.

The Final Race (Race 4) will have all 3 categories like usual and they will go out to the $100 spot.  In Race 4 we have also added a $50 "Odd Color Pool" that is designated for red checks, silvers, grizzles, whites, pieds, splashes, slates, etc.

Pool Sheets don't have to be mailed back until the day before those races or you can pool in person on race days here at the loft.

If you do not receive your entry fee information by this Saturday please call or email to make sure we mailed it to the correct address or it wasn't lost in mail.

- Matt

September 13th, 2011

The birds are going to Geiger Lookout (Steamboat) which is 73.5 Miles in the morning.  Right now it is actually raining here at the loft and like the last few evenings we've had thunderstorms but it is supposed to clear overnight and be partly cloudy in the morning.

Sunday's 2nd trip to Mt. Rose went fairly well.  It was actually fairly cloudy at release with not much sun and about 50% cloud cover on the way home but the birds still did pretty well and came in a group of about 60 followed by two other large groups over the course of 20 minutes.  All of them over flew a little and came out of the northwest. We are still missing 6 birds from Sunday's toss but we did get back 4 birds that had been missing from previous tosses.  Three of those birds had been trained out pretty far so I expect they will stick around and do ok.  The other was lost at 14 Miles and gone nearly a month so who knows whether it will be able to keep up but in the past we have had birds that were lost very early in training come back a month later and then do well in the races.

Inventory is current as of the last toss on Sunday.  We will be mailing out entry information this weekend or beginning of next week.  After the birds go to 73 Miles tomorrow they will go to 73 Miles again on Sunday and then to 104 Miles later next week.

- Matt 

September 8th, 2011

The Mt. Rose (60 Mile) toss on Tuesday turned out well with the birds making great time (1600 ypm) and most of them were home early.  We are still down 2 birds from that toss but we did also get another bird back from the bad Loon Lake toss last Friday.  We had originally planned to train again today but the East Slope of the Sierra's was cloudy this morning and there wasn't going to be any sun at release at Mount Rose so they were just kept here and loft flown instead.  The west slope of the Sierra's was fine this morning but that would mean going to Loon Lake again, so better to just loft fly.

Tomorrow Friday is supposed to be 101 degrees, so the birds will be loft flown again in the morning with the live clocking being run for inventory.  Next training toss will be from Mount Rose again on Sunday at 60 Miles.  If they come good on Sunday they will go to Steamboat on Tuesday at 73 Miles and then to Steamboat again later next week.

- Matt

September 5th, 2011

Friday's short toss from Loon Lake (30 Miles) turned out to be the worst toss we've had so far and the worst toss we've ever had from Loon Lake.  The birds were taken to Loon Lake on Friday as a refresher to get them coming good because the previous two tosses had not gone so well and it was also supposed to be around 99 degrees that day.  What resulted was a much worse toss than the prior two and that 99 degree heat did not help with returns.  The first drop came really good (36 Minutes) but it was only a small drop and from then on they came in very slowly and very broken up.  It appears that they may have gotten together with some Bay Area birds heading down 50 as many of the late birds were coming from that direction and they brought a couple of strays back with them.  On a short toss from 30 Miles the birds are so wound up it's probably pretty easy for them to go right by and get really far down into the valley/bay area before they figure out they are lost.  The heat on Friday and Saturday definitely hurt returns as well.  We did have 3 birds return from prior tosses during the time period of this toss and all 3 birds looked fine and apparently in other lofts. 

To make matters worse the laptop down at the loft running the WinCompanion program crashed after the 49th bird had clocked so there was a day long delay before I was able to get the results reposted to the internet.  I know for sure the hard drive has failed on that laptop and have already replaced it but there is still something else wrong with it (Reinstall of Windows is failing too) but I think a guy at my work can have it fixed in about a week.  Fortunately I do have a backup laptop that I will be using this week and until I get the other one fixed so all of the training results will still be posted to the website and hopefully they will be stay live as the birds clock.  I say hopefully because this laptop doesn't seem to work quite as well in keeping it's connection to WinCom as the other one did.  So if you see any long pauses in the long clocking like what happened the other day it may just mean the connection needs reset.

The birds are going to Mount Rose (60 Miles) in the morning and fingers are crossed that they do well.  They have been loft flying really well and handle nice so they are definitely healthy.......just for some reason getting off track in training the last few tosses.  The last few birds that just came home today and late yesterday will be left home to recover and any other birds that were late and feel too thin will also be left home to recover for a couple more days before they go training again.  It is supposed to be real hot (98 degrees) again on Tuesday but the forecast looks hot all week so training has to go on.  If the birds come straight home and do what they are supposed to do the heat won't be an issue.

- Matt

August 31st, 2011

Tuesday's toss from Tahoe City (47 Miles) was not very good and went a lot like the first time there with the birds coming in broken up and several late birds and birds out overnight.  We did have good 2nd day returns today but there are still are 9 birds missing.  Hopefully a couple more of those come back.  On this trip to Tahoe City the first drop was pretty slow (partly due to a headwind) but it still appears they got off track somewhere.

Since we had so many birds come home today, the next training toss will be Friday so that all the birds can go on it and it will be from Loon Lake at 30 Miles.  We are going back to 30 Miles one time to get the birds confidence up and get them coming home good in a big flock again.  It is also going to be in the upper 90's the next few days, so avoiding Mt. Rose is a good idea until the temperatures cool off again to the lower 90's.  The birds will go Sunday or Monday to Mount Rose at 60 Miles.

The birds were loft flown today and all of them flew for over an hour (even the ones that had came home late the evening before) and there was one group that flew for 2 1/2 hours.  So they are in good shape, just have to get them coming better on the next tosses.  Will update again after the next tosses.

- Matt

August 28th, 2011

Training will resume this coming Tuesday (8/30).  We have had really hot temperatures with highs around 100 degrees the last couple of days and tomorrow (Monday) is also supposed to be near 100 degrees.  The area we are at now in training (around lake Tahoe behind the west slope of the High Sierras) is the most difficult every year.  The potential for a smash toss is always high in the area the birds are at now and you don't want to have that happen on a day when the temperatures reach 100 because the losses will be heavy. 

I've found out the hard way a few times with my own birds (and also with the GCC birds) over the years training from Mount Rose (60 Miles) on days when the temps reached over 100 and then had a smash toss and lost a huge number of birds because the heat prevented them from getting home.

Tuesday the temperatures are supposed to drop back into the lower to mid 90's so the birds will go to Tahoe City (47 Miles) again and assuming they come good from there they will go 60 Miles to Mount Rose on Thursday.  After that they will again go to Mount Rose around Sunday and maybe one more time there before going to Steamboat at 73 Miles.  They will be taken to Steamboat 2 or 3 times before going to Fernley at 104 Miles.  Entry Fees will be due after they go to the 104 Mile toss but that is still around 2 1/2 weeks away and paperwork will be sent out in the mail around that time.

- Matt

August 25th, 2011

Tuesday's toss from Tahoe City (47 Miles) did not go very well and we are still out 18 birds from that toss.  As you can see in the results the first drop of around 35 to 40 birds made great time and came right home but after that they just came in really broken up all morning and it took close to 2 hours for a big/main drop to arrive.  We had 35 birds out overnight and 17 of those came back the 2nd day.  No birds came back today the 3rd day.  It has been pretty hot the last couple days with temps in the mid to upper 90's and that probably did not help returns but based on how it was looking Tuesday morning it could have been worse too.

Not sure what happened but we seem to have one of these tosses every year and especially in the 45-60 mile range where all of the biggest mountain ranges are.  Tahoe City sits on the Northwest shore of Lake Tahoe and the birds are released at an elevation of 6700 feet.  Within 3 or 4 miles they start to encounter several large mountain ranges in the 8500-9500 foot range.  If the birds are to come home online or even close to online they must go over these mountains but if they decide to try and go around them they can get really off-track and next thing you know they are way off course near Highway 80.

Hopefully the birds learned something from this toss.  Usually we have more problems at Mount Rose (60 Miles) so I'm hoping the birds use what they learned from this toss and apply it to the Mount Rose tosses where they also encounter several very large mountain ranges.  They will be given a few days off from training and our next training toss will be this coming Sunday or Monday.  All 206 birds that came back from this toss appear to be in good shape and no obvious injuries for any of the birds that came in late.  

- Matt

August 22nd, 2011

The birds have been to Loon Lake (30 Miles) three times and are going to Tahoe City (47 Miles) Tuesday morning.  The first toss at Loon Lake did not go that well as we lost 5 birds on that one but the 2nd and 3rd toss both went well with only 1 or 2 lost birds total.  There is one bird (HAWN 7701) that is still here but has been added to the Lost List on inventory because it has badly broken both of his legs.  Apparently it hit a wire on the way home from training.  We will do what we can to see if it can race again but it's legs are in really bad shape so most likely it won't be able to race again.  We have actually been fairly fortunate over the last few years not to have too many issues with wires. 

Falcons and hawks are the bigger issue on the training course right now.  On my own YB team I have had 5 different birds come home from training injured by falcons/hawks in less than 2 weeks.  Those are just the ones that were lucky and survived to make it home.

The Gold Country Challenge birds have been loft flown on the day between the tosses.  They are loft flying really well for normally well over an hour.  Again they will go 47 Miles tomorrow and they will go there again this weekend before being jumped to 60 Miles at Mount Rose.

- Matt

August 16th, 2011

We are going to Loon Lake (30 Miles) Wednesday morning and the birds will be trained from this release point 3 or 4 times before being jumped into the true Sierras around Lake Tahoe.  Loon Lake is well elevated at 6500 feet and is a good land mark for the birds to use to come online so we always go there at least 3 times with the GCC birds and with our own birds before taking them into the even higher mountains around Lake Tahoe.  After the birds are done with the Loon Lake tosses they will go to 47 Miles at Tahoe City once or twice.  Tahoe City is on the NW shore of Lake Tahoe.

The birds have been to 20 Miles twice and did well on those as we only lost 1 bird on the two tosses.  We actually got a bird back today that had been lost on one of the 6 Mile tosses last week.  The bird was in great shape so it must have been in someone's loft.  Before the 20 Mile tosses we had gone to 14.5 Miles twice and the birds did not do as well there as we lost 5 birds or so.  Not sure what happened to them but on this course with so many mountain ranges and canyons every year seems to be a bit of a trouble spot in the 6 to 15 mile range and then again around 60 Miles.

On these shorter training tosses I would not put much stock into how a bird traps on the clocking order (unless they are obviously late and coming back that evening or next day) because a lot of the birds fly around a long time when they get home or just screw around and don't want to go in.  There is one group of about 15-20 birds in particular that has been loft flying for well over an hour after they get home.  You'll see these same birds clocking in on most of the training tosses around 9 AM but they are definitely not late....they just like to fly.  Once the birds get out to around 60 Miles they'll be a little tired when they get home and the clocking order will be more of an indicator.

Good luck in the upcoming tosses  - Matt 

August 10th, 2011

Training is well underway and we will be going on a 10 to 12 mile toss or so in the morning.  We will go there once or twice and then onto 20 Miles and then 30 Miles.  The birds had a day off from training this morning but loft flew very well (90+ minutes).

The birds had their 2nd Toss from 6 Miles (Georgetown) a couple days ago and it did not go very well.  We are still down about 8 birds from that toss and only one bird of those that were out overnight came back today.  Surprised more did not come back but they must have got too far away to find their way back.  When the birds arrived from this toss a small group of 11 came in right away and then for the next 20 minutes or so they were coming in as singles and doubles before another group of about 40 arrived, followed by another group of 40 (from a different direction), and then the biggest group of close to 100 arrived from yet another direction.  The clocking times make it seem like they all arrived together but only because the birds were nervous and kept loft flying once they got here.  It appears that a falcon or hawk split them up because they were all really jittery and it was strange to have 3 big groups and then several single birds all arriving from different directions.

The one good thing to come from that toss is that it broke up the birds and made them have to think a little while getting good wing time.

The WinCompanion Live Clocking program and Unikon seems to be working very well and has been nice to work with so far.  On a couple of tosses when the birds have really been piling in through the traps in large groups, the antenna has missed 1 or 2 birds so we will probably make some tunnels to force the birds to stay on the antennas longer but overall it usually gets all of the birds and will continue to watch it to make sure it is getting 100% of the birds as we get out to the longer tosses.

Will update again in a few days to a week as we get out to around 20 Miles.  - Matt

July 31st, 2011

The birds have really been loft flying really well as a big group the last week plus and training will begin later this week. Many of the birds have been ready to go for a while but we've now got the younger replacement entries and/or lazier birds (roof-sitters) up flying with the flock too, so now they are all ready to train.  We will start taking them across the canyon (about 3/4 Mile) on Wednesday or Thursday.  The next tosses will be at the school field which is on the other side of the big hill/canyon to the east that the loft faces.  From there they will go to Georgetown at 6 Miles and so on.  Georgetown is only 6 Miles away yet an increase of 1000 feet (at 2700 feet elevation) so this is why we step the birds up slowly as there some small mountain ranges and canyons in-between that look completely different than what the birds are flying around now.

As mentioned in the last journal entry we had a hawk (female cooper) that was doing some damage but she turned out to be a really devastating hawk and one of the worst we've ever had.  From the time of the last journal entry up until about 5 days ago, one or two birds disappear every single day.  Jon Walked our property (6+ acres) and also the properties of 2 neighbors and found close to a dozen piles of feathers and also 6 bands.  Almost all of the feather piles were fresh and all 6 bands he found were birds that were here a couple weeks ago during inventory.  She also hit and killed 2 birds in the air here in front of the loft but other than those 2, all of the other birds that she got were so far away from the loft up in wooded area or on neighbors property across street that we never saw anything.  It was a little strange to see a cooper (this was a large female) apparently hitting all of these birds in the air away from the loft but I suspect some of the birds she targeted were probably ones that were not loft flying that well.  Fortunately the attacks stopped around 5 days ago and she has since moved on.

Tomorrow (Monday) morning we will be running a Live Test Clocking to make sure the system is working properly and to make sure it is clocking all of the birds.  You can check the Training Section to see how it went and what birds of yours are here.  As it stands now I think there may be 1 or 2 birds that are showing as lost/missing that may actually be here and there is another bird that the allocation may be mixed up on.  We will run the test live clockings a couple times to find out and probably have to do another hands-on inventory sometime before the first toss.  Tomorrow will be the first time I've ran a Live Clocking with all of the birds so hopefully it works out well.  Today I ran a test live clocking with 7 birds and it worked great but I'm sure there may be a couple bugs to work out as this is a new system for us (Unikon and WinCompanion).

Will update again in a few days when training begins. - Matt

July 18th, 2011

Training will start in early August about 2.5 to 3 weeks from now.  Until that time we are going to just keep loft flying the birds everyday and hopefully some of the lazier ones that like to sit on the roof will get going with the rest of them.  The 10th flights have grown back in completely.

I updated the inventory tonight with most of the birds that are missing but there are some more that I will find out who they are on next physical inventory when birds are allocated.  The birds that are missing are either birds that the owners did not have replacements or they came up missing (from hawks or flyways) after the replacement deadline.  We actually just had a bird get hit in the neck by a hawk last week and the talon puncture was so deep that the bird died.....too bad because the bird almost survived the attack.  As a result of the very cold spring/winter that lasted all the way into Early June and now a mild July......the hawks have really hung around later this year.  I've lost more of my own YB's this year around the loft than any other year.

As some of you may already know we switched electronic clocking systems to Unikon this year in order to use the WinCompanion program for live clocking.  I have the actual clock and loft antennas ready but am having a problem with the club unit not updating.  I sent it out today to hopefully be fixed and should know in a few days.  I should either have this one fixed by end of week or if this one can't be fixed will have a new one sent out next week.  Either way the system will be ready in time and will try to get a few test flights in first before the real training tosses begin.

- Matt

June 26th, 2011

All entries and replacements are now in and the overall health of the birds is excellent.  All of the birds look really good right now and we have not had a sick bird in 3+ weeks.  The 10th flights have been pulled on most of the birds (all of the birds old enough) and they are growing back in.  The lights have also been turned off, so the birds are now on natural daylight.  Quite a few birds are far out on their flights (7th or 8th) and several of the older birds are done with the body moult.

We had a long cold winter/spring that actually lasted all the way into the beginning of June but the weather has now turned into more typical California weather and we had temps near 100 last week and temperatures are expected to reach 100 again later this week.  The birds will now be going out to loft fly mostly in the morning as it's getting too hot to fly them on most evenings.

A few breeders that had already made arrangements sent in their entries later but the extra entries helped us get pretty close to 300 entries which is a nice turnout for this year.  We did a physical inventory a few days ago and there are a few birds missing due to fly-away or hawks that will not be able to be replaced, so I will mark those on the inventory in the next day or so.

Training will start in the last week of July or beginning of August depending on how the birds are doing in loft flying.

- Matt

May 16th, 2011

All of the birds that have arrived up until the beginning of May have been out.  The birds that have arrived within the last 2 weeks will be going out for the first time soon......still waiting for a good day as the last few days we've had a lot of thunderstorms and cold windy days.  We've also had a persistent hawk that has hit the one loft birds a few times and also has been even more of a nuisance for my own young bird team.  Last 3 times I've let my own young birds out, I've lost an older bird each time (presumably to this hawk) and had another one come back injured.

The older Gold Country Challenge birds are now in a good flock and on the days when they flock up well anywhere between 120 to 140 will get in a flock and they have started to route.  A couple of days they were gone for 45 minutes routing.  The older entries are all doing really well and far along in their wing moult (and in some cases body moult too).  Some of the older cocks are really starting to act like cocks already.  We will be pulling the 10th flight this coming weekend on all of the birds that are old enough to have it done.  The birds that are too young to have their 10th flight pulled now will be re-evaluated in June and have their 10th pulled then.

Overall health of the birds is pretty good (the older birds look perfect) but there has been a sickness working it's way through a small percentage of birds (mainly the younger ones that arrived in April).  This is the time of year when most one loft races are dealing with some sickness (usually Circovirus and a secondary).  It's just something you deal with and seems to always go away by early June as the birds mature and the weather heats up.  90% of the birds will stay healthy from the start and never show any symptoms.  The reality of one loft racing is that you have youngsters with developing immune systems from several different locations and breeders being mixed together, so it's inevitable that there will be birds carrying different things that they themselves may be immune to but other birds won't be.  Quarantining new arrivals and the health supplements we use help a lot and fortunately most of the birds stay healthy from the start.

If you have a bird that needs replaced because it died, was killed by a hawk, or was a fly-away you be notified by phone or email and again replacements are accepted until June 15th.  Younger entries have a history of doing very well and in 2007 the 1st Overall Ace Pigeon was actually the last new entry sent to the loft......so if you are sending a new entry this week or have to send a replacement, younger entries have proven in the past to be every bit as good as older entries.   Thanks again to everybody for supporting this year's race series.

- Matt @ Gold Country Challenge

April 13th, 2011

All birds that arrived on or before April 6th have now been out to loft fly.  With the weather being pretty nice these past 2 weeks we can get them out on the landing board and through the traps right away and then let them out within a week of arriving.  The older birds are starting to fly around the loft pretty good and a couple afternoons ago a hawk flew over and spooked them which really got a bunch of them flying and some of them now in a tight group. Luckily the hawk did not get any of the Gold Country Challenge birds but I did lose one of my own YB's the same day.

Entries are still coming in every few days with 3 coming in yesterday and some more expected today.  On the older birds we will start pulling the 10th flight feathers next month and then do the same for the more recent entries in the beginning of June.  Old bird season starts this weekend for at least 3 combines here in Northern California and the weather forecast looks good so hopefully everybody has good returns to start the season.

- Matt

March 21st, 2011

Entries have been coming in steadily and the birds are doing well. As of today we are up to 124 birds with more coming in every couple of days.  All birds that arrived before March 7th have been out to loft fly.  The older birds have already flown around pretty well and show some signs to starting to get in a group and the younger birds that went out for the first time the other day did very well and were all in before dark.  So far we have only lost 1 bird to settling.  The overall health of the birds is very good so far and we've only had issues with 2 birds.  Right now all of the birds in the loft look good.  Birds that arrived shortly after March 7th will be going out soon, we are just waiting for a break in the weather as it has rained everyday for the last week.

The weather here in Northern California has been unusually cold and wet for March.  We actually had a few inches of snow this past Friday and we've had rain (including a lot of heavy rain and hail) here everyday for the past 5 or 6 days.  It's supposed to rain here every day this week too and the next chance of a decent day looks like this coming Sunday.  Hopefully from then on we get to some more spring like weather and the birds can start going out everyday.

We are expecting the race to grow quite a bit this year with around 300 entries, so thanks for all of the existing breeders and new breeders alike for your support.

- Matt @ Gold Country Challenge

March 8th, 2011

All of the birds that arrived before March 1st have been out and so far so good. We did have a hawk fly over and spook a bunch of them the other day when they were out and there is a single bird missing, so we will do an inventory sometime this week and find out who it was.  The birds that came in the weekend of March 1st will be going out for their first time this week.  Birds continue to arrive every couple of days and we expect more in the mail this week.

- Matt

February 22nd, 2011

We had some more birds arrive today and we are now up to 39 birds in the loft and that number should start to rise pretty quickly in the coming weeks as almost everybody now has their breeders together and youngsters on the way.  So far all of the birds here look healthy and they have all been given PMV vaccination shots the day they arrive.  They are on a 17% Protein mix from Leach Grain & Milling.  The first 30 birds or so have all been through the traps several times and will be going out for their first flight sometime in the next week or so.  The weather has been pretty stormy and very cold here the last week (we had light snow 2 different days this past week) and there are a lot of hawks in the area at this time of year so we are waiting for a good stretch of weather for a few days to get them out.

The inventory list is updated every time new entries arrive, so even if the home page does not show an up-date, most likely the inventory page has been updated as new birds are coming in every 2 or 3 days.  You can also click on the Breeders link on the left column to see the names of the breeders who intend to enter the race this year and if you would like your name and number of birds added to the list you register and enter your information by Clicking Here:  http://www.wincompanion.com/goldcc/login/Login2.php?skin=goldcc   

You can also email or call if you would like to be added to the Breeder list.

As previously mentioned on the home page, we will be switching to Terry Gilmore's WinCompanion program this year and that will allow us to have live-clocking for the training tosses and the races.  His program also makes the inventory and pooling a little easier to manage.  Shortly before we signed up with Terry to use the WinCompanion program for 2011, our area finally got a little bit faster internet service (wireless) so we no longer have to use the slower satellite internet that we've had since we moved here. The added speed from the new ISP will allow us to make use of live uploading of the training and race results to the internet. Since we've changed internet providers though, it also means that we won't be able to keep our old hughesnet email address. I have not yet cancelled the old ISP in order to keep using the old email address but eventually in the next month or so I will and at that point the old email address will no longer work.  Our new email address is:  hansfamilyloft@gmail.com

If you have our email address saved in your address book please update it to the one listed above.  As mentioned earlier the old address still works for now but eventually I will no longer be able to access it.

- Matt

January 12th, 2011

The new year is here and we will be accepting entries soon for the 2011 Gold Country Challenge. We are expecting the race to grow a lot this year and we are figuring on receiving around 300 to 300+ entries. Jon has talked to over 100 breeders via phone that have not been in the race before and he has received a lot of interest and several confirmations from those fanciers that intend to enter birds this year. Sometime this weekend on the inventory page I will make a list of new breeders that have said they plan to enter the race for 2011. This list will include some very well known and successful one loft racing names.

We also appreciate the support from the existing breeders that have been in the race last year and prior years that have helped to make this race series grow. The weather has been unusually cold for California the last two weeks with a lot of fog/mist and frosted mornings in the low 20's here in the foothills. Fortunately it appears that towards the end of the week the temperatures are supposed to warm up a little and hopefully this lasts until the time when we start receiving youngsters. If you are shipping youngsters to us in the mail it is always a good idea to call us or email ahead of time just so that we know they are coming. It usually takes 2 days from most locations for USPS shipments to get here so if you ship on Monday for example we would get the birds first thing Wednesday morning.

Finally, we switched our internet service provider a few weeks ago to a wireless internet with faster speeds than the satellite internet we had before so I might be losing my current email address. I have to call Hughesnet our old provider soon and see if they will allow me to keep the old one or forward the messages because as it stands right now I am paying for both services and next month will be shutting off the old internet provider and maybe losing the current email address.  That won't happen for at least a month and I will post a memo here and on the front page in the next few days if I find out that I cannot keep the current email address. By the way my new or alternate email address is: hansfamilyloft@gmail.com      Home Phone (530) 642-9030   Jon Cell (530) 409-2485

- Matt

December 22nd, 2010

Christmas is just a few days away and hopefully everybody, their families, and their pigeons are doing well. For many flyers breeding is well underway and birds are already down on eggs while others (like us) have just recently paired their birds in the last couple days or still thinking about next year's pairings.  The weather here in California has been pretty wild the last week and a few days ago the big storm that came through messed up our phone line on our home phone. If you try to call it right now it just goes one ring and stops, so if you need to contact us via phone please call Jon on his Cell Phone @ (530) 409-2485   AT&T is supposed to come out this coming Tuesday and fix the problem.

This weekend I will update the Prizes and Race Dates with the projected 2011 Payouts (based on 200 birds). Jon has talked to a lot of new breeders that have not been in the race before and we have received a lot of interest from these breeders so we expect to have more entries in 2011. Word of mouth also helps this race series grow, so we thank all of the existing breeders for telling their friends about the race. We pride ourselves on putting on a good competitive race series every year. While training in these mountains is not always easy and we've had a few rough training tosses the past couple of years, we've always had the birds birds ready for the actual races and they have performed very well with highly competitive results and good returns.

If you have any questions about the race for 2011 please call Jon on his Cell or email Matt.

Happy Holidays to all and let's have a great new year,

Matt