# How's everyone's OB season going?



## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Hope everyone's OB season is going well. We had to cancel our first race because of the weather. Last week we had our first race and I've attached a picture of a nice little hen of mine that happened to get lucky and win the race, we also have a Memorial trophy for the first yearling in the first OB race and she won that also.
We had snow last night and it doesn't look too good for this weekend so we are trying to decide what to do as the Combine races will begin the next week.


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## First To Hatch (Jul 19, 2009)

Congrats!!! Very nice looking bird. I can't believe it's still snowing in some parts of the country it's almost 80 here!!!


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

Last week was our first race and I hauled it, The birds came in around 1800 YPM except mine. As long as I have been doing this you would think I would remember to plug in the clock.
Dave


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## ejb3810 (May 21, 2012)

*o/b race*

Raftree, tell us something about the breeding of that bird. It looks great. is it from a family you have been breeding for a long while?


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## Granny Smith (Jul 16, 2011)

Congrats, nice looking check. This is my first OB season and I'm flying natural. I find training OBs more challenging because they don't like to fly as much as YBs. You can loft fly YBs and they'll fly for 1 hour. If you let the OBs out 30 miles away, they'll be home in 40 minutes and trap. It seems to take more time and gasoline.

We have had a few races already and my birds have done alright.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

ejb3810 said:


> Raftree, tell us something about the breeding of that bird. It looks great. is it from a family you have been breeding for a long while?


Everyone probably has a story like this.....This hen is from a Houben/Janssen pair that I was given as a gift. I raised one round of babies from them of which I lost one and this is the other. I didn't know much about them and wound up using them to foster another pairs eggs. At the end of the year I gave them to a new member of our club.
This hen flew pretty well as a YB, earned some diplomas. She's rather small but I think fits some race situations just right.


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## First To Hatch (Jul 19, 2009)

Small hens are the best racers!!!


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## kalapati (Aug 29, 2006)

raftree3 said:


> Hope everyone's OB season is going well. We had to cancel our first race because of the weather. Last week we had our first race and I've attached a picture of a nice little hen of mine that happened to get lucky and win the race, we also have a Memorial trophy for the first yearling in the first OB race and she won that also.
> We had snow last night and it doesn't look too good for this weekend so we are trying to decide what to do as the Combine races will begin the next week.



did 3 weeks in a row 1ST PLACE here in San Diego.

*250-Mile*












*280-Mile*












*320-Mile*













kalapati
San Diego


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

raftree3 said:


> Everyone probably has a story like this.....This hen is from a Houben/Janssen pair that I was given as a gift. I raised one round of babies from them of which I lost one and this is the other. I didn't know much about them and wound up using them to foster another pairs eggs. At the end of the year I gave them to a new member of our club.
> This hen flew pretty well as a YB, earned some diplomas. She's rather small but I think fits some race situations just right.


Nice looking hen. I wonder how much Janssen she has in her ? Are you flying her to a nest or eggs? You night have to do some horse trading to get her parents back!


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

It snowed here again last night , some places near us got a foot of snow. I'm only out 20 miles with my birds and our first federation race for this week was canceled weeks ago because of the weather but i haven't heard anything about this coming race on 5/11. 
It sucks because our club will be at 198 miles + for the first race and we can't road train because of the snow! If I don't fly that race the next one on 5/18 will be 300 miles, not much better.


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## pigeon-lover0 (Apr 1, 2012)

A foot! Here by marinette was 75 yesterday... sorry are you close to where the flooding is?


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

I'm up north. We only got 4or 5 inches of snow but they are calling for more tonight and tomorrow. Its 31* outside at 11:21pm.


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## Josepe (Jan 10, 2011)

Beautiful little hen.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Very nice Kalapati. That's something to brag about!


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## Josepe (Jan 10, 2011)

Congrats to both of you.


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## kalapati (Aug 29, 2006)

raftree3 said:


> Very nice Kalapati. That's something to brag about!






Josepe said:


> Congrats to both of you.




Thanks! 



kalapati
San Diego


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Anyone have any luck this week?


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## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

raftree3 said:


> Anyone have any luck this week?


My daughter and I got a 1st and 3rd this week  Our second first place of the season so far. Let's hope it continues as we get further out.

http://bit.ly/11zZEEk

http://bit.ly/17nC6DP


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

Kastle Loft said:


> My daughter and I got a 1st and 3rd this week  Our second first place of the season so far. Let's hope it continues as we get further out.
> 
> http://bit.ly/11zZEEk
> 
> http://bit.ly/17nC6DP


Good showing, sounds like your winning streak is still alive.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

We've only had one race so far and my daughters birds were the first 9 in the club but a club mate has 25 miles on us . She clocked at 10:19 and he clocked at 10:43 , so I think he won but it will be close. She had 9 birds on the clock within 5 minutes and he only had the 3 so she will at least get 4 through 9th. I didn't clock a bird till 10:44 . It was a 200 miler and I think the birds were going 55mph . They let the birds go at 6:50am so , 3 hours 29 minutes. I don't know how to do the math exactly.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

ERIC K said:


> We've only had one race so far and my daughters birds were the first 9 in the club but a club mate has 25 miles on us . She clocked at 10:19 and he clocked at 10:43 , so I think he won but it will be close. She had 9 birds on the clock within 5 minutes and he only had the 3 so she will at least get 4 through 9th. I didn't clock a bird till 10:44 . It was a 200 miler and I think the birds were going 55mph . They let the birds go at 6:50am so , 3 hours 29 minutes. I don't know how to do the math exactly.


Your birds at 10:44 would be 1504 YPM or 51 MPH. Pretty fast race.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

I got lucky again this week with three on the drop for the first three places in our 200 mile club race. 400 Combine was really tough but I still had one at 7th place...still missing a couple.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

raftree3 said:


> Your birds at 10:44 would be 1504 YPM or 51 MPH. Pretty fast race.


How about the 10:19 bird my daughter clocked ? how do you do the math ?

Yes it was a tail wind but if they aren't thinking right and miss home they miss home big time. I got one birds early today and am hoping for a few more today, since we raced on Monday.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

raftree3 said:


> I got lucky again this week with three on the drop for the first three places in our 200 mile club race. 400 Combine was really tough but I still had one at 7th place...still missing a couple.


I don't think its all luck I think you have some nice birds to go with the luck !
Congratulations on the winning.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Eric: The bird at 10:19 would be 1684 YPM or 57 MPH. That's just using 200 miles as the distance. I have an App that figures it.......much easier than doing the math for me...


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## Josepe (Jan 10, 2011)

Congrats! Your YPM should be on your race sheet.This is how you find the MPH:

Multiply the ypm speed by 3, then multiply that number by 60, then divide that 
number by 5,280, and that will give you the speed in mph.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

We didn't have knock off yet , just raced on Monday , but thanks for the info. Most of the guys know way ahead of time who won just by us calling each other and telling when we clock birds.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

Hope everyone had better races then we did around here. Our Combine race from 500 with a good tail wind had a small number of day birds. Really expected an easy race flying with the wind. Another club in our area also had a 250 that turned out to be a smash. They all flew from north Texas or south Kansas. I understand it was a bad day K factor wise?


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## V-John (May 15, 2008)

We had some nasty storms last night and seventy mph winds. They hit here at 11 pm, but i know further south and west of here was just absolutely getting hammered. Salina was around six or seven from what I hear... Bad winds and storms all across the state. Tornados to the north of me too. Maybe in the southern part of the state too Tonight we are supposed to get pounded as well.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

raftree3 said:


> Eric: The bird at 10:19 would be 1684 YPM or 57 MPH. That's just using 200 miles as the distance. I have an App that figures it.......much easier than doing the math for me...


Yes very close with the math. I was 198.053 miles. 1664.357 YPM. Look at me way down in 47th place . My daughter ,CC loft got 6th and 7th place in the Indianhead combine with he 3rd and 4th place club spots. We have knock off tonight and I should be close to the top this week. First bird home again but Sand Hill Loft has 22 miles over fly on me .


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

V-John said:


> We had some nasty storms last night and seventy mph winds. They hit here at 11 pm, but i know further south and west of here was just absolutely getting hammered. Salina was around six or seven from what I hear... Bad winds and storms all across the state. Tornados to the north of me too. Maybe in the southern part of the state too Tonight we are supposed to get pounded as well.


we had the same thing 70 plus mph winds for hours. and then rain. Wind even blew a police car off the road broke the windows. And then later a ten car pile up. Today Tornados by my daughters home. And scared them. See kansas has had some torenados today stay safe.


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## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

My OB season hasn't been what I was expecting. I've been clocking in what I think are good times but getting beat. But today the season went from a so so season to a disaster. They let the birds up 308 mile from me in fog and there's been rain and fog and drizzle all the way along the course. They were let up 11 hours and 15 mins ago and as of now I don't have any and as far as I know nobody else has any either. I shipped some really good birds in this race thinking they'd hold them up due to the weather and let them up on Monday. Now I'm just hoping they come home.


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## Josepe (Jan 10, 2011)

Can't figure Why anyone would put birds up in that kind of weather.Good luck Walt hope you get em back.


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## raftree3 (Oct 16, 2010)

V-John said:


> We had some nasty storms last night and seventy mph winds. They hit here at 11 pm, but i know further south and west of here was just absolutely getting hammered. Salina was around six or seven from what I hear... Bad winds and storms all across the state. Tornados to the north of me too. Maybe in the southern part of the state too Tonight we are supposed to get pounded as well.


Stay safe John !


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## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

Josepe said:


> Can't figure Why anyone would put birds up in that kind of weather.Good luck Walt hope you get em back.


It seams like the only guy who thought it was a good idea to let them up was the home libarator. All I know if I was on that truck as the driver or libarator and the home libarator told me to let them up today I would have told him you can fire me if you want but they aren't going up in this weather. I've got winners and IF Hall of Fame birds out there in this race and I might never see them again because the home libarator doesn't know what the heck he's doing.


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## Creek13 (May 21, 2012)

I got 2nd and 3rd this week on our 200 miler. Very tough race, strong headwinds and 104 temp. Only 4 day birds and 2 were mine


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

This is the federation results for our first race in which my daughter CCloft finished just out of the top ten, but still did great.



sWinSpeed-20 HEARTLAND RACING PIGEON FEDERATION 05/19/13-22:47
Weekly UPR Race Report Page 1
Open and Junior Category
Name: CLEAR LAKE Old Bird Race Flown: 05/13/2013
Released: 06:50 Birds: 1037 Lofts: 28 Station: CLEAR LAKE
Weather (Rel) CLEAR, S 3, 45 degrees (Arr) OVERCAST, SSE 10, 58 degrees

POS UNIRATE NAME BAND NUMBER CLR X NM ARRIVAL MI TOWIN YPM PT
1 0.10 BREAK-A-WAY 345 AU 12 BAWL BCPD C 0 09:30:20 155 00.00 1704.477 5
2 0.19 SOUTH OAKS L 9416 AU 10 TC BLK C 0 08:38:23 104 00.55 1689.976 5
3 0.29 SAND HILL LO 433 AU 11 SPW DCWF H 0 10:42:27 222 03.04 1681.929 5
4 0.39 VANCE LOFT 23 AU 11 RCR BBSP H 2 09:25:41 149 02.17 1679.421 15
5 0.48 HOLDEN LOFT 14 AU 12 UNIT BCPD H 4 09:07:15 131 02.06 1678.338 10
6 0.58 HOLDEN LOFT 663 AU 11 TC BLK H 0 09:07:15 2 02.06 1678.338 5
7 0.68 VANCE LOFT 5600 AU 10 WRP BC C 0 09:25:56 2 02.32 1676.728 5
8 0.77 SAND HILL LO 42415 AU 12 AA BC H 0 10:43:25 2 04.02 1674.916 5
9 0.87 TTN LOFT 150 AU 12 TTN BB C 0 08:39:24 104 02.05 1671.852 5
10  0.96 TTN LOFT 151 AU 12 TTN BC H 0 08:39:35 2 02.16 1669.056 5
11 1.06 CC LOFT 25409 AU 10 I BC C 0 10:19:25 198 04.55 1664.357 5
12 1.16 CC LOFT 603 AU 11 SPW DCP C 0 10:19:26 2 04.56 1664.211 5
13 1.25 SAND HILL LO 471 AU 10 SPW BB H 0 10:46:21 3 06.59 1654.071 5
14 1.35 HOLDEN LOFT 15 AU 12 RPC BB H 2 09:09:19 3 04.10 1653.363 15
15 1.45 HOLDEN LOFT 289 AU 12 TC DC H 0 09:09:32 4 04.23 1650.796 5
16 1.54 CC LOFT 321 AU 11 SPW BB H 0 10:21:57 3 07.27 1644.478 5
17 1.64 CC LOFT 75 AU 12 NANE BB H 0 10:22:15 4 07.45 1642.141 5
18 1.74 LAKEVIEW LOF 211 AU 11 RCR BB H 5 09:25:47 145 05.57 1639.375 10
19 1.83 BREAK-A-WAY 327 AU 12 BAWL BBAR C 0 09:37:45 2 07.25 1629.122 5
20 1.93 SAND HILL LO 1741 AU 11 ER BB H 0 10:50:00 4 10.38 1628.963 5
21 2.03 SAND HILL LO 9265 AU 09 TSR BB H 2 10:50:02 5 10.39 1628.759 15
22 2.12 BREAK-A-WAY 231 AU 11 BAWL BBAR C 0 09:37:48 3 07.28 1628.636 5
23 2.22 SAND HILL LO 329 AU 12 SPW BB C 0 10:50:06 6 10.43 1628.341 5
24 2.31 CC LOFT 643 AU 11 SPW DC H 0 10:24:08 5 09.38 1627.788 5
25 2.41 CC LOFT 483 AU 12 SPW GRZ H 0 10:24:09 6 09.39 1627.585 5
26 2.51 CC LOFT 25449 AU 10 I SILV H 0 10:24:22 7 09.52 1625.928 5


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

Walter , I hope your birds made it through the night and make it home today. You had your best in this race and they just might have what it take to make it through .We had rain storms on Saturdays race too and many birds got wet and went down but came home later.

I think you club, combine and federation needs to take a look at this and maybe some changes need to take place with your home liberator . Surprise weather happens but a bad decision based on the weather facts is uncalled for in this day and age.


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## kalapati (Aug 29, 2006)

.

with 1037 birds on the race i think you have excellent birds and considering you're at the long end by more than 40 miles from the 1st placer.


kalapati
San Diego













ERIC K said:


> This is the federation results for our first race in which my daughter CCloft finished just out of the top ten, but still did great.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

kalapati said:


> .
> 
> with 1037 birds on the race i think you have excellent birds and considering you're at the long end by more than 40 miles from the 1st placer.
> 
> ...


Thanks , I've been working on the excellent bird part for awhile and it helps when we have the right conditions. Some of the competition is 68,74 and 96 miles shorter too so if feel good when we have a good results, its hard to top those guys most of the time.


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## V-John (May 15, 2008)

raftree3 said:


> Stay safe John !





re lee said:


> we had the same thing 70 plus mph winds for hours. and then rain. Wind even blew a police car off the road broke the windows. And then later a ten car pile up. Today Tornados by my daughters home. And scared them. See kansas has had some torenados today stay safe.


Thanks guys. The bigger stuff, seemed to go around us and south of us, so we were alright. I knew folks who went to the storm shelters and it was through so fast they were hardly there. I saw down by Wichita, that they had golf ball sized hail. 

To be fair to the liberators it was really nice Sat morning though.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

Sand Hill Loft is a friend of mine and he has won both our club races this year, and he has several top finishes in the Topeka 500 mile race over the past few years too, something I have yet to accomplish. It's nice to see your club have a good showing at the federation level of competition.


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## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

ERIC K said:


> Walter , I hope your birds made it through the night and make it home today. You had your best in this race and they just might have what it take to make it through .We had rain storms on Saturdays race too and many birds got wet and went down but came home later.
> 
> I think you club, combine and federation needs to take a look at this and maybe some changes need to take place with your home liberator . Surprise weather happens but a bad decision based on the weather facts is uncalled for in this day and age.


You can bet there will be heated discussion about this race at the next combine meeting. And about how things need to be changed like you said with the forcasts online and live traffic and weather cameras all over the place there's no reason the libarator shouldn't have know what these birds would have to fly in.

As for the race I have 7 out of 18 home as of now the 1st one came in at 1:47 this afternoon then 4 more came in within an half hour of the 1st one. I might end up 1st thru 5th in my club I'm not sure of one guy in my club but I know of atleast a few birds that are going to beat me in the combine most of them are the guys who are longer then me who are getting 4 mins a 15 seconds to the mile when the birds actually have a tail wind now.


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## Pigeon0446 (Apr 22, 2007)

It's official 1st thru 5th 7th and 11th. But I'd give back the win to get the missing birds home. I'm still missing 9 out of the 18 I shipped. Most guys are missing a higher percentage of then me one guy who I'd call the guy to beat most weeks shipped his whole team of 12 birds and didn't get anything home yet.


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## ssyyb2 (Sep 4, 2011)

Good job to your daughter and you!



ERIC K said:


> This is the federation results for our first race in which my daughter CCloft finished just out of the top ten, but still did great.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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