DECEMBER 2007 BLOG
I have taken the last few weeks off due to Thanksgiving and more importantly, coupling the breeders. In the past several weeks, I have coupled about 150 pairs of super breeders. LAMBERTON - CUYPERS houses about 125 pairs of imported breeders in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we have stocked about 25 pairs of very special first generation breeders. We also house about 35 pairs of breeders in Belgium.
I would like to thank all of you who sent emails encouraging me to continue blogging and asking me personal questions about your pigeons. Much has happened in the past two weeks and it will take some time to post it to the blog. There are a number of tremendous results from fanciers racing the LAMBERTON-CUYPERS pigeons. I hope to post many of these results.
My partner in Belgium, Jef Cuypers, emailed today to let me know the Herbots included our loft on their website. The Herbots added an article about the tremendous results of Van Avondt & Son this past year. Danny Van Avondt is a very good personal friend of Jef and me. Danny races with his father not far from us in Belgium. Jef and I race the Van Avondt pigeons in our loft in Belgium and I have one Van Avondt female in the States. Just last week I was talking to Jef about importing a number of youngsters bred from our Van Avondt pigeons in our loft in Hakendover. Last year in 2006, we purchased 10 youngsters directly from the Van Avondt's to race in our loft in Belgium on our young bird team. Several of them raced very well. The Herbots included our race results in the article on the Van Avondts. Please click here to view the Herbot's web page featuring the Van Avondts and look for CUYPERS - LAMBERTON. Please also read the first paragraph about the Van Avondt's basis breeder, the Aerts 821. Nest mates from this male were flown by the Van Avondts and CUYPERS - LAMBERTON. The Van Avondts were 14th National La Souterraine 575 kilometers (a little over 400 miles) against 13,965 pigeons with "110" and CUYPERS - LAMBERTON were 63rd National in the same race with "109." Nest mate sisters in the top 100 National against almost 14,000 pigeons!!! Incredible!!!
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bill Kinyon, Top Gun Loft was Second Ace Pigeon 2007 Young Bird Race Series in the West Tulsa Racing Pigeon Club with a male bred down from LAMBERTON - CUYPERS pigeons. I also believe the 1st Ace Pigeon flown by Jo Liu is also bred down from Antoine Jacops - Ganus Janssen pigeons that Jo purchased from Bill Kinyon that came from LAMBERTON - CUYPERS. In 2006, Bill won 1st AU Hall of Fame with a female bred down from our pigeons. Bill has flown LAMBERTON pigeons since he entered the Sport in 1988 and has performed very well with including a Presidents Cup Award several years ago.
In Canada, Barb & Ron Chesney won 1st Prize in the 2007 Masters Young Bird Futurity winning $2100 and a flat screen television with a young bird out of a pair of breeders (Vandenabeele - Antoine Jacops cross) that they purchased from LAMBERTON - CUYPERS in 2006. Ron & Barb just ordered another pair of fantastic breeders which will be shipped before the end of the year.
Dr. Warren Shetrone, now living in Hawaii, just bought two super females: (1) the 2nd Ace Pigeon "A" Young Bird Race Series 2007 and the mother of the 4th Ace Pigeon "A" Young Bird Race Series 2007 to breed in the tough intra coastal races in the islands. I can't wait to see how these females breed against the local competition.
Mandel Armour won the pool in a big race in Louisiana and used the money to purchase a new hot water heater and a new washer. Mandel was a victim of Hurricane Katrina losing his loft and birds.
Byron & Mo Williams, also Hurricane Katrina victims, built a new loft and purchased new birds. A son of TOTAL RECALL, the son of Mike Ganus's GOLDEN MATTENS, bred the 3rd prize winner in Bob Roberson's 2007 Young Bird Futurity. Byron's bird was one of 6 on the drop clocking 3rd; splitting the money for the first six places.
Bubba Wilson flew very well in Arkansas in 2007 young birds despite having a terrible loft location. Bubba is an old-time game male breeder; but has left the controversy of that sport to be a pigeon fancier. In 2006, Bubba's first year of racing, he won almost every year-end award in his club. In 2007, he again had a fabulous season, particularly from the distance. Bubba's first 3 top young birds were bred from LAMBERTON - CUYPERS pigeons. He bred nest mates that combined to score 2 firsts, 2 seconds, 2 fourths, and a fifth. Another young bird won a second, third, sixth, and 17th on the 400 mile race. Bubba built a state-of-the-art loft before the 2007 young birds and races using the LAMBERTON - CUYPERS racing system discussed in the blog. Bubba makes the two hour drive to Tulsa to visit me about once a month. During lunch at the local cafe, Bubba always produces his yellow legal-sized tablet of questions that we discuss before, during, and after lunch. He, Tony Smith and I like to eat at Ollie's Station Restaurant on a somewhat regular basis and talk pigeons. Bubba learns very quickly and will continue to be a dominate fancier in his area. After Bubba's incredible first year of racing, the club adopted a different race course less friendly to Bubba's loft location. You don't suppose his club made that change to slow down the performance of Bubba's birds, do you? Bubba's loft was built using the basic floor plan of our racing loft; although Bubba included his own interesting modifications. Periodically, Bubba brings me a roast from his Bubbalicious Barbeque and Catering business. As I've said in my blog many times, I'll do almost anything or go almost anywhere for good food! Thank you Bubba.
COUPLING BREEDERS
It is always remarkable to me to handle pigeons when they are 6 months, one year, and two years of age. Pigeons mature and grow at different rates. males that I would couple with a yearling female might not be a good choice when the female is a two-year old. KEY POINT: when you stock young birds or particularly late hatches, be sure to handle them carefully every 3 or 4 months. Make notes of your impressions. You will be surprised how some of your young birds change and mature. These changes will change the potential couplings from year to year.
CULLING YOUNG BIRDS BEFORE WINTER
I hope you have thoroughly medicated your birds by now, i.e., young birds, old birds, breeders, extra breeders. It is also time to cull your birds for the winter. I know of local fanciers who will keep a 60 to 80 young bird team over the winter to race in 2008 old birds. Combined with their existing old bird team of 40 to 50 pigeons, their race loft might house well over 100 racers. If one has the space, time, energy, and money, to properly care for this number of pigeons, go for it. Usually, however, numbers of racers do not contribute to a successful race season. t has been my experience that good pigeons properly handled make up the basis for a successful race season. Take a look at your race results. Chances are only a handful of pigeons. To demonstrate this point, let's take a look at my 2007 young bird race series.
KEY POINT: If you don't have Winspeed on your computer with a backup file of the entire race series you are missing a valuable statistical tool to evaluate the overall performance of your loft. The performance of your race team will give you great information about the couplings of breeders you are currently using to breed youngsters.
From Winspeed, I will print three reports: Single Flyer Report, the Average Speed Report, and the Single Bird Report for LAMBERTON - CUYPERS after completing the 2007 Young Bird Race Series in the West Tulsa Racing Pigeon Club.
The Single Flyer Report allows you to visualize and quickly analyze the performance of each bird clocked in each race. By scanning down the report, you can look for a particular bird to see how that bird placed in relation to all other birds clocked.
The Average Speed Report allows you to look at the first bird clocked in each race. This is one of the most valuable Reports you can study. In the example I printed, the Report reflects the Average Speed in the A Race Series. The A Race Series in the West Tulsa Club is limited to the 5 best birds in each loft each week. As you can see from the LAMBERTON - CUYPERS statistics, three birds were the first bird to clock two times each: 461, 26, and 331. In case you are interested in looking at the pedigrees of these birds, you may click on their ring number for details. This Report allows you to identify those clock birds that are trapping first each week. The downside to this Report is that it doesn't show multiple birds on the drop. For instance, 461 might have trapped first twice; but 331 or 26 may have been on the drop with 461. However, that statistic can be found in the Single Flyer Report.
The Single Bird Report allows you to quickly compare the consistency of each bird during the Race Series.
After analyzing this data, you will probably find out that only a small percentage of your young bird team scored in the top 10% of the race results consistently each week. Around Oklahoma, fanciers refer to the Lamberton 10% rule. That is, it has been my experience in the USA and Belgium that only about 10% of the young birds team will account for the majority of the top prizes in your loft during the race series. Sometimes this varies between 5% and 25%; but over the seasons, the number will hover around 10%. Gerald Koopman of the Netherlands believes that he usually must breed around 200 youngsters to find one true Champion racer. Of course Koopman's criteria for a Champion is probably much more stringent that most of us less competitive players. One in 200 calculates to 1/2 of 1 percent. Obviously the Koopman Rule is far more selective than even the Lamberton Rule.
For the sake of this blog, however, let's use the Lamberton Rule. Consequently, if your young bird team consists of 60 pigeons, the Lamberton Rule predicts that on the average, 10% of your young bird team or about 6 young birds will win most of the top prizes in your loft. Why don't you analyze the prizes scored by your young birds and compare those results with the Lamberton Rule? In my loft, if a young bird wins one race out of eight races flown, and the other seven races are very slow for this pigeon, the pigeon is culled. Racers, and ultimately breeders in our lofts, must score in the top 10% of the Club race results more than once or multiple times. I say Club race results because the Combine and Federation are so spread out geographically that the weather (wind) and race station location often plays a factor in the disposition of top prizes in a given race. The Club usually consists of fanciers who live in a geographically clustered area - more so than the larger Combine or Federation. I compare my race team's performance against the birds in my area - even if they are in another Club. For instance, our club boundaries include fanciers in other clubs. Therefore, I compare my race team's performance against the pigeons of fanciers within a geographical area around the LAMBERTON - CUYPERS loft.
If only 6 youngsters accounted for the majority of the top prizes in your loft, why keep the other 54 young birds and carry them over the winter to race in old birds? The answer to this question depends on your criteria for a good racer. If you subscribe to the theory that a good bird is a good bird; then you should eliminate all those young birds that did not perform well enough to keep according to your selection criteria. If you subscribe to the theory that some young birds mature more slowly than other young birds, you will keep most of the young bird team hoping that the next old bird race series will miraculously produce a yearling champion. If you subscribe to the theory that some pigeons make good old birds and others make good old birds, you will keep all of your race team - all 60!
It has been my experience that a good bird is a good bird. If a young bird races well, then it will continue to race well. The reason young birds do not make good old birds usually has to do the race management strategy of the fancier. when fanciers discover a good young bird, they want to race it every week, regardless of race conditions. A player's desire to win the game, and the thrill of having a race bird near the top of the race sheet causes players to "over race" good young birds. "Over racing" good young birds is probably the biggest reason why good young bird make average yearlings and old birds. In 2005, the POSTMAN was 1st Ace A Series Young Bird in the Northeast Oklahoma RPF. The POSTMAN never missed his prize. He flew very well all 8 weeks in the 2005 Young Bird Race Series. During training for the 2006 Old Bird Race Series, the POSTMAN, who had never missed his prize as a young bird, was significantly late the first five training tosses as a yearling. I immediately stopped him. I believe that he gave his all during young birds and did not have enough time over the winter to recharge to be able to race well as a yearling. Remember, the yearling year is the only year that old birds do not have a full calendar year to recuperate from the grueling schedule of a race series. Yearlings have about 4 months, from November to the first week or so of March to rest. For a young bird that has been raced extensively, a 4 month rest is simply not enough time to adequately recharge the internal batteries. For good young birds that are carefully raced, the yearling year is often a great race series because of the strength that comes with a few more months of age.
The age of a young bird also plays a role in its resiliency. A May hatch will not be a yearling until half way through the Old Bird Race Series in many areas. For May hatches, they often race a complete young bird race series and much of an old bird race series before its first birthday. What effect do you think this has upon the growth and development of racers that can perform year after year
I like pigeons that mature quickly and perform well in young birds. If you wait on pigeons to mature until their yearling or two-year old year, you will breed nothing but the same. Consequently, you will need to have a very large young bird team and a very large old bird team waiting on these birds to finally mature into good racers. Keeping a large number of race birds is not something I like to do. KEY POINT: If you take care of your young birds properly, they should continue to race well for many years.
Young females are able to race more races with less residual damage than young males. I like to race young females very hard; then only keep those females that performed very well. The backbone of my old bird racing is widowhood males. Consequently, I try not to "burn out" young males in the young bird race series or as yearlings for that matter.
If you are feeding a large young bird team and do not know which birds to carry over the winter, use the young bird race results to guide you. If you want to gamble on 2 or 3 young birds that did not perform as well as you wished in the young bird race series, go ahead and keep them. Rather than keep every young bird, select your 10%, add a few racers on which to take a chance, and cull the rest. It is easier, cheaper, and better for the racers to keep 10 or 12 young birds rather than 60.
I stock my best young females and breed them to the imports in the breeding loft, or to retired racers out of the best older imports in the breeding loft. Good young race females are the backbone of a great breeding loft. They are like gold! Although I sold 26 to my friend Warren Shetrone, I have stocked 461 and 331, the TOTAL PACKAGE sired by TOTAL RECALL, in the breeding loft. I cannot replace them even from my good friends in Europe. I can only replace them with the best females in our loft in Belgium after the have bred in Belgium for several years.
COUPLING YOUR BREEDERS AGAIN
The past few months, and particularly the last few weeks since the young bird race series ended November 3, I have been studying, reading, and re-reading all of the pedigrees for the breeders. Since I repeat this procedure every year, I have many of the pedigrees memorized. Breeding pairs are usually coupled based upon a line-breeding strategy of which I spoke last month. Click Here to Re-read this discussion.
I prefer to couple the following types of matings: uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, first cousins, second cousins, half brother-half sister. Let's take a look at several matings:
EXAMPLE 1
Example 1 is a half brother - half sister mating. Two children of the GOLDEN MATTENS are paired together. The male, GFL 1415, TOTAL RECALL, is a son of the GOLDEN MATTENS mated to SHOW GIRL, a Gaby Vandenabeele female. The female, GFL 823, BLUE MATTENS, is a daughter of the GOLDEN MATTENS bred to the BLUE BOURGES female from Theo Yskout. This youngster in Example 1 is 50% line-bred GOLDEN MATTENS and 50% outcross. This youngster will have the concentrated genes to be a good breeder and the varied or diverse outcrossed genes to have the hybrid vigor to be a good racer. If the BLUE BOURGES mother was also a Gaby Vandenabeele female related to TOTAL RECALL'S mother, SHOW GIRL, the genetic structure of such a cross would consist of two line-bred families outcrossed to each other. This coupling could improve the chances of hatching a better breeder than the youngster depicted in Example 1.
KEY POINT: The more a youngster is line-bred, the greater the chances the youngster will be a good breeder. The more a youngster is outcrossed for hybrid vigor, the greater chances the youngster will be a good racer. The challenge is to breed a good breeder that is also a great racer. This can be accomplished by making sure your pedigrees are both line-bred and outcrossed. The Examples in this blog will demonstrate how to line-breed and outcross a pedigree.
EXAMPLE 2
Example 2 has a very interesting pedigree. Example is line-bred to two separate families, the Antoine Jacops Family and the Flor Engels Family, and outcrossed to a third family, the Gaby Vandenabeele Family. Let's see how this happens.
(1) Example 2 couples first cousins. The parents to Example 2 are first cousins. The paternal grandfather is a 1/2 brother to the maternal grandmother. Thus, Example 2 is line-bred to the DIAMOND ACE, one of Antoine Jacop's best breeders and a long distance champion.
(2) The paternal grandfather is a nephew to the maternal grandfather. Both of these pigeons are bred from the DARK ENGELS, one of Flor Engels best breeders that found his way to the Jacops loft.
(3) The paternal grandparents are first cousins. Both of these birds are bred from the KLEINE CAHORS, a middle distance ace pigeon and the 1987 Olympiade winner in Portugal. Please note that the KLEINE CAHORS is the father to the DIAMOND ACE, the key breeder that was featured in Item 1 of this Example. This relationship, in combination with the relationship detailed in Item 1, increase the percentage of line-bred genetic structure inherent in Example 2.
(4) The maternal grandmother is outcrossed to the PICANOL, a 1st Provincial Ace, bred by Gaby Vandenabeele.
About 65% of Example 2's pedigree is line-bred to the KLEINE CAHORS, the foundation breeder for Antoine Jacops over the past 20 years.
About 30% of Example 2's pedigree is a line-bred outcross. That is, two of the pigeons in the pedigree are outcrossed to the same pigeon, the Dark Engels bred by Flor Engels. This breeding technique creates a line-bred outcross.
About 5% of Example 2's pedigree is outcrossed to the PICANOL of Gaby Vandenabeele.
In summary, the majority of the genetic content in Example 2's pedigree is line bred to the KLEINE CAHORS which increases the probability that Example 2 will make a good breeder. The pedigree of Example 2 is outcrossed to the DARK ENGELS twice. This twist in the pedigree creates hybrid vigor due to the outcross; but also adds breeding value because the outcross is line-bred. Finally, just to make things more interesting, there is a second outcross to the PICANOL.
The probability that Example 2 will be a good breeder is strengthened by two line-bred families in the pedigree. The probability that Example 2 will be a good racer is strengthened by two outcrosses in the pedigree. The probability that Example 2 will be a great breeder and a great racers are strengthened by the three superstars genetically dominating the pedigree: KLEINE CAHORS, DARK ENGELS, and the PICANOL. The reason these LAMBERTON CUYPERS breeders are some of the best in the world are because they are genetically based on some of the best racers and breeders in Belgium over the last 10 or 15 years as Example 2 demonstrates.
To review, if we breed pigeons like Antoine Jacops, we want to create prepotency and hybrid vigor in a pigeon thereby creating a dual-purpose athlete. Dual purpose means that the pigeon can both consistently and regularly breed excellent pigeons and that the pigeon can race very well. Prepotency is created by line-breeding or in-breeding and hybrid vigor is created by outcrossing. Example 3 is a nephew - aunt coupling that yields youngsters that are prepotent and have hybrid vigor.
Example 3
Example 3 is a pigeon whose sire is the nephew of the mother. In fact, the father's mother and Example 3's mother are nestmate sisters. A nephew-aunt or niece-uncle mating is a simple, easily understandable, and relatively easy coupling to generate. Example 3 is outcrossed to the paternal grandfather of Example 3, the CREILDOFFER. The CREILDOFFER was an outstanding racer and breeder in Holland. He was purchased at a Herbots auction and imported to the USA. Example 3 is line-bred to the YOUNG SUPER ACE, an outstanding son of Antoine Jacop's Olympiade winner in Portugal, the KLEINE CAHORS. Example 3 is also line-bred to the full sister to the KANNIBAAL, the National Middle Distance Ace in Belgium in 1996. Example 3 is both line- bred and outcrossed. Example 3 and his siblings should be both prepotent to breed and have the hybrid vigor to race. Keep in mind that the three key pigeons in this example are several of the top pigeons in Holland and Belgium. Regardless of how much you line-breed or outcross, average pigeons will produce average offspring. Only breeding outstanding pigeons will provide you with the chance to breed outstanding young birds. Breeding is never guaranteed! We are simply trying to increase the probability of breeding an outstanding youngster with these techniques.
NO ELECTRICITY DUE TO ICE STORM
Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the State of Oklahoma, experienced its worst ice storm in recorded history on December 9. Over two-thirds of the people and businesses in the city and surrounding area lost electricity. There are still those without electricity including my dear friends Tony Smith & Josh Cooley, grandfather and grandson super fanciers that I refer to periodically in this blog. Our home looks like a tornado skipped across the Ranch tearing out the tops of most of the trees and threw them on the ground. On Monday, December 10, it took over 5 hours with Morgan and I, our three sons and a future daughter-in-law working with chain saws and trucks moving trees and limbs as fast as we could just to carve a small path to drive out of the Ranch to the main street. For a week, trees kept breaking and falling onto the the main Ranch road so that driving off the Ranch was impeded each and every day. Although we now have electricity, the aftermath of the ice storm will take months to remove; and the long term damage to the trees on the Ranch will take years to address. Such an experience refocuses our minds to the incredible power and destructive force of nature. Although we become accustomed to the creature comforts that modern technology affords us, we are always moments away from losing most of everything we enjoy should nature decide to exert its redefining will upon parts of the planet.
Throughout this human ordeal and tragedy, the pigeons were totally unaffected. The pigeon lofts are well out in the open away from the influence of towering trees that can hide birds of prey and smash buildings when they fall. I have several friends in Louisiana who lost their lofts and birds to hurricane Katrina. I now have a personal appreciation for their plight; much more than the appreciation I summoned up from simple empathy.
Before the ice storm the breeders were under 17 hours of light. For about 10 days they have experienced "normal" daylight and darkness due to the loss of electricity. Last night, they were placed back on the 17 hour light schedule. I noticed last night that one hour after dark, the breeders were asleep in their boxes even though the lights were on. Obviously, their internal clocks had readjusted to "normal" daylight and darkness. Under the old light system, at 7 pm, they normally would have been flying around the loft. I suspect that after a few days, they will readjust again to the second extended light regiment and extend their activity level to the new light hours. What long term effects of the impact of the abrupt change of daylight hours will have upon the breeders, if any, I will wait to see.
More pedigrees and more on breeding tomorrow. Stay tuned and thank you..................................... Dr. John and Morgan Lamberton
